Children's Home run by Keys Child Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 1 Registered provider: Keys Child Care Ltd

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Full inspection 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 private provider. It provides care for up to 2 children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager registered with Ofsted in July 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, 2 children were living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 2 December 2025

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/12/2025 Full Good 03/12/2024 Full Good 30/01/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 3

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Summary of findings

Children live in a home that is a welcoming, nurturing and homely environment. Children’s wellbeing is at the centre of staff practice. This helps children to make significant progress in all areas of their lives. This has improved children’s experiences and enhances their opportunities in adult life.

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Summary of findings

Children are supported with individualised strategies that are developed through consultation with the provider’s psychology team. Children have strong behaviour support from staff, which is modelled by staff and driven by research.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers prioritise children’s care. All staff have loving and caring relationships with children.

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Summary of findings

Staff are supported to provide children with excellent care by reflective supervision and team meetings.

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Summary of findings

Training is individualised to children’s specific needs. This ensures that staff provide consistent care to meet children’s needs effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home provides significant evidence of positive changes in children’s behaviour. This is achieved by a highly individualised and therapeutic approach to care. Staff help children to reflect on their behaviour and develop healthy coping mechanisms. Staff consistently reinforce positive behaviour. The children’s independent reviewing officer stated, ‘The children are happy and settled and have made so much progress.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff excel at prioritising children’s wellbeing. They build trusting and meaningful relationships with the children, which ensures that children’s emotional, physical and mental health needs are met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are supported to develop skills to enhance their lives. This includes skills that benefit them as children and adults, for example learning to swim and riding a bike. The children are siblings, and there has been extensive work to support the children to develop their relationship through modelling and coaching by the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have made considerable progress with education from their starting points. Children have developed resilience, which has helped them to complete exams and aspire to their future. Staff ensure that both children continue to attend their school despite having a lengthy journey to and from school. This helps to maintain important relationships for the children. One child will attend the local high school; staff advocated his wishes and feelings about this move to the child’s local authority. Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 4 The home environment is decorated and furnished to a very good standard, creating a welcoming and homely feel. Photos of the children and staff are displayed throughout the home. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to reflect their individual preferences and are decorated with their own belongings, helping them to develop a sense of belonging.

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

Comprehensive risk assessments are in place for children. These include contributions from professionals and relevant people in children’s lives. Risk assessments include potential triggers to challenging behaviour and strategies that staff use to manage behaviour. This enables staff to keep children safe.

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

Safeguarding incidents are rare. When they occur, staff respond in a timely, confident and considered manner. Safeguarding processes are followed, and relevant individuals are notified of safeguarding concerns. Incidents are significantly reducing as a result.

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

Children receive strong positive behaviour support from the staff who care for them. This is evident in the love and attention staff give to each child. Staff regularly praise children’s achievements or simply for being themselves. This approach helps children build self-awareness and self-esteem, which promotes the development of positive behaviour.

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

Staff use proactive and creative practices to enable children to work through significant and complex trauma. Staff use research-based tools to support children to understand their emotions and identity. As a result, children understand their life experiences and how these can impact on them.

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

Staff benefit from a robust training and consultation programme, featuring bespoke sessions developed by the in-house psychology service with in-depth knowledge of both the children and staff working in the home. Trauma-informed training is carefully tailored to address the specific needs of the children. This helps children and staff to consider their own responses.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team benefits from a registered manager and responsible individual who prioritise the care and love of children above everything else. One member of staff stated, ‘She is a fantastic manager who has put time and effort into me and making sure I can thrive by enrolling me onto courses to better my practice.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are robust monitoring and review systems in place. The registered manager regularly reviews children’s plans and records. There are systems in place to ensure that all placing local authority care plans and other important records are clearly accessible. Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 5 The manager ensures that staff practice is informed by research. This means that staff practice evolves in line with emerging theoretical approaches and best practice. This includes developing trauma-informed environments, language and evaluation. This ensures that children make exceptional progress from their starting points.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have access to a wide range of training. This helps staff to care for children safely and consistently. Staff training is specific to the needs of the children. Staff are trained in trauma-informed language and practice. This demonstrates that staff consistently develop their knowledge and skills to support them in their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and leaders are proactive in challenging other professionals to ensure that children’s needs are prioritised. There is effective multi-agency partnership work in place to focus on meeting objectives for children. Alongside this, managers advocate for children’s rights to ensure that they are treated fairly by other professionals.

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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: 2738017 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Child Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Third Floor, Queensway, Halesowen B63 4AH

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Inspectors

Karen Andrews, Social Care Inspector Chervone Collins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2738017 7 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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