Children's Home run by 5ab Care Ltd in Derby

Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 1 Registered provider: 5ab Care Ltd

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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 privately owned. It is registered to provide care for up to 4 children who may have emotional and social needs. Children may also have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

There were 3 children living at the home at the time of the inspection. Their views were sought during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and registered with Ofsted.

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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 for children’s home: 2706341 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/03/2025 Full Good 08/08/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are very settled and like where they live. Two children have lived at the home for many years and said they wish to remain there until adulthood. They consider staff their family and have warm and reciprocal relationships with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported when they move in and out of the home. Planning for these moves focus on the impact for children and how they can be emotionally supported to navigate these changes. Children’s voices are listened to and their preferences supported where possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a home that is warm and inviting and feels like a family home. They enjoy being with staff and enjoy cooking and eating meals together. Children’s bedrooms are well kept and personalised to their tastes. Children regularly take part in activities in the community with staff, and these are tailored to their interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the children in their care well and have a naturally nurturing style. Children’s needs are documented thoroughly in care plans. These guide staff on the aims of children’s care and a personalised approach to working with children. Plans are updated regularly; they are added to as children are better understood and the effectiveness of behaviour support strategies is established.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children are regularly attending school and college and are making progress. Both children’s attendance has significantly improved since they began living at the home. Children are aspirational for their future. One teacher said their student was ‘one of our greatest success stories and a really important member of our community’. One child is not in education and concerns have been appropriately raised by the manager. This child does not have structured educational activities at the home during standard school hours and is not therefore being prepared for their return to school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have several ways that their voices can be heard by staff. Staff work hard to ensure children are engaged in meaningful discussions and children’s meetings. Children are kept up to date on agreed actions from meetings. However, records of children’s meetings are not clear about who said what or who attended the meeting.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to see people who are important to them. Staff often support with these meetings to ensure that they can proceed calmly and safely. One parent said their child was now better able to regulate their emotions and that as a result their once ‘fractured’ relationship is improving.

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

Risk assessments and behaviour support plans offer staff clear and pragmatic advice on how best to work with children when they become upset or display behaviours that Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 4 challenge. Importantly, they also focus on maintaining behaviours when children are calm and engaged. Learning from historical incidents informs adaptation to staff practice. Consequently, serious incidents are rare.

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

Children do not regularly go missing from the home. When children have gone missing, staff have showed good intuition and have responded effectively. Children have been quickly located and willingly return to the home. Records of incidents are clear and detail important contextual information about what may have led to the missing episode. Staff have trusting relationships with children and, as a result, missing episodes for one child have reduced since they moved to the home.

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

Children understand that they can speak openly with staff about their feelings and that staff care for them. Staff are curious and nurturing with children and promote healthy ways to manage their emotions.

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

On occasion, holds have been used to keep children safe. These are low level and used after distraction or calming techniques have been ineffective. The manager ensures that both staff and children can talk about their experiences of the incidents and there is a focus on learning from events.

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

Children receive consequences when agreed rules or boundaries have not been adhered to. In some cases, the consequence given does not clearly link to the behaviour or sends confusing messages to children. The manager has acknowledged this and has worked with the staff team to ensure consequences are more proportionate and relevant moving forward.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External professionals consistently recognise the manager as a strong advocate for children. Staff and the manager communicate effectively with safeguarding partners and appropriately challenge when required. Professionals said children like living at the home and are making good progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff love working at the home and feel well supported by the manager. They find the manager to be fair and someone who leads by example. As a result, there is a stable staff team which offers consistency to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are appropriate support systems in place for staff. Staff value their team meetings and supervisions as times when they can reflect and learn. Minutes of these meetings capture collaborative discussion and show a staff team that is child centred.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good oversight of incidents such as holds and missing episodes. Her oversight offers clear reflection and thoughtful insight about what could be done differently. This informs further discussions with staff and adaptations to practice. The manager has high expectations for staff and is ambitious for the children in her care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 5 The manager has developed systems to oversee and audit the home, in collaboration with the responsible individual. A recent behaviour analysis for one child was valued by staff and supported them to understand a contextual pattern in behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is visited regularly by an independent visitor. However, reports rarely include required consultation with the children, parents or involved professionals. The independent visitor reports are sent to Ofsted and the provider, but not in a timely way. This means the independent scrutiny of the care offered at the home is not to an acceptable level.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has completed a review of the quality of care report as required. This does not yet include the views of children or stakeholders, although attempts have been made to gain their views. The manager has already taken steps to strengthen this area of the report in future. Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 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 registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires;

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

the registered provider and, if applicable, the registered manager; and

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Requirement Due date

the responsible individual (if one is nominated). (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a) (7)(a)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure the independent visitor seeks appropriate stakeholder feedback and reports following visits are received in a timely way. 4 May 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when a child is not participating in education, they and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising

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Recommendations

way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of the information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. This specifically relates to the home’s development plan. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider

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Recommendations

community. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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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: 2706341 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Devonshire Business Centre, Unit 27 Works Road, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire SG6 1GJ

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Inspector

Louise Copping, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2706341 9 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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