Children's Home run by Bayleaf Care Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children's home: 2857068 1 Registered provider: Bayleaf Care 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 owned by a private organisation and was registered in December 2025. It provides care for up to 4 children who may have social and emotional difficulties, and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2026. They are suitably experienced and are working towards a level 5 leadership and management qualification.

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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 spent time and spoke with 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 requires improvement to be 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: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: following the full inspection, a restriction of accommodation notice was imposed, and this was lifted on 11 August 2026. At the full inspection there were also 2 compliance notices issued, requiring the provider to address breaches under Regulation 12 and 13. These were met following monitoring visits on the 2 July 2026 and 5 August 2026. Inspection report children's home: 2857068 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/05/2026 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: 2857068 3

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Summary of findings

Overall, children have a good day to day experience at the home. They are making some progress in developing their independence skills, and in managing their emotions. Staff understand children's risks and vulnerabilities. They are vigilant in monitoring children and responding to changes in their presentation. As a result, staff help them to manage their anxieties and to keep them safe.

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Summary of findings

There has been considerable investment into staff development, and managers recognise that upskilling the staff is a continuous process. However, as a relatively new staff team, there remains some weaknesses in staff experience and skills. There have been several changes of staff during this period. This has reduced the consistency of care provided to the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide care to children that prioritises their safety and promotes their well-being. They are nurturing in their communication with children, and they are sensitive to their needs. Staff understand and apply the home’s model of care. For example, in showing acceptance to children and using curiosity to explore their feelings and actions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's physical health needs are well managed. Staff arrange and help children to attend health appointments when necessary. Children are helped to access specialist services to support their emotional well-being through internal therapy and external agencies. Managers and staff are diligent in removing any barriers and to maximise children’s engagement with services. For example, a favoured staff member attends a weekly appointment with a child, this consistency has contributed to the success of this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to access education in line with their plans. One child is making significant progress with their engagement with their home tutor. Managers have devised an education plan based around developing independence for one child, while they await formal education. While engagement is variable, they have made some progress with developing life skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to take part in activities in line with their interests. Frequent activities include art and craft, baking and going out for walks and shopping. Furthermore, staff help children to celebrate their progress and achievements through praise and rewards.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers are effective role models for the staff team in developing relationships with the children. As a result, children welcome spending time with managers and value their interactions, this often includes humour and affection Inspection report children's home: 2857068 4

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

Overall, staff understand what actions to take to keep children safe. They use the measures outlined in children's deprivation of liberty orders to promote their safety. Staff supervise children in line with their plans. Senior staff and managers make dynamic assessments about the frequency of welfare checks required to monitor children's safety and wellbeing, in line with children's presenting needs at that time.

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

Staff spend time talking with children to help them to develop strategies for managing their emotions and keeping themselves safe. As a result, children will share their worries and anxieties with staff. Managers work collaboratively with children to build their safety plans, for example, planning how to manage significant events.

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

In the event of behavioural incidents or allegations, there is a strong focus on restoration of the relationship between children and staff members. This planned and purposeful work is effective in helping children rebuild and sustain positive relationships with staff.

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

Allegations are taken seriously and well managed in accordance with the home’s policy and the child's plans. While managers do share information with partner agencies about safeguarding concerns, children's records do not show a good account of this information sharing and the responses gained. This could result in uncertainty about the action taken and outcomes reached.

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

The quality of leaders and managers’ professional working relationships is variable. There is effective partnership working with some professionals. For example, a children’s mental health practitioner highlights that they are positive and responsive in collaborative working. However, there are times where leaders and managers have not been sufficiently proactive in working with other professionals or in escalating where responses are insufficient. This has led to drift in children’s care planning, for example, delay in securing a health assessment, and where a stability meeting was required, this has led to notice being served without this taking place.

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

There has been a high number of staff changes, with nearly half of the staff team being in probation during this period. This has reduced the opportunities for children to build sustained relationships with staff. Furthermore, while the home does not use staff who are external to the company, they do draw on staff from the other homes to meet staffing levels. Having new and less familiar staff reduces the stability of the workforce, and this has at times led to inconsistencies in children’s care.

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

There are an overall low number of qualified care staff. This reduces the expertise of the staff team. Positively, several care staff and managers are undertaking and making progress towards completing their qualifications.

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

There has been vast investment into the training and development of the staff team. Managers use a range of approaches to embed the learning and assess the impact on Inspection report children's home: 2857068 5 staff competence. This includes the organisations psychotherapist carrying out observations of staff practice and providing them with constructive feedback. However, due to the staff changes the effectiveness of the actions being taken to upskill staff is not yet fully known.

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

Leaders and managers have continued to enhance their monitoring and oversight of children’s care. There have been some shortfalls in staff practice identified through management oversight of children's incidents. When there are lessons learnt, managers take action to address these shortfalls through approaches including, use of job chats, further training, competency assessments and changes in procedures. For example, enhancing the hand over process and the implementation of an induction to the home for staff who may be new or less familiar.

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

Staff say they feel well supported in their roles and they value the learning and development opportunities they receive from managers. Inspection report children's home: 2857068 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 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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

ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that there is a permanent and stable workforce to provide consistent care to the children.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to managers ensuring that the staff team has the necessary experience and skills to meet the needs of the children. 02 February 2027

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child's needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing 02 February 2027 Inspection report children's home: 2857068 7 authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children's home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that they work effectively with external professionals in relation to children's health, education and care planning. This includes providing professional challenge and escalating where there are delays or shortfalls in responses.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. This includes in the event of any concerns being raised, ensuring that children’s records provide a clear account of all decision making, actions taken and what the outcomes were. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2857068 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bayleaf Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 7 Bankside, The Watermark, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear NE11 9SY

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Inspector

Alison Snell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2857068 9 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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