Children's Home run by Sycamore Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2828167 1 Registered provider: Sycamore Care 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

The home is owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care for up to 2 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties and/or have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager registered with Ofsted in May 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living at the home. The inspector spoke with the child as part of the visit.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 29 October 2025

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none. Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/10/2025 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 3

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Summary of findings

Children living in this home have made varied progress. Moves in and out of the home are well planned and staff support children well during transitions. Staff spend time with children which helps them to develop relationships.

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Summary of findings

Staff respond well to children’s health and education needs and provide opportunities for children to enjoy activities in line with their interests.

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Summary of findings

However, shortfalls in the safeguarding practice and leadership and management of the home have impacted on children’s safety and overall experiences.

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improvement to be good

One child has moved into the home since the last inspection, and one child has moved out. The child’s move out of the home was a positive and well-planned move, to semi- independent living.

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improvement to be good

Staff invest time getting to know the child them and are keen to learn about their interests. Staff use this understanding to arrange activities for the child that they enjoy. This helped the child to settle well into the home.

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improvement to be good

However, leaders and managers have not ensured that placing authority documentation for the child moving into the home was accurate. For example, the child’s care plan referred to the home where they lived previously. This means that staff do not have access to the relevant information that is needed to provide care in accordance with the child’s identified, and current needs.

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improvement to be good

The child is supported to express their views about the care that they receive. The child said that they are happy living at the home and feel that staff listen to them.

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improvement to be good

Staff have a good understanding of the child’s individual health needs and take effective action to ensure that these are met. For example, staff arranged a review of the child’s medication, which ensured that the child was provided with a treatment plan in accordance with their specific needs.

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improvement to be good

The child is supported to spend time with their family. This helps them to maintain positive relationships and supports their emotional wellbeing.

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improvement to be good

Staff work in partnership with a range of professionals to support the child’s learning and progress. Education and social care professionals speak highly about staff and their effective joint approach to meeting children’s needs. Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 4

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments include the child’s current risks. However, there is not clear guidance for staff on how to respond when children go missing from home or misuse substances. As a result, the response to safeguarding incidents is inconsistent.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding practice is not consistently effective and there is not an agreed response on how incidents should be managed. For example, incident records identify that the response to the child being missing from home varies. Some staff search for the child immediately; in other instances, these searches are unnecessarily delayed. The frequency of those searches also differs. Leaders and staff have also not ensured that the child has had the opportunity to speak to an independent person about the incident when they return home.

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improvement to be good

Welfare checks following concerns that a child has misused substances are not consistently completed. A staff member spoken to, shared that their decision to complete welfare checks and the frequency of those checks was informed by their previous experiences of working with children.

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improvement to be good

Safer recruitment practice has not been followed consistently. One member of staff was permitted to work in the home for several months without valid security clearances being in place. In addition, leaders and managers have not demonstrated that in all cases where staff have worked with vulnerable children, they have attempted to verify the reason the employment ended. This does not show that all reasonable steps have been taken to assess the suitability of staff before they work with children.

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improvement to be good

Staff have meaningful conversations with the child about their safety and wellbeing and help the child to think about the possible consequences of their choices. These discussions give the child opportunities to reflect on their behaviour and make informed, safer decisions.

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improvement to be good

Leaders, managers and staff ensure that health and safety checks are routinely conducted. This ensures that the home environment is physically safe for the child to live in.

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

The home is led by a suitably qualified registered manager. She is supported by an experienced deputy manager. The registered manager was absent during the inspection. Consequently, the deputy manager supported the inspection with assistance from the responsible individual.

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

Children’s records are not clearly organised. As a result, there were delays in records being made available during the inspection. Furthermore, despite the effort of the deputy manager to find the statutory review minutes for one child, these could not be located. Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 5 Staff spoken to say that they feel supported. Supervision records are of good quality. However, leaders and managers have not consistently identified shortfalls in safeguarding practice following incidents. This means that areas of poor staff practice have not been consistently addressed in supervision. This is a missed opportunity to support staff to reflect on their practice and learn from incidents.

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

Training and team meetings are used to support staff learning and to reinforce expectations around the quality of care that children receive. Despite this, there are inconsistencies in safeguarding practice, evidencing that these processes are not being consistently embedded into staff daily practice.

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

There are shortfalls in management oversight. In addition to shortfalls in safeguarding practice being missed, leaders and managers have not ensured that there are effective systems in place to immediately notify Ofsted about serious incidents in the home.

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

Furthermore, the independent visitor has failed to send all regulation 44 reports to Ofsted. Leaders and managers confirm that they were not aware of this until it was raised during the inspection. This shows a lack of oversight of the independent monitoring process. Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 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

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

Leaders and managers must ensure that each child has a safety plan that provides staff with clear strategies on how to manage the child’s identified risks. This includes risks related to children being missing from home and substance misuse incidents.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders, managers and staff must ensure that when children are missing from home, they search for them without delay. 25 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that effective monitoring systems are in place to identify shortfalls in staff practice.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that that children’s care planning documentation is on their file and accessible to external auditors.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that arrangements are in place for regulation 40 notifications to be submitted in the absence of the manager. 25 September 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;

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character; 25 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 8 the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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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. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that staff have an up-to-date DBS before being permitted to work in the home.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that where potential candidates have worked with vulnerable children in their previous roles, reasonable steps are taken to verify why that employment ended.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)).

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that children’s care plans reflect the current care arrangements for the child. 25 September 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(e)). 25 September 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that they are assured that the independent person has sent a copy of the independent person’s report to Ofsted. 25 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 9

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Recommendation

 The registered person should consult with the placing authority, to ensure that an independent return home interview is offered to a child within 72 hours of their return, following a missing from home incident. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home 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 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: 2828167 10

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Sycamore Care Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Office 08 Business First Ltd, Empire Way, Burnley, Lancashire BB12 6HH

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Inspector

Chibuzo Otache, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2828167 11 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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