Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes Ltd in Southend on Sea

Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 1 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to 5 children who have experienced trauma and family breakdown. This is one of several children’s homes managed by the same large private company. There is a school on site, which is run by the same organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2025. He was away from the home at the time of 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 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

Date of last inspection: 11 November 2025

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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: 2723842 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/11/2025 Full Good 18/12/2024 Full Good 07/11/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 3

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Summary of findings

Children are kept safe and receive effective support from staff. They are building trusting relationships with staff and are making progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with internal and external professionals to meet the children’s needs. In the last 6 months, the registered manager was supporting another home as well as managing this home. This has impacted on some aspects of leaders’ oversight. The responsible individual has recognised this and recently brought in an interim manager to support children and staff. While some improvements are starting to show, these need to be embedded, and leadership and management oversight requires improvement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, 3 children were living in the home. Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home and one child has left in a planned way. Staff maintain appropriate supportive connections with children when they leave the home. For example, one child who moved on remains in touch with staff and continues to share their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child was spoken to during the inspection. One child was seen but they did not wish to speak to the inspectors another child chose not to be seen or spoken with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The house is spacious, welcoming and suitably equipped. Rooms have been recently decorated and individualised to children’s tastes. There are personalised areas for the children to relax in and spend time with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have regular therapeutic input from internal professionals that guides them on how to work therapeutically with children. This helps staff to be reflective and practise in a trauma-informed way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children well and take time to understand them. They are developing positive relationships with the children. They gather children’s views and take their opinions into account when making decisions. Staff and leaders advocated for one child, which resulted in a successful appeal to overturn a decision about their education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children’s education. Two of the children are having education online and one child attends school. Staff are supporting one child who has expressed a wish to return to full-time education and another child to improve their attendance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to have positive experiences both in and outside of the home. For example, one child who has an interest in animals visits a local centre to feed the alpacas. Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 4 The staff understand the children’s specific cultural needs. They explore these with the children and support them in creative and thoughtful ways. This helps the children feel part of the community. Cultural evenings and artistic displays in the home show staff and children past and present. These rich life experiences help children have positive memories. It also helps them develop social skills and a sense of ownership and belonging.

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

Staff know how to keep children safe. They respond quickly when children go missing from home. They try to locate them and bring them home safely. Staff ask social workers to meet with the child after they have gone missing, to help better understand how to keep the child safe. When children go missing to be with people who are important to them, the manager looks at ways for the children to be able to remain in contact with these people safely, if this is appropriate.

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

Staff work closely with external agencies to keep children safe. Staff maintain close professional relationships with the local police liaison officer. The officer visits the home at weekends to get to know the children. This close partnership involves the officer in holding workshops and doing direct work with the children to offer them guidance.

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

Staff help children to understand healthy and safe relationships. They have planned and unplanned discussions with children to guide them on how to have positive relationships with people outside of the home. Staff work with a sexual health professional, who attends the home on a regular basis. This ensures the children are supported holistically.

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

The use of physical intervention is rare. There has been one incident of restraint since the last inspection. This was necessary to keep children and/ or staff safe. Staff are suitably trained and are mindful of children’s distress in these situations.

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

Staff attend meetings with internal lead professionals to help children to keep safe. They analyse risks and look at the progress children are making. They assess new and emerging risks outside the home. This joint approach supports children’s safety and wellbeing.

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

Two significant incidents that should have been notified to relevant professionals were not shared quickly. This means professionals, such as the local authority designated officer (LADO), and bodies such as Ofsted have not been able to provide external oversight when incidents involving children have occurred.

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

At the time of the inspection, the registered manager was away from the home for an extended period. An interim manager and the responsible individual were supporting children and staff in the interim. Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 5 Leaders and managers have not always provided the necessary oversight. There has been a lack of monitoring by managers at times. This has led to incidents not being scrutinised at the time of the event and information not being shared with the relevant professionals.

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

The registered manager has not always role modelled appropriate practice to staff. Staff say this has linked to an increase in staff sickness and many staff leaving, which has created staff vacancies. Staff have worked hard to mitigate the impact of the changes on the children, but this has resulted in them working long hours.

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

Staff supervisions conducted by the registered manager have not always provided support to staff. When they have disclosed worries and concerns, he has not provided additional support or guidance. Staff say this has affected team morale and caused staff to feel unsupported.

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

Managers have not always ensured positive partnership working and effective communication with parents. One parent said the communication from leaders at the home, until recently, has been poor. They had previously felt let down and in the dark about their child’s experiences living at the home. However, this has recently improved under the new managers and they now receive regular updates. This is giving them more confidence in the care their child is receiving.

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

Staff receive regular therapeutic input to support their individual wellbeing. They also receive helpful guidance from the therapist on how to embed a therapeutic trauma- informed approach in their work with the children. Leaders ensure staff have regular training to broaden their knowledge, through focused meetings and workshops, to help them deliver the best care to the children.

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

Staff report that while morale has been low and at times and they have lacked management support, the recent appointment of the interim manager has left them feeling more positive, confident and well supported. Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 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—

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, take prompt action to ensure incidents have management oversight and are shared appropriately. 30 June 2026

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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

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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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)(c)(e)) 22 June 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 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 for children's home: 2723842 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Compass Community Ltd, 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester LE7 1PF

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Inspectors

Dan Williams, Social Care Inspector Anda Roddy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2723842 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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