Children's Home run by Vcare - 24 Limited in East Riding of Yorkshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 1 Registered provider: Vcare - 24 Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home is owned and run by a private provider. The home is registered to care for up to 2 children who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

Since the last inspection, 2 children have moved out of the home, and one child has moved in. One child was living in the home at the time of the inspection and spoke to inspectors.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 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 requires improvement to be 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

Date of last inspection: 23 September 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: 2591501 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/09/2025 Full Good 25/02/2025 Full Good 14/11/2023 Full Good 07/06/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 3

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Summary of findings

Children who have lived in the home have had varied experiences, influenced by their individual needs and risks. Staff understand the risks for each child who has lived in the home. Staff offer a high level of supervision to the child. Risk assessments and plans have not always been clear or followed, which has increased the risk of harm for children.

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Summary of findings

Staff support the child's education and health. Managers advocate for the child around their education plans, and staff support tutoring sessions in the home. Staff understand the complex health needs of all children who have lived in the home. Staff seek medical advice appropriately and support children to attend both routine and emergency health appointments.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers communicate with professionals who work with the child. The manager has tools that aid oversight of the home, and staff feel well supported. When one child left the home, this was not well planned with the placing authority, meaning that the child was unprepared for the move.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the child's education. Managers attend meetings to advocate for all children's education plans. The child living in the home is currently accessing daily education with staff support. Staff have helped the child to attend practical courses in line with their interests and future aspirations. The child's achievements are celebrated by staff and managers, which helps the child to feel proud of their successes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the health of all children who have lived in the home. Staff follow health plans to help children receive medical treatment in a timely way. When the child living in the home requires emergency medical care, staff take them to the hospital and communicate effectively with family members. The effective communication offers the child reassurance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the child to understand their care. Staff have meaningful conversations with the child. When one child has been subject to a legal order, staff have used social stories to help them understand what this means. The child's care is kept under review, and staff explain changes to them in a helpful way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the child to spend meaningful time with family members. Staff communicate with family members and take the child to spend time with their family. Staff's approach during this time has been described by one parent as 'brilliant and flexible'. Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 4 Children's moves out of the home have not been well planned. Managers have tried to work with professionals to support moves out of the home. For one child, managers went with them to their next home. Managers have tried to work flexibly with local authorities, initially extending a notice period. Further offers of flexibility and support were later withdrawn. This meant that a child was unprepared for a move and did not have a new home to move to when they left the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Records for children who have lived in the home are not kept up to date. There are some inaccuracies within children's case records. Communication with professionals is not clearly documented.

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improvement to be good

The child's risk assessments and care plans are not updated in a timely way following incidents. Staff have a good understanding of the risks for the child and talk to them about risky behaviour. Staff do not consistently follow the risk assessments in place. Children's risks change frequently. The information supplied to agency staff is out of date, and there is no system to help them view current plans and information. One child has been at risk of harm due to the plans not being followed effectively.

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improvement to be good

Staff use physical interventions to ensure the safety of children who have lived in the home. On occasion, untaught holds have been used. Managers have reviewed these. The holds have been necessary to minimise risk to children. When physical interventions are used, the recording lacks detail, which can impact manager oversight. Agency staff who regularly work in the home have not received training in physical interventions. This does not align with the information in the risk assessments and plans.

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improvement to be good

The child is helped to manage their feelings through the support of staff. Staff have conversations with the child about their feelings. A parent has noticed progress in how their child is calming quicker following incidents. Their child has built trusting relationships with staff and is displaying less care-seeking behaviour as a result. The parent commented, 'They used to ring me 90 to 100 times a day, now I'm lucky if they ring me once'.

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improvement to be good

Allegation management is effective. Staff listen to disclosures from the child. When the child raises concerns, these are appropriately shared with professionals to keep children safe. Staff know the whistleblowing policy and process to follow when safeguarding concerns arise.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand plans to follow when children go missing from the home. One child who previously lived in the home went missing frequently. Staff would look for the child and work with agencies and family members to help the child return safely. Staff would have conversations with the child to try and understand the reasons they leave the home and prevent this from happening again in the future. Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has positive relationships with the child and staff. The manager knows all the children who have lived in the home, and their care needs, well. The manager speaks about them with warmth and affection. A deputy manager supports the manager. Together, they have effective systems in place to regularly review the care of children in the home. When incidents occur, there is management oversight and staff have effective debriefs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff offer a continuity of care to the child. The manager has ensured safe staffing ratios for the home in line with the changing needs of the child. As a result, there has been an increase in the use of agency staff in the home. When agency staff are used, the manager is satisfied that safer recruitment checks are complete.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported by the manager. Permanent staff receive regular supervision and attend team meetings, which are helpful. New staff are inducted effectively into the home and feel supported through increased supervision. Regular agency staff have not received supervision, and their induction is less robust. The recording of supervision has inaccuracies and is not always timely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Visitors are not routinely signed in to the home. Staff confirm the identity of visitors to the home. Professionals frequently visit the home and describe feeling welcomed by staff. Staff support children to engage with visitors in a meaningful way. Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 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 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff, including agency staff, must have up-to-date copies of plans to follow that clearly document any risks for children and the actions required to keep them safe. 23 July 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children's home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home. 23 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 7 The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child's behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, physical interventions need to be clearly documented when used. The registered manager needs to be assured of the skills of agency staff working in the home or revise plans in respect of their expectation in managing behaviour.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 23 July 2026

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children's home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that a record is kept of all visitors to the home including the names of visitors and the reasons for the visit. 23 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 8 The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children's home's overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children's needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child's needs, as recorded in the child's relevant plans, taking account of the child's background;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(iv)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, when children move out of the home, there must be clear plans around the moves and effective communication with children. The repairs in the home must be completed to a suitable standard in a timely way. 6 August 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. The manager should plan, with the agency, who will supervise agency staff who regularly work in the home. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,' page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: 2591501 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Unit 10, Halifax Way, Pocklington Industrial Estate, Pocklington, York YO42 1NP

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Inspectors

Ali Owens, Social Care Inspector Gemma Sheader, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2591501 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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Inspectors

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