Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 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 owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to two children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since August 2020.

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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: 2504082 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/07/2021 Full Good 12/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/09/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress and have developed trusting relationships with staff. Both children living in the home say that they feel safe, and that staff are consistent with boundaries. Children who have moved on from the home have been supported to return to family or live independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access tutoring and children have made significant educational progress since moving to this home. However, children have been out of school for extended periods of time with little access to formal education. When children are not in tutoring sessions, staff do not complete any educational activities with them. This does not support children to achieve their educational potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to take care of their health and personal hygiene. When needed, staff take children to health appointments and ensure that children take their medication. This home has a therapist who spends a day with the children each week and has built positive relationships with them. This enables children to explore difficult emotions in a safe and relaxed environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to rebuild relationships and spend time with people who are important to them. This helps children to develop and maintain positive relationships and supports them to understand their family identity. One parent said, ‘The staff are amazing. It’s the right place for [name of child].’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff complete direct-work sessions with children; however, this work is often in reaction to incidents. Staff do not proactively undertake direct work to address children’s presenting needs or support them to better understand how to develop and maintain positive relationships with others in the home. Opportunities to address inappropriate comments and behaviours have been missed. Children say their views are considered when decisions are made about their home. However, children’s views are not clear in their plans, and feedback is not always acted on. Therefore, it is unclear how or when children’s views are put into practice in day-to- day life.

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

This home is safe and has plenty of space for the children living there. The children are encouraged to have input into the decorating of their home and bedrooms. However, there is not much furniture in the children’s bedrooms and damage to the walls and decor is not fully addressed in a timely manner.

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

Risks for children have decreased significantly since they moved to this home. For example, children who regularly went missing before moving here do not often go missing now. Children’s plans are regularly updated to reflect their individual needs. Staff follow these plans and know what strategies work best for each child. Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 4 Staff have supported children to make significant progress in their ability to keep themselves safe. When children have moved to the home under court restrictions, staff have developed positive relationships to help children feel safe. This has enabled children to come off court orders.

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

Staff have provided consistent routines and boundaries to help children reduce the number of serious incidents in the home. The manager is confident that staff only hold children as a last resort to keep them safe. However, records do not always clearly reflect the behaviours that have led to staff holding children. When children are held, they are given the opportunity to speak about their feelings after the incident.

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

Staff working with the children are appropriately qualified and safer recruitment practices are followed. The manager is clear in his expectations of staff employed in this home. This ensures that all staff are suitably knowledgeable and safe to work with vulnerable children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has been in post for almost three years. He has a good understanding of each child and their support needs. The manager has ambitions for the staff team and relationships between staff and managers are positive. Staff members say they feel supported and valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been a lot of change in staffing during this inspection period, which has resulted in a relatively new staff team. Staff receive a thorough induction and appropriate training opportunities specific to the needs of the children. The manager ensures that staff meet the standards of care that he expects of them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and team leaders complete monthly supervisions with staff and are suitably trained to deliver these. This enables the staff team to continue to develop their knowledge and skills. The manager holds monthly team meetings to discuss the needs of the children, however, these do not offer regular opportunities for shared learning and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff team have developed positive working relationships with external professionals and work well with other agencies. However, the manager does not regularly challenge other professionals to better meet children’s needs, and does not often escalate concerns beyond the children’s social workers. This has resulted in a delay in securing a suitable school placement for one child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses internal and external monitoring processes to inform the development of the home. However, he does not always assess how or why children are making progress or meeting their goals. Opportunities to identify patterns and trends to further strengthen practice in the home have been missed. Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 5

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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

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 authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that appropriate challenge and escalation are made when children’s best interests are not met. 2 May 2023

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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

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. 2 May 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 6 (Regulation 6 (2)(b)(iv)(vi)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that work planned for children is proactive and individual to that child’s presenting needs. In addition, children should be provided with appropriate furniture and decor in their bedrooms.

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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

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(x)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that they advocate for children’s educational needs and entitlements to 2 May 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 7 be met. In addition, they should ensure that children who are not attending education have a regular routine and education timetable and are supported to complete educational activities outside of formal learning.

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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 develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and 2 May 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 8 that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv) (v)(vi)(vii) (xii)(xiii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that each child is proactively provided with key-work sessions that are planned based on children’s presenting needs and feelings. Ensure that any incidents of bullying, racism or homophobia are followed up with consistent and targeted direct work.

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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

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure the manager has oversight of work being completed and evaluates the benefits of this for the children. Ensure learning and development opportunities are regularly available for the staff team. 2 May 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; 2 May 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 9 are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person should ensure that records include assessments of children’s progress and evidence of how children are meeting their goals.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children’s views are clear in their support plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that records of restraint clearly evidence the progression of the incident and reasons why restraint was needed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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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: 2504082 10

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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 Limited, 49 Whitegate Drive, Blackpool FY3 9DG

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Inspector

Aislinn Cooper, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2504082 11 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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