Youth Reality Homes Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 1 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Youth Reality Homes Limited Registered provider: Youth Reality Homes Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

The service is owned and managed by a private provider. It offers accommodation for up to 27 children or young people in four group living homes that are not limited to accommodating children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing support for 17 children aged 16 and 17.

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provider

The service manager registered with Ofsted in April 2025.

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Inspection dates: 22 to 25 September 2025

The inspection was announced on 22 September 2025 and started that day. The inspector was on site on 24 and 25 September 2025.

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Outcome

Consistently strong service delivery leads to typically positive experiences and progress for children. Where improvements are needed, leaders and managers take timely and effective action. The next inspection will be in approximately three years.

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Summary of findings

Staff and managers know the children well.

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Summary of findings

Staff enable children to build trusted relationships.

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Summary of findings

The service has a significant number of children in education.

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Summary of findings

The service promotes inclusion and diversity. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have a range of positive experiences through their relationships and support from staff. One child said, ‘Staff are supportive and attentive and always engage with me in a positive way.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff and managers know the children well. Staff listen to children and spend time with them. One child said that staff help them with schoolwork and are always there to talk.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Managers and staff actively support children as they transition towards independent living. A member of staff said, ‘For some, they arrive here not knowing how to cook, shop, clean or budget.’ Staff support them in practical ways to achieve these skills. Children participate in a weekly rota of house chores. This develops their skills in living with others and being responsible for their home environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff are ambitious for children and help them make progress towards achieving their aspirations. Staff prioritise education and training. All children are engaged in preparing for their futures; 16 are in education, and one has an apprenticeship.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff promote inclusion and help children to respect differences, for example, in sexuality, and to get on with each other. The children have established friendship groups in their homes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff encourage children to aspire and benefit from the success of others. One child is going to university and is a positive role model for the other children. One child, realising the possibilities of studying at university, said, ‘I want to be a doctor, but I have to learn English first.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children regularly access a range of social and recreational opportunities in the local community that support their identity and community engagement, such as faith- based activities, cultural and youth organisations, and social activities, such as day trips and movie nights.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff celebrate children’s milestones, such as birthdays, faith-based events and personal achievements. They encourage children to develop and maintain strong relationships with friends and family members where appropriate. Staff encourage children to invite people who are important to them to visit and attend group events such as barbecues. Staff see the benefits of such events in terms of getting to know and interact with friends and family in the best interests of the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children who seek sanctuary in the UK receive appropriate support to help them stabilise their stay. From a stable home environment, they access and attend a range of appointments, such as immigration services, solicitors, healthcare, mental health support, and language support. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 3 Children learn how to budget, use their allowances and shop cost-effectively. One child said, ‘I learnt to break my money down in sections: food, health hygiene, saving and travel.’ Another child said, ‘I save my money, little at a time, to buy items that might be a bit more expensive, like shoes.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children know how to make complaints. Complaints received from children have involved maintenance in the homes. They are addressed promptly to enhance the quality and homeliness of the accommodation for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The leaders have translation and interpretation systems in place to aid communication with children who speak English as an additional language. One child talked about watching television programmes and talking to staff and others to help them develop their English.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Well-maintained homes help the children to feel comfortable and secure. Staff assist children in personalising their environment, which promotes their sense of belonging. Children say they like their accommodation. A child said, ‘It’s chill, and I can relax and not stress.’ A social worker spoke about bringing a child to one of the houses and said:

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Overall experiences and progress of children

‘The home appears homely and friendly. The welcome that [name of child] received on his first day made him feel happy and brought some smiles to his face when he was shown his bedroom and the facilities that were available in the home.’

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How well children are helped and protected

Children feel safe in their homes and in the community where they live. If children experience any concerns, they know that they can contact the staff to seek help.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff enable children to build trusted relationships, which helps them speak about any concerns, including previous trauma. Staff understand how adverse experiences can affect children and apply this understanding to their day-to-day practice. Staff help children develop coping strategies in relation to previous experiences of trauma and any current adversities they might face. Staff are diligent in helping children to build resilience and to access appropriate specialist support, including healthcare and therapeutic support.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff are proactive in using one-to-one sessions and young people’s meetings to discuss with children how to stay safe and minimise risks to themselves from abuse, criminal exploitation, and forms of discrimination.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff are clear about how to identify, handle and report disclosures of abuse, and they are guided by the safeguarding policy. However, the policy requires an update to ensure that it accurately reflects that any child protection concerns must be shared immediately with the placing authority and/or host local authority. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 4 Managers and staff are active and effective in responding when children go missing. They work in partnership with the police and local authority and ensure that a return home interview takes place. Staff follow up with individual sessions and actively collaborate with children to prevent further missing-from-home incidents. When risks are increasing, managers request that social workers carry out vetting of individuals with whom children spend time when they go missing to facilitate dynamic decision- making.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff are proactive in working in partnership with police and youth offending services to support and protect children who are at risk of criminal exploitation. They actively speak with children during one-to-one sessions and young people’s meetings to raise awareness of the risks.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff help children navigate the area they live in. For example, they show children around and inform them how to access public transport and locate faith-based resources. When children move in, staff assist them by accompanying them to college and health appointments while also helping to make them aware of the risks in the area. A social worker said that they recognise children’s vulnerabilities and understand the harm that can occur outside the home.

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How well children are helped and protected

A network of support for children and their safety is established through positive relationships and meaningful communication with a broad range of professionals, including social workers, personal advisers, independent reviewing officers, police, youth offending officers, mental health services, schools, colleges, and legal and immigration services.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff understand how adverse experiences can affect children, and they apply this understanding to their day-to-day practice. Staff help children develop coping strategies in relation to previous experiences of trauma and any current adversities they might face, aiming to ensure that they develop resilience.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager leads the service effectively and efficiently and ensures that staff have the right support and resources to meet children’s various needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Managers and staff are child centred, sensitive, and responsive to the children’s identity needs. They display respectful and inclusive practices in their day-to-day activities. The influence cascades to children, who show their respect for differences with their peers and staff. One child said, ‘I do not feel judged here.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have a well-established workforce that can support children consistently, safely and effectively. The service does not use agency staff. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘It’s great when children receive consistent care, especially when they have experienced so much instability, loss and separation.’ Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 5 Training is a priority in the service. Managers’ and staff’s training needs are identified and responded to. For example, the registered service manager has attended designated safeguarding lead training. Staff and managers have attended Philomena protocol training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Managers are child focused in their approach. From the beginning of placement, they build relationships to get to know the children and identify their goals, milestones, needs and aspirations. With this information, the child and staff start to plan towards achieving positive outcomes. The managers ensure that staff are attentive to the diverse needs of children using the service. They encourage children to observe their belief systems and ensure that they have, for example, prayer mats, a Quran, and rosary beads.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager supervises staff. Conversations include well-being, accountability of practice, continuous learning and development, performance, and a focus on direct work with children, their experiences, progress, needs, and outcomes. Staff say they feel well supported by the managers. One member of staff said a transitional support worker said, ‘Morale has improved.’ Leaders and managers prioritise staff’s well-being. Staff access individual therapy sessions, in addition to reflective therapy sessions where they can share experiences and reflect on challenges. This helps to build staff resilience in working with the children to meet their individual support needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager receives reflective supervision, including through a monthly senior leadership meeting. This shared approach to learning results in a clear focus on the service’s goals, challenges, experiences and development. The collaboration between the management team offers support, personal and professional development, and a detailed focus on each child and young person in the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers ensure that staff receive continuous professional development from their induction through to ongoing training and reflective supervision. This creates the right environment for effective reflective practice to thrive and ensures that staff can meet the needs of the children they are responsible for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff keep social workers updated on progress via monthly reports. Managers and staff ensure the participation of children in their support plans, which feeds into the focus of individual sessions. Staff maintain electronic case records, which are accessible and reflect the journey children are taking to achieve their goals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The young person’s handbook appropriately outlines children’s access to records as an important right. This ensures that children can see what staff are recording about them, their starting points and the progress made towards their transitions to adulthood. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the safeguarding policy is reviewed to make sure that it reflects the duties and responsibilities of local authorities and other providers of children’s services with regard to the protection of children and young people, as set out in the statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 20)

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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: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 7

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: 102 Bressey Grove, London E18 2HX

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Joy Samuel Oputteh

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: Admin@youthrealityhomes.com

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Inspector

Phyllis Dyer, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Youth Reality Homes Ltd 8 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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