Children's Home run by Zen Care and Education Limited in Oldham

Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 1 Registered provider: Zen Care and Education 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 operated by a private provider. It provides care for up to 4 children 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.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, 4 children were living in the home. The inspectors spoke with 3 of the children.

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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 children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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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: 2775561 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/08/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/12/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 3

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Summary of findings

The children in the home do not have a safe environment in which to live. The home has broken fixtures and fittings and excessive and unsafe use of extension cables that increases the risk of fire and some areas of poor cleanliness.

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Summary of findings

Staff do not know what action to take to keep children safe. Children’s risk assessments are not sufficiently dynamic and detailed to provide staff clarity about what actions are required to manage children’s risks. Staff have not taken effective action to promote the safe return of children missing from home.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers do not have effective management oversight of the home. Concerns regarding unsafe home conditions, poor recording and safeguarding actions have not been addressed in a timely manner and have, therefore, continued.

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Summary of findings

Children in the home do experience positive relationships with staff and managers. They are engaged in positive activities and receive praise and encouragement to promote their social development. Children’s achievements are celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff are inconsistent in the care that they provide children. They do not have clear guidance and communication regarding appropriate boundaries and the expectations of children’s individual care needs. This means children receive confusing and unpredictable daily care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children experience positive moves into the home. Plans are implemented and staff work alongside these to provide opportunities for children to feel comfortable and familiar in the home before they move in. When children move in quickly, staff provide positive experiences to support children to feel welcomed. Although assessments consider the relationship between children, these do not explore all the risks identified for children. As a result, some children do not get on and there have been incidents between them. There are no clear plans to support children’s relationships with each other and reduce incidents and bullying. However, staff are responsive following incidents of conflict, offering reassurance and guidance to children affected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff gather children’s views, wishes and feelings through a variety of forums, including key-work sessions. The registered manager has implemented a new process for gathering children’s views, which is in its infancy and is not yet used consistently. When children share their views, they are not always acted upon, and children are not updated on the progress of these.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are supported to engage in education that is in line with their individual needs. When education is not in place, appropriate alternatives are sought. Staff implement Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 4 activities to promote learning and self-esteem. Some children have recently completed their exams and have plans for higher education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children can identify staff members, who they trust and who they feel confident will help them. Some children identify the home as a place that they feel safe and happy. Staff know children’s personalities well and have developed relationships that are respectful and empathetic of children’s experiences. Staff celebrate children’s successes.

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

Home conditions are poor and potential hazards to children exist. Repairs are not always identified and are not completed in a timely manner. One child has experienced no permanent light fixture in their bedroom for several weeks and another child’s bedroom has ill-fitting and broken furniture. A reliance on extension power leads has been promoted in the children’s bedrooms, resulting in the potential for accidents due to the hazards that they cause as well as the increased risk of fire. Some communal areas are littered with belongings that are no longer required in the home. The external walls of the property have exposed electrical wiring and, at the time of the inspection, it was not known if this was live.

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

Children’s risk assessments do not provide staff with the relevant information and detail about children’s risks. As such staff do not know what is expected of them to provide safe care for children. Communication between staff and managers is poor and information is not shared effectively regarding increased risks to children.

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

When children go missing from home, staff do not have the confidence to report children missing without speaking to a manager. When staff follow the expected protocol, they make efforts to speak to the child and search for them. However, attempts to sustain communication and sight of children reduce throughout the period the child remains missing. Staff lose additional lines of enquiry by delaying calls to family members. Staff do not always attend locations, where children say that they are or plan to be, failing to intervene and resulting in missed opportunities to return children home safely.

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

Staff do not always engage effectively with children to explore with them identified risks and develop strategies to keep them safe. When staff have been professionally curious, they have identified vital information regarding children’s welfare and safety. However, this is then not shared with the wider staff team. Staff do not explore this further with children to involve them in their own safety planning.

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

Staff have not prevented incidents that have occurred where children have been hurt by one another. Records of the incidents are contradictory and do not provide a clear understanding of what has happened. First-aid support is offered, when necessary, and keywork sessions are completed with children to develop their understanding on safe choices and healthy relationships. Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 5 Physical interventions are used as a last resort and only when a child is at risk of harm. However, the recording of incidents does not offer a clear picture of what interventions were used. Post-incident discussions with staff involved are not always completed within expected timescales and by the most appropriate person. The lack of detail and reflections makes it difficult to identify if the interventions used are safe and proportionate and prevents future learning and development of staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management of the home are ineffective. Concerns relating to the children’s safety and wellbeing have not been identified. Concerns that have been identified have not been addressed, resulting in children experiencing unsafe living conditions and poor care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The reporting of incidents and recording of documentation is often not completed, lacks detail or is incorrect. Managers and leaders auditing processes have not identified any of the shortfalls. The poor quality of recording has resulted in managers having a lack of oversight into aspects of the home and the care that children receive, preventing opportunities to address and develop staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not developed a comprehensive system that encourages children, family members and professionals to provide feedback. This limits opportunities for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

While staff generally feel supported by managers, there are concerns that some staff are failing to complete their role to the standards expected. This causes tensions within the team, who report low staff morale. The registered manager is addressing team concerns with support from the clinical team, who attend weekly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are supported with their practice through regular supervision sessions and team meetings. These offer opportunities for staff to discuss the progress of children, the care that they receive and the home environment. Staff are challenged appropriately regarding identified development areas. However, actions are not taken to improve children’s experiences and care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have positive relationships with children and have demonstrated a commitment to improving the care that children receive. The registered manager is receptive to feedback and has implemented an action plan to address all the shortfalls identified. Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(vi)(b)(e)) 16 August 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 7 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

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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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; 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)(a)(b)(c)(e)(h)) 16 August 2026

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that each child’s relevant plans are followed;

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Requirement Due date

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs; 16 August 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 8 the child is, or has been, persistently absent from the home without permission; or

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Requirement Due date

the child requests a review of the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(c)(e)(i)(ii)(iii)(f))

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Requirement Due date

* This requirement is subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)

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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: 2775561 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Zen Care and Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Trafford House, Chester Road, Manchester M32 0RS

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Inspectors

Emma Gauden, Social Care Inspector (lead) Sarah McGow, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2775561 10 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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Inspectors

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