Children's Home run by Bay View Child Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 1 Registered provider: Bay View Child Care 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 operated by a private provider. It offers care for up to 3 children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, three children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in June 2023. The manager registered in December 2025.

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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 for children’s home: 2701209 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/07/2025 Full Good 10/12/2024 Full Good 19/03/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 3

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Summary of findings

Children make consistently positive progress from their individual starting points. The staff team invests significant time in understanding each child’s views, ensuring that their voices shape daily practice. They are proactive and confident in advocating for children’s needs when working with external professionals, helping to secure the right support at the right time.

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Summary of findings

Risks for children have reduced during their time living at the home. Children’s safety is prioritised, both in how staff respond during times of need and in how they help children understand the impact of their behaviours.

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Summary of findings

There have been changes in the leadership and management of the home. Gaps in the manager’s oversight mean that areas for improvement are not consistently acted on. The current registered manager is aspirational about the outcomes for children and has a plan in place to meet the shortfalls identified since their appointment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive and meaningful relationships with adults in the home. Staff are both practically and emotionally available to children. They work hard to build trust and create a sense of security and belonging. Children can identify trusted adults who they feel comfortable with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the importance of education. They work with children to encourage engagement with education at a pace that is right for them. Staff make clear, appropriate decisions in line with children’s developmental needs and care plans. When barriers to school attendance arose for a child, staff worked effectively with external professionals to find a suitable solution. As a result, all children now have appropriate education provisions in place.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the health and wellbeing of children. Children have good routines in place and receive support to build positive relationships with food, leisure and social activities. Children contribute to weekly meal planning, shopping and preparation of meals. Staff support children to attend routine appointments with health services and when specialist support is required, staff make the necessary referrals. Staff are responsive to accidents that have happened and appropriately seek medical attention when required.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are given opportunities for their voice to be heard. Staff work with children to meet their support needs. Children participate in the recording of their individual support plans, risk assessments and monthly reports. These are used to note each child’s wants, wishes, successes and areas of vulnerability which require support. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 4 Staff recognise that family relationships are central to emotional safety. Children are supported to have meaningful connections with people who are important to them. This is reviewed regularly to ensure that the frequency of family time is at a pace that is right for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is maintained well. Home conditions are welcoming. Each child has a personalised space that reflect their areas of interest. This reinforces a positive sense of belonging for children.

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

Staff understand children’s vulnerabilities and follow the risk management guidance in place. They manage risks well and can explain safeguarding measures and individual behaviour strategies. Safe care expectations for each child are clearly recorded and include children’s views about what support they need.

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

Staff use a range of strategies and incentives to encourage positive behaviour and talk openly with children about the impact of their actions. This has reduced risk-taking behaviours, with children saying that these consistent approaches and conversations help them feel safe and understand risks better.

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

Staff ensure that all consequences are proportionate and adhere to each child's specific behaviour management protocol. Children’s views are included consistently, and they say that the consequences given to them feel fair.

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

Behaviour management protocols used to support children are effective. Since the last inspection, there have been there have been no occasions when staff have used physical interventions to support children.

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

Missing-from-home policies establish clear expectations for staff to follow. Each child has an individualised missing-from-home protocol. When children are missing, staff complete local searches and engage with the wider known network until they are safely returned.

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

Staff carefully monitor the online presence of children. Staff have appropriate parental controls on each child’s range of electronic devices. This ensures that staff can review and support children to engage pro socially across all devices and online platforms free from cyber bullying and inappropriate communications with peers. The parental controls also help staff prevent the children from accessing gaming software beyond their age and developmental understanding.

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

The manager is dual registered. She has taken on additional responsibility for this home while the manager is not at work. She has identified shortfalls, which she has been working to rectify, and she spoke about further improvements that needed to be made to documentation. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 5 Staff said they are supported in their roles. There is a consistent staff team in place, whose members have worked hard to limit the impact of changes on children.

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

The manager is addressing gaps in the mandatory training completed by staff. Specific courses have been identified by the manager to meet children’s needs. This includes autism, foetal alcohol syndrome and gender identity.

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

Annual staff appraisals are detailed and record staff reflections on their performance. Feedback from professionals and children is provided as a link in the record rather than forming part of the discussions. This limits the opportunities for staff recognition and learning. The recommendation made at the last inspection is therefore remade.

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

There is no record of the regularity of staff supervision prior to the manager starting. Supervision has taken place regularly since then. One member of staff said, ‘Supervisions are supportive, constructive and encouraging, and monthly team meetings ensure staff receive regular updates, have opportunities to raise concerns and celebrate achievements together.’ Records of supervisions do not show how staff are consistently supported to reflect on their practice. The requirement made at the last inspection is therefore remade.

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

Recruitment checks completed for a new staff member are thorough. However, a previous recruitment showed that information provided by an applicant was not thoroughly explored by leaders and managers at the time, despite it presenting a potential risk to children.

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

Leaders and managers respond thoroughly and in a timely way to concerns around staff practice. While a risk assessment is in place to reduce potential risks to children, leaders and managers do not complete any monitoring to ensure that the measures in place are being adhered to.

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

Risk assessments for children use an old template, they include unnecessary information and do not use formulations and visuals correctly. For a short period, the manager’s analysis was not updated.

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

An incident where a child was missing from the home was not notified to Ofsted. This was during a period where there was no registered manager in place. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all staff receive regular supervision in line with the home’s statement of purpose and that supervision is reflective and clearly recorded.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is reinstated. 30 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;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(h)) 30 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 7 Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that there is robust oversight and monitoring of all areas of the home. This refers to key documentation for children, including risk assessments being up to date and relevant, notification of all serious incidents for children and oversight and monitoring of risk assessments relating to staff.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may permit an individual to start work at the home despite the fact that the requirement in paragraph (3)(d) has not been met if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person has taken all reasonable steps to obtain full information about each of the matters in Schedule 2 in respect of the individual, but the enquiries in relation to any of the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2 are incomplete;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information in respect of the individual has been obtained in relation to the matters in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2;

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the circumstances are exceptional; and

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Requirement Due date

the registered person ensures that the individual is appropriately supervised while carrying out the individual’s duties, pending receipt of any outstanding information on the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2, which is then considered satisfactory by the registered person. 30 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 8 The registered person must take reasonable steps to ensure that any individual who is working at the home and who does not fall within paragraph (2)(a) and (b) is appropriately supervised while carrying out the individual’s duties. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a) (7)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that any information about an applicant that could indicate that they might present a safeguarding risk to children is fully explored and risk assessed during the recruitment process.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the annual appraisal of staff takes into account the views of professionals who have worked with the staff over the year and the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standard’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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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 for children’s home: 2701209 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bay View Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Core Assets, Malvern View, Saxon Business Park, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4AD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Thompson

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Inspectors

Andrea Foreman, Social Care Inspector Chervone Collins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2701209 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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