Children's Home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Derbyshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 1 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited

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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 home is privately run and provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since April 2025. A new manager has been appointed and is in the process of submitting her application to Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living at the home.

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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 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: 24 September 2024

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/09/2024 Full Good 18/07/2023 Full Good 16/06/2022 Full Good 05/07/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from living in a warm, welcoming and well-decorated home. Bedrooms are personalised and reflect their identities and connections to family. Staff encourage children to make choices about how they would like their rooms decorated, which helps them to feel a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children describe feeling safe, settled and happy in the home. They are welcomed by a consistent and caring staff team who take time to get to know them as individuals. Staff listen to children and take their wishes and feelings seriously, which helps children to feel respected and valued. The nurturing approach of staff helps children to manage their emotions and make progress in their day-to-day lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress during their time in the home. For example, one child developed confidence in building relationships with staff, which enabled them to move on positively to a suitable new placement. Staff work hard to prepare children for transitions, which are planned and sensitively managed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Endings are approached with thoughtfulness and care, and staff recognise the importance of creating positive final experiences for children. Where children have expressed sadness about leaving, staff have gone above and beyond to provide creative and personalised farewells. For example, one child who was moving before Christmas was supported with a festive-themed goodbye party, which helped them to feel special and created positive memories of their time in the home. Such practices ensure that children leave with a strong sense of value and dignity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Although children experience positive day-to-day care, recording in relation to admissions does not yet fully evidence how decisions are made about children moving into the home. Matching processes are not clearly documented, and it is not always clear how the provider considers whether the home can meet a child’s needs.

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

Risk assessments are generally thorough, detailed and regularly updated, which means staff have the information they need to support children safely. However, for one child, a specific risk relating to the use of ligatures was not fully reflected in the child’s risk assessment, and there was no clear action plan in place for staff to follow should such an incident occur. In addition, although staff were appropriately equipped, not all had received the relevant training to safely manage this particular risk.

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

Physical interventions are used only when necessary and are managed and recorded appropriately. Records provide clear detail about the events leading up to the intervention and the de-escalation techniques used. However, children’s views are not always fully captured following an intervention, and records are not consistently written Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 4 in a child-friendly way. This limits opportunities for children to reflect on incidents and for staff to learn from their feedback.

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

Allegations are responded to swiftly and in line with safeguarding procedures. Leaders ensure that both children and staff are offered appropriate support throughout the process. This helps to maintain children’s safety and staff confidence in safeguarding arrangements.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. When they do, staff act quickly and appropriately to safeguard them. They make active efforts to locate children, maintain regular contact, and follow agreed protocols by informing the police, social care and other relevant professionals. As a result, no child has been missing from the home for extended periods, and risks associated with missing-from-home episodes are minimised.

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

Health and safety in the home is well managed. All checks are up to date, clearly recorded, and subject to regular auditing. This ensures that the environment remains safe and well maintained, supporting children’s welfare and providing reassurance to staff, carers, and visitors.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has been without a registered manager since April 2025. During this time, the deputy manager has stepped into the role and has now been successfully appointed as manager. She has quickly begun to make positive changes, supported well by the wider leadership team. While some shortfalls remain in children’s records, there is a clear and achievable plan in place to address these. The manager is passionate about the children in her care and demonstrates ambition and commitment to driving forward improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has introduced new monitoring systems that provide stronger oversight of the day-to-day running of the home. This has improved leaders’ understanding of the home’s strengths and areas for development and is beginning to have a positive impact on practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff know children well and build warm, trusting relationships with them. Observations show that children are consistently at the centre of staff practice and decision-making. Staff listen to children and take account of their wishes and feelings, ensuring that their voices shape their day-to-day experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Parents value the quality of care their children receive. One parent spoke positively about the good communication from the staff and the manager, and described how staff supported them to enjoy positive time with their child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Despite these strengths, there are areas that require further improvement. The manager has not yet produced thorough assessment reports on the quality of care in line with regulation 45. This limits leaders’ ability to fully evaluate and evidence the progress being made in the home. In addition, there are gaps in staff supervision, including for a Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 5 new member of staff who had not received formal supervision since starting their role. This means that opportunities to provide structured support and reflection for staff are not always maximised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Although most staff feel well supported by the manager, one staff member highlighted concerns about the information available prior to the admission of a new child. They felt this limited the team’s ability to plan effectively and left them feeling ill-equipped to meet the child’s needs. Leaders recognise this as an area for development and are taking steps to strengthen pre-admission processes to ensure that staff have the knowledge and confidence they need. Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 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 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that staff have the right training and skills to meet the needs of the child in their care. 3 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that new arrivals to the home are adequately prepared for, risk assessed, and their needs are understood by the staff team. 03 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a system in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in the regulation at least once every six months. The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.2)

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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: 1244161 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Blue Mountain Homes Ltd, 21 Mallard Way, Pride Park, Derby DE24 8GX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector

Lauren Barwell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1244161 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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