Children's Home run by Westrow Care Homes Limited in Slough

Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 1 Registered provider: Westrow 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

This home is privately owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care for up to 4 children who experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, one child was living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

This was the home’s first inspection since the home and the manager were registered in March 2026.

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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 widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 2

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Summary of findings

Children’s experiences, progress and safety are inadequate. Their needs are poorly understood. This leads to unsafe decisions, a lack of structure, no education and untherapeutic, reactive practice. Safeguarding practice is weak. Children have been left unsupervised and exposed to danger, and incidents are not shared with managers or external professionals. Leadership and management are ineffective. Oversight is weak, records are inaccurate, statutory notifications are missed and systemic failures persist across the home.

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inadequate

Two children have lived at the home since it opened. Their complex and incompatible needs were not well understood prior to the second child moving in. This led to several serious safeguarding concerns, mismanagement of a child’s health condition and an unplanned ending for one child.

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inadequate

The child now living at the home does not benefit from structure, routines or consistent boundaries. Staff do not plan their time with the child effectively and lack the confidence and competence to meet the child’s needs. The staff team’s communication with the manager is inconsistent. This has led to some impulsive and poorly judged decisions. These actions show limited consideration of practical or safeguarding arrangements and do not support the child’s safety or progress.

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inadequate

The child has not accessed any formal education since moving in, and there is no clear plan to support their learning. References to learning through activities are overly optimistic and do not help the child to develop a positive mindset about education.

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inadequate

The child’s health needs are not consistently prioritised. Staff arranged for a trip to a theme park at a time that clashed with an important medical appointment arranged the previous day, which does not demonstrate sound professional judgment. This has not shown the child that their health is taken seriously, and it remains unclear whether the appointment has been rearranged.

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inadequate

The child is not always treated with dignity and respect. For example, one decision about limiting their contact with a parent lacked clear rationale, and dismissive language in records indicates a lack of empathy and trauma-informed understanding. Boundaries used by staff are inconsistently applied and vary significantly, resulting in disjointed and unreliable care. Consequently, the foundations of good parenting are not in place. Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 3

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

Children are not protected from harm. Staff practice does not demonstrate that they take effective action to keep children safe. Staff frequently work in isolation from external safeguarding professionals and from the registered manager. Records do not provide sufficient detail about the decisions staff make to promote children’s safety, limiting leaders’ ability to understand, review or improve safeguarding practice.

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

Children have been frequently left unsupervised, both inside and outside the home, exposing them to preventable harm. Examples include one child being left alone in a staff car, being given access to a staff member’s personal mobile phone and not being supervised effectively in a shop, which enabled the child to purchase vapes. On another occasion, waking night staff left 2 children unsupervised for an undetermined period, which resulted in them harming themselves. These concerns have continued since the child became the only child living in the home.

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

Staff do not intervene effectively when children gain access to dangerous items. On one occasion, staff left their keys unattended, enabling a child to open the knives and sharps drawer. The rationale given for not intervening was inappropriate as the child was allowed unrestricted access to dangerous items without challenge. This incident was not shared with the manager, undermining oversight and limiting opportunities to improve practice.

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

Information-sharing with external safeguarding professionals is poor, creating the risk of a closed culture. This prevents partner agencies from fulfilling their statutory duties and increases risk to children. One child’s social worker was unaware of recent serious incidents and was therefore unable to monitor the child’s progress.

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

Staff do not demonstrate effective practice when responding to behavioural incidents. Management oversight is weak and lacks clear rationale, even when there are repeated breaches of boundaries and safeguarding expectations. Neither staff nor managers show a secure understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities, and this means the child continues to be at risk of avoidable harm.

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

Safe recruitment processes are not consistently applied. Staff have joined the home without the appropriate checks, exposing children to potential risk. Leaders do not demonstrate sufficient oversight of recruitment processes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has good intentions for the home and the child and brings a therapeutic background that positively shapes their approach. However, alongside the wider leadership team, they have not been able to embed effective practice across the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Oversight of staff practice is poor, and the manager does not have a clear understanding of the actions that staff take. Serious safeguarding incidents have not Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 4 been shared with the manager in a timely or effective manner, resulting in delayed responses. This raises concerns that other incidents may have occurred without the manager’s knowledge or oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Serious concerns about staff practice have been identified across several members of the team, yet no formal performance management action has been taken.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Required referrals to the local authority designated officer have not occurred. Serious incidents, including when the police have been called to the home, have not been notified to Ofsted, undermining regulatory oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is insufficient oversight from the responsible individual, and their limited presence in the day-to-day running of the home does not provide assurance that the manager’s practice is being quality assured effectively. A lack of transparency from leaders with the independent visitor further highlights systemic safeguarding failures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff and managers do not demonstrate a clear understanding of the actions, boundaries and planning that children require. The staff team is not working cohesively, and day-to-day arrangements for children are poorly planned. When the management of incidents has not gone to plan, management oversight is weak, with too much focus placed on children’s behaviour rather than staff actions. This lack of leadership has been a consistent feature against a backdrop of poor staff performance and children being at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children’s records are contradictory and do not provide an accurate account of staff practice, making it difficult to understand what has occurred. Some recordings are fundamentally incorrect, including references to physical interventions and missing- from-home episodes that did not take place. This further demonstrates weak management oversight and ineffective monitoring of practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 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

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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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

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)(iv)(v)(vi)(b)(e)) 7 September

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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— 7 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 6 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(f))

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ii)(ix)) 7 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. 7 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 7 The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home;

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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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) (3)(d))

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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

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 each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 7 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

is instigated; or 7 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 8 concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

the other persons, bodies or organisations (if any) who or which have been notified; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter;

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Requirement Due date

must be made or confirmed in writing. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e) (5)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(b)

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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: 2864163 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Westrow Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 389 Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 5QL

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Inspectors

Emma Haskell, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Ashley Edwards, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2864163 10 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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