Children's Home run by Kirklees Council in Kirklees

Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 1 SC033367 Registered provider: Kirklees Council

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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 home is operated by a local authority. It provides care for up to 4 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

There were 2 children living at the home at the time of inspection and both children were spoken with.

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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 requires improvement to be 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 for children’s home: SC033367 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/05/2025 Full Good 10/06/2024 Full Good 06/03/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/07/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 3

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Summary of findings

Children’s experiences in the home are improving, particularly in relation to the environment, education support and management oversight. Children live in a warmer and more welcoming home. They receive strong advocacy for their education and wider needs. However, inconsistent staff practice continues to affect children’s understanding of boundaries. Staff do not always manage behaviour, risk or relationships between children consistently or confidently. Managers identify shortfalls and take action to address them. Although progress is evident, improvements have been slow and some concerns from the last inspection still remain.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s opinions shape the care they receive. Professional feedback is that staff listen carefully to children and feedback from children is used to guide decisions about their care. Staff are creative about how they do this, and this meaningful participation has led to clear and positive changes for children living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff place a strong focus on education. Staff push for children to attend suitable education provision based on their individual needs. Managers escalate concerns when professionals do not act quickly or effectively. Therefore, children are making progress in attending education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children build positive memories and experiences. Children enjoy activities that reflect their interests. The home is personalised to reflect children’s likes and hobbies, including a piano being bought for one child. Children celebrate birthdays and important events throughout the year. Staff have also supported one child to go on holiday.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment has improved and is more welcoming. Children said they like their bedrooms and shared communal spaces. One child struggled to accept personalisation of their bedroom. Staff learned about the child’s interests and created a room the child now enjoys spending time in. Staff encourage children to keep their bedrooms and shared areas clean and tidy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff receive ‘health alerts’ to ensure they a knowledgeable and able to meet children’s other health needs promptly. Children attend health appointments and receive support with sexual health when needed. Children are provided food and snacks when needed. However, mealtimes do not yet reflect a warm family experience, and younger children did not always have meals prepared for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are starting to build relationships with children. However, the staff approach is not yet consistently therapeutic as they are still developing their understanding of children’s needs. Staff have also struggled to help children build positive relationships with each other, although these are improving after a period of tension and negativity. Staff Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 4 understand the importance of children having relationships with family and age- appropriate peers outside of the home.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not yet manage risk confidently or consistently. Staff understand children’s known risks and have guidance to follow. However, they often rely on managers to make decisions for them. This reduces consistency in staff practice when responding to incidents and limits their ability to manage situations independently.

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improvement to be good

Staff responses to behaviour remain inconsistent. At times, some staff relied heavily on the approach of one particular colleague and were reluctant to work in the home without them. Staff have occasionally not followed agreed behaviour strategies. This makes it difficult for children to understand what boundaries and routines in their care look like.

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improvement to be good

Staff use holds to keep everyone safe as a last resort. However, on some occasions, staff have lacked confidence to use de-escalation techniques or approved physical intervention strategies. This led to staff calling the police to manage situations that could and should have been managed by themselves. Records about behaviour management now contain the required information. However, documentation remains difficult to follow as information is spread across several different records.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always help children reflect meaningfully on risks in order to keep safe. Following incidents, staff speak with children, but discussions are often brief. Staff state one child ‘does not care’, and staff have not always adjusted their approach to help children understand risks or make safer choices in future. Examples of positive practice are not routinely shared with staff to develop their approach.

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improvement to be good

Staff respond quickly when children go missing from the home. Staff follow children’s individual plans and take appropriate action to find and return children safely. Children are spoken with when they return home to understand why they left and reduce the likelihood of this happening again. Incidents of children going missing from home have reduced.

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improvement to be good

Children’s concerns are taken seriously. When children make allegations, managers and staff respond appropriately and keep children central to their decision-making processes. Relevant professionals are involved promptly, and independent investigations help ensure that children’s concerns are explored fairly and objectively.

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

Staff do not yet provide care that consistently reflects the home’s ethos and values. Although managers have established clear expectations, some staff remain disconnected from the home’s child-centred approach. Staff do not yet demonstrate enough confidence in taking ownership of their roles and responsibilities. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 5 Managers address poor practice through individual supervision sessions and reflection. However, this has not yet led to sustained improvement across all staff practice. Managers remain committed to improving the care children receive and developing staff to feel more invested in their work.

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

Staffing arrangements have not consistently met children’s needs. Staff sickness and movement across the wider organisation have created additional staffing pressures. This has led to managers relying heavily on the use of agency staff. On some days, agency staff outnumbered permanent staff. Recruitment is ongoing to improve consistency for children, but until this happens, agency staff are still a necessity.

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

Staff do not always complete children’s records promptly. Such delays reduce managers’ ability to review important documentation and weaken their reliability. Although records are detailed once completed, staff do not consistently recognise the importance of recording events at the time they happen.

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

Staff are not all up to date with mandatory training. This does not provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience they need. Some staff have continued carrying out tasks when their training has expired, including food handling. Managers recognise the gaps in training following a period of staffing disruption and have plans in place for staff to complete relevant training.

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

Management arrangements have improved. The manager and deputy manager are more visible in the home and role model expected practice. Managers identify concerns and take action to address them. However, progress remains slow. As a result, some shortfalls identified at the last inspection remain.

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

Children move in and out of the home in a planned way. Managers consider children’s views carefully and work at a pace suitable for them. Two children returned to family care earlier than first planned. These moves were managed positively, and children continue to keep in touch with the staff in the home.

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

The manager strongly advocates for children. Leaders and managers work proactively with professionals to ensure children receive the support they need. They challenge delays when children are not in education or services are slow to respond. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff work consistently, and in unison, in line with risk and behaviour management strategies.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, ensure that staff are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to care for children effectively. 11 May 2027

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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—

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 11 May 2027 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 7 (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff adhere to behaviour and risk management strategies consistently to keep children safe.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, ensure that staff understand it is their role to adjust strategy to help children to understand how to keep themselves safe.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are involved in choosing and preparing meals. Opportunities for children to sit together and eat should be promoted by staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.8)  The registered person should ensure that staff have the skills and confidence to communicate easily and understand the importance of listening to, involving and responding to the children they care for. Staff should understand that they have a responsibility to observe, notice and respond to children who are expressing their views, acknowledging that it is not the sole responsibility of the child to ‘tell’. Staff should also understand how children might communicate their feelings through their behaviour. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.10)  The registered person should ensure that no more than half the staff on duty at any

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Recommendations

one time, by day or night at the home should be from an external agency. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.19)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. In particular, by ensuring that record-keeping is completed contemporaneously. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC033367 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic 3, Market Street, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD1 2EY

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Inspector

Vikki Thwaites, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC033367 9 regulates and inspects 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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