Children's Home run by Bess Solutions Limited in Leicestershire

Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 1 Registered provider: Bess Solutions 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

The home is owned and managed by a private company. It offers 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 October 2025.

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Information about this children's home

At time of inspection, one child was living in the home. No other children have lived in the home since the last full inspection. The child contributed to the inspection.

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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: 2652672 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/06/2025 Full Good 18/06/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/04/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 24/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 3

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Summary of findings

The child has made progress from their starting point. Progress includes development in their confidence, social skills and education. Staff understand the child and provide stability and nurturing, child-centred care. Staff and managers know how to keep the child safe and respond confidently to incidents. Leaders and managers know the home well. They give good support for the staff team as well as continuous learning and development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has made progress from their starting point. They experience warm, supportive and nurturing relationships with the staff team. The child says that they feel safe and can name key people who they can talk to. As a result, there has been an improvement in the child talking about their emotions and a reduction in the frequency and severity of incidents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is now attending school and making good progress. The manager supported a smooth and child-focused transition, which aided the child's positive experiences of education and provided stability. School professionals report an improvement in the child's social skills and academic engagement since starting.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff know the child's likes and dislikes. The child regularly takes part in activities, such as nature walks, bowling and the cinema. Through these activities, and staff support, the child has developed the confidence to go out independently in the local area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is regularly consulted about their care. They are included in decision-making when there are changes to their routines and boundaries in the home. The staff understand the need to prepare the child for difficult conversations, and do so sensitively. As a result, the child feels understood and involved in choices about their life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are supporting the child to prepare for the next stage of their life. They talk to them about independence skills and complete tasks alongside them. As a result, the child feels more confident in cooking meals for themselves and tidying their room independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, records and documents are well recorded and objective. However, there are occasions where the language used is harsh and negative in tone. Language used in reports would benefit from being more child centred.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Internal plans have some old information around the child's routines, agreed boundaries and education agreements. This makes the document confusing to understand what the current agreed plan and strategies for the child are. Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 4

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

Staff are nurturing in their responses when the child is in crisis. Staff understand the child's behaviours and consistently respond in a way that is understanding and caring. If the child displays self-injurious behaviours, staff know what to do and offer medical attention where needed.

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

There have been occasions where the police have been called in response to incidents in the home. Managers have good oversight of these incidents and quickly note areas of learning. They share this with the staff to support their confidence in managing incidents in the future. As a result, staff are building the confidence to manage incidents of behaviour that may challenge.

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

Managers have a strong response to allegations about staff practice. They work with multi-agencies and put in swift safeguards in response. When internal investigations identify learning points, managers ensure that these are actioned and support learning for the staff team.

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

When there have been concerns about the child's presence online, the staff and manager have responded quickly. Safeguards are in place on the child's phone, with agreement from the social worker and the child. Educational work is completed with the child to support their learning on managing the risks of the online world.

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

Risk assessments outline the strategies in place to safeguard the child. Some of the strategies include locking away risk items in the home. The child also has a high level of staff supervision. Feedback from a professional highlighted that these are not the agreed supervision levels for the child. The plans do not outline a plan of gradual reduction, or a regular review of these strategies. This impacts the child's ability to learn to manage their own risks and have an age-appropriate degree of independence.

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

There have been some occasions where multiple consequences have been issued in response to an incident. This is not always proportionate, and records do not state when consequences have been reduced due to restorative work that the child has done.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a strong and confident manager. She understands the ethos of the home and has a clear and measurable plan of continued improvement and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager's oversight of documents is good and highlights areas for continuous improvement. This information is cascaded to staff, which is helpful in improving working practices. Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 5 Managers have a focus on upskilling and 'home growing' the staff team to step into the next positions of leadership and management. Staff feel well supported in their roles and their ambitions for the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported to complete their prescribed qualification, and the manager is kept well informed of their progress. Where there are delays in progress, the manager will ensure that action is taken to provide support for the staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervisions with leaders and managers. Supervisions set out targets for staff to focus on, with regular reviews of progress. Staff are encouraged to share their ideas for the home, and these are then put into practice. As a result, staff feel listened to and involved in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to a variety of training. Where needed, external agencies will also provide specific training. Staff talk positively about how this has helped to inform their knowledge of trauma-informed practice. Staff have not yet completed training around one specific area of need for the child. This would support their continued understanding in this area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff talk positively about their experiences with the team and refer to it as friendly and supportive. They comment about the visibility of managers and senior leaders, who take time to support them in their roles. Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 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— that staff—

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to there being a plan to reduce the level of restrictions and risk management strategies as the child makes progress, including the restriction of access to items in the home and the staffing level for the child. 6 November 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way, avoiding institutionalised language. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,' page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour, and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,' page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 7  The registered person should ensure that the child's plans contain the necessary and relevant information that outlines the specific risks and what steps staff should take to manage 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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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are suitably trained to meet the assessed needs of all the children in the home. ('Guide to Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 51, paragraph 10.1)

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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: 2652672 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Bess Solutions Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Unit 22, 77 Narrow Lane, Leicester, Leicestershire LE2 8NA

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Inspector

Becki Cornes-Sinclair, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2652672 9 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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