Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Blackpool

Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 1 Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately operated and provides care for up to two children who may have learning disabilities and social or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 4 February 2022.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm, modern and welcoming. There are pictures on the walls displaying positive images of children. This gives children a sense of belonging and ownership. One of the children said, ‘There’s lots of things to do; it’s nice and clean and the staff are nice.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop good relationships with the staff team, enabling them to talk openly about their feelings. This helps children to develop social skills while building resilience and self-confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide care that supports children’s individual needs. Children attend events that celebrate diversity and inclusion. Staff encourage children to try foods from a variety of cultures. This promotes children’s understanding and awareness of equality and diversity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to attend school. They liaise with education providers to promote learning opportunities. However, children’s attendance is low, and their education plans are not always up to date. This means that children are not making sufficient progress with their education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to manage their health needs. Children register with doctors and dentists and access support from a wide range of other services. This means that children’s routine appointments and checks are up to date.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children do not regularly access their files or contribute to them. This affects children’s ability to reflect on their progress and experiences. It also means that children’s records do not reflect their voices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff complete scrapbooks for children while they are living in the home. These include photographs of their overall experience and positive activities. This contributes to children’s history and life-story work and enables them to reflect back on their achievements.

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

Staff use a therapeutic approach to support children. This helps children to manage their behaviour and to make progress with their emotional health and well-being. This reduces the number of incidents that children are involved in.

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

Staff also use de-escalation techniques to help children manage their behaviour. This reduces the need for physical interventions. This means that staff maintain positive and healthy relationships with children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 4 Leaders review children’s risk-management plans after every incident and at least monthly. This helps staff to identify and manage any increase in risk. Staff also receive an in-depth handover each day to discuss any concerns. This promotes good communication across the team and provides consistent care for children.

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

Staff understand children’s risks and behaviours well, which helps to safeguard children. Risk-management plans are clear and easy to read. However, staff did not communicate one risk to the inspector when entering the home, as required in the risk-management plan of the child concerned. As a result, the child’s safety could have been jeopardised.

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

The registered manager follows safer recruitment procedures to ensure children’s safety. The stable staff team provides consistent support to help children feel safe and protected.

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

Children have clear missing-from-home risk-management strategies. This helps to reduce the likelihood of children going missing and the length of time of each missing-from-home episode. As a result, missing-from-home episodes have reduced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is properly staffed by a passionate and diverse team. Staff enjoy providing care for children with complex needs and take great pride in their work. One member of staff said, ‘I absolutely love working here.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager regularly monitors the quality of care provided. They work closely with the independent person and follow the recommendations from their monthly reports. This helps to develop practice and improve outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers regularly review children’s plans. They work closely with placing authorities to discuss children’s changing support needs. This ensures that plans are up to date and meet the children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Following concerns that statutory requirements were not being met, the registered manager now provides challenge to local authorities. This helps to reduce drift and delay. It also helps to improve support for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision and an annual appraisal. This provides opportunities for staff to talk to their manager about any issues. However, supervision records do not consistently include discussions on children’s safeguarding issues. This means that staff do not always reflect on their individual practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers listen to children and help them to reflect on incidents. This promotes children’s self-awareness and helps them to manage their behaviour. This helps to prevent incidents from recurring. Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 5 Staff access a wide range of training to develop their skills and knowledge. This training relates to children’s specific needs and ensures that staff are confident in providing care that meets children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers recognise the emotional effect of work on their staff team. They encourage staff to regularly discuss their work with the in-house therapist. This helps staff to develop strategies and improve support for children. It also helps staff to manage their own emotional well-being. Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 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, 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

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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 achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(vi)(x)) 15 July 2022

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that visitors to the premises are briefed in relation to any relevant risks as detailed in children’s plans. 15 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— 15 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 7 receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, expand the current supervision records to reflect discussions about child-related practice and managing children’s risks.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that children are encouraged to read their records and contribute to them. Children should be regularly reminded of their rights to see their records and how they can access them in future years. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62 paragraph 14.6)

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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: 2604877 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sandcastle Care Ltd, 49 Whitegate Drive, Blackpool FY3 9DG

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Inspector

Mark Woodbridge, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2604877 9 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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