Children's Home run by Birtenshaw in Bolton

Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 1 SC470797 Registered provider: Birtenshaw

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home is part of a large charitable organisation. It provides care for up to 4 children who may have learning disabilities, physical disabilities and/or sensory impairment.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of the inspection, 4 children were living at the home and they spent time with the inspector.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2023.

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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 good

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good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/07/2025 Full Good 17/09/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 01/08/2023 Full Good 02/08/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 3

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Summary of findings

Children are making good progress and benefit from nurturing, child-centred care provided by a stable and committed staff team.

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Summary of findings

Staff understand children's individual needs, promote communication, support family relationships and provide experiences that enhance children's development and independence. Children's safety is central to practice, and staff know how to safeguard and protect children from harm.

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Summary of findings

Managers and staff work effectively with parents and education and health professionals to meet children's needs. However, some areas require further development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Having lived together for 12 months, the children have developed warm and trusting relationships with staff. The strength of these relationships and the consistent child- centred approach to care from staff has supported them to make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are nurturing and responsive to each child's individual needs. They implement well-planned routines that promote predictability and consistency. These routines help children to overcome barriers and engage in everyday life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have a good understanding of each individual child's communication needs. Using the Picture Exchange Communication System and visual prompts, the children are involved in their day-to-day care. They choose their meals and the activities that they would like to do each week.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand and support the health needs of children. This includes working with health professionals and parents to ensure that children's health needs are met. The manager ensures that staff have the appropriate skills and knowledge to meet the children's complex health needs and support them to manage lifelong conditions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have developed good relationships with parents and support children to spend meaningful time with their families. Children have regular family time and parents visit the home each week. The staff regularly share updates on children's progress and achievements, which helps parents to feel involved in their child's daily life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff sensitively encourage children to develop essential life skills, such as attending to their personal hygiene, helping to prepare meals and taking responsibility for simple household tasks, such as taking laundry to be washed. This helps children to develop skills to become more independent. Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 4 Children attend the organisation's school and staff work closely with education colleagues. They share information daily and manage any issues appropriately and sensitively. This joined-up approach provides consistency for children. As a result, children are settled, enjoy attending school and maintain excellent attendance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access activities in the community to participate in activities that they would not normally be able to do. These include going for walks, beach visits, trampolining, cycling club and visits to sensory play areas. Children also attend birthday parties with friends from school and enjoy an annual caravan holiday. These experiences enhance the children's life experiences.

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

Children's safety is consistently at the centre of staff practice. Staff provide supervision and support that reflect each child's assessed needs, both in the home and out in the community. This approach significantly reduces children's exposure to unnecessary risks. Parents said that staff keep the children safe and there have been no incidents of children going missing from care.

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

Staff have a good understanding of children's emotional and communication needs. They recognise when children are unhappy and communicate with them so that the child's concerns are addressed promptly.

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

Children are protected from harm. Staff understand and follow the home's safeguarding procedures. When concerns arise, the manager takes appropriate action and escalates concerns to relevant safeguarding professionals.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the children's risks and underlying needs. Individual risk assessments clearly identify vulnerabilities and provide guidance and strategies for staff to follow. However, on one occasion, staff did not follow the agreed strategies, resulting in a missed opportunity to intervene at an early stage and prevent a child from continuing to self-injure.

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

Staff provide calm, nurturing care and understand the behaviours that children display as a result of their needs. Staff use calming strategies identified in the children's individual behaviour support plans to help and support them. Physical interventions are only used when necessary to prevent a child harming themselves or others. However, on one occasion, the manager did not have clear oversight of an incident to ensure that all appropriate action was taken.

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

The home environment is welcoming and bright. Children have access to age- appropriate toys and sensory equipment. Photographs of the children are displayed around the home. However, some maintenance issues need to be addressed by the manager to ensure that children continue to live in a safe and well-maintained home. Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager was not available during the inspection. In her absence, the deputy manager oversaw the day-to-day management of the home with support from the assistant director of care. Both are knowledgeable about the children's individual needs and vulnerabilities. The deputy manager is dedicated, child centred and ambitious for children. These qualities are reflected across the staff team. Staff spoke positively about children and shared a clear commitment to improving their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a stable staff team in place that is providing consistency for the children. Staff demonstrate a strong ethos of teamwork, and they said that they feel supported by the management team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a comprehensive training programme. Staff complete training during induction and access regular, ongoing learning opportunities. However, the manager has not ensured that all staff complete training that is specific to children's needs, including pica, self-injurious behaviours and deprivation of liberty safeguards. This means that not all staff have the skills and knowledge required to meet children's specific needs consistently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision sessions and appraisals follow a comprehensive agenda that covers all appropriate areas of practice. However, the manager has not ensured that these sessions are regularly carried out with staff. This limits opportunities for staff to develop their practice and identify any learning needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings take place that focus on children's needs and progress. These meetings provide staff with opportunities to share ideas, knowledge and skills. This helps to develop consistency in the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team advocates for children across all aspects of their lives, including education and health. They maintain positive and effective relationships with external professionals to ensure that children's holistic needs are met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager regularly reviews and updates the home's statement of purpose. However, updated versions have not always been submitted to Ofsted within the required timescales. This limits the regulator's oversight of significant changes in the home. Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 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 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff are following the child's risk assessments and, if necessary, use physical intervention to prevent the child from harming themself. 15 September 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; 15 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 7 and promotes their welfare.

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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 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;

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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)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all staff complete training in pica, self-injurious behaviours and deprivation of liberty safeguards to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet children's individual needs.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(vii)(viii)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that maintenance issues are identified and rectified in a timely way. This includes replacing the drain cover outside the laundry door, 15 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 8 and deep cleaning or replacing the children's bathroom floors and kitchen floor.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair. Specifically, ensure that this is in the management oversight of all physical interventions. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 48, paragraph 9.36)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when the statement of purpose has been reviewed, a copy of this is shared with the regulating body. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,' page 14, paragraph 3.5)

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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: SC470797 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Birtenshaw Darwen Road, Bromley Cross, Bolton BL7 9AB

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Inspector

Simon Jones, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC470797 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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