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

Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 1 Registered provider: Holywell Children’s Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and operated by a private provider. It is registered to provide care for up to 2 children with social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this visit, there were no children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since 15 March 2024.

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This monitoring visit

Serious and widespread concerns were identified at the last assurance inspection. A case review was held on 5 November 2025, when a decision was made for Ofsted to issue a restriction of accommodation notice to prevent any further children from moving into the home.

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This monitoring visit

This monitoring visit was undertaken to assess the progress made on the requirements identified at the assurance inspection. The provider has adhered to the restriction of accommodation notice.

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This monitoring visit

There is an interim manager in post. Since the assurance inspection in October 2025, the home has had three interim managers, which has resulted in a lack of continuity in leadership. The proposed internal candidate has not yet been formally interviewed for the role. They were not safely recruited for their current role.

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This monitoring visit

The interim manager is receiving regular supervision. However, the senior manager responsible for supervising managers is due to leave the organisation soon, and there are no confirmed succession arrangements in place. As a result, leadership and management arrangements lack stability. Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 2 The home has been renovated and redecorated. Children’s bedrooms are suitably furnished and ready for children to move in. However, some areas remain unfinished, including bare walls in the communal areas and ongoing renovation works outside the property. Construction work is also taking place in the rear garden of the adjacent sister home, which is accessible to children, and workmen are using the area at the front of the home during these works. As a result, the environment is not yet fully usable or homely for children.

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This monitoring visit

A fire risk assessment was completed by a competent professional on 29 September 2025. This identified substantial fire risks. The provider has obtained quotes for the remaining work to be done, but this has not been completed. This does not demonstrate that leaders and managers understand their roles in protecting children or prioritise action to minimise known risks.

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This monitoring visit

The leaders and staff have reflected on previous shortfalls in practice relating to children’s health needs. They have developed an action plan to ensure that children’s health is promoted. New documentation is in place to ensure that health needs are prioritised and monitored regularly. However, while relevant training for staff has been arranged, this has not yet been completed.

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This monitoring visit

Some staff remain significantly beyond the required timescale to achieve their residential childcare qualification. Managers have implemented a structured support plan to assist them, and protected time during shifts has been allocated to enable staff to complete the work still to be done. A requirement has been made at the last inspection and has been restated.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted does not consider that the shortfalls found at the assurance inspection on 29 October 2025 have been fully addressed and has therefore reissued the restriction notice. Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/04/2025 Full Good 05/03/2025 Full Inadequate 15/11/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/11/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 4

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that relevant risk assessments are carried out in a timely manner by competent professionals. They must also ensure that the recommendations of these assessments are carried out promptly.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 21 April 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose; 21 April 2026 Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 5 ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that there is continuity in the leadership and care provided to the children.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 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.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that all relevant information required to make informed decisions about new admissions is sought in a timely way. Robust assessments must be completed before a child moves in, to determine if their needs can be met. The needs and compatibility of children already living in the home must also be carefully considered. Children whose needs cannot be met alongside those of the children who already live at the home must not be admitted.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 21 April 2026

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— 21 April 2026 Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 6 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 to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that communal areas are well decorated and that outdoor spaces accessible to children are safe and usable.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that children are supported to have healthy lifestyles and diets and that emerging health needs are responded to promptly by staff.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 21 April 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if— 21 April 2026 Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 7 there is no registered manager in respect of the home.

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider appoints a person to manage the home, the registered provider must, without delay, give HMCI notice of—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person so appointed; and

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Requirement Due date

the date on which the appointment takes effect. (Regulation 27 (1)(a) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (2)(a)(b) (3)(b) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)) 21 April 2026 Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 8 This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff support children with home study by encouraging them to develop independent study skills and helping them to practise those skills. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.18)  The registered person should decide what each Regulation 45 review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home’s care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next 6 months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for

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Recommendations

continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Holywell Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Dalton House, 9 Dalton Square, Lancaster LA1 1WD

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Inspector

Sarah Huntbatch, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home - monitoring visit: 2663221 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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