Children's Home run by Nurture Support Services Limited in St Helens

Inspection report children's home: 2711439 1 Registered provider: Nurture Support Services Limited

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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 privately owned and provides care for up to 3 children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered with Ofsted in March 2023. The registered manager left the role in February 2026. The new manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection 2 children were living in the home and shared their views with inspectors.

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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 children's home: 2711439 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/05/2025 Full Good 09/07/2024 Full Outstanding 03/10/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/07/2023 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: 2711439 3

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers are operating the home outside of the conditions of registration. Children living at the home have complex needs. However, these are well met by staff.

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Summary of findings

Children are making progress. Staff work with other agencies and professionals to tailor care to ensure that children’s individual needs are met.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have high aspirations for what children can achieve and work with other professionals to improve children’s outcomes.

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Summary of findings

Staff practice is supported through purposeful reflection. Staff work well together. This contributes to staff providing children with consistent care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive individualised care to meet their specific needs. This contributes to the progress children make. One child shared with staff and professionals that they wanted to work towards goals with smaller steps. Staff ensures that the pace of change meets children’s individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have meaningful relationships with staff. Children said that staff help them. Children could identify individual staff who they have strong relationships with. Children said that staff listen to them. Staff support children to ensure that their views and feelings are understood by others. However, care plans do not explicitly demonstrate how children contribute to their care plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress in education. One child is encouraged to develop their talents outside of college, with their artwork present around the home. College staff commended the consistency between home and school in supporting the child’s needs. Another child learns from home with an online tutor. Staff support their engagement with a full timetable, achievable goals and by making learning fun and interactive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to understand their health needs. Staff work with professionals to ensure that children can access health services in line with their needs. Children attend specialised such as mental health services and speech and language therapy. Managers advocate for further assessment to better understand children's needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's interests are well supported through appropriate activities in line with their wishes. Staff find fun ways to engage children in activities to support them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to develop independence skills in in line with their needs including cooking and using public transport. Inspection report children's home: 2711439 4 Staff support children to maintain important relationships with people who are important to them.

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

There are clear and consistent boundaries in place for children. This helps children to feel secure. Staff work hard to prepare children for any changes using tools such as social stories.

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

Staff understand children's vulnerabilities. Staff have strategies to support children when they are struggling with their emotions.

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

Incidents are managed well. Staff work well with other agencies such as the police to ensure that approaches to supporting children are sensitive. This has led to individual strategies which are consistent for children.

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

Physical intervention is used as a last resort to keep children safe. Managers complete detailed, quality debriefs with both staff and children. This helps staff to reflect on how they can adapt their practice to children's changing needs. Children develop their understanding of their behaviours and share what works best for them.

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

There are improvements in the quality of recording of incidents. Records demonstrate a greater level of detail around staff responses and the rationale for decision-making.

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

Safer recruitment practices are in place to ensure that staff are safe to care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have responded to concerns about the operation of the home appropriately. The provider made an application to vary the home’s conditions of registration.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and deputy manager work well together. There is a good mix of staff, some with considerable experience of working with children with complex needs. Staff feel valued and work collaboratively to consider the care they provide.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is targeted training to support staff to meet children's needs. However, there are missed opportunities in terms of engaging with specialist input in a timely way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings are well attended by staff. The content of meetings is comprehensive with a focus on ensuring that staff work in a consistent way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recordings of staff supervision show that detailed, reflective discussions take place with a balance between personal and professional support. Managers talk to staff about ways to improve practice. Practice issues are managed well and in a timely way with appropriate measures used to limit impact on children. Inspection report children's home: 2711439 5 Annual staff appraisals are manager led. They do not show the input of staff or include feedback from children or professionals involved in the children's care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monthly reports by the independent person do not include robust information to corroborate their conclusions about the safeguarding of children. This does not impact on children’s safety and experiences. Inspection report children's home: 2711439 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, 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in 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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that the home is operated in line with the conditions of the homes' registration. 30 September 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported to view and contribute to their own records, including care plans, in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home's arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home's care. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 65, paragraph 15.5)  The registered person should ensure that staff appraisals should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and children in the home's care. ('Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.5) Inspection report children's home: 2711439 7

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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 children's home: 2711439 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nurture Support Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 35 Prescot Road, St. Helens WA10 3UF

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Inspectors

Andrea Foreman, Social Care Inspector Gareth Dakin, His Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2711439 9 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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