Children's Home run by Forte Care Ltd in Birmingham

Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 1 Registered provider: Forte 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

A private company owns the home. It provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, one child was living at the home. The child spoke to inspectors about their experiences of living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since 19 May 2025. Since this date, a new manager applied to register but withdrew their application in December 2025. A further new manager was appointed in December 2025, and they withdrew their application in March 2026.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected, or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 23 September 2025

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

An assurance inspection was completed on 20 January 2026, where serious and widespread concerns were identified. As a result, a compliance notice was issued under Regulation 13 on 23 January 2026. A further monitoring visit was conducted on 3 March 2026, and steps outlined in the notice were deemed to have been met. Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/09/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 15/10/2024 Full Outstanding 20/09/2023 Full Outstanding 18/10/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 3

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Summary of findings

The child’s experiences, progress and safety have been affected by serious failings and shortfalls in the care provided by staff and managers. In addition, the home’s leadership and management systems are ineffective.

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Summary of findings

The child living in the home has not been provided with good, consistent and therapeutic care, which has significantly affected their experiences and progress. Staff do not understand the child’s needs well and do not have the skills and experience required to support the child. Consequently, these shortfalls have led to the child being exposed to harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not ensure that the child’s care planning is coherent, robust and informed by a thorough assessment of their risks and needs. Consequently, care and support plans are poorly developed and do not guide staff practice effectively. This significantly compromises staff’s ability to understand the child’s vulnerabilities and respond appropriately, which has placed the child at risk and failed to safeguard their welfare. The child said that they do not feel listened to and are not involved in their own plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not ensure that the child is supported by a stable and consistent staff team. High staff turnover, alongside ineffective recruitment, has resulted in a lack of continuity of care. Consequently, the child has not received consistent, therapeutic support and has been unable to develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. This instability has had a detrimental impact on the child’s emotional wellbeing and undermines their experiences and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child said that they frequently feel isolated, unsupported and uncared for. This is because staff do not know them well enough to understand their needs or take action to keep them safe. This has undermined the child’s sense of security and stability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child’s health needs are not appropriately supported and met. The child has not been consistently supported to attend important health appointments. Also, there is a lack of effective multi-agency working to address the child’s health needs. As a result, professionals have been unable to adequately review and assess the child’s needs or to work alongside staff to meet them. This shortfall does not safeguard the child’s health and wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

When the child raises complaints, they are not always addressed effectively. The manager does not use a thorough and consistent approach to managing complaints. Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 4 Complaints are not recorded accurately or followed up on. As a result, the child does not feel listened to or valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the shortfalls, inspectors observed some positive interactions between some staff and the child, including engagement in activities chosen by the child. The child said that they enjoyed some of these activities and interactions with staff.

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

The child said that they do not feel safe living in the home and do not trust staff to keep them safe. Significant safeguarding shortfalls have had a profound and harmful impact on the child’s emotional wellbeing and sense of safety.

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

Leaders, managers and staff do not have the skills, experience or professional curiosity required to keep children safe. As a result of these failings, safeguarding incidents have occurred, which have led to the child coming to harm. These serious shortfalls indicate that safeguarding practice is ineffective and does not protect the child from harm.

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

Significant incidents involving the child are not consistently reported, accurately recorded or appropriately responded to by staff and managers. Since the last inspection, serious incidents have occurred in which staff did not demonstrate sufficient understanding of the child’s risks or the actions required to safeguard them. As a result, the child suffered harm. Furthermore, staff do not support the child after incidents have taken place, which does not reduce the risk of recurrence. A lack of professional curiosity and insufficient learning from incidents have left the child vulnerable.

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

Staff and managers do not assess the child’s risks effectively. The child’s known risks are not well understood, accurately recorded or consistently reviewed. Clear strategies to guide staff practice and support them in managing risks and keeping the child safe are lacking. As a result, staff lack up-to-date and sufficient guidance to respond to known risks. This poor practice compromises the child’s safety and wellbeing.

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

Management oversight of serious incidents involving the child is ineffective. Leaders and managers have failed to identify weaknesses in staff practice, recurring themes or triggers. As a result, appropriate and timely action has not been taken to safeguard the child following these incidents. These serious leadership shortfalls place the child at continued risk of harm and fail to promote their safety and wellbeing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Poor leadership and management, together with a failure to take timely and effective action to improve the child’s quality of care, have significantly compromised the child’s safety, experiences and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the home’s management has been significantly unstable. Two managers have left before registering with Ofsted, which has led to repeated changes to Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 5 the management structure. Senior leaders have not maintained effective oversight of the home or provided the necessary support and challenge to managers during this period of instability. Consequently, there has been a lack of consistent leadership, resulting in poor-quality care and a failure to safeguard the child consistently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are significant gaps in leaders’ and managers’ understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. Managers do not use effective systems to monitor and review the child’s care or to gain a good understanding of the child’s day-to-day experiences. Significant incidents are not routinely evaluated or analysed, limiting leaders’ ability to identify risks, challenge poor practice and take effective action to keep the child safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff raised concerns about the lack of management support. Also, they shared concerns relating to a closed culture in the home. They report feeling unable to raise concerns or challenge poor practice for fear of negative repercussions. Staff also report that they have not received adequate training and support to meet the child’s complex needs, nor have they had consistent supervision. This has left staff feeling unsafe and unsupported in their roles. As a result, poor practice goes unchallenged, learning does not take place and the child’s safety, experiences and wellbeing are negatively affected.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not work in partnership with the important people involved in the child’s life. External professionals and the child’s family said that communication was poor, and they shared concerns about the child’s safety and wellbeing. These weaknesses have hindered professionals’ ability to work together to ensure that the child is adequately safeguarded. Professionals said that managers and staff have failed to consistently protect the child from harm and that serious incidents have occurred as a direct result of ongoing failings. Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 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 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children 15 May 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 7 safe and the actions they need to take to reduce children’s vulnerabilities. This specifically relates to incidents in which staff did not follow the child’s plans effectively and left the child exposed to harm.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that the child is supported to understand the risks to themselves and others and take necessary action to ensure that the child is kept safe.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that they review serious incidents so that they can take learning, identify shortfalls and ensure that appropriate actions and support are put into place to safeguard the child.

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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 children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on— 15 May 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 8 feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that monitoring and review systems used are effective in identifying shortfalls in the care that the child receives. This specifically relates to the manager’s lack of oversight, challenge and follow-up action when staff’s behaviour and actions do not meet the expected standards.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff working in the home have the skills, experience and knowledge to provide safe and consistent care to the child. Leaders and managers must ensure that the child’s views, wishes and feelings are used to make consistent improvements to the care the child receives.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that incidents are properly reported and investigated and that professional curiosity is used to identify shortfalls in care. Where learning is identified from incidents, this must be shared with staff to support improvement and minimise the risk of the same thing happening again.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that staff have completed the mandatory and specialist training needed to meet the child’s individual needs.

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Requirement Due date

An individual may only carry on a children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (5).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2; and

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit to carry on the home.

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Requirement Due date

A responsible individual must— 15 May 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 9 satisfy the requirements in paragraph (5)(a) to (c); and

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (1) (5)(a)(b)(c) (7)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; and

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult; and

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(ix)) 15 May 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 10 In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that they understand the child fully to ensure that appropriate care and support plans are in place to meet the needs of the child and promote their ability to thrive.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that the child is actively involved in their plans and that their wishes and feelings influence their care.

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care;

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(b)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff consistently seek the views, wishes and feelings of the child to 15 May 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 11 ensure that their care is tailored to meet their needs and keep them safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that the child is actively involved in their plans and that their wishes and feelings influence their care.

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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: 2618553 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 213 Station Road, Stechford, Birmingham B33 8BB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Victoria Chinchen

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Inspectors

Hayley Booth, Social Care Inspector Siân Heffey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2618553 13 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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