Children's Home run by Your Care (Northwest) Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children's home: 2868659 1 Registered provider: Your Care (Northwest) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home was registered with Ofsted in 2025 and is operated by a private provider.

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Information about this children's home

It provides care for up to 2 children who may have social and emotional difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children's home

There were 2 children living at the home at the time of the inspection. The inspector spoke with both of the children.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 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 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: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children's home: 2868659 2

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Summary of findings

The home is a warm and welcoming environment for children to live in. Staff understand the children's individual risks and how they can support them. Staff build positive and trusting relationships with children. As a result, the children living in this home are making good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move into the home, key care-planning documents are used to formulate individual care and support plans. Risks are identified in initial assessments. However, records did not evidence that there was an assessment of risk in respect of children going missing from home and the location of their bedrooms.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy positive and nurturing relationships with the staff who care for them. Staff speak positively about children and understand their individual needs. This helps children to feel a sense of belonging. Staff celebrate the children's achievements. There is a stable staff team, meaning that children are cared for by people who know them well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children say they like living in the home and that they feel safer and more settled than in their previous home. They say they feel listened to by staff. Staff have regular meaningful conversations with children to ascertain their likes, dislikes and suggestions for the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Positive feedback has been received from professionals about how much progress children are making and the quality of relationships with the staff. One professional praised the staff for helping a child to advocate for themselves in respect of spending time with someone important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to stay in regular contact with people important to them even when there are geographical challenges. This has promoted a sense of stability and positive routine. Staff also support children to make choices about who they do or do not want to spend time with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to develop independence skills relevant to their interests, age, development and existing skills. Children have made progress in their education and are looking forward to starting college in courses that they have chosen. Both children have been supported by staff to spend time at their local horse stables each week.

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

Staff keep children safe in the home. Staff support children and their behaviour, meaning that incidents are rare. Staff use de-escalation techniques effectively. As a result, there Inspection report children's home: 2868659 3 have not been any incidents of staff physically holding children. Risk management plans are clear and regularly updated and provide effective guidance for staff to manage children's risks.

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

Incidents of children being missing from home have reduced. However, staff have not always known that children have left the home during the night. Furthermore, once alerted to the children being out of the home, staff did not report them as missing in line with their plans. This means there have been delays in staff taking action to locate children, which leaves them at risk of harm.

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

Staff spend time speaking to children, which helps children to feel safe and listened to. Children say that feeling listened to has helped them to trust the staff caring for them, which in turn has reduced the incidents of going missing.

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

Staff encourage the children being able to speak to them and discuss their emotional wellbeing. Mental health support is regularly offered to children in a variety of ways. For example, QR codes displayed throughout the home allow the children to seek support from specialist mental health professionals independently of staff.

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

Risk assessments are updated regularly by staff to reflect upon any patterns and changes. This enables the staff to care for the children's developing needs as well as track risk reductions.

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

The internal home environment is well maintained. However, hazardous farming machinery and an unsafe building on external land surrounding the property pose a risk to children. This was considered in the home's review of premises document. However, measures identified in this to alert children to the risk had not been implemented. This was rectified during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager lead an enthusiastic and efficient team. The registered manager is suitably qualified. Staff speak positively about the leadership of the home and the close team ethos that has been developed. The responsible individual also provides effective support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals have praised managers for communicating effectively and frequently with them, sharing important information in a timely way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children's views are sought regularly through weekly meetings as well as ad hoc conversations, and some of the resulting actions can be seen across the running of the home. Children's views feed into team meetings, home improvements and independence work. Inspection report children's home: 2868659 4 Staff and managers receive regular supervision. However, this lacks reflection with staff. This is a missed opportunity to discuss specific practice issues and identify areas for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are up to date with key training, including on topics that are specific to children's individual needs, such as self-harm, going missing from home and mental health. Staff speak positively of the learning opportunities that they have access to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight of incidents is not always effective. Discrepancies in children's plans are not identified, and managers have not identified shortfalls in staff practice when children are missing from the home. Inspection report children's home: 2868659 5

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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

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 (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that staff follow children's plans and take action to safeguard children at all times, including when missing from home. 31 July 2026

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that managers ensure that staff are provided with clear guidance on how to care for and safeguard children, that there is oversight of all staff practice and that any shortfalls are identified and addressed. 31 July 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2868659 6 The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that plans reflect children's risks and strategies are identified to mitigate these risks in respect of the location of children's bedrooms. 31 July 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff have an opportunity to reflect on their practice during individual supervision sessions. This should be recorded, as appropriate, on the staff supervision record. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 39, paragraph 8.15)

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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 children's home: 2868659 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Your Care (Northwest) Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: 64 St. Georges Park, Kirkham, Preston PR4 2DZ

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Inspector

Hannah Longdon, Social Care inspector Inspection report children's home: 2868659 8 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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