Children's Home run by First Steps Care Ltd in Birmingham

Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 1 Registered provider: First Steps Care Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home is owned by a small, private company and registered with Ofsted in June 2025.

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Information about this children's home

The manager is working towards their qualification and has been registered with Ofsted since June 2025. The suitability of the responsible individual has yet to be determined by Ofsted.

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Information about this children's home

The home provides care for up to 2 children who may have experienced emotional and behavioural difficulties. There were 2 children living in the home at the time of inspection.

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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: 2819115 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/01/2026 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 3

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Summary of findings

The home is welcoming and cosy. Children feel involved in decisions about their care and their home. Children get on well with one another. They are supported to build strong relationships by spending meaningful time with each other as well as with those most important to them. Children say that they feel safe and the adults care for them well. Children's families are happy with the care that children receive and feel that the adults understand them well. Safeguarding practice is robust, and collaborative working with partner agencies is a particular strength. Children know how to make a complaint and have confidence that it will be taken seriously. Adults are confident and knowledgeable about the children's needs and how to support them. Leaders have effective oversight of the home. They promote an inclusive environment for children and adults and celebrate diversity. This supports children's sense of belonging and broadens their understanding.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience nurture and stability. Leaders ensure that they gather information from a wide range of people who know children well to help them identify their needs and understand their experiences quickly when they move in. As a result, children experience well-planned moves that reduce their anxiety. Adults build relationships with children at a pace that is comfortable for them, which develops trust. One child said that adults always explain their decisions, which helps them to understand, learn and move forward.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults reward children for their effort and achievements. They set goals with children to work towards, such as accessing education, building independence skills and taking part in household tasks. Children are invested in systems of reward because they helped to develop them and the incentives are motivating. This is supporting children's progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults are dependable. Children feel confident and comfortable to share their feelings with all adults. They say that they feel listened to and have confidence that their views and suggestions will be acted on. Adults advocate for children well. For both children, this has resulted in changes to their care plans that better reflect their needs and reduces their risks. This makes children feel heard and empowered.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults are supporting children's progress in education. They make effective use of specialist assessments to better understand children's needs and how they learn best. For one child, they have developed a bespoke timetable around their individualised needs and interests. This supports them to engage with learning. Another child who was previously not in education is now attending full time and their reading ability has significantly improved. This is helping children to reach their potential and creating opportunities for their futures. Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 4 Children are making progress with their health and wellbeing. Adults recognise what helps children to feel safe and secure. They share this knowledge with others to enable children to access the services and support that they need. Adults' patient and nurturing approach has resulted in one child overcoming their fear of the dentist and have

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

essential work completed. Their oral health has stabilised as a result. Adults support children to understand nutrition and the benefits of exercise and hygiene. This is helping children to make informed, healthy choices for themselves. Adults model self-care and help children to understand what it means to take care of your physical and emotional health. This has influenced one child to build their own skin care routine into their day. This is building children's self-worth and self-esteem.

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

Adults work effectively with others to keep children safe and sensitively balance risk against the wishes and feelings of children. They recognise factors that may influence children to become involved in unsafe situations. They mitigate these by supporting and promoting safer relationships, leading to increased feelings of choice and control.

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

Incidents where children go missing from home are robustly managed. Adults are tireless in their efforts to continue supporting children when they are missing and safely locate them. They maintain regular contact with children, letting them know that they are worried for them and reassuring them. This helps children to feel safe and know they are cared about. Adults effectively use intelligence gained from previous incidents to help find children safely. Leaders understand the reasons why children go missing and work effectively with partner agencies to find way to support children to reduce their risks.

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

Adults understand children's risks and vulnerabilities well. When adults identify that a child may be more vulnerable in the community, they support and educate them about the use of appropriate language and behaviour. This helps children to develop understanding and empathy and reduces risk.

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

Adults help children to keep safe online. They put appropriate safeguards and controls in place that protect children. Relevant education work is undertaken with children to increase their awareness of risks online so they can make safe and informed choices that protect them. Children understand the expectations about device and online use and why these are in place.

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

Consequences are used infrequently. When they are used, they are proportionate and largely natural or restorative in nature. When there are financial consequences for children, they are only ever repayment for damages. Children understand the consequences. Children are encouraged to reflect on incidents that result in consequences, to prevent recurrence.

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

Adults rarely use restraint. When restraint has been used, it has been necessary and proportionate to ensure the safety of children and staff, and children understand why. Children are always spoken to afterwards about the incident, which helps adults to learn Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 5 how best to support them in the future. Adults use a range of strategies to support children through distress to reduce the likelihood of physical interventions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a strong leadership team in place. They are passionate and aspirational for children and what they can achieve. They nurture relationships with adults and children, recognising the difference that positive experiences and trusting relationships can make. They advocate wholeheartedly for children and make balanced and child-centred decisions that support children's safety and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staffing is stable, which provides greater stability and continuity of care for children. This is enabling adults to further nourish these relationships. Leaders and adults use supervisions effectively to build their understanding of children's needs. They are reflective and centred around improving care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a strong learning culture in the home, with staff and leaders equally eager to continue improving children's experiences. Adults are appropriately trained and skilled to support the individual needs of children in the home. Adults are supported to develop in line with their strengths and ambitions. This makes them feel valued and helps them to progress. Adults say that they feel well supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders are committed to ensuring that the least-restrictive measures are used to support children when they are distressed. As a result, they have made changes to the training delivered to staff around restraint that better aligns with their ethos and therapeutic approach.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A particular strength is leaders' use of clinical input to develop a deeper understanding of children's needs. This is demonstrated in the independence planning for children, which is informed by clinical analysis of their experiences. This has resulted in highly individualised plans with realistic and achievable goals that are supporting independence building at children's pace.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are no requirements or recommendations. Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 6

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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: 2819115 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: First Steps Care Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Capital Office, 124-128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX

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Inspector

Kim Morgan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2819115 8 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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