Children's Home run by The Beeches UK limited in Peterborough

Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 1 SC466786 Registered provider: The Beeches UK Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a private company. It provides care for up to 4 children who may have special educational needs and/or disabilities or social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2024.

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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 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/03/2026 Full Requires improvement to be good 11/02/2025 Full Good 05/03/2024 Full Good 07/07/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 3

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Summary of findings

Children have positive experiences living at this home. They have warm bonds with staff. Staff keep children safe. They provide children with consistent routines and boundaries.

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Summary of findings

The home is sufficiently staffed, with a permanent workforce. Feedback from external professionals is unanimously positive.

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Summary of findings

Debriefs for children when incidents have happened are not carried out by an impartial person, reducing transparency. Staff do not always consult children during room searches. Staff do not help children to learn new skills and work towards reducing restrictions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. The inspector spoke to all the children. One child has moved on to supported accommodation since the last inspection. Staff managed the move well and helped the child to settle into their new home, in line with their local authority care plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by a longstanding and stable staff team. This means that children benefit from continuity of care and are cared for by people who know them well. This helps the children to form trusting relationships with staff. Consequently, the children can identify trusted adults in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and managers prioritise the children’s education and promote their good attendance. Managers understand the barriers children experience in education and maintain effective liaison with schools. They advocate on behalf of the children for their rights to education. When children have been excluded from school, staff have supported them with learning activities at home. As a result of the staff’s support, the children are making good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive experiences living at the home. The staff offer a selection of options to develop the children’s skills and interests. The children participate in varied enrichment activities of their choice, such as football, and motorcycle club. Staff document the children’s memorable events and celebrate the children’s achievements. This builds the children’s confidence and self-esteem and helps them to feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to help the children have positive relationships with their families. They support family time and help to build parents’ confidence. Children’s relationships with their parents have improved and the children are more able to maintain important connections. This helps the children maintain their sense of identity. Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 4 Staff help children with their independence skills. One child has developed skills such as budgeting, cooking and using public transport. Staff helped this child to apply for a provisional driver’s licence. However, staff do not provide this support to all children consistently. For example, there is no clear plan in place for one child for reducing particular restrictions. This means staff are not consistently supporting the child to take age-appropriate risks and learn new skills. This limits opportunities for the child to

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

Staff understand the children’s risks and try to reduce these to keep children safe. They arrange specialist assessments in relation to issues such as mental health and neurodiversity. This helps staff understand the child and better manage risk.

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

Staff have a good understanding of contextual safeguarding and the risks posed to children in the community. When children leave the home unauthorised, staff follow them and take appropriate action. Staff share information with relevant professionals to ensure their safe return. Staff speak to the children on their return and request the child’s social worker also has a discussion with the child. This approach helps staff better understand the reasons for the child going missing, the risks they may face and potentially how to reduce these. The local police visit the home to have discussions with the children to help them better understand the potential risks posed to them and how to keep safer.

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

Staff promote positive behaviour for the children. They offer consistent boundaries and have conversations with children on issues such as internet safety, making positive choices and understanding emotions. This helps children to understand their feelings and to keep safe. Staff collaborate with other specialist professionals in carrying out restorative work with children. This helps the children to understand personal responsibility and reduces police intervention. Consequently, incidents for one child are reducing.

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

Staff support the children to calm when they are feeling upset. They use de-escalation techniques such as negotiation and distraction to support the children to manage their feelings. Staff use physical intervention when it is necessary to prevent harm to the child or others. Managers ensure staff involved in these incidents are promptly spoken to. However, children are not spoken to by someone independent of the incident. This does not allow children to freely express themselves and potentially undermines full and reflective review of incidents.

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

Staff carry out room searches when there are concerns about children’s safety. However, they do not always consult with children or ask for their views. This potentially undermines children’s feelings of emotional security. Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The suitably experienced and qualified registered manager is supported by the deputy manager. The manager, deputy manager and staff work effectively with other professionals. Feedback from professionals is unanimously positive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say morale is positive and that they feel well supported by the manager. They receive regular supervision that considers and prioritises children’s experiences and staff’s wellbeing. Staff reflect on the children’s needs after each incident and at team meetings. These opportunities help staff to improve practice. The supportive management approach means that there is a stable and consistent team of staff who have worked there for a long time and there is no use of agency staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive relevant and appropriate training that is focused on the children’s needs. Most of the staff hold the relevant qualification and those few that do not are working towards it. Leaders and managers support staff development and progression to senior roles. They have introduced a mentoring programme, and one staff member is enrolled in the programme to enhance their leadership skills.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers complete regular audits on all aspects of the home to ensure that children receive good-quality care and support. They regularly speak with staff to drive service improvement and develop staff practice. This helps to ensure that children’s safeguarding concerns are monitored and reviewed. They have taken appropriate action to address the 4 requirements from the last inspection. Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure staff take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. Staff should discuss the decision with the child’s placing authority where appropriate. Any such restrictions and limitations should be kept under review and, if necessary, revised, to allow children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)  The registered person should ensure that any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint with someone independent of the restraint. Children should be encouraged to add

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Recommendations

their views and comments to the record of restraint. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should ensure that staff generally inform the child or ask for their permission before any room search. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.20)

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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: SC466786 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Beeches UK Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: SBCH House, 212 Ballards Lane, London N3 2LX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Michelle Robinson

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Inspector

Priscilla Koroka, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC466786 8 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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