Children's Home run by Beaufort Care Group Ltd in Hampshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 1 Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home was registered with Ofsted on 31 July 2025 and is owned and run by a private organisation. It provides care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2025.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are not effectively safeguarded in this home. Bullying behaviours are not being robustly tackled and not all children say that they feel safe in the home. Leaders and managers are not ensuring that staff are able to meet children’s emotional needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not consistently experience positive outcomes or make sufficient progress at this home. Significant shortfalls in planning, matching and education mean that children’s needs are not being met effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

At the time of the inspection, 3 children were living at the home. Children said that they felt unhappy and unsettled due to ongoing conflict and poor peer relationships. One child said that they do not like living with the other children and said that incidents have made them feel unsafe. Another child shared concerns about the behaviour of their peers with their parent and has expressed a wish to leave the home due to persistent relationship difficulties. These concerns demonstrate that children do not feel safe, secure or emotionally settled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

While managers communicate with external professionals when considering admissions, insufficient attention is given to the impact that children may have on one another. Children were admitted to the home in quick succession without ensuring that existing children had settled or that staff had the capacity and skills to manage emerging risks. The lack of effective planning has led to an escalation of incidents that staff have been unable to manage consistently and safely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s educational needs are not promoted effectively. When children are not attending formal education, they receive part-time tuition from a part-time tutor. Outside this provision, there is a lack of structured, purposeful educational activities within the home. Staff do not consistently promote learning through planned activities with an educational focus. As a result, children are not supported to engage meaningfully in learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s health needs are not consistently met. When children vape, staff provide some guidance about associated risks and encourage reduction. However, there is no clear, structured plan to support children to stop vaping altogether. One child experiences mental health difficulty and said that they may have an eating disorder. While external health professionals have recently been involved, staff oversight of the child’s dietary intake and eating patterns is insufficient. This means that staff, and the child’s parent, cannot be assured that the child’s health needs are being met effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite these challenges, children experience some positive day-to-day care. The home has a welcoming atmosphere, and staff implement clear routines that provide stability for children. Staff and children share communal meals. At bedtimes, staff read to children and spend time talking about their day. Children are observed to have positive Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 3 relationships with staff and feel that they can express their views. However, the impact of poor matching and ineffective planning means that children experience regular difficulties with their peers which are having a significantly detrimental impact on them.

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

Children are not safeguarded in this home effectively. Persistent weaknesses in the management of bullying, safeguarding practice and management oversight place children at risk of harm.

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

Bullying is taking place in the home, and this has had a significant negative impact on one child. Although managers and staff recognise that there are difficulties with the relationships among the children, the strategies that have been implemented have failed to safeguard. This has led to the child experiencing ongoing harm and feeling that staff cannot keep them safe. The home has an anti-bullying policy. However, this is not being implemented effectively, and an insufficient response from leaders and staff has contributed to continued incidents of bullying, which are escalating.

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

Physical interventions are used appropriately and are brief and proportionate to the behaviour being shown. Staff try to speak with children following incidents. However, when children choose not to engage, it is not clear if further attempts are made to reconnect with children or reflect on the incident. Although there is some oversight by the registered manager, there is minimal evidence of reflective practice. Leaders do not consistently ensure that learning from incidents informs future practice.

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

Actions taken to safeguard children are not always timely. One concern raised by a child about staff practice was not picked up in a timely way, and referrals to external safeguarding agencies were not completed promptly. One parent said that they had waited several days before being notified of the outcome of a safeguarding event. The lack of urgency, and ineffective communication with significant others, indicates a poor safeguarding culture within the home.

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

When concerns about children being safe online emerge, staff engage in conversations with children about the risks and how to be safe online. Learning is taken from incidents, and errors in practice are highlighted. Appropriate changes are made to online settings to ensure that they promote children’s safety. Staff have a good understanding of the therapeutic approach that the home uses, and they use this to support their practice daily. These positive aspects of staff safeguarding practice are significantly outweighed by the inability of staff and managers to ensure that children can feel safe in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to provide effective oversight and direction in the home. Significant weaknesses in leadership oversight, multi-agency working and staff support have contributed to instability in the home, and this is having a negative impact Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 4 on children’s experiences. Leaders have not responded sufficiently to emerging concerns in a timely way, which has contributed to 2 children feeling considerably unsafe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A lack of effective multi-agency working has meant that safeguarding issues in the home have not been clearly recognised by external professionals and have not been addressed in a multi-agency way. When partner agencies have failed to act promptly, leaders have not escalated concerns appropriately. As a result, opportunities to reduce risk and meet children’s needs in a timely and coordinated way have been missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff receive training that is relevant to the needs of the children. However, this is not consistently effective. Some staff do not feel sufficiently prepared to manage the risks in the home and this is impacting on morale. At least one staff member has considered leaving due to feeling unable to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Team meetings and supervision sessions take place regularly, and time is taken to reflect on each of the individual children and the risks that they face. However, more could be done to reflect on how the children could be supported differently, and to consider alternative strategies to manage the risks in the home. When one staff member raised concerns about the welfare of children, no further support was provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The cumulative failings of leaders and managers mean that children are living in a home where their basic need for safety is not being met, and this is inadequate. As a result, children’s day-to-day experiences are poor, and this will significantly impact on the progress that they are able to make. Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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 protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(iv)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that there are clear plans to keep children safe, that staff have the necessary skills and training to effectively manage relationships between children. Additionally, the registered person must ensure that staff receive sufficient support to help them keep children safe. 16 February 2026

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing 16 February 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 6 authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they engage with the local authority effectively, and wider partner agencies, in safety planning for children. When external professionals are not meeting children’s needs, the registered manager must ensure that there is effective challenge to ensure that children’s needs are met in a timely way.

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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.

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that where children engage with part-time education, there are clear plans to structure their day when they are not in school, with activities and tasks which have an educational theme and promote children’s educational attainment. 16 February 2026

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 16 February 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 7 In particular, the registered person must have effective oversight of incidents occurring in the home, ensuring that reflective practice is embedded effectively, and that learning from incidents informs future practice and planning for children.

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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

In particular, the registered person should ensure that moves into and out of the home are carefully planned and that new children are only admitted to the home when staff are able to meet the needs of all children. 16 February 2026

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: 2830418 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Hollygrove Business Park, Ringwood BH24 2DB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Amanda Goodenough

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Inspector

Minnette Sims, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2830418 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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