Children's Home run by Prosperity Children’s Services Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 1 Registered provider: Prosperity Children’s Services

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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 operated by a private provider. It offers care and support for one child who may experience social and/or emotional difficulties and/or have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since 7 September 2025, when the registered manager voluntarily cancelled their registration. An acting manager is in post.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered provider has appointed a new responsible individual.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspection started on 19 and 20 August 2025. Inspectors returned on 15 and 16 September 2025 to gather additional evidence in line with ‘Ofsted inspections and visits: deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence’ policy.

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

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/06/2024 Full Good 10/10/2023 Full Good 28/02/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/11/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 3

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inadequate

Since the previous inspection, one child has moved from the home, and one child has moved into the home. One child experienced a planned move to a semi- independence placement in line with their plan. Staff supported the child to make the transition.

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inadequate

Leaders and managers did not complete a robust assessment to consider the needs of the child when moving into the home. The assessment contained a high number of errors and inaccuracies and was not individual to the child’s needs and vulnerabilities.

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inadequate

Staff have not provided the child living in the home with healthy routines and boundaries and have not provided the child with structure to their day. The lack of structure has impacted on the child’s progress, emotional health and sleep patterns.

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inadequate

The child living in the home is enrolled at an educational provision but has not attended for a significant time. The staff have not supported the child to have opportunities for informal learning or other educational activities. This limits the child’s future opportunities for further education and employment.

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inadequate

Staff complete regular direct work with children, enabling them to understand risk and make safer decisions. The quality of direct work recordings varies, and staff do not consistently record the depth of discussion and insight from the child.

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inadequate

The staff and children who live in the home access timely therapeutic support from the in-house therapeutic team. This helps to support children’s emotional health and provides staff with access to training, advice and guidance on how best to support children.

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inadequate

Staff support the child to see family and friends. This means the child can maintain contact with those most important to them. This has helped to strengthen the child’s relationship with close relatives.

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inadequate

The home environment is appropriate for a one-bed home. Children are supported to personalise their bedrooms. However, the child’s bedroom had a strong smell of substances.

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

Risk management plans do not include robust strategies for staff to follow to safeguard children. One child’s plans do not contain robust strategies to ensure that the child is safe when unsupervised in the community, despite being at risk of Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 4 exploitation. There have been incidents when the child has returned to the home under the influence of substances. The plans are not clear on what action staff should take. Therefore, staff do not consistently seek medical attention for the child. This does not promote the child’s safety or welfare.

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

Leaders, managers and staff do not take appropriate action when potential safeguarding concerns arise. The child informed a staff member that they were being threatened in the community. No action was taken by staff or managers to address this serious concern. Staff failed to respond effectively when a child left the home in a vehicle with an unknown person they had met online. This lack of effective action leaves children at risk of harm.

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

Incidents in the home are not reliably recorded and evaluated. Missing-from-care records do not fully detail the events that led up to the incident and the action staff have taken.

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

Managers and staff work with other key professionals in relation to the safety of the child living in the home. However, partnership working is compromised when staff do not consistently record and share serious incidents with key professionals involved in the child’s safety planning. This has compromised the child’s safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home’s registered manager recently left their post. A new manager was introduced to the staff and the child; however, the organisation made a further change to the manager. There is now an acting manager working in the home who has applied to register. The responsible individual changed in March 2025. Therefore, there have been inconsistent management arrangements in the home to support the staff and the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The management arrangements have not been effective. There is a lack of management oversight in relation to incidents. Areas of poor staff practice, such as the quality of recording, have not been addressed effectively by leaders and managers. Senior managers have failed to identify the shortfalls in both the manager’s and staff’s practice despite completing quality assurance visits. A lack of robust senior manager oversight of the home has meant that staff have not safeguarded children from harm effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been a number of changes to the staff team since the last inspection. Staff working in the home said they receive regular supervision and feel supported in their roles. Staff have received some training in relation to supporting the identified needs of children. However, there is no clear, accurate record of what training staff have completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers use various monitoring and review tools. However, they have failed to identify the significant shortfalls found during the inspection. Therefore, action has not always been taken to improve the quality of care to children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 5 Due to the serious and widespread concerns identified, Ofsted has issued compliance notices under regulation 12, the protection of children standard, and regulation 13, the leadership and management standard. Ofsted will continue to monitor the provider’s compliance with these notices. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 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 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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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 and

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider must ensure that the children’s risk management plans include strategies to support staff to safely manage risk.

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that staff have the skills and knowledge to identify and act on signs that a child is at risk of harm and take effective action if there is a concern about a child’s welfare. This includes staff taking effective action if there are concerns a child is under the influence of substances and risks posed to the child when spending time unsupervised in the local community. 9 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 7 *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

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; and

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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)(a)(c)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that there is effective and consistent management oversight of the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that there are effective monitoring and review systems in place to help managers review and evaluate the quality of care staff provide to children who live in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that the staff team has the necessary skills, knowledge, expertise, training and confidence to meet the assessed needs and risks of children. 9 November

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; and

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)) 9 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 8 In particular, the registered provider must ensure that staff provide children with routines and structures to support the child to make progress and to promote their welfare.

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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

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider must ensure that children’s records are detailed and accurate and contain all the necessary information. 9 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 9 November

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 9

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the recordings of key-work sessions are purposeful and evaluative, so that they are helpful to a child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2685151 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Prosperity Children’s Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Prosperity Children’s Services Ltd, 8 Mercury Rise, Altham Business Park, Altham, Accrington BB5 5BY

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Inspectors

Paul McKay-Smith, Social Care Inspector Suzanne Birchall, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2685151 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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