Children's Home run by Child First Limited in West Sussex

Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 1 Registered provider: Child First 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

This home is privately owned and is registered to provide care for up to 5 children aged between 8 and 18 who experience social and emotional difficulties. There were 4 children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

Children refer to the staff caring for them as ‘adults’ and so they are referred to as such throughout this report.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since May 2024.

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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 for children’s home: 2716876 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/07/2025 Full Good 01/10/2024 Full Good 28/11/2023 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 3

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Summary of findings

Children like living in this home. Adults know children well, and work with them to make progress and reach their goals.

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Summary of findings

Adults ensure that they build positive relationships with children and their families, and promote that relationships with family members is important to them.

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Summary of findings

Managers and leaders are committed to providing the best quality of care for children and work hard to identify and implement any areas of development.

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Summary of findings

Children in this home would benefit from further support around independence planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy in the home. They enjoy where they live and have positive relationships with adults. Children feel that they are well cared for and say that they feel able to talk to adults about any worries they may have. This has enabled all children to make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults have positive relationships with children and speak about children with pride. When incidents occur, staff complete thorough, child-centred key working with children to help them to understand their feelings and to encourage reflection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to maintain positive relationships with their families. This helps them to strengthen their identities and to maintain positive and loving relationships with those closest to them. Adults support children to navigate these relationships, even when they can be tricky.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to manage their emotions effectively and progress has been seen in this area. Parents and professionals have noticed positive changes in children’s abilities to manage and express their emotions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some children in the home are engaging in education. Adults support these children well and ensure that they have everything necessary to fully engage in their education. Other children in the home are not attending education or employment. Adults are helping these children to explore different options regarding their education, employment and future ambitions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is homely. Communal areas are welcoming, clean, tidy and decorated to a high standard. Children’s bedrooms are personalised in line with their own likes and preferences. However, not all bedrooms are kept clean and tidy. One child’s Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 4 bedroom was extremely unclean and untidy, and contained various bowls of food that had not been cleared for several days.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are not well prepared for independence. While some areas of independence are encouraged, independence plans are sparse and there are limited oversight and encouragement of these. Children who are nearing independence are not encouraged to make good use of their time, and the support they receive from adults to prepare them for life outside of the home is limited.

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

Although allegations are rare, when they are made, they are well managed. Leaders and managers refer and notify promptly and investigate accordingly. Children are listened to and supported, and both adults and children benefit from debriefs and the space to reflect on incidents.

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

Physical intervention is used as a last resort. When it is used, it is in the least restrictive way possible. Adults have a good understanding of using physical restraint appropriately and proportionately. When physical intervention is used, there is an appropriate level of leadership and management oversight, which includes input from the restraint training lead.

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

When children have gone missing from the home this has been managed well. Adults make every effort to locate children, ensure that they stay in touch with them and communicate with the professional network. When children return home, they are spoken to with curiosity and consideration is given as to how to best support them going forwards.

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

Adults manage behaviours that challenge effectively. They have a good understanding of children’s individual needs and any potential triggers for specific behaviours. Leaders and managers identify and consider the impact of these behaviours on the wider home and work proactively to reduce this where possible.

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

Incident recording in the home is good. Adults work hard to produce child-focused records, which give adequate context. Managers and leaders provide effective oversight of records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has effective oversight of the home. She has a positive relationship with children and adults, and the children speak fondly of her. The registered manager is aware of the strengths and areas of development for the home and shows positive insight regarding any improvements that could be made to the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 5 Adults enjoy working in the home. They have sound knowledge of the children that they care for and speak about them with dedication. Adults say that managers and leaders are supportive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults work hard to build positive, sustainable relationships with children’s parents. Parents said that children are well looked after in the home and have been impressed with the quality of care that children have received. One parent said, ‘There is nowhere else I’d rather her be looked after, they do a fantastic job.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults receive appropriate and comprehensive training as part of their roles. This is reviewed regularly and consideration to training specific to children’s needs takes place monthly. However, one adult joined the home and had not received the home’s safeguarding training. While leaders and managers advised that the adult had completed the same training in another role, they were unable to evidence of this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor visits the home monthly as required. However, their reports provide little critical analysis or recommendations for improvements to the home. The independent visitor rarely obtains feedback from parents or professionals and neither does the registered manager. This lack of challenge has not been addressed by leaders and managers. Consequently, the scrutiny of the home is limited. Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 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, 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that the home environment is clean and maintained to an acceptable standard for children. 7 October 2026

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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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 arrangements are in place to— 7 October 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 7 plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iii)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that all children who are nearing independence are supported by independence plans tailored to their own needs.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from monitoring, including actively gaining feedback from parents, carers, professionals, children and staff internally and other external mechanisms. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded in the home’s workforce plan. In particular, that transferable qualifications for staff are seen, checked for compatibility and held on file. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

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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: 2716876 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Child First Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 62 The Street, Rustington, Littlehampton BN16 3NR

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Inspector

Sheniz Hudaverdi, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2716876 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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