Children's Home run by Devon County Council in Devon

Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 1 Registered provider: Devon County Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a local authority. The home is registered to care for 4 children who have emotional and social needs and/or a learning disability.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, 3 children were living in the home. Two children spent time with the allocated inspector and spoke with her. One child was on a break away from the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager registered with Ofsted in October 2025. This was the first full inspection since the home opened.

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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.

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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: 2829225 2

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Summary of findings

Managers and staff are not providing children with individualised care that takes account of their needs, vulnerabilities and associated risks. Staff are not helping children to understand how to keep safe in the community and online. At times, staff struggle to implement healthy boundaries between children, and this has resulted in them witnessing and participating in unsafe behaviours. Managers do not have a clear and cohesive understanding of risk in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not always feel safe in the home, and this has a negative impact on their emotional wellbeing and sense of safety. Staff do not support children to have positive relationships with each other so they can safely live together. As a result, at times, children are exposed to potential harm from one another.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not have a cohesive understanding of the children’s needs. For example, there is a lack of clarity about one child’s specific health need. Staff have therefore been unable to provide timely and effective support for the child’s health and wellbeing. On some occasions, staff have not recognised potential risk and not escalated concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff undertake regular checks of children’s bedrooms. Despite this, they have not identified concerns about the untidy conditions or some of the items in children’s bedrooms. Leaders and managers were not aware of this being a concern.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have made some progress from their starting points. Staff have supported some children to successfully engage in formal education and educational activities. Staff also support children to strengthen their ties with their family and friends. This includes using a specialist service to help children rebuild relationships with their families. The manager attends these sessions, which reinforces the importance of this work for both children and their families.

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

Staff do not have regular meaningful or impactful conversations with children about known risks. When staff do speak with children, they show limited curiosity. Children have shared safeguarding concerns during conversations with staff, but they have not been escalated. This has resulted in multiple concerns not being adequately addressed, leaving children at risk of harm.

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

At times, children’s day-to-day experiences are chaotic and confusing. Staff are ill equipped to manage the relationship dynamics in the home. This has resulted in a lack of action to prevent incidents. Staff do not support children to develop healthy coping Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 3 strategies and, consequently, children’s health and wellbeing are at risk. Sometimes, this brings them into contact with the police. There are no clear plans to address this, or to reduce this risk.

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

Leaders and managers do not always respond proactively to safeguarding concerns. Incidents related to children being in possession of knives are not well understood or addressed. Overall, staff show a lack of curiosity about children’s feelings and motivations and how this might influence their behaviours.

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

Staff do not respond promptly to concerns regarding potential sexual exploitation. They do not have a strong grasp of children’s online worlds and connections and experiences related to this. Staff are not supporting children to understand how to keep safe online.

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

Staff struggle to prevent children going missing from home. Children have been exposed to unsafe situations and environments. On one occasion, a child sustained significant harm and staff were not aware of this for several weeks. When children go missing, staff make concerted efforts to support them to return home. However, this is not always successful without the involvement of external agencies.

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

Leaders and managers have begun to collate key information about children’s peer networks. This information will be used to better understand the risks related to these connections, however, this is not yet embedded in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not have a clear or cohesive understanding of risk. Assessments relating to current risks for the children are contradictory and unclear. Leaders and managers have assessed that it is unsafe for the children to remain living together, however, they plan for them all to remain living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

When children move into the home, leaders and managers focus on why children can live together without fully considering their competing risks and vulnerabilities. This means they fail to consider how these risks might influence relationship dynamics in the home, which limits their ability to anticipate concerns and proactively safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers escalate concerns to social workers and attend multidisciplinary meetings. They work closely with external agencies in sharing these concerns, however, limited action is taken following these meetings to address the identified risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff like their work and they remain committed despite the challenging situations, which they attribute to the support they receive from the manager. However, leaders and managers do not identify or address concerns related to how staff care for children. Consequently, there is limited opportunity for staff to learn and develop their practice. Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 4

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that any concerns in relation to the safeguarding of children are appropriately identified and escalated, and that staff understand their roles and responsibilities in doing this.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that children are not harmed by one another, and that robust and swift action is taken during incidents to prevent children experiencing physical or emotional harm or taking risks together that increase their vulnerability.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that staff are provided with clear, consistent and well-documented information related to children’s risks and vulnerabilities, taking full account of their lived experiences. 30 July 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— 30 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 5 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

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)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must have a clear understanding of, and act on, any weaknesses identified with regard to staff practice and/or additional areas for development of the home.

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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 personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff deliver personalised care to children that takes account of their individual needs, vulnerabilities and risks. Children’s plans and assessments must clearly reflect this, and staff should be provided with guidance and instructions that help them to care for children. 30 July 2026

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Recommendation

 Staff should ensure that children understand how to manage their own safety both inside and outside the home, including managing their relationships with each other. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 6

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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: 2829225 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Devon County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Devon County Council, Chief Executive’s Directorate, County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter EX2 4QD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Caroline Merritt

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Holly Wilschere-Green

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Inspectors

Helen Cushnie, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Tara Webb, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2829225 8 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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