Horizon Supported Accommodation North

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 1 Horizon Supported Accommodation North Registered provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This service provides accommodation for up to 148 looked-after children and care leavers across 32 single-occupancy flats and 49 shared houses.

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provider

At the time of this inspection, 46 children aged 16 and 17 years were living in the properties.

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provider

This service is part of a large organisation that also provides other supported accommodation services, children's homes, and education.

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provider

The provider and service manager registered with Ofsted on 3 October 2023.

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Inspection dates: 10 to 12 December 2025

The inspection was announced on 8 December 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 10 to 12 December 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 within approximately 3 years.

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Summary of findings

Staff create nurturing environments for children. They support children to have positive experiences and make progress towards full independence.

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Summary of findings

The proactive and systematic approach to safeguarding ensures children's safety. Staff work closely and together with partner agencies to safeguard children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 2 The leaders and managers provide child-centred, authentic, inspirational, and competent leadership and management. They are committed to maintaining cultures of continuous reflection, learning and improvement.

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Summary of findings

The leaders and managers have several wide-ranging improvement initiatives in progress. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children typically have positive experiences. They benefit from strong and positive relationships with staff. One child said that the staff are 'amazing'. Another child talked about staff supporting them well and being reliable. Another child said that the staff are lovely people who have shown her how to be a better person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff know the children well. They show genuine care and support. This approach helps children to make progress towards full independence. Each child has an individualised support plan with specific goals that have been agreed with them. The staff and children review the progress towards achieving these goals. Additional support is provided when needed or when new goals are set.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff create a nurturing environment that supports children's emotional wellbeing. Staff have access to specialist advice from the organisation's clinical team on how to support children. One child, who sometimes has a low mood, said:

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Overall experiences and progress of children

'They have really supported me and have made sure that I am safe and alive. [They are] listening to me and I think they are brilliant because of the support they give. They talk to me and want to know how I am feeling.'

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff understand the importance of families. When appropriate, staff support children to maintain or rebuild their relationships with their parents or other family members. Staff understand the specific needs of children who are separated from their families and are unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The extensive use of a language-interpreting service enhances the quality of communication and ensures that the children who do not speak English have an active voice in the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children who have histories of non-engagement in education to see learning in a positive light. They give children encouragement and practical support to enrol in colleges or to look for training, volunteering, apprenticeships, and job opportunities. However, many children remain not in education, employment, or training, despite the support. Through monitoring, the managers have identified this gap and are taking action. They are liaising with education colleagues about the alternative ways to support children to learn.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children receive support to keep their environment safe, clean, and comfortable. Children like where they live, and many are proud of their homes. They have developed a sense of belonging. However, there is some variation across the provision in how homely some accommodation is.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The children's social workers and other professionals generally talk positively about the quality of communication with the service, the quality of the support provided and the progress that children make. Staff respond positively to any suggestions for improvement from children or other agencies. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 4

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How well children are helped and protected

Effective safeguarding processes are embedded across the service. The leaders' proactive and systematic approach to safeguarding enhances children's safety. When concerns are raised or incidents occur, they are well managed by the staff. There is appropriate information-sharing with partner agencies, which helps to ensure children's safety. This includes supporting children who are at risk of exploitation to understand those risks and learn how they can be safer.

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How well children are helped and protected

The training for staff in risk management enables staff to develop strong safeguarding awareness and put learning into practice. When additional training is needed to ensure that staff have a clear understanding of the risks that are relevant to a particular child, this is provided. For example, some staff completed in-depth training on honour-based violence to enable them to successfully support and help educate a child at particular risk.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff have a clear understanding of children's unique risks and follow the safety plans for individual children, particularly children who go missing. Timely information-sharing with the police and other professionals results in effective action to find missing children and work towards minimising the risk of the children going missing in the future.

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How well children are helped and protected

The locality assessments are detailed and updated regularly. Managers make dynamic consideration of the likely impact of the locality with the likely risk of missing and exploitation for each child. They consider the child's personal history, the distance from other relevant areas and any emerging risks. An example of this is how staff, working together with the police and the local authority, kept a child safe who was at significant risk in the community.

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How well children are helped and protected

The leaders' robust approach to recruiting all staff contributes to the safeguarding of children. The stringent vetting includes seeking references from each previous employer and ensuring that police checks are obtained for those who have lived or worked abroad.

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How well children are helped and protected

The designated safeguarding lead has developed good links with the local authority designated safeguarding officers (LADO). Any concerns relating to the conduct of staff are shared with the relevant LADO for consultation and any agreed actions are carefully followed. The managers take robust and appropriate action when any staff member's conduct is not satisfactory.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The leaders and managers make sure that children are always at the centre of the service. They provide inspirational leadership and have created a culture of continuous learning. They ensure that staff have all they need to fulfil the service's ambitious statement of purpose. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 5 The statement of purpose reflects the aspirational nature of the service. This includes supporting children who are ready for supported accommodation but have personal histories of high risk and vulnerability. The managers' careful consideration of the child's ability and readiness to move into supported accommodation includes extensive consultations with the child's social worker and other professionals who know the child well. Prior to a child moving in, a manager meets with each child in person to explore their motivation to turn their lives

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

In response to the learning that the managers identified while providing supported accommodation for children with a history of high risks, managers are reconfiguring the accommodation that the service offers. They are in process of transferring multiple single-occupancy flats into one building, with a staff office on site. This means that children can practise their independence by living on their own, while the staff on duty can more swiftly identify and respond to any emerging concerns. Some flats are already operating in this arrangement. The pace of the changes is tailored around maintaining stability for the current children. More moves have been scheduled to take place in the coming months.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The planning of support and children's contribution to this process are typically strong. However, there are some inconsistencies in how individual some support plans are and how clearly, they show the child's input to their plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff have excellent opportunities for learning and professional development. They receive comprehensive training on a wide range of subjects. This includes understanding the impact of trauma on children's lives and learning how to form trusting relationships with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff experience a structured and detailed induction, which includes opportunities for learning through shadowing the work of the experienced staff. This prepares new staff members well to work on their own with children. The imbedded on-call management system means that management support is always available.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff have excellent opportunities to progress in their careers. As their knowledge and skills grow, they are guided to take advanced professional roles. This approach secures stability in the service, continuity, and effective succession planning.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff speak highly of the leaders and managers and the support that they receive from them. One staff member said that they have 'the most supportive, understanding, compassionate, collaborative and appreciative manager'. The leaders and managers are currently rolling out a new system for staff supervision and appraisals to ensure that the frequency reflects the expectation of good practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The leaders and managers share information with Ofsted as required. Ofsted receives information about safeguarding events and any changes to the properties and the people in registered roles. This information, together with the quality support review, enables Ofsted to maintain regulatory oversight. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 6 le

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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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the 'Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards'. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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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 children are supported to access education, training, or employment. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(m))

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to making this support more effective. 31 January 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered persons should ensure that the support plans for all children clearly show their contribution and provide clear guidance to staff about how the support provided links with the development of children's independence skills. ('Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards', page 35)

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Recommendations

 The registered persons should ensure that all accommodation is homely. ('Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards', page 29) Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 7

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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: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: C/O DWF Company Secretarial Services Limited, 1 Scott Place 2 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AA

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Maisie Caton

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: enquiries@horizoncare.co.uk

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Inspectors

Seka Graovac, Social Care Inspector Steve James, Social Care Inspector Shelley Chowdhury, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Horizon Supported Accommodation North 9 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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