Canary House Care Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 1 Canary House Care Limited

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Registered provider: Canary House Care Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation service is owned and operated by a private provider. It can accommodate up to 5 individuals in one shared-living home limited to looked- after children and care leavers. There is also one single-occupancy premises. The premises are in the East of England and the North of England. At the time of the inspection, this service was providing supported accommodation for 5 children aged 16 and17. The organisation, and the service manager, registered with Ofsted in May 2025.

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Inspection dates: 11 to 13 February 2026

The inspection was announced on 9 February 2026 and started that day. The inspector was on site from 11 to 13 February 2026.

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Outcome

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects some children’s experiences, and this may limit their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements. The next inspection will be within approximately 18 months.

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Summary of findings

Children speak positively about their homes, the people they live with and the staff who support them. Children have been supported to re-engage in education and training.

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Summary of findings

Some children are making positive progress, and known risks for them are reducing with support from staff. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 2 Managers do not always review the incidents involving children effectively in order to ensure that appropriate action has been taken.

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Summary of findings

Surveillance and monitoring systems in the home are excessive and disproportionate to the level of independence of children living there. The presence of window restrictors and door alarms detract from the homeliness of the environment.

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Summary of findings

Children’s support plans and risk assessments do not always correspond to known risks, and these documents are not always updated after incidents occur.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have positive experiences. For some children, the home location is near leisure amenities as well as family and friends, enabling those children to keep in contact with people who are important to them. Children say staff are warm and welcoming and are interested in what they have going on in their life. One child praised staff for the support they have received in helping them to understand the risks they had been exposed to and to help them make better choices for their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Most children have had support to help them to engage in education or training. Staff have helped some children who have not attended formal education in some time to sign up to vocational college courses. The staff have supported some children to develop skills and qualifications to help them to gain employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children spend time speaking individually with staff. The discussions are intended to focus on the child’s individual needs and help to support them in making progress towards developing skills in independence. For some children, their current support needs are not accurately captured in their plans. For example, the support plan for one child for whom there are current concerns surrounding self-harm, describes their emotional wellbeing as, ‘exceeding expectation.’ This gives an inaccurate snapshot of the child’s current mental health needs and the expectations of the staff supporting the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s bedrooms are adequately furnished, and communal areas are suitably maintained. Nonetheless, homes have a level of surveillance and monitoring which is excessive and disproportionate for the needs of the children living there. At one property, the presence of CCTV cameras, window restrictors and door alarms detracts from the homeliness of accommodation for children. Leaders and managers accept that the level of environmental restriction is not required based on the needs of the children living there but rather to support staff to maintain oversight of the accommodation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Professionals have mixed views on the quality of the support that children receive. Some professionals say that children are making progress and receiving the support they need. Other professionals say staff are not equipped to support children’s emotional needs and say that the child for whom they provide a professional service, experienced isolation and a lack of a consistent staff support network, resulting in Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 3 the placement for this child coming to an unplanned ending. Professionals have also raised concern about staff’s ability to communicate well with children, particularly those children for whom English is an additional language.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff manage medication for children. This involves children’s medication being kept in an office and the dose being handed to children and logged by staff. This system does not allow children to develop their independence to manage medication for themselves without staff oversight.

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How well children are helped and protected

When incidents involving children occur, they receive a coordinated response from staff, and this often ensures that the children’s wellbeing is the focus. Partner agencies are informed appropriately. The leaders and managers promote multi- agency working to address the concerns identified. However, the managers do not consistently review the actions taken to safeguard children and ensure that all staff have responded appropriately. This inconsistent lack of oversight means that learning from incidents does not help to inform plans and decision-making for every child.

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How well children are helped and protected

There has been a significant reduction in the frequency of missing-from-home episodes for one child since moving into the home. This demonstrates that staff have built positive relationships with this child and have supported them well to make better choices and to come home at the expected time.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children’s risk assessments are not always kept up to date. For one child, their risk assessment has not been updated following missing-from-care incidents. The document suggests the risk of going missing is low for the child, which is not balanced. This might reduce staff’s insight into the patterns of behaviour of children who go missing and to appropriately recognise and respond to every child in such an event.

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How well children are helped and protected

The leaders and managers recruit staff safely to work within the organisation. Appropriate systems implemented by leaders and managers ensure that all necessary information for safer recruitment is obtained and recorded. For staff employed from overseas, efforts are made to ensure that criminal record checks are obtained from their country of origin. This ensures that only individuals who are safe to work with children begin employment within the organisation.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers ensure that staff receive suitable additional training to help them support children with specific risks. This includes bespoke face-to-face training on knife crime and criminal exploitation. This helps staff to feel more confident in supporting children with these risks, as well as identifying these emerging risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager ensures that they regularly attend both properties, despite the geographical range between them. They prioritise spending time on site, Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 4 which enables them to observe day-to-day practice, understand the dynamics within each home, and identify any emerging issues. The leaders and managers regular presence means they are well informed about the progress, needs and experiences of the children, rather than relying solely on reports or updates from staff. This helps them to maintain oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff say they are well supported. They meet with managers for a daily meeting, where the plans and needs of children are discussed. This helps to ensure that relevant information is shared among the staff group and helps the team to respond to the needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

When health and safety issues are identified, prompt action is taken to address these. For example, when a child’s room became water damaged, the rooms were switched around to enable them to have a suitable and more comfortable environment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The service has a consistent staff group, meaning children receive support from staff members who know them. The organisation retains staff so that bank or agency staff are not used within the organisation. This helps to ensure some consistency in relationships for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff, including the service manager, receive regular supervision. Supervision covers a range of topics and is also focused on the support needs of children and how this can be adapted to promote ongoing progress. Supervision focuses on development of staff to ensure that, when possible, internal candidates are promoted within the service. The quality of staff supervision helps to ensure that staff receive the support they need to continue to promote positive outcomes for children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 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 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 accommodation standard is that children experience a comfortable and secure living environment. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— only use devices for monitoring or surveillance in communal areas and then only if— the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to each child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 6 (1) (2)(c)(iv)) 27 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that plans for support are based on initial referral information, are meaningful and are created in full consultation with the child, taking account of relevant plans for the child. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(b)) 27 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure a plan for support is in place to support the child to develop the resilience and skills required to transition out of supported accommodation when the child is ready to live more independently. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(k)) 27 March 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents. In particular, a manager should review incidents in a timely manner to ensure that appropriate action has been taken to safeguard children and to Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 6 inform future learning for staff. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 53)

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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: Canary House Care Limited 7

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Canary House Care Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: 36, Glebe Road, London N3 2AX

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Jameskutty Jose

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: manager@canaryhousecare.co.uk

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Inspector

Leah Stannard, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Canary House Care Limited 8 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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