Children's home run by The Forge Nuneaton Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 1 Registered provider: The Forge Nuneaton Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private provider and is registered to provide care for up to six children who have experienced trauma. The home is one of four homes that are separately registered on the same site.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left in January 2025. A new manager has submitted his application to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, four children were living in the home. All the children were present during the inspection and three children spoke with the inspectors.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected, or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and/or the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/03/2025 Full Good 18/04/2023 Full Good 04/01/2023 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The overall judgement is inadequate due to an inadequate judgement in how well children and young people are helped and protected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s experiences, progress and safety in the home are variable. Some children have had positive experiences, but other children’s experiences have been affected by incidents they have been involved in. These incidents have affected children’s emotional well-being, stability and overall safety.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children say they are happy living at the home and have positive relationships with staff. However, conflict and imbalances of power between children have led to one child feeling bullied and others feeling under pressure from a peer. Staff have tried to improve this by helping children to understand each other’s experiences; however, this has not always been effective. An escalation in one child’s risks and behaviours, coupled with the impact on the other children, led to the child’s time at the home being ended by the provider.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff support children to engage in education and work closely with education professionals to provide additional support when needed. Managers and staff understand the children’s past experiences and advocate for education settings that are in the best interests of children. When children are not in school, they are supported with education at home, helping them to make progress and providing a sense of routine and predictability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children benefit from access to therapeutic support and life-story work. Staff receive regular advice and more formal support through clinical consultations about children, which supports reflective practice. The clinical team understand children’s needs and experiences. This helps them to guide staff when they need to change their approach to supporting children. The clinical team continue to develop the model of therapeutic care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children enjoy a variety of activities and staff support children to try new experiences in line with their interests and hobbies. Children have enjoyed ice skating, swimming, singing lessons and horse riding. One child was building a dolls house, with the support of staff. These opportunities enhance children’s experiences and build their confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are encouraged to maintain meaningful connections with those people who matter most to them. One child enjoys quality time with her sisters during visits to the home. Another child receives support to nurture friendships formed before she moved into the home. These efforts help children preserve important relationships and stay connected to their personal histories. Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 4 The home environment is warm and welcoming. There is space in the home for children to spend time together or separately. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and reflect their individual personalities. Children learn to be independent and have weekly schedules to help them with tasks such as doing their own washing.

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

Significant shortfalls in the safeguarding of one child has led to a judgement of inadequate in the help and protection of children.

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

One child experienced significant harm while they were missing from the home. The trauma because of this incident is likely to have long-lasting consequences for the child. Staff did not take appropriate action to safeguard the child when she left the home without permission. Opportunities were missed to intervene and prevent the child from going missing. Leaders and managers had not identified these shortfalls in their review of the incident.

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

Some children and staff have faced considerable challenges since the last inspection. The dynamics between children resulted in an increase in high-risk behaviours such as going missing from home. Leaders and managers took some action to learn and reflect with the staff team following incidents; however, serious safeguarding incidents have occurred.

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

Staff and managers fail to use professional curiosity. For example, internet safety apps help staff monitor children’s online activity. However, staff are not proactively curious in exploring children’s online worlds with them. One child under one-to-one staff supervision spent time alone in their bedroom on their electronic device in line with their support plan and risk assessment. Although staff checked in periodically, they failed to take steps to understand the child’s online activity. This lack of professional curiosity resulted in missed opportunities to intervene earlier and identify harmful interactions with an unknown adult who posed a risk.

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

Risk management plans provide guidance for staff and are updated regularly with new information. However, staff responses are not always effective because not all staff are confident in following the guidance and strategies in place. On one occasion this caused an incident to escalate, resulting in children’s safety and experiences being compromised and the involvement of the police.

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

Staff help children explore and understand risk. They do this through informal conversations and planned sessions. Children can identify staff they can talk to, and they feel comfortable talking about their experiences and sensitive topics. These sessions help some children to reflect and learn.

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

More recently, important information has been shared appropriately with partner agencies and the response to manage risk to another child when they were missing from home was more effective. A police officer said staff are proactive in searching for children when they are not where they are expected to be and are good at sharing Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 5 information. Partnership working has helped to prioritise and support the safety and well-being of some children during a challenging period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not ensured consistent effective oversight of all serious and significant incidents. There are times when leaders and managers do identify lessons learned and implement changes for future practice. However, the day-to-day oversight of significant incidents lacks critical reflection and does not always consider learning opportunities. As a result, managers have not identified or addressed shortfalls in safeguarding practice at the earliest opportunity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Record-keeping is inconsistent, with vague entries sometimes left unchallenged by leaders. For example, records of incidents do not always reflect what has occurred and records of safety checks on children’s devices were missing. Shortfalls in record-keeping mean that children’s experiences may not be fully understood or communicated within the staff team. In addition, records do not provide an accurate record of a child’s experiences for them to read.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Supervision is of good quality but is not held consistently. As a result, staff do not receive regular individual oversight of their work to support their development and help them reflect on their practice. This shortfall was raised at the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have developed new systems for monitoring the quality of care and safety of children. For example, the manager has improved engagement with children to gather their views wishes and feelings. The senior management team are increasing their scrutiny of safeguarding incidents and physical interventions through monthly meetings to review these incidents and identify learning. These are recent changes, and the impact is not yet known.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and staff have demonstrated resilience and commitment to children during challenging times. Staff say they feel well supported by managers. Some staff said that the manager goes above and beyond for staff and children. Staff were also complimentary about the role, resilience, support and presence of the deputy manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have built strong relationships with external professionals, promoting a coordinated approach to meeting children’s needs. Professionals spoke positively about the manager’s communication and partnership working.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

As a result of this inspection, two compliance notices were issued, under regulation 12 and regulation 13 of The Children’s Home (England) Regulations 2015. Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 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 Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

*The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)) 5 September 2025

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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 children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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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

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child 5 September 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 7 and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all staff receive practice- related supervision, in line with the company policy.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and is restated. 5 September 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny. This includes ensuring that staff involved in the use of restraint are spoken to about the measure within 48 hours of the use of the measure. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)

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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: 2673408 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Forge Nuneaton Limited

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Rebecca Grimshaw

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Inspectors

Natasha Skinner, Social Care Inspector Nateisha Cardoza-Evans, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2673408 9 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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