Children's Home run by Liv Children Care LTD in Milton Keynes

Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 1 Registered provider: Liv Children Care LTD Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and provides care for up to two children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, two children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 8 May 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered provider has recently appointed a new responsible individual, and we are currently checking this person has the relevant capacity, experience and skills to carry out the role.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/10/2024 Full Good 16/05/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress from their starting points. Staff build positive relationships with children, allowing them to benefit from the care of several familiar and trusted adults. Staff demonstrate sustained commitment to children even in the most difficult of circumstances, and this helps children feel settled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff demonstrate sound understanding of children’s individual needs and respect their preferred methods of communication. Staff’s willingness to adapt their approach according to children’s preferences has helped children become increasingly involved in decisions about their lives. As staff become more accustomed to children’s needs, they continually re-evaluate how they support them and are well attuned to recognising when they may need extra support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s educational needs are well supported, and their plans are adapted over time. One child has returned to full-time schooling, which has been a significant milestone in their life and opened several social opportunities for them. Another child has engaged positively with tutoring as part of their education plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to develop their independence and self-care skills to better prepare them for their future. This supportive work by staff has included targeted work with children and focused on increasing their autonomy in the home and the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A child’s move into the home was well managed and child centred, which helped ensure that the child was well prepared for the move. The differing needs of children who live in the home have been appropriately considered, meaning that children are well suited to live alongside each other. This promotes positive relationships between children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The members of the management team have endeavoured to be strong advocates for children when they have disagreed with their plans or elements of their care. Despite this, children have not benefited from independent advocacy, and consequently, their views have not been independently represented regarding important aspects of their care and future transitions away from the home.

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

Children benefit from a stable and consistent environment. This helps them develop a positive sense of belonging. As a result, children have become increasingly able to communicate their wishes and feelings and let staff know when they need help. This has been an important step in enabling staff to help children, due to their communication needs.

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

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of children’s risks and sensitivities, which means most of the time they take effective action and support children during times of difficulty. Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 4 Although staff have sometimes found children’s social and emotional needs difficult to manage, they work with other professionals and the internal clinical team to manage these risks to the best of their ability.

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

Staff work well with professionals from a range of other organisations, which enables children to benefit from additional specialist support when it is required. Staff ensure that children engage positively with their support networks, helping them work towards meeting their individual goals and milestones.

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

Children are treated with dignity and respect, and staff are supported in making important connections between children’s presenting needs and the experiences they have had before moving to the home. The impact of this is that staff care for children in a sensitive and non-judgemental manner, which increases children’s confidence in the ability of the staff team to help them and treat them with unconditional positive regard.

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

Staff encourage children to explore how they can manage their difficulties, and, through planned conversations, they help children develop their understanding of their feelings and identify how they may be safely managed. Staff are skilled in understanding and using non-speaking communication to increase their capacity to help children.

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

Despite otherwise good practice, there have been several medication errors for one child. These have frequently occurred at times of changes to this child’s prescribed medication and staff not following good medication protocols. In another instance, reasonable safeguarding principles could have prevented a medication-related incident.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A new registered manager has been appointed since the last inspection. They have implemented a wide range of changes that have had a positive impact on the home. Staff accordingly feel much more confident about their responsibilities in caring for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a comprehensive understanding of children’s underlying needs and leads by example. They are reflective and aware of each child’s individual personalities. The registered manager has been a strong foundation of support for the staff team, particularly when children have had periods of sustained difficulty.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work well together, and there is a positive sense of morale in the team. Staff's morale has occasionally suffered due to challenges in safely managing a child’s social and emotional needs. Despite these challenges, the team of staff have remained consistent and utilised the expertise of internal therapists to reflect on their practice and feelings. This has been effective at supporting staff through difficult times in the home and ensuring that the focus has always remained on children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers actively monitor the quality of care that children receive, regulatory visits are well considered, any recommendations are carefully tracked, and Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 5 this has supported the home to make adjustments and improvements over time. Children’s wishes and feelings have been incorporated into this as appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have received appropriate training, and this has been adapted in accordance with children’s presenting needs. The management team recognises that staff have not always had suitable training linked to children’s individual needs before they moved into the home, and this has created some barriers to how confidently they have been able to support children when they first move in. Despite this, the willingness of the staff team to adapt its approach and the support provided by other agencies alongside staff mean this has not affected children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While the registered manager has ensured that most relevant incidents have been appropriately reported to Ofsted, three incidents were not reported. This limits the regulator’s ability to monitor the management’s response to incidents. Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives;

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Requirement Due date

is given appropriate advocacy support. (Regulation 7 (1)(b)(i)(iii)) 30 January 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them;

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)) 13 November 2025

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Recommendation

 The registered person should notify Ofsted and other relevant parties if one of the situations specified in regulation 40 (4)(a)-(d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home that they consider to be serious. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10) Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 7

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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: 2695213 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Liv Children Care LTD

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 147 Stamford Hill, London N16 5LG

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Inspectors

Ashley Edwards, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Gemma Bullen, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2695213 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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