Sportfit Supported Accommodation

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 1 Sportfit Supported Accommodation Registered provider: Sportfit Support Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

The supported accommodation service is owned and managed by a private provider. The service can accommodate up to 70 individuals in 32 shared or group-living homes that are limited to accommodating looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

The service can also accommodate 6 children in single-occupancy flats that are limited to accommodating looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing supported accommodation for 26 children aged 16 or 17.

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provider

The service manager was registered with Ofsted when the organisation was registered in June 2024.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 2 March 2026 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 4 to 6 March 2026.

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Outcome

Serious or widespread weaknesses lead to significant concerns about the experiences and progress of children. Leaders and managers must take urgent action to address failings. The next inspection will be within approximately 6 months.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers’ failings since the inspection in September 2025 have created systemic safeguarding weaknesses that expose children to unmanaged risks and undermine service stability, with recent improvements still insufficient to deliver consistently safe or accountable practice. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 2 Leaders and managers have continued to place children without effective suitability assessment systems, resulting in children with known high levels of need in placements without adequate support plans or risk assessments.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that staff are suitably trained, properly supervised or appropriately skilled to meet the complex needs of children, resulting in unsafe practice and significant shortfalls in leadership oversight. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Since the September 2025 inspection, some children have failed to make progress or had positive experiences because leaders and managers have continued to accept referrals for children whose needs and risks are unsuitable for supported accommodation, leading to highly vulnerable children being placed in environments unable to meet their level of need. The absence of robust assessment, matching and risk evaluation has compromised these children’s emotional and physical safety, resulting in poor experiences and limited progress for those whose needs should have been identified as too complex for this model of care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Although some appropriately matched children are settled and making clear progress, others have made no meaningful improvement, remain disengaged from education or employment and have not benefited from the support intended. These contrasting experiences demonstrate ongoing weaknesses in placement decisions and oversight, showing that recent improvements have not yet delivered consistent progress or positive experiences for all children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some children fail to make progress or receive the personalised support they need because leaders and managers have not ensured that plans reflect the child’s voice, include meaningful oversight or provide staff with clear strategies to help children understand and reduce risky behaviours. This has directly had an impact by limiting their ability to progress, particularly where leaders have not accessed specialist or community services for those with high levels of need or disengaged from education, training or employment.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers have not demonstrated a sufficient understanding of the risks faced by children, and therefore, they have not kept all children safe. Matching assessments did not accurately reflect children’s known needs or vulnerabilities, and 2 children were readmitted to the supported accommodation despite previous placements having ended due to serious safety concerns. As a result, children were placed in situations where their presence negatively affected the safety and stability of others, leading to highly risky behaviours, placement instability and unplanned moves when these placements subsequently broke down.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers failed to protect some children from significant harm and escalating risks. Examples included a child being involved in a multi ‑ vehicle collision requiring hospital treatment, and another returning to the accommodation under the influence of alcohol and drugs without appropriate monitoring or response from staff. Leaders and managers’ limited understanding of risks related to missing episodes, substance misuse and exploitation raises serious concern about their capacity to manage safety effectively should further children be admitted.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers did not ensure that staff provided effective support to some children, particularly those involved in criminal activity, exploitation or drug and alcohol misuse. Inspectors also found that communication with local authorities was Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 4 inconsistent, with some social workers reporting that information shared by the provider lacked essential detail. These failings in direct support and partnership working have contributed to poor outcomes for children and offer limited assurance regarding their safety and welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Since the September 2025 inspection, leaders and managers’ failings have created systemic weaknesses, such as inconsistent risk assessment, poor admissions decisions, weak incident oversight and limited professional curiosity. These have left children exposed to unmanaged risks and staff without the support needed for safe practice, while also undermining the reliability of quality assurance systems.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Although leaders have shown greater openness and begun structural improvements, these actions have yet to produce consistently safer practice, leaving safeguarding arrangements unstable and requiring sustained senior ‑ level intervention to achieve meaningful and lasting improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers lacked effective systems for assessing suitability and accepted referrals of children with a known high level of needs, resulting in children with complex risks being placed in supported accommodation without appropriate supporting plans and risk assessments. These failures in referral and decision ‑ making meant children were accepted before they had the skills for semi ‑ independent living, compromising their safety and demonstrating significant shortcomings in leadership oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers had commissioned an independent professional to undertake a quality assurance visit before this inspection. The outcomes of this visit, alongside a subsequent internal investigation led by a senior organisational leader, confirmed that weaknesses in leadership and management had directly contributed to some children being placed at risk and, in some cases, experiencing harm. These external and internal reviews provide clear evidence that the provider’s failings in oversight, decision ‑ making and safeguarding practice were known but had not been addressed effectively. As a result, leaders and managers did not take timely or adequate action to prevent avoidable risks to children or to strengthen the service’s safeguarding arrangements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Following the inspection, Ofsted made the decision to impose a restriction on the provider and issued 3 compliance notices in response to the identified safeguarding failures and regulatory breaches. Ofsted will continue to monitor the actions taken by the provider to ensure that improvements are implemented promptly and that all children are kept safe. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work effectively as a team, where appropriate, to meet the needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place to manage referrals of children to the supported accommodation undertaking and admissions of children to premises used as supported accommodation, including, where relevant, emergency referrals and admissions;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision, training and development of staff. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(g)) 1 June 2026

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Requirement Due date

*The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 1 June 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 6 ensure that children are encouraged and enabled to take a lead role in determining the support they receive and to participate in and influence how the supported accommodation operates;

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

keep the child’s support under review, taking into consideration the plans for support, and relevant plans, to ensure that the child’s needs continue to be met and that the child is kept safe;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that processes are in place to enable children to access support from other organisations and community services, such that they are encouraged and enabled to access a range of services, including those offered by advocacy organisations and training providers;

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that children are supported to access education, training, or employment;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that children are supported to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(g)(k)(m)(n))

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Requirement Due date

The protection standard is that children are enabled to feel safe and that their needs are met.

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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

ensure that staff— 1 June 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 7 have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation or any other harm, and act to reduce such risk;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with children to help them understand how to keep safe, by offering guidance and support on how to minimise any potential risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies, and share information where relevant to keep children safe;

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Requirement Due date

support children to maintain appropriate and safe relationships with family, friends and other people who are important to them. (Regulation 5 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(f)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Sportfit Support Services Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: Portman House, 53 Millbrook Road East, Southampton, Hampshire SO15 1HN

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Nominated individual:

Registered service manager: Natalia Croft

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Nominated individual:

Email address: daniellepiller@sportfitsupport.co.uk

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Inspectors

Linda Bond, Social Care Inspector Sharron Escott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Sportfit Supported Accommodation 9 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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