Children's Home run by Solace for Children Limited in Worcestershire

Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 1 Registered provider: Solace for Children 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

This home is owned by a small private company. 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 registered with Ofsted in May 2025 and holds a level 5 qualification.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of this inspection, 4 children were living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/05/2025 Full Good 18/06/2024 Full Good 07/06/2023 Full Good 08/06/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 3

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Summary of findings

There are significant shortfalls in safeguarding practice and leadership, which have compromised children's safety and experiences. Leaders have failed to provide consistent and effective oversight of practice to ensure that staff follow safeguarding procedures and respond appropriately to risks. As a result, children have not always been adequately protected from harm, and weaknesses in management oversight have resulted in poor practice not being addressed in a timely manner.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have experienced inconsistent and, at times, ineffective responses from staff, resulting in their safety and welfare needs not being consistently met. Staff do not always respond promptly or appropriately to emerging risks, which compromises children's safety. As a result, opportunities to help children develop ways of considering risks in their lives are missed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Not all areas of the home provide children with a safe and nurturing environment. Leaders have not consistently identified, recorded or responded appropriately to damage in the home. Weaknesses in oversight and monitoring have resulted in damage, specifically to one child’s bedroom, not being addressed promptly or effectively. As a result, not all children experience a home environment that is maintained to a safe and acceptable standard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the significant shortfalls identified at this inspection, children have made progress from their individual starting points. Staff demonstrate a clear commitment to supporting children's education and place a strong emphasis on the importance of learning and achievement for all children. Every child has a clear plan of how their educational needs will be met, so that progress against their agreed targets can be measured. Children's successes and accomplishments are consistently recognised and celebrated. This approach promotes children's confidence, self-esteem and motivation to continue achieving positive outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Most children currently living at the home have lived there for several years, which has provided them with a sense of stability and security. Positive and nurturing interactions between staff and children were observed throughout the inspection. Staff spoke proudly about the children in their care and were able to identify many examples of how children have progressed from their individual starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

When children move into the home, careful and timely consideration is given to how positive relationships can be established with staff and the children already living in the home. Planned introductions and supportive transitions help children to settle into the home quickly and begin to develop trusting relationships. Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 4 Although feedback shared from one family member highlighted inconsistencies in the quality of communication from leaders and staff, there is clear evidence that children are supported to spend meaningful time with the people who are important to them. Staff and leaders demonstrate a strong commitment to promoting and facilitating children to maintain positive relationships with family members and others who are significant in their lives. As a result, children sustain important relationships, helping to promote their sense of identity, belonging and emotional wellbeing.

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

There have been several significant safeguarding incidents that have not been appropriately reported, recorded or responded to by staff and managers. These failures demonstrate serious weaknesses in safeguarding practice and management oversight. On one occasion, staff failed to take the required steps to provide a child, who had been assessed as being at risk of going missing from the home, with the necessary levels of supervision. As a result, staff did not identify at the earliest possible opportunity that the child was missing from home. This contributed to the child experiencing a significant delay in staff initiating their missing-from-home protocol. These failings directly compromised the child's safety and placed them at increased risk of harm.

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

Staff and leaders have failed to ensure that children are adequately protected from the risks that using the internet may pose. For one child, staff and leaders repeatedly failed to provide the required level of supervision for electronic devices following a serious safeguarding incident in which the child was identified as having been exposed to harmful online content. Leaders failed to ensure that staff completed regular checks of the child's devices in line with their agreed safety plan. In addition, timely action was not taken to ensure that the identified websites were appropriately restricted or blocked. The incident was not recorded as a safeguarding incident and was not shared with all relevant professional to ensure appropriate external oversight. These shortfalls have exposed the child to unnecessary risk.

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

Staff have, on multiple occasions, failed to seek timely guidance from managers when safeguarding incidents have occurred. On one occasion, a child disclosed that they had invited multiple peers to the home on several occasions without the knowledge or authorisation of staff. Although one peer was subsequently removed from the home, there is no evidence that leaders appropriately considered or evaluated the potential impact that this incident may have had on the safety and wellbeing of all children living at the home at that time. Furthermore, there was no evidence presented during inspection to demonstrate that all children's views had been sought in relation to this incident. This approach negatively impacts children's feelings of safety and security in their home.

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

Leaders have not consistently ensured that children's individual risk assessments are up to date or sufficiently detailed to provide staff with clear and effective guidance on the actions required to manage known risks. As a result, children have experienced inconsistent guidance from staff when risks to their safety have been identified. Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 5 Where restrictions on children's movements are necessary, these are only used as a last resort to prevent significant harm to the child or others. Staff are skilled at de-escalating incidents, and records of restraint are consistently clear with effective management oversight. Staff speak with children without delay to ensure that their views are captured and their rights are upheld.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management oversight of the home fails to consistently and effectively safeguard children. Managers fail to implement effective monitoring systems to enable them to identify shortfalls in the quality of care provided to children. Leaders have not ensured that plans agreed to protect children are consistently implemented or sufficiently robust to identify and address risk in a timely manner. As a result, children are exposed to avoidable risks and experience variable standards of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are repeated failures by leaders to ensure that incidents are appropriately reported, recorded and acted upon so that learning is consistently embedded into practice. Leaders do not demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the impact of these shortfalls on children's safety and experiences. There is limited evidence of timely, reflective practice or effective challenge within the senior leadership team to drive improvement. As a result, delays have been identified in how poor practice is being addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff speak positively about their roles and said that they enjoy working in the home. Staff say that they feel supported by each other and the management team, and are provided with a good range of training and resources to help them support children in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have access to regular supervision and report that they receive regular updates from leaders, which support them to develop within their roles. However, opportunities have been missed by leaders to use supervision and team meetings effectively as a means of driving improvement in practice, particularly in areas where shortfalls have been identified. This has limited the extent to which learning is embedded, impacting the quality and consistency of care that children experience.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders shared their proposed plans to continue to upskill the staff team and prioritise training in line with the identified shortfalls that have been highlighted during this inspection. Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 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 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— that staff—

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home's child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home's day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home's child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d)(e)) 21 June 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 7 This specifically links to:

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Requirement Due date

Staff being able to recognise risks and take prompt and effective action when children present with a risk of going missing from home, and that appropriate action is taken to ensure they are adequately protected from harmful online content.

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Requirement Due date

Home conditions should be maintained to a safe standard. Any identified damage to property should be accurately recorded and reported to the leadership team.

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Requirement Due date

Children's individual risk assessments must be updated to reflect the current safety needs of all children and provide staff with the necessary actions to safeguard children from harm.

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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

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; and

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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, the registered person must ensure that evaluations after incidents identify all learning, and that monitoring and review systems are effective and drive improvements in the home. 21 June 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— 21 June 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 8 a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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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;

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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

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); 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)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 9

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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: 2651823 10

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Solace for Children Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Suite 1, The Berkeley, Evesham Road, Egdon, Worcester WR7 4QL

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Inspectors

Charlotte Tippett, Social Care Inspector Reshma Kodampur, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2651823 11 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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