Children's Home run by Assist Care Ltd in Warwickshire

Inspection report children's home: 2837160 1 Registered provider: Assist Care Ltd

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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 run by a private company. It registered in October 2025 and provides care for up to 2 children who have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, 2 children were living in the home and spoke with the inspectors.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2025.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children's home: 2837160 2

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Summary of findings

Since the home registered, 2 children have moved into the home and no children have left. Overall, children are settled, making some progress and have developed positive relationships with staff. However, some shortfalls in assessing and managing children’s risks, and staff responses to children’s safeguarding concerns require improvement. In addition, leaders and staff inability to challenge the practice and decision making of professionals and overall management oversight, means that staff are not yet delivering a consistently good standard of care for all children.

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improvement to be good

Overall, children are safe in the home, and both children said that they feel safe. However, there are shortfalls in some of the home’s safeguarding systems, which require improvement and have the potential to leave children vulnerable and have had an impact on their overall experiences.

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improvement to be good

Decision making relating to the suitability of children living together is not sufficiently robust. The manager has not consistently ensured that all children’s needs are thoroughly assessed. She has not fully considered the impact of her decision making when allowing children with similar needs to live together. As a result, one child reported feeling less valued and less visible, as staff attention was focused on meeting the more complex needs of another child. Despite these shortfalls, staff work hard to support children to feel prepared and minimise any anxieties they may have when moving into the home.

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improvement to be good

The home’s physical environment is clean and tidy. However, it feels bare in parts and lacks personalisation. Some areas of the home feel institutionalised due to the presence of window restrictors on ground floor windows and several health and safety signs around the home. This does not align with the homely, nurturing environment that the home strives for.

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improvement to be good

Staff develop positive relationships with children. They spend meaningful time getting to know children and understand them well. Staff consistently provide warm and nurturing care, and children respond well, reflecting the trusting relationships that have been established. As a result, children feel safe to share their feelings and worries and confidently seek support when distressed. This represents significant progress from their starting points. Children speak highly of the staff and the care they receive. One child said, ‘I like the calmness and bonds I’ve made,’ while another described feeling safe and part of a family within the home. Inspection report children's home: 2837160 3 Children take part in activities that reflect their individual interests and preferences. They regularly participate in activities such as nature walks, ice-skating and visits to local arcades. Children speak positively about the time they spend with staff both in the home

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improvement to be good

and in the community, enjoying shared experiences that strengthen relationships.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers do not assess children’s risks and vulnerabilities effectively. There is a lack of professional curiosity when exploring risks and understanding children’s lived experiences. As a result, staff have cared for a child without a full understanding of their vulnerabilities or how to manage associated risks. These weaknesses left the child exposed to potential harm and, on one occasion, the child experienced harm.

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improvement to be good

When children become anxious, staff generally respond in a calm and reassuring manner to promote their immediate safety and wellbeing. This includes staff offering reassurance, first aid and seeking medical attention when required. However, on one occasion, staff demonstrated a lack of professional curiosity in relation to known self- harm risks, which led to delays in securing appropriate medical attention for a child. This placed the child at increased risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Children's online activity is not consistently monitored or managed effectively to ensure their safety while accessing the internet. Clear expectations around phone use have not been established prior to children moving in, which has resulted in a lack of boundaries around internet use in the home. Staff are not always clear on who children are engaging with online and the nature of the content they are accessing. While no children have come to harm, these shortfalls have the potential to compromise children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding incidents are not consistently reported to Ofsted. This limits external oversight and reduces Ofsted’s ability to monitor serious incidents and staff responses to them effectively.

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improvement to be good

Consequences used with children are proportionate, restorative and consistently applied in line with children’s actions. Staff use these opportunities to help children understand the impact of their actions on themselves and others. This approach supports children to reflect, learn and make more positive choices, which contributes to their emotional development and progress.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to access a range of services to meet their individual needs. This includes therapeutic support provided by the home’s in-house clinical team. As a result of this support, there has been a reduction in significant incidents for both children and an improvement in their emotional wellbeing.

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

The home is led by a manager who is child-focused and demonstrates a willingness to reflect on practice. She is committed to improving outcomes for children and is keen to Inspection report children's home: 2837160 4 develop the service further. However, actions to address identified shortfalls in practice are not always implemented with sufficient pace or consistency to secure sustained improvement. This limits the impact of leadership and means that improvements in practice are not yet fully embedded.

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

Management oversight is not consistently robust or sufficiently analytical to effectively address shortfalls in staff practice. When staff responses to children have been poor, these have not been consistently challenged or addressed in a meaningful or timely way. In addition, the manager does not always provide clear guidance to staff about what needs to improve or how practice should change. As a result, opportunities to drive improvement are not fully realised, which limits the overall effectiveness of monitoring and review systems.

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

The manager has not consistently demonstrated effective challenge or escalation with placing local authorities to promote children’s safety and wellbeing. As a result, important information about one child’s vulnerabilities has not been fully obtained or understood, leading to weaknesses in care planning and risk management. In addition, insufficient professional challenge has resulted in another child’s online safety risks being unmanaged. This has limited the effectiveness of measures in place to safeguard the child and minimise potential harm.

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

Staff speak positively of the manager and say they are well supported and enjoy working in the home. Staff benefit from regular supervision and team meetings, which provides opportunities for professional development. In addition, staff receive appropriate training to support them in meeting children’s individual needs. Staff describe the home as a safe, stable and caring environment, which contributes to a positive environment for them to work in and for children to live in.

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

Feedback from professionals and family members is positive. They highlight the positive relationships staff have developed with children, the positive progress they have observed children making, particularly in relation to their emotional wellbeing, and the willingness of staff to support children. Inspection report children's home: 2837160 5

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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—

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff have the skills to accurately assess children’s risks and act upon those risks, including online risks. Staff must ensure they are professionally curious in relation to children's presentation and take effective action. 6 June 2026

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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—

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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; 6 June 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2837160 6 understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders must ensure that they have reflective oversight of children’s incidents. Also, leaders must ensure that they act on learning taken from incidents when assessing risk, planning the care of children, and addressing staff practice issues. This is to ensure the safety and well-being of children and staff in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all necessary information is gathered regarding children’s needs and lived experiences to assess their suitability to live in the home. The registered person must ensure they regularly review the placement of each child and staff’s ability to keep children safe. 6 June 2026

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child's placing authority effectively in the child's care, in accordance with the child's relevant plans; 6 June 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2837160 7 if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they provide effective professional challenge to agencies and professionals if information regarding children is not provided to allow accurate assessment of risk or they feel decisions and plans are not being made in the best interest of children. This particularly relates to the manager having all necessary information about children's needs to be able to manage risk effectively, plan their care accordingly and follow escalation processes when they feel that professionals’ responses are not appropriate to keep children safe.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders must ensure that all serious incidents are reported to Ofsted in a timely manner. 6 June 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the home provides a nurturing environment that meets the needs of the children. The home should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than institutional environment, specifically in relation to ground floor window restrictors, excessive health and safety signage and the general homely feel within the home. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report children's home: 2837160 8

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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: 2837160 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Office SE14, 101 Lockhurst Lane, Coventry CV6 5SF

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Jacinta Alemnjuh Leke

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Inspectors

Menaka De Silva, Social Care Inspector Kim Morgan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2837160 10 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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