Urban Land Management Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 1 Urban Land Management Limited Registered provider: Urban Land Management Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

A private provider owns and operates this supported accommodation service.

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provider

The service and manager registered with Ofsted on 8 May 2024 and was last inspected on 4 December 2024.

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provider

The service can offer accommodation for up to 40 children across 8 homes and offers supported accommodation in self-contained and shared premises, which are not limited to looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, 34 children aged 16 and 17 years were living across the provider’s non-ring-fenced shared premises.

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Inspection dates: 27 April to 30 April 2026

The inspection was announced on 27 April 2026 and started that day. The inspectors were on site on 29 and 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

A dependable and stable workforce delivers consistent support to children, who make progress in developing their skills in preparation for adult living. The staff know the children well. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 2 Children build trusting relationships with staff, enabling them to safely explore adverse experiences and recognise signs of grooming, exploitation and domestic abuse.

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Summary of findings

Children learn to be assertive, make safe choices and have the confidence to report concerns to the adults who support them.

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Summary of findings

Children are in education or employment.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers support staff well, ensuring that children are the focus of their work and that the children experience a harmonious living environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children experience acceptance and they make progress. Staff know the children well and support them to achieve their goals, such as going to university, learning English, learning to drive and pursuing hobbies. Most children are in education or employment, and the few who are not are actively supported to access tutoring.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children practice their skills in preparing for independence. Children learn to cook, clean and budget. Staff also support children emotionally, helping them to increase their day-to-day resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children in building positive relationships with their families, when possible. Some children re-establish links with parents and relatives. The staff work with other agencies to try and identify the contact details for families living in war zones. Children separated from their families reach out to staff for emotional support when they feel anxious about new conflicts where their relatives are living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children feel valued. Staff speak positively about children and are ambitious for them. One child told the inspector that they feel ‘respected’. Another child said that the members of the staff team are ‘warm and welcoming’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children like where they live and feel comfortable being around the staff. One child told the inspector that their named worker is ‘fantastic’, because they help them whenever they need anything and go with them to open days to help them choose which university is best for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Joint activities across the homes, such as sharing meals together, help socialisation and integration. Staff help children to overcome social isolation. Children make friends in their community but also form strong positive bonds with the other children they live with. Children are encouraged to have friends over and the staff support them to go out to visit friends and wider family. Staff help children to learn English when it is not their first language so they can better communicate when they are out in their local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The members of the staff team are culturally diverse. They are inclusive and have the sensitivity to support children well who are gender transitioning. Staff help Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 3 children to access places of worship so they can practise their religion in local community settings with others. Children are provided with prayer mats and have ongoing support from staff should they want to talk about religious customs and practices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children experience reliable support because staff work consistently in their allocated homes, and most workers have been with this provider for years. As a result, children know what to expect and can develop positive relationships with the small team of support workers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The provider introduced fobs for children to leave the house independently at night, when doors are locked, but this system has not been rolled out across all the homes. Many children who are deemed as safe to have a fob remain restricted from leaving without staff opening the door for them, which does not progress their skills in developing responsibility. The provider removed CCTV surveillance from most communal areas. However, some restrictive practices remain, such as all sharp knives being locked away by staff as standard practice and not due to specific risks.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children feel safe in their homes because the staff are responsive and proactive in identifying how to safeguard children from potential harm in the home and in the community. When necessary, staff contribute to multi-agency meetings, advocating for children to ensure decisions are in individual children’s best interests.

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How well children are helped and protected

The children talk to the staff about their feelings and problems. The staff are appropriately and continually curious about what the children are doing and experiencing when they are out. When individual children need additional support, staff and leaders advocate for them and refer them to relevant services, which helps to increase children’s emotional safety.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff understand the children and know how to recognise signs of harm. Direct work and relationship building creates a safety net for the children to talk about what is happening to them and to learn how to keep safe. The risk of exploitation has decreased. For example, one child’s parent and their professional network recognised that the connection the child has with staff protected the child from further harm. The child was encouraged to explore what a healthy relationship looks like, and this helped them to build their confidence and understanding of grooming.

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How well children are helped and protected

Occasionally, when immediate notice has been given to a child, this has been as a last resort and to protect them and other children from harm when supported accommodation is no longer a safe or suitable option for them.

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How well children are helped and protected

The staff recognise when concerns are emerging and act quickly to escalate and share information with the relevant local authorities, if necessary, enabling prompt support for the children. The staff anticipate risk and so work with the children to address vulnerabilities and preventing harm. One child said that they would Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 4 approach staff if they felt concerned that another person was trying to take advantage of them.

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How well children are helped and protected

The leaders and managers practice safe recruitment. However, they have not consistently undertaken overseas police checks for some staff who previously worked abroad. This weakens the overall approach to ensuring every individual is suitable to work with vulnerable children.

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How well children are helped and protected

There have been no allegations against staff, and the managers have an effective system for reviewing and addressing any concerns that children raise. The provider has implemented a complaints log to ensure any issues raised by children are responded to meaningfully and in good time.

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How well children are helped and protected

The leaders and managers provide an extensive range of training for staff, which helps to inform and contextualise their work with children. Staff’s core training includes safeguarding, child criminal and sexual exploitation, knife crime, county lines, online safety. Any necessary additional training is sought out and tailored to reflect individual children’s needs. This includes bespoke learning about individual children’s country of origin for those children who are seeking asylum.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager and the deputy manager offer a consistent presence across the service. They are proactive to address issues as they arise, and they work well together to role model their expectations of staff. Together, they are inspirational in their approach to supporting children. Staff feel well supported in their professional role and as individuals. Leadership is consistent, established and robust.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have made improvements since the last inspection and have reviewed the referral selection and admission process to reduce the likelihood of placement breakdown for children, improve stability across the homes and safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Every new member of staff benefits from an effective induction plan, which includes extensive training and shadow shifts before lone working in the homes. As a result, staff have a comprehensive understanding of the support needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The leaders and managers are approachable and provide regular supervision for staff and encourage them to reflect on their practice. Any issues are proactively and constructively addressed. This improves staff’s practice and ability to focus on what the children need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Homes are well maintained and the provider addresses feedback from children, for example opening new premises where there are more facilities for the children, such as bathrooms. When children raised an issue about the quality of the internet connection, extenders were swiftly introduced to boost the strength of the signal. During the inspection, a child said that they would like more utensils for cooking, Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 5 and provisions were immediately made for all the homes to receive an additional cutlery set.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Since the last inspection, support plans have been introduced and, mainly, they are relevant to the children’s individual needs. On occasions, actions have been carried out but not always reflected within the written plan. The risk assessments for the children are not updated enough. The provider's risk assessments need more frequent updates. Outdated files increase the risk of compromising child safety when using agency staff, and leaves children without clear records of the support they received.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

When serious incidents occur, there is close working with social workers and other professionals, such as police, to ensure children are safe. However, Ofsted is not always notified, which reduces the regulator’s oversight Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 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 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 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—

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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

(Regulation 7 (1) (2)(b)(c)) 10 July 2026

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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

The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character, that the individual is to perform, and

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, checks from abroad are needed when the individual lived or worked abroad as an adult.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 17 (1) (3)(a)(d)) 10 June 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure staff do not restrict the movement of a young person to keep them inside the setting, even if they have safeguarding concerns. As part of developing and maintaining good and trusting relationships with young people, staff should encourage open dialogue so they can discuss risks and concerns with the young people to support them to keep themselves safe. If staff have concerns around a young person’s safety and/or risk of harm or exploitation, they should follow the service’s safeguarding procedures, according to the provider’s child protection policy. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 56)  The registered person should ensure the design of the setting enables young people to develop skills for independent living within a supportive environment, such as a kitchen with cooking utensils. In particular, preparation towards

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Recommendations

independence to include the safe use of sharp knives without restricting access when safe to do so. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 29)  Regulation 27 (3) requires the registered person to notify Ofsted and other relevant persons if one of the situations specified in regulation 27(3)(a)-(e) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home which the registered person considers to be serious (27(3)(f)). (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 60).

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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: Urban Land Management Limited 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Urban Land Management Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Sandra Protheroe

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Inspectors

Daniela Ferrario, Social Care Inspector Julie Cresswell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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