Children's Home run by Care2rise Ltd in Hillingdon

Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 1 Registered provider: Care2Rise Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run home provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted on 16 April 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

There was one child living at the home at the time of this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 2

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improvement to be good

Children’s safety and welfare are compromised by poor leadership and management, and this has impacted on the quality of care children receive. Despite some areas of positive practice, leaders have not always taken appropriate action, which compromises the safety and welfare of children.

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improvement to be good

The condition of one child’s bedroom is a concern. Although staff are carrying out bedroom checks, the checks are not helping the child to maintain a safe and suitable living environment. Staff provide limited support because they are not consistently monitoring the condition of the bedroom or taking prompt action when issues are identified. Furthermore, staff are not discussing the condition of the bedroom with the child or helping them to make it safe.

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improvement to be good

Children are not given opportunities to share their views, wishes and feelings about the home. Children do not participate in their care planning, agree to safety plans, or attend children’s meetings to ensure that they are involved effectively in the decision-making processes that impact significantly on their lives. This hinders the children’s ability to influence things that affect them and prevents staff from understanding children’s issues from their perspective.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not proactive in helping children access or engage with learning opportunities. At the time of this inspection, one child who had previously attended full-time education had not been supported by staff to re-engage with any educational provision since moving into the home. Another child, who has now left, was also in full-time education before their admission but was not supported to attend school while living in the home. The lack of support significantly compromises children’s educational progress and opportunities.

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improvement to be good

Children’s records are disorganised and do not show that children receive effectively planned care. Children’s care plans do not comprehensively identify their needs, and staff do not have well-defined plans to follow. This affects how well the children’s day-to-day care is delivered and coordinated.

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improvement to be good

Despite the shortfalls identified, children have good relationships with staff. Staff are caring and they know the children’s interests and personalities well. Staff invest time in getting to know children. They have regular and open conversations to gain insight into the children’s lives.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand that it is important for children to maintain relationships with the people who are important to them. Staff support and arrange for children to spend quality time with their family when it is safe for them to do so. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 3

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers do not complete children’s care plans and risk assessments until several weeks after they have moved into the home. This has resulted in staff having a limited understanding of children’s individual needs, risks, behaviours and vulnerabilities.

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improvement to be good

Children’s needs and risks are not regularly reviewed or managed well. The child living in the home is subject to high levels of supervision in response to their assessed risks. This includes two-to-one staffing in the community and regular bedroom searches. While intended to safeguard the child, the level of staffing and supervision has not been reviewed to ensure that it is having an impact or increasing the child’s safety. For example, despite the high level of supervision, the child was able to obtain items that could potentially be used to harm themselves.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers do not ensure that staff manage incidents well. Staff fail to use appropriate de-escalation techniques or implement creative alternatives that are specific to the needs of children. Children’s risk assessments and behaviour support plans are poor and do not give staff direction on how to respond to children’s needs. As a result, staff do not address negative behaviour, causing an increase in incidents in the home. On some occasions, the police are called to support staff. Leaders and managers are not readily available or accessible during these times. The lack of guidance and planning compromises children’s safety and contributes to a pattern of poor behaviour management. This has also led to premature notice being given on a child’s placement, as staff could not meet their needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff lack a full understanding of children’s individual complex needs. Staff’s ability to meet children’s needs is limited due to their lack of experience and relevant training. In addition, staffing levels are not always in line with children’s plans. This means that there are not always safe levels of support as agreed with children’s social workers.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not manage missing-from-home incidents well. When children are missing from the care of staff, staff fail to carry out bedroom searches as set out in children’s plans or follow the missing-from-home protocol. When children return home, no conversations take place about where the child has been. Additionally, return home interviews are not requested or carried out. This is a missed opportunity for staff to understand children’s experiences and deepen their understanding of any risks they faced while missing from the home.

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improvement to be good

Positive relationships between staff and children make key-work sessions meaningful and beneficial to children. Staff use educational tools to plan targeted sessions that address individual needs, supporting children’s skills and emotional understanding. These sessions also help staff to build trusting relationships, encourage positive behaviour and monitor children’s emotional well-being effectively. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 4

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers’ oversight and monitoring of the home are not effective. Potential risks, as well as weaknesses in practice, are not identified and addressed. External monitoring systems, including those used by the responsible individual, do not support managers to identify and address shortfalls in practice. This has led to children’s records and documents being of poor quality and not fully completed, which has directly impacted the quality of care children receive. In addition, the guidance staff receive from risk assessments, care plans and behaviour strategies is poor and not updated as needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff training is not completed in a timely way. Several members of staff did not complete safeguarding training before working with children. The lack of safeguarding training compromises staff’s knowledge and their ability to recognise concerns and take action if necessary. Furthermore, staff do not complete training to support them to meet children’s specific needs, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to investigate and address three complaints made by professionals. This demonstrates a lack of accountability and poor management oversight. As a result, concerns raised by external professionals have not been explored or resolved, leaving important issues unaddressed. This undermines confidence in the leadership and management of the home and prevents learning from complaints that could otherwise improve the quality of care and safeguard the welfare of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children’s records are not suitably stored and accessible to staff or managers. Leaders and managers could not access all the necessary information during this inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 5

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. 2 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 6 (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children are kept safe from any harm and risk and identify strategies to help staff to manage and reduce children’s individual risks.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that children’s risk assessments include all known risks for the child and that staff understand and follow risk management plans.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that staff are equipped to manage incidents and use effective de-escalation techniques specific to the needs of each child. Leaders and managers must ensure that staff are able to intervene and take effective action to manage children’s behaviours.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that the home is a safe and suitable environment for children.

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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

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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 home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications, and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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 and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 2 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 7 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that the management of the home is effective and there is an understanding of the impact care is having on children.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure there are effective monitoring systems to gain an oversight of the care provided to children. Where shortfalls are identified, leaders and managers must take effective action to address these.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that staff have the appropriate skills, training and support to meet the needs of children in the home. This includes having the skills to engage with children effectively and manage children’s behaviour appropriately.

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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.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must fully consider the needs of children moving into the home as well as the children already living there. They must also consider whether the staff have the skills and training to meet the needs of all children in their care, taking into account children’s relevant plans. 2 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. 2 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff support children to engage in education.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (1) (3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must respond to complaints and record actions taken. 2 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children’s records are accurate, safely stored and accessible. 2 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 9

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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: 2794965 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 118a Barking Road, Royal Victoria Docks, London E16 1EN

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Inspector

Sadia Akhtar, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2794965 11 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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