Children's Home run by Glan-Life Children’s Services Ltd in Herefordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 1 Registered provider: Glan-Life Children’s Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care for up to 2 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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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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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager registered with Ofsted in May 2026. The registered manager is on a planned period of absence. An interim manager has been appointed to cover this period and is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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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: 2880365 2

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Summary of findings

Significant shortfalls in safeguarding practice and leadership have compromised children’s safety and experiences. Leaders have failed to provide consistent and effective oversight of practice to ensure that staff follow safeguarding procedures and respond appropriately to risks for children. As a result, children have not always been adequately protected from harm, and weaknesses in management oversight have resulted in poor practice not being addressed in a timely manner.

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Summary of findings

Leaders shared their proposed plans to upskill the staff team and prioritise training in line with the identified shortfalls that have been highlighted during this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Significant shortfalls in safeguarding practice and the leadership of this home have seriously compromised children’s safety, experiences and progress. Leaders have failed to provide effective oversight or ensure that staff follow procedures to protect children from harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Not all children are supported effectively by staff and leaders to attend and engage in their education. Leaders have failed to take timely and effective action to advocate for one child’s educational needs and appropriately challenge the wider network to ensure that all available options are fully explored to support the child to re-engage with education. This has resulted in missed opportunities to promote the child’s learning, development and academic progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s wishes and feelings are not captured effectively. Leaders are unable to sufficiently demonstrate how staff seek children’s views and what impact this has on decisions about their care. As a result, opportunities are missed to fully understand what matters to children, to respond consistently to their individual needs and to continually reflect on how the quality of care they receive can be improved. Consequently, leaders and staff miss critical opportunities to improve children’s experiences and ensure that they feel heard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There are inconsistencies in the support children receive to promote and maintain their health. Staff support children to attend routine health appointments and, where required, access specialist health provision. However, multiple medication errors have highlighted inconsistent guidance from staff for one child to support them in taking their prescribed medication. While leaders have begun to implement changes, completion of medication training for all staff has not been prioritised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff and leaders demonstrate a strong commitment to promoting and facilitating children to maintain positive relationships with family members and others who are significant in their lives. As a result, children sustain important relationships, helping to Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 3 promote their sense of identity, belonging and emotional wellbeing. However, for one child, staff and leaders failed to carry out the necessary assessment to ensure that the individuals the child spends time with are safe. This increased the child’s potential exposure to avoidable harm. Leaders failed to identify and address this issue in a timely manner, limiting opportunities to provide staff with clear guidance and learning to prevent recurrence.

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

Safeguarding practice is ineffective and fails to ensure that all children are safe. Leaders and staff routinely miss opportunities to identify emerging risks and to equip children with the skills they need to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

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

Staff and leaders fail to ensure that children are adequately protected from online risks. They have not ensured that appropriate restrictions are in place or that children’s electronic devices are checked consistently to identify, at the earliest opportunity, whether children are at risk of, or have been exposed to, harmful online content. These shortfalls have increased children’s vulnerability and exposed them to avoidable risks.

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

Children do not routinely experience support and guidance from staff and leaders to help them to understand risk. Staff do not consistently identify opportunities to provide children with meaningful discussions, guidance and safety planning. As a result, children are not adequately equipped to recognise potential risk and respond appropriately to unsafe situations, which increases their vulnerability to experiencing harm.

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

Leaders do not consistently ensure that children’s individual information regarding the risks they face is up to date, sufficiently detailed or reflective of their current needs and presenting vulnerabilities to harm. Staff are not provided with clear and effective guidance about the actions they should take to manage known risks and keep children safe. As a result, children have experienced inconsistent guidance from staff when risks to their safety have been identified, increasing their vulnerability to harm.

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

Children understand how to raise complaints and can identify whom they can approach if they feel worried or unsafe. When children raise concerns, leaders ensure that they are appropriately investigated. They inform children of the outcome and provide support. This helps children to feel that their views are heard and reassures them that their rights will be upheld. However, leaders have missed opportunities to consider how relationships between children and staff can be repaired following these events.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders’ monitoring systems are ineffective and fail to protect children from harm. As a result, staff do not always receive the support and guidance they need at the earliest opportunity to strengthen their practice and improve outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children’s case records are not consistently reviewed or evaluated by the leadership team. Record-keeping is inconsistent and vague, with entries often left unchallenged by Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 4 leaders. Leaders fail to identify incidents where staff have not demonstrated appropriate professional curiosity. As a result, serious shortfalls in practice have not been identified. This systemic weakness means that children’s care and safety continue to be compromised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of staff supervision is variable, and supervision is not taking place at the frequency set out in the home’s internal policy. This lack of effective oversight means that staff are not supported effectively to reflect on their work and develop their practice. This has limited the extent to which learning is embedded, affecting the quality and consistency of care that children experience.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders do not ensure that staff receive the training necessary to develop the knowledge and skills required to meet children’s individual needs. Systems for monitoring staff training are not sufficiently effective in identifying and addressing delays in the completion of essential training. As a result, children experience inconsistent and, at times, ineffective responses from staff that do not meet their safety and developmental needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

During the inspection, leaders demonstrated reflection on the impact of the identified shortfalls on children’s safety. They provided assurances and evidence of the immediate steps being taken to strengthen safeguarding measures and improve the effectiveness of risk management. Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 5

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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

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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 and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must be able to recognise risks and take prompt and effective action to ensure children’s safety online.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, children’s individual risk assessments must be updated to reflect their current safety needs and provide staff 28 September 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 6 with clear guidance on the actions they must take to safeguard children from harm.

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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

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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 deliver 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

In particular, the registered person must ensure that monitoring and review systems are effective and drive continuous improvement in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, staff must receive high-quality and timely supervision and training that meet their development needs and, crucially, enable them to respond effectively to the needs of the children in their care. 28 September 2026

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

that staff— 28 September 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 7 help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(x)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that— 28 September 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 8 medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b)(c))

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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 signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 28 September 2026

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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: 2880365 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Glan-Life Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Bulls Yard, Glanmeheli, Ceri, Y Drenewydd SY16 4LN

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Inspector

Charlotte Tippett, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2880365 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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