Foundations Wigan

Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 1 Foundations Wigan Progressive Care Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

This residential family centre is registered to provide support for up to six families at any one time. The centre is privately owned.

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Information about this residential family centre

Families access the centre at the direction of the family court or the local authority for the purpose of assessment. Parenting assessments are usually completed over a 12-week period, but may be extended if agreed with the local authority or following court instruction.

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Information about this residential family centre

The registered manager left her role in July 2025. A new manager started in September 2025. She has applied to register with Ofsted and is working towards the required qualification.

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Information about this residential family centre

At the time of this inspection, there were no families living at the centre. There have been no families residing in the centre since July 2025.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account good

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and parents are helped and protected good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The residential family centre provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Overall experiences and progress of

Date of previous inspection: 9 April 2025

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Overall experiences and progress of

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 2

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Summary of findings

A restructure of the senior leadership and social work teams has introduced an additional layer of management support and oversight, strengthening safeguarding practice and the overall operation of the service.

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Summary of findings

The service manager provides wraparound support and monitoring to a newly appointed manager overseeing the centre, ensuring effective leadership and governance. Senior leaders recognise that workforce stability is essential to achieving positive outcomes for families and continue to focus on strengthening and retaining the staff team.

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Summary of findings

Parenting assessments are analytical, evidence-based, and demonstrate clear professional judgement. Regular quality assurance reviews of assessments and reports help to maintain consistently high standards. Assessing social workers work collaboratively with the staff team to inform and direct individualised key-work sessions, ensuring interventions are tailored to meet the specific needs of parents and families. Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Parenting assessments are analytical and evidenced based. They clearly identify areas of strength and vulnerability in relation to parenting capacity. Assessment frameworks are adapted to meet the needs of parents with learning difficulties. Senior social work practitioners conduct regular quality assurance assessment reviews to ensure that the reports are accurate and to a good standard. Parents are made aware about what will take place during the assessment process and how their reports will be shared with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

There are now sufficient assessing social workers in post to ensure that caseloads are manageable and assessments can be completed effectively. Senior managers are actively recruiting to fill two remaining vacant social work positions within the region to further strengthen capacity and resilience across the service. Social workers report that they are well supported by leaders and managers and value the positive working relationships within the team. They receive regular professional supervision, which promotes reflective practice and professional development, alongside access to a range of relevant training opportunities that enhance their knowledge and skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Assessing social workers and managers collaborate closely with the staff team to direct and tailor individualised key-work sessions for parents. Thorough oversight is in place for assessment work to ensure that staff are guided to adapt their practice to meet the needs of each parent. Daily colour-coded records enable parents’ progress with direct work and parenting capacity to be tracked effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Records evidence that staff build trusted and positive relationships with families. The provider has obtained feedback from parents and professionals who report positively about families’ experiences in the centre.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Staff attend workshops to enhance their knowledge in key areas such as NHS guidelines for basic parenting tasks and healthcare, promoting parent independence and to explore the purpose of family assessments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Residents’ meetings are held monthly to provide parents with the opportunity to share their views about the centre and identify any improvements they feel can make a difference. Families are offered a range of child-focused activities to help them engage with their children. In-house education for parents who choose to engage with it is also available.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

When families are preparing to leave the centre, they are supported with housing, benefits and sign posted to the relevant agencies to support their move. When the outcome for families is separation, staff are sensitive to their circumstances and provide a good level of support to parents. Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 4

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

There has been a significant improvement to how safeguarding matters are reported, overseen and reviewed. All serious incidents relating to families are overseen by the safeguarding lead, the service manager, the head of family assessment and the social worker. When there are patterns of concerns for families, they are escalated to the social work practice manager and the placing authority, with a meeting raised so that emerging concerns are responded to appropriately. This means that there is a joint approach to safeguarding practice and protecting children.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The staff team understands and ensures that children’s safety is a priority. Risk assessments identify known areas of vulnerability. They are individualised, updated regularly and provide staff with clear guidance about the actions that they are required to take to keep children safe. Consequently, all safeguarding matters such as safe sleeping, safe handling and managing family conflict have been responded to promptly and appropriately by the staff team.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Safety plans and weekly monitoring review meetings with placing authorities are implemented when family’s supervision levels have needed to increase to safeguard the child. Leaders and managers appropriately challenge placing authorities when there are concerns about parents’ capacity to keep the child safe and the suitability of the assessment continuing.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The manager has undertaken safeguarding workshops with the staff team to revisit their knowledge associated with recording and reporting safeguarding matters, safe monitoring using closed-circuit television, whistleblowing procedures and terminology that supports and cares. This has embedded staff understanding of their roles and responsibilities to safeguard families during assessment.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

There have been no allegations or complaints raised by parents. However, staff understand the action that they are required to take without delay should a concern be raised with them. The complaints process is also signposted for parents to access.

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good

A new manager has been appointed to oversee the centre and is receiving active support from the service manager through regular wraparound visits, monitoring and professional guidance. This additional oversight is helping to strengthen leadership capacity and ensure effective governance within the service.

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good

Although there are currently no families residing at the centre, the manager has continued to demonstrate commitment and leadership by supporting her staff team and helping managers across the organisation’s other assessment centres. She is keen to further develop her leadership and management skills and is focused on Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 5 rebuilding and strengthening the staff team in preparation for new families moving into the centre.

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good

The team continues to have a high level of new and inexperienced staff to support families. Some staff left their roles when the service had no families living here. New staff have been recruited. Since the last inspection, there have been improvements in the staff team. However, the senior leadership team recognises that the workforce needs to stabilise further to support families effectively.

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good

On one occasion, senior leaders did not notify Ofsted and the local authority designated officer (LADO) of concerns regarding the practice of a member of the leadership team who no longer works for the company. Furthermore, the fact-finding process and records evidencing the rationale for decisions made by senior leaders were not sufficiently clear or comprehensive. These shortfalls limited transparency and the ability to fully scrutinise management decision-making.

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good

Despite this, oversight by the service manager ensured that the concerns were identified promptly and appropriate action was taken to safeguard the family. Immediate measures were implemented to reduce risk, and managers demonstrated a commitment to learning by undertaking reflective work with the wider staff team. Lessons learned from the incident were shared to strengthen practice, improve professional accountability, and reduce the likelihood of similar concerns arising in the future.

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good

There has been a restructure to the senior leadership team. This has provided an additional level of support and layer of scrutiny to the operation of the service. Senior managers are less stretched and able to support the manager in her role more effectively.

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good

The manager’s training matrix is organised. It ensures that she can track whether staff are up to date with the training required to support families. New staff are progressing through their induction and probationary periods. The manager evaluates how staff respond to their induction and reviews the effectiveness of the process based on observations and feedback from staff practice at regular intervals.

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good

Team meetings have continued to take place monthly to ensure that the staff team can come together regularly. The manager has used these meetings to keep staff informed about the plans for the centre and to drive improvements in staff practice. All staff have monthly practice-related supervisions. Staff reported that they feel well supported by the senior leadership team and that this has been important during a time when staff have been required to work at other provisions.

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good

Leaders and managers have implemented additional systems to improve the operation of the centre and families’ experiences. Some of these are yet to be tested out when families start accessing the centre. This includes a system to ensure that letters of instructions and admission documents are received in the initial stages of the assessment process. The quality of the independent visitor reports has also improved following a new independent visitor having been appointed. Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider and the registered manager shall, having regard to the size of the residential family centre, the statement of purpose, and the number and needs of the residents, carry on or manage the centre (as the case may be) with sufficient care, competence and skill. (Regulation 8 (1))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, when leaders and managers identify staff practice concerns, fact-finding records must clearly evidence the action taken and decisions made by senior leaders. 13 August 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall ensure that there is, having regard to—

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Requirement Due date

the statement of purpose of the residential family centre, its size and the numbers and needs of its residents; and

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Requirement Due date

the need to safeguard and promote the health and welfare of residents,

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Requirement Due date

a sufficient number of suitably qualified, competent and experienced persons working for the residential family centre. (Regulation 15 (a)(b)) 13 August 2026

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Requirement Due date

If, in relation to a residential family centre, any of the events listed in column 1 of the table in Schedule 5 takes place, the registered person shall without delay notify the persons indicated in respect of the event in column 2 of the table. (Regulation 26 (1)) 13 August 2026

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 7 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 8

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider: Progressive Care Limited

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Registered provider address:

Email address: info@progressivecare.co.uk

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Inspectors

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Zillah Brooks, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for residential family centre: Foundations Wigan 9 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 children who are looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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