Children's home run by Wessex College Limited in Dorset

Inspection report children's home: SC043245 1 OFSTED USE ONLY

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SC043245 Registered provider: Wessex College Limited

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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 owned by a large private provider. It can provide care for up to 4 children who may have social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of inspection, 2 children were living in the home. They were both involved in the inspection.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2025.

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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 children's home: SC043245 2 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/10/2024 Full Good 24/05/2023 Full Good 26/10/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 01/07/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children's home: SC043245 3 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the previous inspection one child has moved into the home and no children have left. Children have close relationships with staff. Children feel able to tell staff when they need support. While there have been changes in staffing, there has been a core group of staff, which has meant the children have experienced consistency.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are committed and know the children well. This leads to a calm feeling throughout the home. Both children say they like their home. One child rated it 'a solid 9.5 out of 10' and the other said they do not want to leave. While children gave the inspector a wish list of things they would like to see in the home, neither child raised any concerns nor expressed needing anything.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress. Both children regularly attend school or college and are achieving well. One child has moved from a specialist provision to a mainstream college and started a part-time job. The other child has high attendance and has achieved several awards including the Duke of Edinburgh bronze. Staff encourage children's attendance and celebrate their successes, which helps to keep children motivated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's health needs are generally well supported by staff. Staff provide excellent support for children's sexual health needs. Staff have sensitive conversations with children and help them to understand hygiene and practical issues. However, guidance to the team about supporting one child with healthy eating is less clear. Healthy eating is promoted with everyone in the home trying to have healthier foods. Yet, clear guidance, which reflects the advice from health professionals, is not routinely in place. For example, staff have not fully considered the impact of energy drinks or worked with the children to understand why these are harmful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to reduce harmful behaviours like vaping and using substances. These issues are discussed with children with the dangers being highlighted. Risk assessments are in place, but some staff were not clear on the best way to manage these difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have fun. One child enjoys regular trips to bike parks. Both children have enjoyed activities like camp outs in the garden, concerts and conventions. Children's memories are captured well in their books, but these have not been regularly kept up to date.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is spacious and well-maintained. Children's rooms are personal to them with lots of their items on display. Canvas photos of the children are on display throughout the home, which capture special moments well. This is the children's home, and this is reflected well throughout. Inspection report children's home: SC043245 4 OFSTED USE ONLY

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

Children are settled at this home, which is reflected in the low number of incidents. No physical interventions have been needed. Staff have the knowledge of the children and the skills to calm situations and provide what children need in the moment.

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

Both children identified staff that they could talk to and said that staff listen to them. Children's concerns are taken seriously. Lots of nurturing conversations take place with children about how to keep themselves safe. Children are given appropriate responsibilities to help them to manage risks. For example, one child is supported to ride tricky mountain bike trails independently. The other child goes out with friends to a club which supports their hobby.

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

Staff know these children well and know the risks and vulnerabilities to them. Neither child has been missing from the home, but plans are in place should they do so. Some of the plans are not up to date, which does not help staff to take immediate action, should they ever need to.

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

Children are praised for positive behaviours. Consequences are considered and children are involved in discussions about appropriate consequences. For example, having to pay if they have damaged something. Children are encouraged to repair relationships. Staff support them to recognise the need to apologise and support children to do this.

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

Staff understand the dangers of internet and online safety. Specific training has taken place to support the staff with this. Children are spoken to about the dangers and the strong relationships that children have with staff mean they come to the team with difficulties. Monitoring systems and parental controls are in place; these are not always effective. However, staff work hard to educate children to be aware of the risks and manage this well, given the children's ages.

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

Investigations into staff practice have been thorough. A child was supported to complain and the investigation was thorough. Outcomes were made clear and actions to improve practice were put into place. There was a delay in replying to the child, but the child was spoken to and informed appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is run by a qualified and ambitious manager who knows these children exceptionally well. Leaders and managers have worked hard to ensure that familiar staff are consistently in the home with the children. This has been difficult when staff have been shared with another of the company's homes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is a strong advocate for the children. During the inspection, the manager supported a child from another home in difficult circumstances. She ensured the child's safety and advocated for the child's rights while managing the inspection. Inspection report children's home: SC043245 5 OFSTED USE ONLY

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Planning for one child to move into the home was well considered. Whether the children would be suitable to live together was carefully thought through.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The guidance to the team is not always clear. The team work closely together and information about the children’s needs is sometimes shared verbally. However, children's documents lack clarity about the goals for the children, and the steps staff need to take. Some documents contain out of date or confusing information. For example, the family time arrangements for one child vary in different documents and this could be confusing for staff. The language used in documents suggests children have made these comments but are often not the children's actual words. This could be confusing or misleading for children reading their documents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training has taken place to support children's specific needs. Children benefit from the involvement of specialist advisors within the company, for example a substance misuse specialist gave advice to the team recently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say they feel supported and can approach leaders and managers at any time. However, some staff were unsure about how often supervision took place and that at times it had felt chaotic. The manager uses a complex system for overseeing supervision, which could lead to missed sessions for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback from professionals reflects positive communication with the staff and the good progress that children have been supported to make. Inspection report children's home: SC043245 6 OFSTED USE ONLY

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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 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;

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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.

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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

provide personalised care that meets each child's needs, as recorded in the child's relevant plans, taking account of the child's background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and manager should ensure children's plans are effective working documents that provide staff with clear and consistent guidance and are kept up to date to reflect the child's current needs. 28 March 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that each child's day to day health and well- being needs are met. Staff should have a consistent approach to supporting children to have a healthy diet. The registered person should ensure that specialist health advice is sought if staff are unsure of how to support a child fully. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 33, paragraph 7.3)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff receive supervision regularly. If the manager is not directly line-managing staff, they should be aware of any gaps in supervision. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.2) Inspection report children's home: SC043245 7 OFSTED USE ONLY

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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 children's home: SC043245 8 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Wessex College Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Keys Group, Maybrook House, Third Floor, Queensway, Halesowen B63 4AH

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Anna Satterthwaite

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Inspector:

Nickie Doney, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC043245 9 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Inspector:

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:

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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