Children's Home run by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in TamesideOfsted inspection, 26 Aug 2026

Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 1 SC357979 Registered provider: Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

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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 is a local authority home. It provides care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2026.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, 2 children were living at the home. The inspector spoke to both children.

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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

Date of last inspection: 12 September 2023

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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: SC357979 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/09/2023 Full Good 08/06/2022 Full Good 08/02/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/06/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 3

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Summary of findings

Staff are child focused and committed to understanding and meeting children’s individual needs. They work well with external professionals and respond promptly to emerging and changing risks, putting appropriate measures in place to safeguard children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, 2 children were living at the home. Since the home began accepting children in March 2026, 2 children have moved in. No children have left.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are being helped to develop positive relationships with staff. A child spoken to was able to identify members of staff whom they trust and can rely on for support. This contributes to children feeling safe and secure in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves into the home are carefully assessed and planned. The registered manager takes a proactive approach to gathering information and meets with people who know the children well, to develop a thorough understanding of the children’s needs. Children are supported to visit the home before moving in. They are supported to meet some of the staff team and become familiar with their surroundings. This helps children to feel welcomed and involved in their care planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s individual health needs are well understood. Staff encourage children to take responsibility for their health and provide them with age-appropriate guidance and support, to help them make healthy and safe choices. This includes encouraging them to access services that will help them understand and manage their sexual health and make informed decisions that protect them from harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with children’s social workers to ensure that children can spend time with the people that are important to them in a safe and planned way. Staff understand the importance of these relationships and recognise that children may take significant risks to see people who are important to them, if they do not have opportunities to maintain these connections. For example, staff have carefully considered why one child might go missing from home and have taken action to ensure that the child can maintain those relationships in a safe and supportive way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to attend education. When there are concerns about children’s attendance or engagement, staff use incentives to encourage children to participate. Furthermore, staff work in partnership with education providers to consider causes to children’s disengagement and strategies that can be used to improve this. Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 4

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

Children’s risks and vulnerabilities are well known by staff. Good management oversight of children’s risk ensures that strategies for protecting children are being used effectively.

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

There is a proactive response when children go missing from home. Staff use their knowledge of the children and known areas that they visit to inform their search. They work closely with external professionals to ensure that there is a co-ordinated approach to locating children quickly. Children are routinely supported to speak to someone about the reason they went missing from home. This ensures that additional measures to reduce missing-from-home incidents can be considered and implemented.

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

Staff go through a rigorous process to determine their suitability to care for children. Leaders and managers ensure that, where appropriate, a review of staff capacity to meet children’s needs is undertaken and measures are put in place, to safeguard children and the staff.

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

Partnership working is a strength of the home. Staff recognise the value of working closely with external professionals and actively draw on their specialist knowledge to inform the care provided to children. Communication between the home and partner agencies is effective, enabling staff to respond to children’s changing needs and implement targeted support.

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

Staff generally respond well to incidents and take appropriate action to safeguard children. However, some significant incidents have highlighted areas where the response has not always been timely or effective. Leaders recognise where improvements are needed and take action to address these. Following incidents, appropriate safeguarding measures are put in place to reduce risk and keep children safe.

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

Staff generally speak with children about their safety and welfare following incidents and provide reassurance and support. However, planned direct work around children’s identified risks is not always completed. This means that opportunities to help children improve their understanding of their risks and safer ways to manage these are missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is committed to providing good care to children and is highly regarded by both staff and professionals. She has a good understanding of the individual needs of the children and knows the strengths and areas of development in her staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a comprehensive training programme in place. However, some staff training is out of date and leaders and managers have not ensured that training is refreshed in response to children’s current needs. Consequently, leaders and managers cannot be assured that staff have the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to respond effectively to children’s individual needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 5 Staff benefit from good support systems. Team meetings provide staff with regular opportunities to reflect on challenging incidents and consider what could have been done differently. They also support and encourage a consistent and cohesive approach across the staff team, to ensure that staff work together.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision, which provides an opportunity for them to receive support and discuss their work. Staff feel listened to by the registered manager, who has a good understanding of their needs and responds appropriately when additional support is required. This includes recognising when increased staffing is needed and putting additional resources in place to support staff and children. Supervision could be strengthened by providing opportunities for staff to reflect individually on incidents, as an additional approach to developing staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers routinely review incidents and there is evidence that learning from incidents is used to put strategies in place to improve safeguarding measures. Reflection on incidents also takes place in team meetings. However, individual debriefs with staff do not always take place following significant incidents. Those debriefs that do take place, do not always evidence meaningful reflection on practice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 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, The 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders, managers and staff must support children to engage in direct work about their personal safety, based on children’s identified risks and vulnerabilities. 18 November 2026

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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

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. (Regulation 13 (1)(b) (2)(a)(c)(h)) 18 November 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 7 Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that meaningful debriefs with staff take place. These debriefs should consider staff practice and any areas of development.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that the home’s mandatory training is up to date and any needs-led training refreshed, to ensure that staff have the most up-to-date knowledge on how to meet the needs of children effectively.

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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: SC357979 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Tameside One, Market Place, Ashton-Under-Lyne OL6 6BH

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Deborah Smolka-O’Brien

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Inspector

Chibuzo Otache, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC357979 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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