Children's Home run by Nova Childcare Services Ltd in Walsall

Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 1 Registered provider: Nova Childcare Services 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

The home is owned by a private organisation. It provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2025 and is suitably qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspectors were aware during this inspection that serious child protection allegations were being investigated by the appropriate authorities. While Ofsted does not have the power to investigate allegations of this kind, actions taken by the setting in response to the allegations were considered (where appropriate) alongside other evidence available at the time of the inspection to inform inspectors’ judgements.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspection started on 10 March 2026. Inspectors returned on 22 April 2026 to gather additional evidence in line with Ofsted inspections and visits: deferring, pausing and gathering additional evidence policy.

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Information about this children’s home

At the start of the inspection, there was one child living in the home. The child had left the home by the time the additional evidence visit was completed. The child spoke with the inspector during the inspection.

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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 the child is not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of the child are poor, and they are not making progress. Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 2 Date of last inspection: 22 September 2025

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

This home was judged as inadequate at a full inspection on 22 and 23 September 2025. A compliance notice was issued under regulation 13, the leadership and management standard.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A monitoring visit on 18 November 2025 found the compliance notice was met. This is the home’s first inspection since the compliance notice was lifted. Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/09/2025 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 4

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Summary of findings

Serious and widespread safeguarding failures have a significant and ongoing impact on the quality of care for the child. Staff practice is inconsistent, with weak routines, poor professional boundaries, ineffective recruitment checks and failures to follow safeguarding and listening processes. As a result, risks to the child are not consistently identified or reduced.

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Summary of findings

Leadership oversight and monitoring systems fail to recognise patterns or improve practice. There are some strengths, including a well ‑ planned move into the home, support to develop independence skills, effective partnership working with external professionals and the positive involvement of a psychologist. However, these do not outweigh the serious safeguarding weaknesses.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Serious and widespread failures in safeguarding arrangements at the home have significantly affected the quality of care provided to the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home, and the same child has then left the home. Planning by leaders and managers ensured the child experienced an organised and supported move into the home. This approach helped the child to develop some positive relationships with the manager and staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not consistently provide the child with effective routines or clear boundaries. As a result, the child spends long periods of the day in their bedroom, with meals regularly brought to them, and staff do not take sufficient action to encourage meaningful engagement or structure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The manager understands the child’s barriers to education and has taken steps to encourage learning through planned educational activities and training opportunities. However, staff have not been effective in engaging the child, who increasingly spends long periods of the day in their bedroom and does not participate in meaningful educational activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child is supported to develop their independence skills. The child enjoys cooking with staff and is being encouraged to develop routines for their personal care. Staff help the child to understand their health needs through meaningful conversations. This approach encourages the child to share their views, wishes and feelings and to explore their individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child is supported by the manager and staff team to meet with external professionals and to learn about their roles. They help the child to explore the different Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 5 options for communication to enable them to feel safe and confident in sharing their views regarding their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home environment is comfortable, with photos of the child displayed in the lounge. There are board games that the child enjoys playing with staff and that also contribute to their learning. There is a spacious garden with a trampoline that the child enjoys. Leaders have implemented a monitoring system to ensure that any repairs are completed promptly. This helps to ensure the child is living in a safe home environment that reflects their needs.

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

Safeguarding practice for the child is inconsistent and has resulted in some avoidable incidents. Staff do not consistently follow the guidance in place to reduce all risks. As a result, the child has been able to access substances that pose a risk to their health, obtain money inappropriately and go missing from the home for significant periods. When the child has gone missing, staff and managers have responded appropriately and liaised with all relevant persons with the aim to locate the child as swiftly and safely as possible.

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

Some staff have formed inappropriate relationships with the child. Staff engaged in unsuitable conversations that normalise homophobic and sexualised language, which managers have identified as being dismissed by staff as ‘banter’. Leaders recognised this was a sign of a poor safeguarding culture and acted promptly to try to address these issues. In addition, staff who witnessed this behaviour did not raise concerns with managers, which resulted in the child being exposed to inappropriate and harmful interactions. Leaders started to address these issues through supervision, formal letter processes, discussion and learning within the wider staff team meeting and providing additional expectations around more professional language being reinforced.

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

Overall inspectors found that recruitment records are generally well organised and most checks take place before staff are employed. However, recruitment processes for a significant few are not always sufficiently robust to safeguard children. Managers do not consistently follow up on concerns raised from checks and do not take the action needed to make sure all staff are suitable to work and care for children.

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

Staff do not consistently follow the processes in place to help the child raise concerns with an independent person when there has been an incident or missing episode. After incidents that are difficult to manage or when the child has left staff sight, procedures require the child to be offered this opportunity to speak with a person independent of the home or incident. This is intended to support reflection and enable the child to raise any concerns that may have arisen with the staff dealing with that incident. However, staff did not provide the child with this opportunity following most incidents, which limited the child’s ability to share their views and raise worries about their experiences. Managers and staff receive support from the home’s psychologist to help them better understand the child’s needs. The manager proactively arranges the psychologist’s involvement in meetings with external professionals to support a coordinated approach.

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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 6 When an allegation was made, the manager responded promptly and worked effectively with relevant professionals so that the child felt listened to. The manager also liaises appropriately with external professionals when the child goes missing from the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the manager and responsible individual have worked with staff to address identified shortfalls. However, they have not yet developed or implemented an effective safeguarding culture within the home that keeps the child consistently safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring and review systems have been revised to consider the child’s progress and staff practice. However, these systems are not effective and fail to identify patterns or trends in incidents involving the child. As a result, opportunities are missed to recognise concerns about staff practice, support learning and improvement and address weaknesses in the quality of care provided to the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager is committed to developing a skilled team of staff to care for children. Staff value the dedication and support of the manager and are enthusiastic about their experiences of working in the home. External professionals speak about the good partnership working.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers provide staff with a training programme and supervision. This aims to develop a culture of learning and reflective practice. Staff express their pride in the positive team relationships that have been established by the training and through team meetings. An area for development is the recording of the child’s records to ensure they understand the decisions made if they seek access to these in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, there has been one complaint by a staff member. This was thoroughly investigated by the manager. This ensures that staff feel listened to and are respected. The manager and staff team value the consultations with the psychologist. This is creating a resilient staff team to support the child. Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 7

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff receive clear guidance to reduce risks to children and that this guidance is consistently followed. 7 June 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

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

promotes their welfare. 7 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that monitoring and review systems are effective in identifying patterns and trends in the quality of care for children.

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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 individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; 7 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 9 the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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Requirement Due date

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)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that recruitment processes are robust and that concerns identified from previous employment are fully explored.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2828269 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nova Childcare Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 77 Holyhead Road, Birmingham, West Midlands B21 0LG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Taylor

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Inspectors

Siân Heffey, Social Care Inspector Louise Naylor, Social Care Inspector Kev Brammer, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: 2828269 11 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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