Children's home run by Future Focused Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 2693530 1 Registered provider: Future Focused 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

The home is owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care for up to 2 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living at the home. The inspector spoke to the child.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2022.

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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

Date of last inspection: 11 November 2024

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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: 2693530 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/11/2024 Full Good 08/08/2023 Full Good 20/03/2023 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2693530 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have moved on from the home since the last inspection, and one child has moved in. Although the home is registered to care for up to two children, it is currently operating as a solo home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child moved into the home in a carefully planned way. Before moving in, arrangements were made for them to visit the home. The child had the opportunity to meet members of the staff team and select furnishings for their bedroom, to make it feel homely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has built positive and trusting relationships with the staff team. Staff have spent time getting to know the child and what is important to them. They listen to the child and are responsive to their needs. This consistent and nurturing approach has helped the child to feel valued and listened to. Consequently, the child has settled well into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has been registered with primary health services and supported to attend initial appointments to ensure that any unmet health needs are identified and addressed. Where necessary, staff have made referrals to specialist services to ensure that the child receives support specific to their health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has enrolled at college and is supported to attend. Staff have addressed any barriers to the child learning, working proactively with teaching staff to ensure that appropriate support is in place so that the child can continue in their education provision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is supported to maintain meaningful relationships with people who are important to them. The child’s parents regularly visit the home. This is carefully planned to ensure that family time is positive. Staff communicate well with the child’s social worker and ensure that they are notified of any safeguarding concerns associated with family meetings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who have lived in the home know how to complain and are supported to express their views on the care that they receive. Complaints are appropriately investigated and the outcome shared with children. This teaches children that their views are taken seriously.

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

Staff are aware of age-related issues that may affect the safety and welfare of children. For one child, in addition to completing direct work with them on healthy relationships, a referral was made for the local sexual health service to visit the home and provide expert advice and guidance to the child and their partner. Inspection report children's home: 2693530 4 Recruitment practice prioritises the safety and welfare of children. Various pre- employment checks are undertaken to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and do not pose a risk to their safety.

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

Whistleblowing complaints are taken seriously by leaders and managers. These are appropriately investigated and where necessary, action taken to address concerns with staff conduct. Leaders and managers ensure that the local authority designated officer and the regulator are notified, to allow for independent scrutiny and oversight.

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

Incidents of children being bullied are taken seriously by staff. Following a child’s disclosure of cyber bullying from students at their college, staff supported the child’s decision to report the incident to the police. Staff were strong advocates for the child and ensured that multi-agency meetings were held to consider the safety and wellbeing of the child when returning to college. Because of this, the child returned to college with a clear safety plan in place.

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

The child is suitably supervised in and out of the home. Staff have a good understanding of the child’s risks and ensure that there are measures in place to keep them safe. When spoken to, the child confirmed that staff regularly carry out welfare checks when they are in the community.

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

Children benefit from individualised risk assessments and safety plans that clearly identify their known vulnerabilities and outline the action staff should take to reduce the risk of harm. However, reviews of these plans do not consistently reflect children’s emerging needs or include adaptations to strategies in response to changing risks. Consequently, responses are not always effective.

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

For example, for one child, staff followed the missing from home protocol by contacting the police after the specified timeframe. However, the protocol had not been updated to reflect the child’s changing risks. It did not consider the need for an immediate police response in circumstances where the child went missing at night or without staff knowledge, which was a new behaviour displayed by the child.

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

Furthermore, records do not consistently evidence when the police are notified of missing from home incidents. As a result, leaders and managers cannot be assured that safeguarding procedures are being followed appropriately.

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

Following the discovery of burn marks in a child’s bedroom, leaders and managers failed to appropriately review the home’s risk assessment, to reflect the potential fire risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led and managed by an experienced registered manager, who is passionate about meeting the needs of children in her care. She and her deputy manager both Inspection report children's home: 2693530 5 know the child currently living in the home well and have a good understanding of their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff describe the registered manager as supportive and say that they receive the necessary support and guidance. Team meetings are generally well attended and are used by the registered manager to develop staff awareness of how to respond to children’s specific needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff find supervision beneficial and value this time to focus on their practice. However, records reflect that leaders and managers are not fulfilling their own commitment to supporting staff, by ensuring that supervision is completed in the timescales recorded in their statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to various training courses. This includes training based on children’s specific needs and a mandatory programme. However, the registered manager has not ensured that all staff have completed the relevant needs led training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Systems to monitor the quality-of-care that children receive are not always effective. Several shortfalls related to management oversight have been identified. This includes failing to identify shortfalls in recording and reporting of incidents, ensuring that all staff have received the relevant training and ensuring that the child’s placing authority documentation is accurate, signed and dated. Inspection report children's home: 2693530 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person 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;

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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

Specifically, leaders, managers and staff must ensure that strategies to manage incidents of children going missing from home are regularly reviewed, and where necessary adapted to ensure that there is an effective response when incidents occur.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that when children go missing from home, there is a clear record of the action taken by staff to locate them. This includes recording clearly when external agencies, such as the police are notified that children are missing.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that following a suspicion of fire activity in the home, the home’s risk assessment is reviewed and the risk rating updated to accurately reflect these concerns. 14 May 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2693530 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

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;

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. Regulation 13 (1)(b) (2)(a)(c)(h)).

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that staff receive supervision within the timeframes set out in the statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that all staff receive training in response to children’s specific needs.

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Requirement Due date

Missing from home incidents must be thoroughly reviewed and evaluated by leaders and managers, to ensure that the response from staff is effective. 14 May 2026

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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 signed and dated by the author of each entry. Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)). 14 May 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2693530 8

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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: 2693530 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Future Focused Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Future Focused Ltd, Crows Nest Business Park, Ashton Road, Billinge, Wigan, Lancashire WN5 7XX

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Inspector

Chibuzo Otache, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2693530 10 regulates 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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