Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 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

The home is owned and run by a private organisation. It provides care for up to two children who may have emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has not been able to undertake his role in the home for a significant period. There is an acting manager overseeing the manager’s absence.

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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

Date of last inspection: 14 February 2022

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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: 2509280 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/02/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 26/02/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/07/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live at this home are cared for by a committed and dedicated team of carers. Carers are enthusiastic about their role, and this generates a positive and vibrant atmosphere within the home. This has enabled children to establish and develop substantive bonds with their carers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers have established an ethos that is child-focused, ultimately having fun with children as a basis for building trusting relationships. One child stated: ‘For the first time in years, I have something to smile about.’ The same child has thrived from the experiences that they have enjoyed at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers have equipped the home with resources that encourage children to be active. They have a strong focus on encouraging children to participate in their community. Carers view the involvement of children in charity work as a means of developing a sense of purpose and empathy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers celebrate children’s achievements through hanging framed photos and canvases in the home. This provides children with a sense of pride as their carers value shared experiences with the children. Photos show memories that are full of laughter and joy, and this adds to the sense of positivity that ripples throughout the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The acting manager rigorously supports children with their access to school and actively addresses issues when they arise. Children have made consistent progress in school because of this. The ethos within the home inspires children to develop their interests and pursue their aspirations. This enables children to believe in themselves and their abilities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Social workers value the input from the carers and praise the acting manager for the quality of written reports and the frequency of communication. This has enabled social workers to be confident in their care planning by feeling that they have a grasp of the child’s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency highlights in its statement of purpose that all children will have access to therapeutic support from qualified practitioners. This has not been consistent for children due to staffing issues associated with the clinical team. This has affected the quality of clinical work, including therapeutic care plans, and has left carers and children without consistent therapeutic support.

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

Children have not gone missing from the home. This is testament to the relationships that the carers have established with children. The inspector’s observations and discussions with children showed that children feel cared for, Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 4 appreciated and valued by their carers. This has enabled children to invest and significantly reduce any urge to run away from their home.

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

Risk assessments are clear and focused. However, in one instance the acting manager had overlooked the need to align a child’s risk assessment with the local authority’s planning around gradually increasing a child’s access to social media platforms. This potentially means that the power and influence of children’s historical risks are not recognised or captured in records.

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

The use of physical restraint on children is rare. This is testament to the carers’ ability to build loving and trusting relationships with children. Staff are trained in behaviour management and use de-escalation strategies to good effect. As a result, the children are settled and are making good progress.

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

The children’s guide does not fully capture information regarding behaviour management strategies used by staff. For example, there is no reference in the children’s guide to the use of restraint as a last resort to keep children safer. This is a missed opportunity to reassure children before they move into the home.

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

Carers use everyday events to hold support sessions as a means of capturing a variety of poignant conversations with children. Carers write support sessions in a manner that connects with the child, enabling the child to reflect on problematic issues and learn. Written records of support sessions are vivid in their detail and will provide children with a clear account of the care and support that they received while living at the home.

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

There is a core group of carers at the home who have formed meaningful relationships with the children. This adds to the sense of family in the home. The acting manager is fully aware of the benefits that this brings as well as the potential risk factors. The acting manager ensures that carers abstain from practices that risk forming a closed culture. The acting manager has established a safeguarding culture among the team which brings awareness and accountability; this keeps children safer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The acting manager and responsible individual have fallen short in the challenge required to the independent visitor. The independent visitor reports have factual inconsistencies, lack consultation and are not broad in the scrutiny of the home’s health and safety processes. This dilutes the independent overview of the home and increases the risk of the acting manager overlooking key aspects of the children’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The acting manager is guided by his values and his principles of how children should be cared for. The acting manager’s values resonate with the team that he leads, and this shared ethos connects with children. The enthusiasm that the acting manager has for his role provides a catalyst for carers to forge positive relationships with children. Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 5 The acting manager establishes positive working relationships with professionals and harnesses these relationships to benefit the children. When statutory paperwork is missing, the acting manager respectfully challenges this with children’s local authorities. The acting manager will always seek to communicate directly with professionals in the first instance. This builds professional ties and establishes a deeper understanding of the child’s care planning.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings and supervisions are frequent. The acting manager encourages carers to view them as a key event as opposed to a process. Carers contribute to team meeting agendas, which promotes ownership and involvement across the team. Meeting minutes are clear and offer transparency and promote individual accountability. Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 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

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 44 (2)(a)(b) (4)(a)(b) (5)) 1 August 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that information set out in the home’s statement of purpose is an essential part of the process of agreement between the registered person and placing authority that a placement in that home is the right one for that child, and that the home will be able to respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs. The agency’s stipulation that children are afforded therapeutic support by qualified practitioners should be applied consistently so Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 7 that the children benefit from the service. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.6)  The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide helps children to understand key aspects of their care that are highlighted in the home’s statement of purpose, such as when staff should restrain children to keep them safe from

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Recommendations

harm. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)  The registered person should ensure that staff are guided to assess risk continually and respond to each child by applying the arrangements in place to protect children, particularly when there are changes in the child’s care plan. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  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. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. This is in reference to how a child’s therapeutic care

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Recommendations

plan was written and enabling children to understand the content of their placement plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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: 2509280 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2509280 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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