Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 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 children’s home is operated by a private organisation and is registered to provide care for up to two children. The provider states in their statement of purpose that they provide therapeutic support for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since March 2022.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/03/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 3

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improvement to be good

The home is large, modern and welcoming. There is currently one child living in the home. They said, ‘It is the best children’s home that I have stayed in.’

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improvement to be good

Children engage in regular support sessions. This helps them to talk openly with staff while building trusting relationships. Furthermore, some children engage in therapy sessions with the company psychologist. This gives children the opportunity to explore and regulate their emotions.

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improvement to be good

The quality of care plans are inconsistent. As a result, staff are unable to follow fully informed plans for some children. This affects children’s transitions into and out of the home.

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improvement to be good

Children do not consistently make progress with their education. One child does not have a structured timetable in place. However, there is clear communication between staff and the virtual school to resolve this concern.

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improvement to be good

Staff help children to make complaints when they are unhappy. Staff advocate on behalf of the children and help to resolve any complaints with placing local authorities.

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improvement to be good

The staff team helps children to maintain family time with the people who are important to them. They also carry out life-story work, which helps children to understand their backgrounds and history.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage children to take part in their statutory meetings and to contribute to their records. This helps children to understand the decisions being made about their lives.

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improvement to be good

Staff help children to develop their independent living skills. One child successfully moved into semi-independent accommodation following several years living at the home.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk-management plans lack clear strategies to keep some children safe. This does not help staff to understand how to manage some risks. The manager is improving risk-management processes and communication with placing authorities. The child currently at the home said that they felt safe living there. Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 4 Managers do not consistently report serious incidents to Ofsted within the required timescale. This means the regulator has no initial oversight of what action staff take to keep children safe.

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improvement to be good

The manager keeps children’s missing-from-home protocols up to date. This provides detailed guidance for staff to follow if children are missing. This means that staff respond well, to reduce the time that children are missing.

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improvement to be good

Managers use door alarms in children’s bedrooms as a safeguarding measure. However, they do not regularly review or evaluate the need for the alarms. As a result, this may unnecessarily limit children’s privacy and access in the home.

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improvement to be good

Physical interventions are minimal and proportionate. Children and staff review incidents, which helps them to reflect and learn. However, staff use jargon when describing incidents in children’s records. This means that physical intervention records are unclear.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision and appraisal. They feel fully supported in their roles and enjoy working at the home. Staff also attend a wide range of training to develop their skills and knowledge. One worker said, ‘The manager is always positive and is very supportive.’

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good

Leaders and managers do not challenge the placing authority effectively. This means that children’s plans are not always up to date and do not fully reflect their needs or achievements. In some cases, plans were not provided. This affects children’s progress. It also means that there are shortfalls in the manager’s auditing system.

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good

The manager understands the importance of building trusting relationships with children. They ensure that children receive care from a consistent staff team and use safer recruitment processes when filling staff vacancies.

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good

The manager promotes a consistent therapeutic model of care. The team considers the underlying causes of children’s behaviours, and this helps children to manage their emotions. This enables staff to sensitively support children who experience traumatic events.

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good

Leaders and managers act quickly in response to allegations made against staff. The manager listens to children’s concerns and takes appropriate action to ensure that children are safeguarded.

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good

The manager provides a regular quality of care review. However, they do not consistently include or evaluate the views of children, their parents and placing authorities in the report. Therefore, it is not always clear how the manager considers the views of others to make changes. Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 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, 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 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that managers fully assess risks to children’s health and well-being and implement robust plans to manage those risks. 17 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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 arrangements are in place to— 17 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 6 plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iii)(c))

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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)(vi)(vii)(viii)(x)(b)) 17 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— 31 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 7 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; 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

In particular, that the registered manager ensures that all relevant plans are in place when children move into the home. Furthermore, that managers take appropriate action if there are concerns or delays in this process.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)(e)) 17 March 2023

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with 31 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 8 the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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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;

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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)(a)(f)(h))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any restriction of children’s privacy, such as the use of bedroom door alarms, is informed by a rigorous assessment of children’s needs and is regularly reviewed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should ensure that records relating to physical interventions clearly record and describe the actions taken by staff to restrict the movement of the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)  The registered person should undertake a review of the quality of care every six months, informed by the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)

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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: 2582247 9

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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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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Penelope Rafferty

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Inspectors

Mark Woodbridge, Social Care Inspector Helen Fee, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2582247 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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