Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Blackpool

Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 1 Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a private provider. The home provides care for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties and/or a learning disability.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2017.

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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: 1184093 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/03/2023 Full Good 23/03/2022 Full Outstanding 27/02/2020 Full Good 06/02/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good-quality, consistent care from the staff and are making good progress. Children have positive relationships with the staff and enjoy living in the home. One child said that the only thing they would change about living in the home would be to have all staff support the same football team as them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff advocate on behalf of the children effectively. This has resulted in changes being made to the children’s care planning arrangements, with both children now having plans to return home to family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of children spending time with their friends and families. When needed, staff support children to establish and develop relationships with important loved ones. This includes supporting children with ongoing life-story work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have their own memory boxes that they have decorated. These are filled with photos and tickets to the shows, films and football matches that children have attended with staff. One child has kept all their past birthday and Christmas cards. These serve as a powerful reminder of the positive memories made at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are accessing education and have made significant progress since moving into the home. Staff advocate on behalf of the children to ensure that their education plan meets their specific needs. For one child, this has meant them gaining relevant work experience before starting college. This has supported the child to gain more confidence in their ability and further develop their social skills. For the other child, additional therapeutic activities have been put in place that supported them to settle well into high school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a wide range of activities. Staff have built relationships with local football clubs to support the children’s interest in this sport. Staff and children have access to match tickets and regularly attend football matches together. This provides children with opportunities to build peer relationships in the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are understood and met by the staff. The registered manager has provided necessary challenge when delays for appointments have occurred. This means both children have had regular reviews of their medication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the needs of children. However, the language used in some children’s records is blaming, and does not demonstrate the staff’s skills and knowledge of seeing children’s behaviour as a form of communication.

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

Risks are identified, understood and managed well by staff. Children say they feel safe due to the clear routines and boundaries in place. Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 4 Children say they have trusted adults they can talk to in the home. One child has built a positive relationship with the home’s clinician. This means they are engaging in work to develop skills and strategies to manage their own feelings.

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

When incidents occur, staff ensure a multi-agency meeting is held, which ensures that additional support is put in place. This response has led to a reduction in incidents for one child.

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

The registered manager ensures that children are listened to when they voice concerns. On one occasion, the registered manager agreed, at the child’s request, to transport the child to and from school daily. For this child, all incidents that occurred when travelling to and from school have now stopped.

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

When allegations are made, these are shared with appropriate agencies and managed in line with statutory guidance. Support is given to both the person making the allegation and the person who has been subject to the allegation.

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

Children’s risk assessments are clear and regularly reviewed. This supports staff to understand what strategies to use to keep children safe. However, not all safeguarding measures taken, particularly with regard to mobile phones, are recorded in the children’s risk assessments.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. He is child-focused in his approach, ambitious and driven to support children to achieve good outcomes. Children identify him as a key person to whom they could go for support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say that they feel supported and listened to. Staff receive regular supervision and attend team meetings. This provides the staff with opportunities to reflect on their practice and discuss the children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a home development plan that allows him to act when home repairs are needed. He also has a child development plan that ensures that children’s requests are actioned. For example, staff have arranged a camping trip for one child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has good oversight of many areas of the home. However, his monitoring and auditing tool has not identified significant shortfalls in the accuracy of both children’s placement plans. This means that the staff do not have the correct, up-to-date information when providing care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor’s report provides a detailed overview of the home. However, children are not regularly spoken to. This means that the content of the report does not always give an accurate overview of children’s wishes and feelings. This is a missed opportunity for children to have an additional professional advocate for them. Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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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

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children in house placement plans. 17 April 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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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. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)) 17 April 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when safeguarding measures are in relation to the use of technology these measures are reflected in children’s plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 17, paragraph 3.21)  The registered person should ensure that staff record information about children in a non-stigmatising way, which distinguishes between fact and opinion. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 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: 1184093 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Forge, Church Street West, Woking, Surrey GU21 6HT

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Inspector

Alexandra Pearson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1184093 8 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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