Children's Home run by Keir Lock Children’s Homes Ltd in Wakefield

Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 1 Registered provider: Keir Lock Children's Homes Ltd

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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 operated by a private provider. It provides care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, 2 children were living at the home and they were both spoken with during the inspection.

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Information about this children's home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since December 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

Date of last inspection: 20 January 2026

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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: 2825198 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/01/2026 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 3

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Summary of findings

Children in the home are making good progress. Staff build trusting relationships with children and work well to ensure that their care needs are met. Staff also work well with external professionals when required.

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Summary of findings

Children are safe in the home. They have positive relationships with staff, and this further promotes their safety. The manager and staff provide a good response when children go missing.

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Summary of findings

The registered manager is suitably skilled and experienced. She knows the home well and speaks confidently about the children and their care needs. She advocates on behalf of children and has acted on shortfalls identified at the last inspection to make improvements to the care that children receive. There are some shortfalls around the home's development plan, staff training and supervision of staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress. They have increased their confidence and developed positive relationships with staff. Children are helped by staff to manage their emotions, resulting in reduced behavioural incidents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience some barriers to regular school attendance. Staff are aware of these challenges and work well with education professionals to help children overcome them. One child has been helped to achieve a period of regular attendance at school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children give their views through daily chats, focus sessions and occasional house meetings. One child has been helped to access formal advocacy support. This ensures that prominence is given to children's wishes and views. Managers act on these views, meaning that children can influence the care they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported when they move into the home. They visit the home before their move-in dates and meet the staff and other children. Managers also consider children's care needs and any relevant risks, to ensure that staff have the appropriate skills to meet their needs. Good support for children moving into the home helps them to feel less anxious about it.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported when they move on to semi-independent living. Moves are well planned and children visit their next homes with staff, decorating and making other preparations. This ensures that children have the skills and confidence on their journey to adulthood. Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 4 The home presents to a good overall standard. However, one child's bedroom is very untidy, with some potential hazards. If left unaddressed, this could impact that child's emotional wellbeing and could also present risks, such as accidents or fire hazards.

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

Staff know children well, including any risks they may face. Staff work with children on key issues, such as road safety and fire risks. Staff anticipate risks and follow agreed plans that are in place to manage them. This allows staff to respond effectively with interventions that reduce risks for children.

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

Staff implement positive boundaries with children. There have been no occasions where children have needed to be held by staff to keep them or others safe. Staff have attended recent training focused on helping them to improve approaches to managing behaviour. Staff are positive about the benefits of this training, saying that it has helped them to build more positive relationships with children.

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

Staff respond well when children go missing. They follow agreed plans and work closely with the police and other agencies. This ensures that children are located quicker and they are returned home safely. Following incidents, staff work with children to help them understand the risks.

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

On occasion, staff have needed to search children's bedrooms. Searches are completed for reasons that are appropriate and justified to ensure that children remain safe. Children are made aware of the searches and consent is sought where this is appropriate. This helps children to understand the reasons why searches are necessary.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has worked to address issues identified at the last inspection. She has provided staff with relevant training and has worked with her team to improve practice. This ensures that children receive care that is more restoratively focused. The improvements that this has led to in relationships between staff and children have helped to support children to make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff speak positively about their roles and the support they receive from management. Staff take part in regular team meetings. This allows staff to share their knowledge and skills and reflect on their practice, contributing to improving the quality of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a development plan, with actions identified to make improvements to the home and care provided. However, this does not include timescales for actions to be completed. This may impact on the manager's ability to implement positive changes in the home. Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 5 Staff are provided with a range of training. However, not all staff are up to date with mandatory training. The manager has created a training plan to address this, but there are significant gaps of time for some expired training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff do not have regular, reflective supervision sessions. There are long periods of time between formal supervisions, and some are brief and lack reflective analysis. This limits the support provided to staff to undertake their roles. Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 14 August 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are provided a nurturing environment that is welcoming and supportive. Staff should support children to maintain a safe and appropriately presented bedroom as any good parent would. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16. The plan should be updated appropriately to enable them to monitor staff development the quality of care provided to children. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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: 2825198 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Keir Lock Children's Homes Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Thompson's Yard, New Street, Ossett, West Yorks WF5 8BH

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Inspector

Jon Collins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2825198 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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