Moving Up Care North

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 1 Moving Up Care North Registered provider: Moving Up Care Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation service was registered on 23 October 2023 and is operated by a private provider in the North-West region. The provider also operates in other areas of England. The service can accommodate up to 192 individuals in 78 shared or group-living premises that are limited to accommodating looked-after children or care leavers. It can accommodate a further 8 individuals in single occupancy accommodation.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, 73 looked-after children aged 16 or 17 were being accommodated.

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provider

The service manager has been registered with Ofsted since the provider was registered on 23 October 2023.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 27 April 2026 and the inspectors were on site from 29 to 30 April 2026.

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Outcome

Consistently strong service delivery leads to typically positive experiences and progress for children. Where improvements are needed, leaders and managers take timely and effective action. The next inspection will be within approximately 3 years.

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Summary of findings

Children feel happy and safe where they live. They make progress and develop skills which will help them to live independently when they move into their first home.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers are committed to supporting children to make progress.

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Summary of findings

Staff build trusted and secure relationships with children, who know them well. Staff help children to stay safe and promote their welfare. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 2 Staff are ambitious for children and support them to do well in their education, training and employment. Their health needs are identified and addressed.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have strong partnerships with other professionals and agencies. They work collaboratively to safeguard children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children say that they feel happy in their homes. Their bedrooms are individualised to their taste. One child said, ‘The house is safe and the area is good.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have access to Wi-Fi throughout their homes, which helps them feel connected to others. When children move into their homes, this is done in a sensitive and carefully planned way. However, the communal areas in some homes are not always clean.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children typically have positive experiences. They benefit from strong and positive relationships with staff who know them well. Staff are ambitious for children and enthusiastic about the support they provide. Children have a trusted adult they can speak to when they have worries or concerns. Children say that they know how to complain if they have any concerns with their support or the accommodation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children speak highly of staff and the nurturing support they offer them. One child said, ‘The staff help me a lot and help us to get better and build a better life for ourselves.’ Another child said, ‘I like all staff and want to stay at my house when I am 18.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Each child has an individualised support plan with specific goals that have been agreed with them. Staff regularly review progress with children and identify any new skills that they need to develop.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff undertake meaningful support work with children. This helps them to learn skills for daily living in adult life. Staff provide individualised support using a wide range of resources which have been developed by the provider.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children to register with dentists, doctors, and other primary healthcare services. Staff collaborate with specialist services when children need additional help, for example with their mental health. Children access help quickly when they need it most.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff are empathic about children’s experience of trauma. They are aware of the barriers this creates to children’s progress but remain aspirational for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff give children encouragement and practical support to enrol in colleges or to look for training, volunteering, apprenticeships and job opportunities. For example, one child said that staff had supported him to enrol in an engineering course due to start shortly. One social worker said that a child ‘has had a lot of support around education, training and employment.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff prepare children to move on from the service. The provider works with children to ensure that they have developed ‘tenancy ready’ skills. When children reach adulthood, they remain in the accommodation service until they are fully prepared for independent living and have suitable accommodation. Staff work with children’s Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 4 local authorities to help them to move on in a carefully planned way. The provider continues to support children after they have left the service for up to six months.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s social workers and other agencies are positive about the quality of communication with the service, the quality of the support provided and the progress that children make. One child’s social worker said that the child ‘has been supported to build independence at his own pace’ and commented that there had been, ‘a clear and thoughtful progression.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The provider supports children to engage in a range of community-based activities. For example, they have their own football team which is run by a member of staff. Several children said that they played for the team and enjoyed it.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers ensure that children can live alongside each other safely. They carefully consider the vulnerabilities of each child before they move into their home.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff create safety plans when children move into the accommodation. The plans identify the vulnerabilities of each child and set out how staff will work with children to reduce those risks. Staff review the plans on a regular basis and update them as children’s vulnerabilities change. This helps to keep children safe.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff develop trusting relationships with children. This helps children to share any concerns they may have about their safety. Staff provide children with tailored support to manage their vulnerabilities. For example, children from other countries are supported to identify risks that they may face in the community. Staff help children to understand these risks and to develop harm-minimisation strategies. They recognise and celebrate important cultural and religious events with children.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff follow the safety plans for individual children. When children go missing from home, there is a well-coordinated response to reduce the risk of harm. Staff notify the police and the local authority. A child’s social worker said that staff had, ‘appropriately followed procedures to ensure her safety’ when the child was in a vulnerable situation in the community. They ensure that children are offered return home interviews by an independent service. As a result, children feel cared for and welcomed back to their home.

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How well children are helped and protected

The provider does not use temporary staff. This helps to ensure that children receive support from a consistent support team. When the provider recruits new members of staff they do not always obtain relevant references from previous social care employers. This means that they have not always clearly established the reasons why a member of staff left previous social care employment.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff complete detailed records following serious events. Leaders and managers consistently report serious incidents to Ofsted within the required timescales. This Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 5 means that the regulator sometimes has oversight of the action staff take to support children’s welfare.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff do not always look inside children’s bedrooms with sufficient frequency. This means that important health and safety risks are not always identified at the earliest opportunity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers are enthusiastic about their service. They know the children well, and they are aspirational for their futures. One member of staff said, ‘I feel well supported by higher management and staff and I feel like I have been able to easily access guidance and support when needed.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers ensure that the service operates in line with its statement of purpose, which clearly sets out the ethos and objectives of the service. They ensure that the statement of purpose and young person’s guide are kept under review. The young person’s guide is accessible and easily understood by children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers obtain enough information to make informed decisions about children’s suitability for the services. However, some children are accepted into the service who have complex needs. As a result, not all children are fully ready to progress with their independence when they arrive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have good oversight of the service. They have a clear understanding of children’s vulnerabilities and are child focused. They have effective arrangements in place to monitor the quality of the support they provide to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have completed a detailed quality-of-support review. They have used this to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement, upon which they have then acted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers communicate effectively with other agencies in children’s lives. They attend meetings about the needs of children. Social workers speak positively about the leadership of the service. One social worker said, ‘There is strong collaboration between professionals, with regular sharing of information and a coordinated approach to supporting children.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have regular supervision with staff. This means that staff can discuss their well-being, development and progress within the service. As a result, staff feel valued and listened to by managers. Leaders and managers use supervisions to share good practice and reflect on how they meet children’s needs. However, some staff do not have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers hold monthly leadership team meetings. These meetings provide further opportunities for reflection and oversight. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 6 Leaders and managers ensure that newly recruited staff experience a structured and detailed induction. This prepares new members of staff to work on their own with children. Leaders and managers ensure that staff are well trained to support the needs of the children. The registered service manager designs and delivers some of the training. This has included training on the on different conflicts around the world, for example. Staff are positive about the support and training they receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers create a positive culture within the staff team. They produce a monthly newsletter for staff and have staff award ceremonies. Staff say that they feel well valued by leaders and managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not always ensure that they inform Ofsted when premises are no longer being used to provide supported accommodation for children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 7

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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 registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (4), the registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual for the purposes of the provision of supported accommodation, or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work for the supported accommodation undertaking in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work for the supported accommodation undertaking,

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person is satisfied that the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that the individual is to perform,

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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 1. (Regulation (17) (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(b)(d)) 14 June 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must give notice in writing to the CIECSS, as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so, if any of the following events take place or are expected by the registered person to take place—

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Requirement Due date

If premises are no longer used, or intended to be available for use, as supported accommodation by the supported accommodation undertaking, the registered person must give notice in writing to the CIECSS no later than 10 working days after the registered person becomes aware of the decision to cease use of the premises. 14 June 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 8 (Regulation 34 (1) (2))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all homes that children live in are homely and welcoming environments. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 29)  The registered person should ensure that children with needs which cannot be met in supported accommodation are not admitted to the service. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 9)  The registered person should ensure that all staff have their performance appraised at least annually. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 51)

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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: Moving Up Care North 9

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Moving Up Care Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Alexandra Butler

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: enquiries@movingupcare.com

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Inspectors

Steve James, Social Care Inspector Helen Fee, Social Care Inspector Sue Garner, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Moving Up Care North 10 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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