Children's Home run by MacIntyre Care in Buckinghamshire

Inspection report children's home: 2742510 1 Registered provider: MacIntyre Care

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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 part of an independent school for children with autism and learning disabilities, which is on the same site. The home provides care for up to nine children across two houses. At the time of the inspection, nine children were living in the home.

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Information about this children's home

The inspectors only inspected the residential care provision on this site.

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Information about this children's home

The registered manager has not yet submitted their application to cancel their registration. The new manager has been in post since March 2026 and has not yet submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children's home

The registered provider has appointed a new responsible individual and we are currently checking that this person has the relevant capacity, experience and skills to carry out the role.

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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 requires improvement to be 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 children's home: 2742510 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/06/2025 Full Good 17/09/2024 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2742510 3

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Summary of findings

Most children make positive progress at the home. They benefit from a child-centred environment which supports them to develop important life skills and seeks to enhance their social interaction and communication. Staff are motivated to help children maximise their personal development. Some experienced staff are excellent role models for promoting positive interactions with children, enhancing children’s experiences of living in the home.

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Summary of findings

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement. Significant changes in the management structure have taken place since the last inspection. The current oversight and quality assurance in relation to staff training and supervision arrangements are not sufficiently strong.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children make positive progress at the home and benefit from a sense of stability and belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of children's preferred communication styles and children are able to express their wishes and feelings in a range of different ways. Some staff are more skilled and intuitive in their direct interactions with children, helping the children to engage in positive and playful communication. Managers are seeking to embed this practice more universally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to make choices and participate as much as possible in life at the home. Each child benefits from individualised strategies to assist their ability to engage and interact with their environment. Children experience a sense of achievement when they are able to carry out tasks successfully, and staff provide positive praise and encouragement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, there has been some positive work to promote advocacy. However, the impact has been variable, as some placing authorities have not been proactive action in supporting the children to access advocacy. The prospective responsible individual has taken direct action to approach these authorities and set out their statutory obligations.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide consistent support to help the children to be prepared for their futures. Many children remain at the home until their nineteenth birthday, in accordance with their education, health and care plan. This helps children to maintain a sense of familiarity while transition arrangements are being made. It also enables important assessments to be undertaken, such as for mental capacity, ensuring that children receive the right support as young adults. Inspection report children's home: 2742510 4 One child moved on from the home following a significant health and safety incident, which staff could not have prevented. The subsequent care and attention provided to the child, following a difficult decision for them to move on, was highly child-focused and enabled them to have a positive experience of moving.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Many parents value the support and opportunities that their children receive at the home. One parent said about the staff, ‘Their dedication, professionalism and genuine care make a significant and positive difference to our lives’, while another parent said, ‘They are teaching life skills and staff are always there to help my child regulate when they become overwhelmed. I am very happy with the care they provide.’

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

Risks are well understood and lead to individualised plans which focus on evidence- based strategies to help children. Staff work alongside therapeutic and education colleagues to ensure that children receive the support that they require.

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

Although safeguarding incidents are infrequent, when concerns do arise, staff respond effectively to minimise risks and any potential harm to children. Many children are non- speaking and most staff are adept at picking up on their body language, vocalisations and individual presentation, understanding when children may require extra support.

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

All staff receive specific training to develop their ability to communicate and interact with children. Some more experienced staff are very confident in this approach and as a result, their interactions consistently enable the children to benefit from an increased sense of participation and engagement. Other, less experienced or confident staff, are still developing their practice and skills in this area. One child was not prevented from eating food that they themselves had thrown on the floor, despite this being part of their placement plan.

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

Children are actively encouraged to develop their independence skills, in accordance with their level of personal and social development. On a day-to-day basis, children are given responsibilities regarding household tasks and their own self-autonomy. This helps children to develop important self-care and independence skills. Staff place visual prompts in appropriate places to help children to familiarise themselves with these tasks.

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

The physical environment is safe and child-friendly; children benefit from a range of resources to help stimulate their personal development and sensory processing. Children's bedrooms reflect their individual personalities and staff help children to make choices about the decoration and presentation of their bedrooms.

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

Sometimes staff use physical interventions to support children, generally using the least restrictive measures. While these are proportionate, records rarely capture the specific actions that staff take and there is an over-reliance on broad descriptions; this does not help to support a transparent understanding of individual situations. Inspection report children's home: 2742510 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers have not demonstrated effective action regarding previously identified regulatory requirements to ensure that the foundations of good leadership are in place. For example: shortfalls identified in the leadership and management standard have not been met for a third consecutive inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, there have been significant changes across the management structure, with several existing staff stepping up to more senior roles. This has promoted a sense of stability for the current staff team. The new home manager has stepped up from the deputy manager position and works positively alongside the proposed responsible individual, who was the previous registered manager. The new management team is now focused on developing their individual roles and they have a shared understanding about what they hope to achieve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Supervision records are not consistent and there is not enough emphasis placed on the importance of this; consequently, some staff have not received supervision for several months. Supervision records do not differentiate between informal conversations and formal supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The management and oversight of staff training require improvement as staff are not consistently completing the required training. Most importantly, a significant number of staff have not completed their annual safeguarding competency training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There has been some positive work to formalise the medication process since the last inspection, although recording of the administration of medication that is only given ‘as required’ is not sufficiently clear. Managers have implemented several positive changes to improve staff training and development. They have developed individual workbooks and are also now using the expertise of registered medical professionals from the wider school to assist with staff training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers hold regular staff meetings; these are used effectively to promote staff development and embed wider expectations across the staff team. There is a good sense of morale across the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There are plans to further enhance an existing therapeutic support worker programme across the organisation; if successful, this should help to increase the number of staff who are therapeutically informed. The wider implementation of this has been impacted by staffing changes linked to the management restructure. Inspection report children's home: 2742510 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, 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child's education or training provider and the child's placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(vii)) 31 August 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they continually review records of restraint. They should also support staff to record their actions in a transparent manner that enables management oversight and that will help children and their families to better understand the actions that staff have taken to keep children safe. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 49, paragraph 9.59) Inspection report children's home: 2742510 7  The registered person should ensure that any use of medication that is only given as needed is clearly recorded and only delivered in accordance with accepted, evidence- based best practice. If this type of medication is required following self-injurious behaviours, the rationale for this must be clearly recorded, particularly if the circumstances required any form of physical intervention to keep the child safe. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 48,

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff provide a nurturing and supportive environment and use appropriate boundaries to ensure that children's day to day needs and dignity are prioritised. Staff should be proactive in cleaning any mess that children may make while eating and prevent them from eating any food that has been on the floor. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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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: 2742510 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Seebeck House, 1 Seebeck Place, Milton Keynes MK5 8FR

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Inspectors

Ashley Edwards, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Shaheda Dhandia, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2742510 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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