A children’s home was found to have “serious and widespread failures” that meant young people were not protected.
The Salford children’s home run by Cambian Childcare Ltd went from an “outstanding” rating to “inadequate” in all areas, with Ofsted inspectors finding “the experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress”.
Problems cited included staff not looking for children when they go missing from home, “not being vigilant” when managing substance misuse risks, and not having full risk assessments and quality control documentation.
Cambian Childcare Ltd said since the inspection it has resolved issues raised in the report.
One child was moved out of the home “after only living there for a short period of time” due to “an escalation of concerns, with staff unable to keep the child safe”, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
That led to further “distress and instability” for the child, according to the inspector.
The recently published report pointed to staffing as a potential cause of the problems.
Inspector Michelle Snape said: “Children who have lived in the home have not been cared for by a consistent staff team.
“Five staff have left since the last inspection and staff from the manager’s other home have been supporting the children. This does not help children to build meaningful and trusted relationships.”
She also found significant leadership problems, and that with the exception of the manager, no staff held relevant qualifications for looking after young people in care.
The home, which looks after a maximum of two children who may experience social and emotional difficulties, was however praised for supporting youngsters to attend school and medical appointments, as well as taking part in extracurricular activities such as boxing.
A spokesperson for Cambian Childcare Limited said: “Concerns in the home were caused by significant management and staff team changes.
“These have been addressed, Ofsted have now reinspected this home which has now been upgraded, we await the publication of this new report.”
They added: “The home is now operating at a standard we would expect.”