Children's Home run by Positive Homes for Positive Futures Limited in Sefton

Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 1 Registered provider: Positive Homes for Positive Futures 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 privately run children’s home provides care for 3 children who may have social and emotional difficulties, or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were 2 children living in the home. One of the children spoke to the inspectors.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2024.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered in December 2024.

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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/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/06/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 3

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Summary of findings

Children are cared for by an established staff team. Children have opportunities to enjoy positive experiences. However, shortfalls in safeguarding practice and the leadership and management of the home have left children at risk of harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Two children have remained living in the home since the last inspection. One child has moved on from the home. Delays in decision-making regarding moves on from the home impacted on the child’s progress and left other children in the home at risk of harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home environment is appropriately furnished. However, the decoration is worn in places. Children’s bedrooms are clean and tidy, but would benefit from further decoration, and one child’s carpet had a scorch mark. Cleaning around the home has been raised as an issue for staff regularly in team meetings and staff supervisions. However, this remains an ongoing issue.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff develop meaningful and trusting relationships with children. Children freely go to staff members for reassurance or help. Staff members speak calmly and offer reassurance to children as well as instilling boundaries consistently. One child, who has now left the home, did have more difficult relationships with staff members. Attempts by staff to support the child when withdrawing from interactions with staff and peers were not effective. As a result, the child spent prolonged periods of time in their bedroom and would only leave their room when others were not present.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not always speak with children on important topics. For example, when a child told a staff member about a potential health issue, this was not followed up by the staff member or shared with other staff or professionals. As a result, action was not taken to address the child’s emerging health concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff support children to develop independence skills. Work undertaken with children is focused and specific to the individual child, with clear targets to work towards. Children are consulted about life in their home and are supported to make decisions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff ensure that children’s educational needs are met. Children have made progress since moving into the home, and when children can’t or won’t attend school, provisions are put in place to support their educational needs. Professionals involved with the children speak positively of the progress children have made.

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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 4 Safeguarding practice in the home is poor. This has left children at risk of harm.

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

Opportunities to safeguard children have been missed. Action was not taken to safeguard children from the risks posed to them by other children living in the home. Despite one child making threats towards another, strategies were not put in place to manage this risk. Staff did not implement plans to safeguard one child, who complained of feeling scared and unsafe due to the behaviour of the other child towards them. As a result, the child was assaulted in their bedroom and suffered physical harm.

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

Furthermore, staff were only alerted to the incident when they were woken up by the child screaming for help in the night. Following the incident, additional staffing was put in place for night times. However, no other strategies were implemented to ensure that the risks relating to children’s relationships were appropriately managed.

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

Children’s records are not updated to include all known or emerging risks. Although the risk of aggression from one child to another was identified, staff and managers did not review plans or implement additional strategies to manage this risk. Patterns of behaviour were not recognised, which left children at risk from escalating concerns.

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

Incidents of children missing from home are rare. Staff support children to understand the risks posed to them if they were to go missing from home and how to keep themselves safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management oversight of the home is not effective. Shortfalls in recording and reporting are not always picked up on quickly, which has led to a lack of strategies being implemented to safeguard children. The manager has not consistently identified patterns or trends in children’s behaviours, or when risks for children are escalating.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager speaks warmly of children in the home. She is child focused and enjoys spending time with the children. Professionals who also work with the children speak positively of the manager and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are positive about the management team and say that they feel supported. Staff are provided with appropriate induction training and support to develop them in their roles. Staff are able to request additional training on relevant topics when required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff benefit from regular team meetings. The manager uses these as opportunities to discuss any issues with practice, such as the cleanliness of the home or the quality of recording. However, it is not evident that the manager has followed up on or monitored these issues as they remain ongoing. Furthermore, although some issues are discussed in these meetings, important safeguarding issues have not been discussed. This is a missed opportunity to share information with the team on emerging safeguarding concerns and to implement strategies to manage these risks. Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 5 Staff receive regular supervision. However, the manager has not addressed concerns raised by staff about the increasing level of risk for one child and the impact on the other children living in the home. This has left children at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager’s own supervision by the responsible individual is reflective and supportive but lacks direction, specific targets or support needed to improve. Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 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—

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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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that staff take action to safeguard children at all times, that risk assessments include all risks for children and clear strategies for staff to follow, that action is taken to seek medical 21 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 7 advice when children report concerns in respect of their physical and mental health, and that staff share information and report concerns to managers, staff and relevant professionals.

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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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; 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)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that systems are in place to monitor, review and evaluate all care provided to children and that any shortfalls in staff practice are identified and that action is taken to address them. 21 June 2026

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home; and 5 July 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 8 ensure that any care that is arranged or provided for a child that—

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Requirement Due date

relates to the child’s development (within the meaning of section 17(11) of the Children Act 1989) or health. (Regulation 6 (2)(b)(vii)(c)(i)(ii)(d)(i))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that the home is furnished and maintained to a good standard, and that action is taken to provide care and support to children when needs arise.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

that each child is registered as a patient with a general medical practitioner and a registered dental practitioner; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that action is taken to ensure that children are provided with medical support when concerns arise in respect of their physical and mental health. 5 July 2026

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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: 2812913 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Positive Homes for Positive Futures Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Positive Futures, 181 Townsend Lane, Clubmoor, Liverpool L13 9DY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pamela Constance

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Inspectors

Hannah Longdon, Social Care Inspector Nicola Jeffery, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2812913 10 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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