Children's Home run by Milestones Care Homes Ltd in Wirral

Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 1 Registered provider: Milestones Care Homes 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

The home is owned by a private provider. It offers care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

Two children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. Both children spoke to the inspector about their experiences of living in the home.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 14 March 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

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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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: 2483789 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/03/2026 Full Requires improvement to be good 21/05/2024 Full Good 12/07/2023 Full Good 13/12/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 3

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Summary of findings

Leadership and management arrangements are poor and ineffective.

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Summary of findings

The registered manager and responsible individual have not met the requirements from the last inspection. This does not demonstrate effective management arrangements.

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Summary of findings

Staff support children to maintain important relationships with family members. This helps children to maintain contact with people who are important to them.

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Summary of findings

Children are not making good progress in all areas of their lives. Staff do not consistently provide children with the necessary support to help children achieve and reach their potential.

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Summary of findings

Staff do not consistently help children to understand and manage risks. Staff do not have the necessary skills, confidence and training to implement consistent and effective routines and boundaries for children. As a result, children miss opportunities to develop resilience, make safer choices and reduce risks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children's overall progress and experiences are impacted by shortfalls in leadership and management. Therefore, children are not making good progress living in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

While one child is attending school full time, one child is not making sufficient progress in education. They currently receive only 3 hours of formal education each week. Staff do not robustly challenge education professionals to improve this for children. Staff do not consistently provide educational activities throughout the day to supplement the child's learning. Therefore, children do not receive the necessary support to help them reach their educational potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not support one child with consistent routines. Staff allow the child to use their mobile phone throughout the night.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not always listen to children's views about the home environment. Staff do not take sufficient action to improve the situation for the child. This impacts on the child's overall health and wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite these shortfalls, children have positive relationships with staff. Children say that they can talk to staff about any worries or concerns they may have.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff recognise the importance of children maintaining relationships with people who are important to them. They support family time and work with professionals to overcome any barriers to this. This helps children to maintain their family identity. However, this Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 4 practice is undermined by an agreement between staff and one child, which uses time with a family member as a consequence for not engaging in education. This is not consistent with promoting children's welfare or supporting them to maintain meaningful relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children live in an environment that is clean and welcoming. Children's bedrooms are personalised and reflect their interests. However, some features detract from the homely feel. Window restrictors in the bedrooms and a toothbrushing chart on the bathroom door create an institutional appearance.

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

Staff do not provide children with the necessary support to help children to understand and manage individual risks and vulnerabilities. Staff do not follow strategies in children's risk assessments to help children stay safe. For example, staff do not complete regular work with children to help children understand their individual vulnerabilities and make safer choices. As a result, children miss opportunities to develop their knowledge and resilience and reduce risk.

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

Staff do not provide one child with consistent support to help them maintain safe routines. Staff do not maintain clear boundaries around the child's use of a mobile phone throughout the night. This has a significant impact on the child's sleep patterns and their overall wellbeing. Since the last inspection, staff have introduced regular mobile phone checks. These checks help staff to monitor online activity and promote online safety. However, staff do not consider the impact on the child's routine and wellbeing.

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

Despite the shortfalls, children say that they feel safe in their home. Since the last inspection, records do not demonstrate that there have been any safeguarding incidents. One family member spoke positively about the care their child receives, and the steps staff take to promote their child's safety.

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

Staff do not always share relevant information with safeguarding professionals. This impacts on children receiving a multi-agency response to safeguarding.

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

Children do not always benefit from clear and consistent boundaries that promote their safety and welfare. Staff do not consistently challenge behaviours that place children at risk, such as using electronic cigarettes. As a result, safeguarding practice does not consistently promote positive outcomes for children.

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

The responsible individual and registered manager do not ensure that staff are safely recruited. A requirement was raised at the last inspection in respect of this and this has not been met. This does not ensure that children are looked after by adults who are safe to care for them.

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

A further requirement regarding family members working together has not been met. Despite this being raised at the previous inspection, the responsible individual and registered manager have not put plans in place to mitigate the risk of family members Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 5 working together. Since the last inspection, family members have continued to work together. This could place children and staff at risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management arrangements are poor and ineffective. Significant shortfalls were identified that impact adversely on children's overall progress and experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual and registered manager have not met the requirements that were made at the last inspection and further shortfalls are identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are shortfalls in the registered manager's monitoring and review systems. This impacts on the registered manager making continuous improvements to the quality of care that staff provide for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not have the necessary training and skills to meet children's individual needs. Since the last inspection, some staff have had training to help them improve their practice. However, gaps remain in staff training, and not all staff have had training in specific areas to meet children's needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff say that the registered manager is supportive. Staff describe the home as a positive place to work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Records demonstrate that staff receive regular supervision. However, the registered manager does not receive supervision in line with the home's policies. This was raised as a requirement at the previous inspection and has not been met. Despite this shortfall being identified previously, there is still no record of supervision taking place. This impacts on the registered manager reflecting on their practice and the needs of the children. Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 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 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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;

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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)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that all staff have the confidence and skills to put consistent and effective boundaries and expectations in place for children.

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Requirement Due date

The responsible individual must ensure that the registered manager receives regular and effective supervision, which is recorded in a timely manner. 23 August 2026

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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— 23 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 7 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

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 effectiveness of the home's child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the responsible individual and the registered manager must ensure that policies in place to ensure children's safety where family members work together are followed. This must be effectively risk assessed with clear actions in place to mitigate any risks to children's safety.

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager must ensure that staff use professional curiosity is response to potential risks to children's safety, such as the possession of e-cigarettes. Regular key-work sessions must take place with children to address their specific risks and support them to make safer choices.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children's safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children's home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— 20 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 8 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that when an applicant has previously worked in a position involving work with children or vulnerable adults, all reasonable steps are taken to verify the reason why the employment or position ended.

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child's education and training targets, as recorded in the child's relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child's learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non- attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child's learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(i)(iii)(viii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that all children are receiving at least 25 hours of education per week. Where children are not attending school, staff must engage the child in educational activities during the day, which meet their individual needs. 20 September 2026

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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; 20 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 9 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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child's relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that staff support children to develop and maintain healthy sleep routines and good sleep hygiene. Effective work must be undertaken to prevent mobile phone use from impacting on children's sleep.

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child.

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Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child—

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Requirement Due date

any restriction, other than one imposed by a court or in accordance with regulation 22 (contact and access to communications), on—

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Requirement Due date

a child's contact with parents, relatives or friends;

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Requirement Due date

visits to the child by the child's parents, relatives or friends (Regulation 19 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that boundaries in the home are consistent and effective. Consequences must not impact negatively on any child's relationship with their family or the time they spend with them. 20 September 2026

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered manager must ensure that children are able to experience living in a home that is homely, specifically that any documents for the purpose of monitoring Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 10 children's dental hygiene are not displayed on doors to communal areas. Where modifications, such as window restrictors, are made to the home environment, these must be individually risk assessed and subject to regular review. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraphs 3.9 and 3.10)

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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: 2483789 11

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Milestones Care Homes Ltd

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Inspector

Bethany Riley, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2483789 12 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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