Pathfinders Care Services Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 1 Pathfinders Care Services Limited Registered provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

A private provider operates this service.

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provider

The service offers ring-fenced shared accommodation for up to 37 children in eight premises. These properties are in London, Northampton, Luton and Aylesbury.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, this service was providing supported accommodation for 20 children aged 16 or 17 who were looked-after children or care leavers.

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provider

The service registered in December 2023. There have been no changes to the nominated individual or registered service manager since registration.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 15 September 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 17 to 19 September 2025.

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Outcome

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects some children’s experiences, and this may limit their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements. The next inspection will be in approximately 18 months.

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Summary of findings

Children report feeling safe in their homes and enjoy the support they receive from staff. Staff are creative and prioritise children’s education enrolment.

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Summary of findings

Most children are in education. When children are not, staff encourage them to engage in alternative educational activities.

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Summary of findings

Children are offered mentors to help with their independence. Mentors work on specific areas of need and address barriers to children’s development. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 2 Children who speak English as an additional language are offered opportunities to improve their language skills in the home and at college.

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Summary of findings

Staff keep key professionals informed of serious incidents. These incidents are not reported to Ofsted or accurately documented to show management oversight.

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Summary of findings

Senior management is accepting children into the service whose needs are outside of the scope of supported accommodation.

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Summary of findings

Staff recruitment files and training records have gaps. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children report feeling safe in their home and the local neighbourhood. Homes are close to local colleges, amenities and places of worship. Children can personalise their space, and each child has a television and fridge in their bedroom.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Communal areas have couches, games and televisions, which promotes communal living in the homes. Some properties have well-maintained back gardens, enabling children to benefit from being outside.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff help children to stay connected to their family and friends. They update professionals on children’s progress. Professionals report some children to have trusted and meaningful relationships with their support workers. All children spoken to could identify a staff member they could go to if needed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children benefit from an array of offers, including gym and sports club membership. Staff are ambitious for children and encourage children’s involvement with these local services. This helps to motivate children and reward positive behaviour. Children’s achievements are shared and celebrated. Regular house meetings and discussions promote engagement and address tensions and issues respectfully.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Additional floating support workers ensure that children’s health appointments are attended regularly. Children entering the service are registered with doctors, dentists and opticians promptly. College enrolment is prioritised, and most children are in education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children are encouraged to work with mentors to help with specific issues such as confidence development, drug misuse or criminal behaviour. One child commented that this intervention had made a significant difference in their life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to help them to improve their English. Staff help children to integrate socially and to attend to immigration matters.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff use an independent living skills assessment during direct work with children. Updates to the document are not clearly recorded. Consequently, actions, targets and the progress children make are difficult for staff and children to track.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff are thoughtful about ensuring that children feel comfortable in the homes. Some young adults have remained in contact with the service after they have moved on.

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How well children are helped and protected

Houses are staffed 24 hours. Staff work across the homes and know the children well. Staff build good relationships with children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 4 Senior managers make themselves available to staff and children to help resolve issues promptly. Children know the house rules and what to do in emergencies. Children know who to contact if they have concerns or wish to raise a complaint.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff are aware of the main safeguarding risks the children experience. Staff are alert to new, emerging risks. Direct work sessions are undertaken to educate children on these.

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How well children are helped and protected

After serious incidents, staff engage in strategy meetings with professionals. Staff follow children’s safety plans, and managers are kept informed. Managers oversee this work, but the records do not provide staff with clarity about expected actions or the management oversight.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff engage with specialist services to help children overcome challenges and develop healthy independence. Staff are experienced and respectfully support children to understand their behaviour. Staff show a good awareness of how to respond to children who go missing.

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How well children are helped and protected

Some training for staff is prioritised effectively, with several staff working towards appropriate qualifications. However, some staff have not completed safeguarding training.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers have not ensured that recruitment records clearly demonstrate safe recruitment procedures have been followed. Although managers believed that some discrepancies in records had been explored, records detailing these explorations could not always be located.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff feel supported by managers and senior leaders and appreciate the opportunities to learn and develop their skills. Staff commented that managers were hands-on and knowledgeable and regularly offer support and guidance. This gives staff confidence they are addressing challenges as part of a team. However, there are gaps in management oversight of some records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff retention is high, and staff say managers care about their well-being. Staff are offered supervision and attend regular staff meetings. However, the provider currently operates a hybrid paper-electronic system that has contributed to gaps in staff records. In addition, some handwritten documents, for example supervision notes, were unreadable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not notified Ofsted of any safeguarding incidents since registration. This is despite significant missing episodes and incidents having taken place. This compromises Ofsted’s ability to oversee and regulate the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Managers accept children to live in the service when the children’s needs are not within the scope of supported accommodation. This can be in emergency Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 5 circumstances with minimal background information. This contributes to instability for the children already living in the homes and raises potential safeguarding risks for both children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have invested in mentorship and advocacy services. One child spoke with great positivity about the impact of these services.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers recognise the need to improve processes and systems within the service. They recognise the need to address inconsistencies in record-keeping in particular. Although this has not had a significant impact on children, the longer these inconsistencies remain, the greater the likelihood they will affect children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work effectively as a team, where appropriate, to meet the needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform;

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Requirement Due date

implement recruitment practices that ensure staff are suitable to work with children and to keep them safe from harm(1);

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place to manage referrals of children to the supported accommodation undertaking and admissions of children to premises used as supported accommodation, including, where relevant, emergency referrals and admissions;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision, training and development of staff. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(g)) 31 October 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify the CIECSS and any relevant person without delay if— 31 October 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 7 a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation or child criminal exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child and the registered person considers that incident to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the supported accommodation undertaking or a person working for it;

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry);

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Requirement Due date

there is an incident involving the use of a measure of restraint of a child;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

any other individuals or organisations who or which have been notified;

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Requirement Due date

any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter;

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Requirement Due date

is made or confirmed in writing. (Regulation 27 (3)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)(f) (4)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(b))

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that young people’s case records are kept up to date and that staff are familiar with their policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 8 about children must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 58)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 9

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Ayishatu Alabi

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: info@pathfinderscareservices.com

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Inspectors

Chris Jay, Social Care Inspector Julie Cresswell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Pathfinders Care Services Limited 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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