Children's Home run by Fairfields House Support Services Limited in Tameside

Inspection report children's home: 2689909 1 Registered provider: Fairfield’s House Support Services Limited.

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This children’s home is operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to 2 children who may experience social and emotional 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 this inspection, 2 children were living at the home. The children spoke with the inspector about their experiences of living at the home.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2689909 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/07/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/11/2024 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: 2689909 3

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Summary of findings

Children benefit from good-quality care that contributes to them making good progress. Staff have a clear understanding of the needs of the children in their care. There are clear procedures for reporting and managing safeguarding concerns and staff have a good understanding of these processes.

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Summary of findings

The manager and staff work collaboratively with multi agency professionals to promote children’s safety and welfare. The manager has effective monitoring systems that support the manager to make continuous improvements and maintain good oversight of the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Stability and consistency in the staff team provides children with opportunities to build trusting and meaningful relationships. Staff encourage the children to share their views and contribute to decisions made in the home. This helps the children to build trust and know that staff will listen to them and respond to their feedback. The children feel confident in turning to staff when they have issues or in need of support, and they can identify who they would speak to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are planning to move into the home, the manager undertakes an assessment of the appropriateness of the placement for the child and the potential impact for other children living in the home. Furthermore, the manager reviews this assessment after the child moves in to ensure that children continue to be supported and safeguarded effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are met well. Children are registered with health professionals and appointments are made as necessary. Medication is stored safely, and records are maintained on the administration of medication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive education based on their individual needs and abilities. Staff support and encourage children to attend school or college. Children are learning and are making good progress taking account of their individual starting points. Staff are ambitious for children, when children have faced difficulties with their education the manager and staff have worked alongside education providers to support children’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to maintain and where appropriate re-establish relationships with their families. Staff have a good understanding of the mixed emotions that spending time with family may bring for children and they are sensitive to the impact this has on children’s emotional well-being. Staff support children and work with social workers to keep children physically and emotionally safe. Inspection report children's home: 2689909 4 Staff hold key work sessions with children. These sessions cover a range of topics, including education, mobile phone use and managing behaviours and anxieties. Consequently, children feel listened to and valued and make safer decisions about matters that affect them.

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

Children develop strong, trusting relationships with staff, which form the foundation for their progress and emotional security. Staff know the children well and respond to their individual needs. Following incidents, staff engage children in meaningful conversations that help children to reflect on their behaviour and build emotional resilience. This restorative approach supports children to better understand their feelings and develop more positive coping strategies. Children who arrive at the home with high levels of physical and verbal aggression show a marked reduction in risk over time.

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

Risk assessments are used as working documents by staff, who understand the child’s known risks and vulnerabilities. In most instances, risk assessments include good detail. However, whilst most risk assessments provide good detail, a small number show inconsistencies between the narrative and the risk score. This means that staff could miss important information needed to safeguard children.

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

Staff understand children’s individual triggers and behaviours very well. Staff do not need to use physical intervention as children have trusting relationships with staff who communicate effectively helping children to successfully regulate their behaviour. The manager has oversight of all incidents and opportunities are provided to staff and children to reflect and learn from these.

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

Staff know how to implement and follow the policies and procedures agreed with the local police for reporting children missing from home. Staff take appropriate action to locate a missing child quickly and promote the child’s safe return by means of keeping in touch with them and liaising closely with the police and other agencies. There is a process in place for children to be seen by an independent person on their return. This helps staff to consider any information that may help to protect children from going missing again.

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

Staff complete training that is relevant to children’s needs and the manager recognises and puts in place further training as and when required. This ensures that the staff have the skills and knowledge to manage children’s behaviours and keep them safe.

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

Children engage in key work sessions with staff. These sessions support children to think about important issues, including healthy relationships and going missing from care. This supports children’s safety.

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

Staff are vetted and assessed as suitable before any appointment is confirmed. These procedures promote children’s safety by preventing unsuitable adults from working with them. Inspection report children's home: 2689909 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager knows the children living at the home well and is committed to providing high levels of care to them at all times. She has high aspirations for the children and the staff team. Her commitment and enthusiasm for high standards of care are reflected in the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said that the manager is approachable and supportive. The manager creates a warm and open culture in the home and staff morale is high. The children benefit from a strong and consistent core staff team who provide a sense of security and stability.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training records show that staff benefit from a diverse range of appropriate training to develop their knowledge skills and professional practice. This means that staff are well, trained to meet children’s individual needs. Most staff hold a level 3 diploma in residential childcare, and other members of staff are working towards their qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings take place regularly and are well attended by the staff. They are reflective in nature and provide a platform to explore and review children’s progress. There is a strong focus on providing consistency in the care and support that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has processes in place to monitor the development and progress of the home. The monitoring is effective in supporting the manager to maintain oversight of staff practice and assess where improvements may be needed. This enables her to take effective action when required. Inspection report children's home: 2689909 6

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Recommendation

The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 42, paragraph 9.5).

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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 children's home: 2689909 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Fairfield’s House Support Services Limited.

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: 29 Troutbeck Road, Gatley Cheadle SK8 4RR

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Inspector

Dave Carrigan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2689909 8 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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Inspector

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