Children's Home run by Bright Young Futures Ltd in Redbridge

Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 1 Registered provider: Bright Young Futures Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home registered in March 2025. The manager was registered at the same time. This children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to three children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living at the home. One of these children was spoken to.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop warm and nurturing relationships with staff and managers, and they like living at the home. They speak fondly of the stereotypical family-like interactions they have with staff. Children also benefit from staff understanding the importance of them having established routines to support progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress from their starting points. One child has achieved regular attendance at school after a period of poor attendance. This child told the inspector that they liked their school because school staff understand their needs. Staff have helped this child to get into a routine of getting up in the mornings to arrive at school on time, and this has contributed to a good attendance record. Staff are supporting another child to explore avenues to gain an apprenticeship.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to pursue their interests and talents. The home has artwork by children on the walls, which shows the exceptional talent children have. One child has a tutor who comes to the home to provide guitar lessons. Staff also support children to engage in a range of activities of their choice, including swimming, football training, day trips out with staff and going to the cinema. These activities help children to develop their self-esteem and confidence as well as strengthening the relationships with the adults who care for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and managers work hard to ensure that children experience the home as much like a family home as possible. Children express their views about living in the home through regular house meetings and one-to-one sessions. Children can choose how their rooms are decorated and can make suggestions about what they would like in the home. Children know how to make a complaint, and one child was accepting of the manager’s response when they complained. One child invited a few school friends to the home to celebrate a birthday. These experiences promote a sense of belonging and help children to settle.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote family time for children and ensure that children maintain positive relationships with those close to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enjoy spending time with children. One experienced member of staff said of the children, ‘They are very enjoyable to be around. It makes it feel less like work.’ This positivity helps children build good relationships with staff.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children feel safe in the home. One child told the inspector, ‘The staff look out for you here.’ Staff use one-to-one sessions and impromptu moments to talk to children about keeping safe. This includes keeping safe in the community, the hazards of not adhering to curfews and the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 3 Leaders and managers are working to embed a culture of safeguarding within the staff team. Leaders and managers lead team meetings and reflective discussions with staff to ensure they understand their responsibilities in keeping children safe. Leaders and managers respond effectively to any concerns raised and ensure that children are safeguarded.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

When children go missing from the home, staff respond appropriately to ensure that children remain safe. For example, staff will follow children to encourage them to return. A strength of the staff practice is the relationships staff and managers have with children’s placing authorities, family members and the police. When children are missing, there is open communication with all those responsible for safeguarding the child, and importantly, communication is maintained with the child.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff understand that children’s responses are influenced by their past experiences, and this will be reflected in their behaviour. Staff work hard to establish boundaries for children. This helps them to understand the consequences of their behaviour and the impact on those around them. Staff firmly keep children’s histories in mind while doing this.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

When incidents happen that are connected to children’s behaviour, staff manage these well. Each child has a behaviour support plan that staff use to apply suggested strategies to reduce incidents. Children are helped to reflect on their own behaviour through discussions with staff after incidents. This has had a positive impact on the children living at the home, with the frequency of incidents reducing over time.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Managers have arranged for a dog to regularly visit the home to spend time with children. Children look forward to these visits, and managers have noticed that the presence of the dog has helped children to express their feelings after incidents happen. This approach, while not a therapy intervention, has helped children to better share their thoughts and feelings and gives the children pleasure from having the dog in the home to safely interact and play with.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff sometimes contact the police for support with children’s behaviour. On a very small number of occasions, this has been unnecessary. The use of the police to manage children’s behaviour has the potential to lead to a breakdown of trust between staff and children. In addition, it can undermine staff’s ability to use their own skills and abilities to manage children’s behaviour effectively.

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good

Leaders and managers are establishing a competent and confident management and staff team that can offer an effective service to children. The relatively new staff team demonstrates a commitment to ensuring that children are safe and achieve their potential while living at the home. Managers have high aspirations for the children and for the service to develop. The staff team shares these aspirations. Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 4 The registered manager and responsible individual lead by example and are ‘hands on’ in relation to the care of children and running of the home. This means that leaders and managers know the children well and children can communicate directly with them. However, this approach has contributed to shortfalls in aspects of management oversight of day-to-day events and activities. Case files for children do not contain updated chronologies, some incident reports have no management

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good

summary or analysis and not all daily summaries have been signed off. Leaders and managers are aware of the need to ensure that internal monitoring systems are effective in highlighting areas of concern in the care and protection of children in the home. The recent promotion of two staff to team leader positions and the recent recruitment of a deputy team manager are positive steps in helping the registered manager focus on improving the shortfall in monitoring and evaluation.

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good

Leaders and managers are aware of the requirements in relation to notifying Ofsted of incidents they feel are serious. However, in two separate incidents where the police were called to the home regarding the same child, Ofsted was only notified once. Records do not show the registered manager’s rationale for not notifying the regulator, nor is it clear what was shared with others to ensure there was no breach of the regulations. This does not promote consistency among leaders and managers in understanding the process by which notifications are made or not made to the regulator.

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good

Staff feel highly supported by leaders and managers. They receive regular supervision and training to support them in carrying out their roles and responsibilities. A staff member told the inspector, ‘I really love working here. The home feels warm and homely, and the children are at the heart of everything we do. As a staff member, I feel well supported too. There’s great teamwork and open communication, and I can always bring up any concerns in supervision or catch-ups.’

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good

A social worker for a child identified a strength of the home as being the good level of communication and collaborative effort in meeting the needs of the child and keeping them safe. Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 5

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff have the skills and confidence to develop positive relationships with children so they can maintain boundaries and address behaviour with children as adults in a position of authority within the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.14)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand clearly when it is deemed necessary to call police to the home. Police should not be called to manage children’s behaviour when staff could use alternative strategies. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 47, paragraph 9.40)  The registered person should ensure that they have effective oversight of internal monitoring systems so that any shortfalls in practice and procedures are identified quickly and timely feedback and reflection with staff happens. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that there is a clear record of leaders’ rationale and decision-making when serious events need to be notified to Ofsted, and clearly note the rationale and decision-making when serious events are not notified to Ofsted. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.11)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bright Young Futures Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, 107 George Lane, London E18 1AN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jahrone Beckford

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Inspector

Colin Bent, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2778895 7 and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding, and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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