Children's Home run by Aspris Care North West Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 1 Registered provider: Aspris Care North West Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

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

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2025.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of the inspection, there were 2 children living in the home. The inspector spoke to both.

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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: 2537058 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/04/2024 Full Good 11/07/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 09/06/2022 Full Good 15/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy trusting relationships with staff, and these help them make progress in different areas of their lives. Children say that they enjoy activities that are specific to their interests, feel safe and are happy living at the home. Staff actively encourage and support children to learn and develop new skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is welcoming and well maintained. The children have personalised bedrooms and communal rooms where they can relax. The manager brings her dog to the home each day, and children enjoy nurturing and taking care of him. The children benefit from their home reflecting a homely, family atmosphere.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager carefully considers the needs of all children who may come to live in the home to ensure that these can be met by staff. Children visit the home to help prepare them for moving in. This helps children develop relationships with staff and the other children early on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who move on are supported by staff to have positive endings. Staff promote long-lasting relationships with children once they leave and continue traditions and celebrations they experienced when living at the home. This supports children to feel a sense of belonging, acceptance and value.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children attend routine appointments to enhance their physical and emotional health. Children and staff are supported with understanding children's health and behavioural needs by accessing support from the in-house therapist. This helps equip staff with the knowledge that they need to fully understand and respond to children's needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager is tenacious in ensuring that children have education provisions that meet their needs. She is proactive in advocating for children and escalating any challenges relating to children's education with external partners. This approach has supported children to make educational progress and helped prepare them for further education.

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

Children's safety and wellbeing is at the centre of all decisions made. Staff know the children and their behaviours well. They have a good understanding of children's needs and work in line with their individual risk assessments. Children's online activity is closely monitored, and online safety work is completed to help keep them safe and grow their understanding of risks in this area.

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

Staff adopt a strengths-based approach to behavioural management. They use consistent rules, incentives and boundaries to help children reflect on their behaviours. Staff use effective de-escalation strategies to support children when they are struggling. Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 4 Physical interventions are rarely used. When they are, these are to keep children and others safe. Following any such incidents, children and staff are supported by the manager to learn from them and think about alternative approaches for the future.

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

There have been some incidents when children have harmed themselves or been involved in substance misuse. Staff are proactive in responding to these. They provide children with support and reassurance, taking an approach that does not blame them. Staff seek support from emergency services as needed to prevent children being at continued risk. Staff also have reflective discussions with children that help them understand their emotions and learn strategies to manage these safely.

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

The manager is quick to respond to children's individual needs and risk. This approach has reduced risk and helped children feel more secure. When risks for one child escalated to an unmanageable level, staff advocated on behalf of the child to move in a planned way to a home that could keep them safe and meet their needs.

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

There are some risks to children relating to exploitation and being missing from home. Staff are confident in their response, trying to locate children when they are missing. They talk to children when they return, but these discussions are limited in helping children understand exploitation risks. Furthermore, staff do not always fully reflect on incidents to take learning from them or adapt their approach with children to try and reduce missing-from-home incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children, their family members and external professionals say that they have excellent relationships with the manager. Staff say they are happy and feel supported both personally and professionally. One family member said, 'The help and support provided to us by the manager was amazing and we wouldn't be where we are today without that.'

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is child focused and dedicated to providing high-quality care to children. Through efficient monitoring and reviewing of children's care she ensures that children are well supported. The manager takes a hands-on approach, which helps ensure that she has positive relationships with children. She regularly gathers children's views and advocates strongly for these. This helps drive improvements in the quality and consistency of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager takes effective action when practice issues are identified. Investigations are completed swiftly, and key learning is provided to the individual staff member involved and the team as needed. When concerns relate to children's wider professional networks, they are escalated quickly to appropriate agencies. Children have reparatory discussions with staff following any concerns they raise. This helps repair and rebuild relationships with children. However, these have, on occasion, been completed before children have spoken to someone independent about their concerns, which could negatively affect any subsequent investigation. Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 5 Staff receive high-quality support, supervision sessions and appraisals. Team meetings are purposeful, reflective and child focused. Key learning, training and personal development plans have contributed to upskilling staff, helping them to meet children's

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

emerging needs. The manager follows an appropriate safer recruitment process and provides an in-depth induction for new staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff build excellent relationships with multi-agency professionals and attend all key meetings for children. The manager is efficient in organising collaborative discussions about children's emerging needs and exploring services to support children. Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 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, The 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— that staff— 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)) 1 April 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should encourage children to share any concerns about their care or other matters as soon as they arise. In particular, when a child raises concern, they should be spoken to by someone independent. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', pages 22, paragraph 4.13)

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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: 2537058 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Aspris Care North West Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: 2 Barton Close, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicester LE19 1SJ

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Inspector

Amey Henry, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2537058 8 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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