Children's Home run by Assure Care Homes Ltd in Hampshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 1 Registered provider: Assure Care Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home provides care for up to 5 children with learning disabilities and social communication difficulties. At the time of the inspection, there were 5 children living in the home.

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Information about this children's home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since January 2026.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 23 September 2025

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/09/2025 Full Good 22/01/2025 Full Good 17/05/2023 Full Good 10/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 3

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Summary of findings

Children benefit from warm, nurturing relationships with staff and are making progress in communication, independence, education and social experiences.

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Summary of findings

Staff understand children's individual needs, support successful moves into the home and provide a range of enriching activities. However, managers have not consistently ensured that children are protected. Oversight of restraint, consequences and care planning is not sufficiently effective, and opportunities to learn from incidents have been missed.

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Summary of findings

One child did not receive a medical assessment following a serious incident, and Ofsted was not notified. Improvements are also needed to the home environment, in health and safety monitoring, in record-keeping and for further clarity around safeguarding arrangements. Despite these shortfalls, staff feel well supported, recruitment is generally effective, and professionals report positive recent improvements, with one child described as 'thriving'.

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improvement to be good

Children's overall experiences and progress are judged as 'requires improvement to be good' due to weaknesses in how children are helped and protected and the effectiveness of leaders and managers.

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improvement to be good

Children have positive relationships with staff. They are cared for by an enthusiastic staff team that speaks about their affection for the children and the impact they can make in children's lives. Children seek out staff, and they enjoy spending time together.

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improvement to be good

Children make progress in many areas. Most children are non-speaking, though some children have begun to use more words because of the strategies that staff use to encourage them. When children do not speak, staff know how each child prefers to communicate using their preferred communication aids. This means that children can make a wide range of choices about their preferences throughout the day. Some children's independence skills have also improved. For example, they can look after their own personal hygiene with less support.

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improvement to be good

The majority of children are in full-time education and making progress academically. When children arrive at the home without a school place, staff work effectively with relevant professionals to provide alternative learning opportunities to support educational engagement while working with education professionals to identify a suitable school place. This helps to minimise the impact on children's education. Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 4 Children enjoy a range of activities. The home is well equipped with play equipment and sensory spaces for children to relax, play and develop useful life skills in the home, such as cooking. Children access their local community to exercise, use swimming pools and go to trampoline parks and the cinema. This means that children have enriching experiences.

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improvement to be good

Children who move into the home have well-planned experiences. They have opportunities to visit the home and meet staff and other children. Managers work well with professionals and families to gather information about children and make an informed assessment about their ability to meet children's needs. As a result, staff understand how to support children well. This helps children to settle as quickly as possible.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager has made improvements to the look and feel of the home since the last inspection, particularly in the children's bedrooms, which are now highly personalised and contain lots of personal items. However further work is needed in communal areas of the home that require redecoration and repairs, while the flooring on the ground floor is not well fitted. Managers have plans in place to address these issues as part of a scheduled programme of maintenance and improvement.

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improvement to be good

Management oversight of the ongoing health and safety maintenance of the home is not fully effective. One understairs cupboard was found to contain combustible items, which was prohibited by the fire authority when reviewing the risk of fire in the home. This presented an unnecessary risk to the children. Managers took action to correct this during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

At times, staff have needed to use restraint to keep children safe. Managers review the use of restraint to ensure that it was necessary and proportionate. However, managers have not always critically analysed the quality of the response from staff or identified where further action may be needed. For example, one child suffered a minor injury during a restraint. Although the incident was reviewed by managers, opportunities were missed to identify how the injury occurred and identify any potential learning arising from the event.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not consistently ensured that children receive a medical assessment following unplanned interventions. One non-speaking child sustained injuries during a serious incident involving members of the public while away from the home, and staff did not witness how the injuries occurred. As a result, the child did not receive appropriate medical advice. The registered manager also failed to notify Ofsted of this incident, undermining regulatory oversight.

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improvement to be good

The processes that are in place to speak to children about their experiences of restraint are not always applied. For some children who are non-speaking, staff use Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 5 communication aids to understand children's feelings after restraint. However, for other children, opportunities to ask about their experiences, and identify potential learning, have been missed.

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improvement to be good

When children experience longer periods of emotional difficulties, managers work with other professionals to review and adapt the support they receive. They look to identify the reasons behind the child's distress, make changes to their care where needed and share relevant information with those involved in the child's life. For one child, these changes helped to reduce the frequency of their distress and improve their overall wellbeing.

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improvement to be good

There are systems in place to manage medication administration safely. Errors have occurred rarely, but, when they have, these have been identified quickly because of strong auditing systems. Managers review the circumstances that led to the error to identify learning and make changes to practice where needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Records of restraint are detailed. However, the language used does not clearly describe the actions taken by staff. This makes it difficult for children who may wish to access their records to understand how staff supported them and limits effective external scrutiny. The manager plans to introduce additional oversight from a qualified restraint instructor, although this has not yet been implemented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers have introduced new monitoring systems since the last inspection, including reflective practice sessions and a monthly audit of the home. However, several of the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection have not been adequately addressed and have been restated. Additionally, management oversight has not been effective at identifying further shortfalls seen during this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There is not always a clear link between a child's behaviour and the use of consequences. As a result, children miss opportunities to engage in restorative work so that they can learn from their experiences. Management oversight of consequences has not been effective at identifying where consequences are not appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Children's plans are not always up to date or do not contain necessary information. One child's plans were not up to date with the level of support they needed with personal care. Additionally, children's plans do not provide clear guidance for staff on when small children should be lifted and carried and do not provide instruction around clear professional boundaries. As a result, staff reported different understandings of what is appropriate. This means that the care provided to children is inconsistent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Recruitment practices are effective and help reduce the risk of unsuitable people working with children. Managers have been successful in recruiting to fill staffing vacancies following a period of higher staff turnover and use of temporary staff. However, arrangements to manage a potential conflict of interest for one worker connected to a Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 6 safeguarding leader have not been sufficiently robust. While regular staff understand how to report concerns, safeguarding reporting arrangements are not clearly defined.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Feedback from staff about the support they receive from managers is consistently positive. They say that managers are approachable and available when they need them. Staff say they have the training they need to meet children's needs. They speak positively about their experiences of induction and feel welcomed by the wider team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Professionals who work with the home say that they have noted recent improvements in the communication that they receive from the home. For example, one social worker said that they now receive more frequent updates about children's experiences in the home. Another social worker said that the child in their care is 'thriving'. Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 7

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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

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the description of the use of restraint is accurately recorded in language that is helpful to children or others who may provide scrutiny of records in order to understand the actions that staff have taken to help children.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered person must ensure that all children are consistently spoken to about the use of restraint in ways that are most appropriate and accessible to them.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 31 August 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

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

promotes their welfare. 31 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the oversight of incidents consistently includes analysis of the incident and is able to identify how practice could be improved where appropriate.

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that children receive appropriate professional medical assessment or advice when children receive injuries, particularly when the circumstances of how the injuries were obtained are uncertain.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered person should ensure that there are systems in place to monitor the compliance with professional fire safety assessment to minimise unnecessary risks to children. 31 August 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 31 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 9

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any consequences used in the home are restorative and help children to understand natural consequences. The registered person should consistently review the effectiveness of the measures being taken. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that children's case records detailed in Regulations 35-39 are kept up to date while they remain in the home. In particular, the manager must ensure that all records, including risk assessments and support plans, are updated with relevant information that is consistent and guides staff to deliver effective and consistent care and support for children. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person should ensure that the home is decorated and maintained to a

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Recommendations

high standard and that any necessary repairs are addressed promptly. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that where there are potential conflicts involving related staff members who may be involved in the safeguarding reporting structure, there is a robust review of how risk is mitigated and how other staff are informed of alternative reporting procedures. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 53, paragraph 10.9')

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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: 2529331 10

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Assure Care Homes Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Tuctyn, Nutburn Road, North Baddesley, Southampton SO52 9DX

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Newman

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Inspector

Glen Strowbridge, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2529331 11 regulates and inspects to 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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