Children's Home run by Wakefield Council in Wakefield

Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 1 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Registered provider: Wakefield Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home is run by a local authority. It provides care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties. Children move into this home for a period of assessment to assist in the planning for their move on to permanent care arrangements.

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Information about this children's home

The home was registered with Ofsted in October 2025. The manager registered at the same time and has oversight of this home and another of the provider's registered homes.

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Information about this children's home

This is the home's first inspection. At the time of the inspection, 2 children were living in the home, and 5 children have been supported to move on to permanent care arrangements. During the inspection, the inspectors saw one child and tried to speak with the other child who was staying away from the home.

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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: 2850622 2 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Summary of findings

Leaders, managers and staff have not consistently safeguarded children and promoted their welfare. They have not ensured that children's moves into the home have been informed by a detailed assessment of needs. This has impacted on children's care experiences, and there are serious and widespread shortfalls that have resulted in children being placed at risk of harm.

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Summary of findings

Children have accessed hazardous items, and there has been an increase in risk related to children going missing from the home.

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Summary of findings

The registered manager has not consistently ensured that all staff have the required information and skills to meet children's needs. This has resulted in children and staff experiencing distressing and prolonged incidents. On occasion, staff have used physical restraint techniques without the necessary knowledge or training.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Serious shortfalls were identified in the help and protection of children and the leadership and management of the home. These shortfalls have negatively affected the overall progress and experiences of children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff have not managed the dynamics between children effectively. Leaders and managers have attempted to mitigate this by supporting children to have various holidays and time apart. However, this means children have experienced multiple changes in their care arrangements, directly affecting the quality and consistency of care that they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have mixed experiences of living in the home. Some children have made good progress because of the care offered by staff and have been supported to move on to permanent care arrangements. However, other children have not.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children's engagement in education has been varied. Staff encourage children to attend school and have transported children to out-of-area education provisions. However, staff have experienced challenges supporting some children to access education, and this has been hindered by frequent changes in children's care arrangements due to difficulties arising at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff support children's health needs, ensuring that children are registered with health services. Staff access advice and support from specialist services, and this helps them understand the children's emotional and mental health needs. However, not all children have specialist emotional wellbeing support available to them, despite this being an evident need. Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 3 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff develop relationships with children's parents, and children are able to enjoy positive quality time with their families. Staff listen to the children and support them to access activities, in line with their hobbies and interests.

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

Leaders and managers have not consistently ensured that children's moves into the home have been informed by a detailed assessment of needs. This has impacted on some children's care experiences, resulting in children being at risk of harm.

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

Staff have not consistently taken timely and effective actions to mitigate and reduce risks to children. Children have accessed hazardous items that could cause harm to themselves or others. In addition, children have not been prevented from having unsupervised access to social media. The shortfalls in staff practice resulted in breaches of children's legal plans and placed children and others at risk of harm.

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

Children have gone missing from the home. One child did not have a plan that provided relevant agencies with the information needed to help reduce risks and support efforts to locate the child. Staff encourage children to share their views on their return from being missing. However, children do not have the opportunity to speak to an independent person. This limits their opportunity to share any concerns with someone independent of the home to help understand why they went missing and what happened while they were away from the home.

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

Staff have not always helped children when they are angry or anxious. Staff are unable to de-escalate children's behaviours effectively, and this has resulted in significantly prolonged incidents. Staff have received significant injuries, and children have been distressed and frustrated due to barriers in communication. On one occasion, children were detained overnight by police. These incidents have been distressing for children and staff, and children are at risk of being criminalised due to police involvement.

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

On occasion, staff physically restrain children to keep them and everyone else safe. These techniques are only used when necessary and as a last resort. However, leaders and managers have not ensured that staff have suitable skills to carry out the restraint. Furthermore, delays in management oversight have meant that lessons are not being learned to help prevent reoccurrence.

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

Leaders and managers have not notified the children's placing local authority or Ofsted of significant incidents. However, concerns regarding staff practice have been shared with the local authority designated officer, enabling some independent oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not consistently promote the welfare and safety of children, and their oversight of incidents and staff practice has been ineffective. Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 4 OFSTED USE ONLY

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The challenges around the dynamics of children resulted in a deterioration in the quality of care provided to some children. While leaders and managers recognise this, they have not ensured that timely and effective oversight is in place for all children, including when children stay away from the home. This has resulted in missed opportunities to protect children and ensure that they are consistently cared for by suitably skilled staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager and staff have experienced a challenging time, which has been further compounded by the need to increase staffing. Despite this, staff talked positively about the support that they receive from the registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have access to regular reflective supervision sessions. These sessions provide staff with opportunities to discuss the children's needs, their own wellbeing and their practice and development. Newly appointed staff experience a detailed induction into the home. Team meetings are well documented and show collaboration with other agencies to share specialist advice around the children's emotional wellbeing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Professionals' feedback was consistently positive regarding the registered manager's and staff's commitment to the children. One child's team manager noted that staff have provided invaluable information to help inform the suitability of the child's permanent care arrangements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders, managers and staff have ensured that damage to the home has been repaired in a timely manner and have worked hard to ensure that the home is a homely environment. Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 5 OFSTED USE ONLY

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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

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

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)(iv)(v)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that staff are aware of all actions that they are required to take to support children in line with their plans and legal plans.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered manager must ensure that staff have access to all missing-from-home plans and support a coordinated agency approach to reduce risks to children when missing from the home. 30 August 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 30 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 6 OFSTED USE ONLY

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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

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.

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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)(c)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that children's suitability assessments carefully consider all relevant information, including essential information that may impact or inform decisions regarding the compatibility and quality of care for children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered manager must ensure that all staff have the necessary skills to support and communicate with children and have the appropriate training to use physical restraint techniques.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that when children return home from being missing that they are provided with the opportunity to have an independent return home interview from someone independent of the home. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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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 Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 7 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Information about this inspection

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: 2850622 8 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Bond Street, Wakefield WF1 2QW

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Inspectors

Gina Lightfoot, Social Care Inspector (lead) Rachel Ruth, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2850622 9 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Inspectors

regulates 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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Inspectors

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