Children's Home run by Midlands Care Services in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 1 Registered provider: Midlands Care Services

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home was registered with Ofsted on 6 July 2023 to provide care for up to 4 children who may experience emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and has been in post since April 2026. They have submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living in the home, who spoke with the inspector.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 9 December 2025

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/12/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/10/2024 Full Good 06/02/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 3

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Summary of findings

Safeguarding arrangements ensure that staff understand children’s individual risks and vulnerabilities. Children are supported to take age-appropriate risks and prepare for independence in a safe and well-managed way. The child living in the home feels settled living here. The home is still not fully staffed, and this remains an area for improvement. Changes to practice recently implemented by the new management team are not yet fully embedded and so the impact on children cannot be evaluated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm, welcoming and decorated to a good standard. There are plenty of social spaces for children and staff to relax, watch television and eat together. Children’s bedrooms are maintained to a good standard and are personalised to reflect their individual interests. The garden is secure and well maintained, providing a suitable space for children to play safely. Children feel comfortable inviting their friends to visit them at their home and staff ensure that these experiences are positive for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to engage in meaningful and creative educational activity when they cannot attend school, including physical activities and online learning. Managers appropriately challenged one child’s school when the child was upset about how the school staff were responding to them. Managers have been proactive in working with external professionals to find another school place. This child enjoyed a 10-mile hike with staff when they asked for support in becoming more physically active.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have worked hard to support children to develop their independence skills, including money management, using their free time and safely navigating public transport. Staff are confident in talking to children about the risks of being out in the community. This means that the child living in the home is developing the skills to be able to safely enjoy time outside the home and understand the boundaries in place around this. When appropriate, staff encourage children to talk about the decisions made in the home and to contribute to planning for activities, food choices and holidays they would like. This ensures that children feel valued and develop positive self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff are invested in building positive relationships with the people who are important to children. Family members say staff always keep them updated about how their child is making progress and that they find managers are responsive to any concerns that they may raise. This ensures that children’s sense of identity is supported and these relationships are treated respectfully. Managers worked collaboratively with external professionals to ensure that one child was fully supported to return to their parent’s care. This included committing to ongoing relationships with both the child and their family to provide them with stability and support. Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 4 Staff ensure that children are supported to access health services to maintain their physical and emotional wellbeing. Staff talk to children to build positive and respectful relationships with them so they feel able to share any concerns or worries they may

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

have. Staff are sensitive when talking to the child living in the home about consent and healthy relationships. Although the staff team is relatively new, the child said there are staff members they are comfortable talking to about these things. This helps the child to feel safe and valued. However, the child uses vapes and, although staff discourage this, they have not offered any smoking cessation advice. Similarly, staff have not spoken to children about the importance of maintaining a balanced and healthy diet. This has the potential to impact on their overall wellbeing and development.

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

Staff know what to do when children go missing and managers and leaders have appropriate oversight of any such incidents. There have been no missing episodes for the child living in the home. Staff have spoken to the child to help them understand the risks of going missing and potential risks in the community. Staff have also talked to them about respectful and consensual relationships, and advocate for children by providing external specialist support to improve their understanding. The child said they are comfortable talking to staff about these things.

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

Medication is stored and managed appropriately by staff. There have been no incidents of self-harm since the last inspection. Managers and leaders are working with staff to ensure that routines and boundaries in the home remain consistent for children. Staff talk to children about how they would like to acknowledge their successes, and this ensures that incentives are individualised to the child. The child living in the home is invested in the positive reward scheme that has been put in place to recognise the progress they are making.

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

Measures are in place to appropriately monitor children’s safe access to the internet in the home. Staff complete training to keep children safe online and when they are using social media. However, staff have not talked to the child living in the home about these risks, either when they are out in the community or to help them understand how to keep themselves safe when they are using social media. This means that children may not be able to recognise the risks of being online or using social media and be confident in how they can keep themselves safe.

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

Staff encourage children to share their views about the care they receive. When a child makes a complaint managers investigate this appropriately and use any learning to improve staff practice and experiences for children. However, it is not always clear how managers make children aware of the outcome of their complaint or how they help children understand the actions that have been taken.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has been impacted by a period of management and staffing instability. The manager and deputy manager are suitably experienced and knowledgeable but have Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 5 only recently come to work at the home. The home is not fully staffed and half of the staff team at the time of the inspection, including the Registered manager and Deputy manager, are still in their probation period. No agency staff have been used in the last 2 months and managers and leaders have made the decision not to move any more children into the home until the home is fully and appropriately staffed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff have access to specialist training through an external psychotherapist to develop their knowledge and skills, helping them to respond to children therapeutically. Staff say that they find this support valuable. They also say that they find the changes being implemented by the new management team positive, but these are not yet embedded. Staff receive regular supervision but the quality of this has been impacted by the changes in managers since the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Door alarms are in place on the bedroom of the child living in the home and are used every night. Managers and leaders have not ensured that staff talk to the child about why an alarm is used on their bedroom door. As a result, they are not being helped to understand risk and the strategies to reduce it. Local authority consent for door alarms to be used is not recorded. In addition, staff and managers do not regularly evaluate the ongoing risk to ensure that this restriction remains appropriate. This is a breach of the child’s right to privacy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff do not reliably record information in children’s records. This has been a recurring shortfall in staff practice, meaning that managers and leaders are not able to ensure that they have effective oversight of the care children receive. Managers and leaders are aware of this and have delivered enhanced training and targeted resources to invest in this area of staff development. However, the frequency of recording and the quality of records for children are still not consistently good enough.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Safer recruitment checks are not always fully completed for new staff. This could mean that children are cared for by unsafe adults. Managers and leaders acknowledged this shortfall and have a plan to take action to satisfy themselves that safer recruitment checks are always undertaken. Independent visitor reports are not always completed monthly or to a consistent quality. This does not support managers and leaders with oversight and assurance of the quality of care provided to children. Managers and leaders have taken steps to appoint a new independent visitor. Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 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 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 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 has sufficient staff to provide care for 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;

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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 1 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 7 feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received;

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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)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) In particular, the registered person must ensure that they implement effective monitoring and review systems to oversee and improve the care children receive. In addition, they must ensure the workforce can provide consistent and skilled support to children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance;

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Requirement Due date

so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child’s age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 1 July 2026

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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

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2 (6). (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d)) In particular, the registered person must ensure any gaps in previous employment for staff are satisfactorily explored prior to the offer of employment. 1 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 8 The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month and that the quality of the reporting is good enough to support managers and leaders with their overview of the quality of care provided to children. (Regulation 44 (1)) 1 July 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they share the outcome of children’s complaints or allegations with them, as well as any follow-up actions taken. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13))  The registered person should ensure that staff talk to children about the risks of being online and how to use social media safely. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19))  The registered person should ensure that staff support children to navigate local health services, advocating on their behalf when necessary and appropriate. In particular, staff should help children to understand the risks of vaping to their health and support them to access smoking cessation services. Additionally, staff should support children to understand the importance to their physical wellbeing of maintaining a balanced diet. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including

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Recommendations

the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.8))

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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: 2725985 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Midlands Care Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Office 1, Izabella House, 24-26 Regent Place, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 3NJ

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Inspector

Helen Dickens, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2725985 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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