Orsa Housing

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 1 Orsa Housing Registered provider: Orsa Housing Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation service is owned and managed by a private provider. The service can accommodate up to 5 children and young people in one shared home. At the time of this inspection, this service was providing supported accommodation for 2 children. One shared-occupancy home was visited.

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provider

There has been no registered service manager in post since February 2025.

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Inspection dates:

The inspection was announced on 2 February 2026 and started that day. The inspector was on site between 4 and 6 February 2026.

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Outcome

Serious or widespread weaknesses lead to significant concerns about the experiences and progress of children. Leaders and managers must take urgent action to address failings. The next inspection will be within approximately 6 months.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers lack oversight of the service, which means that children’s needs and the support they receive from staff are significantly overlooked.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers admit children outside of the registration conditions of supported accommodation. Some children are admitted with needs that are too high for supported accommodation.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers do not ensure that children’s emerging needs and risks are known and managed effectively by the service. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff do not form meaningful relationships with children. Staff mostly communicate with children via text message. There is little evidence of meaningful, direct work with children. Children make limited progress as a result.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers fail to obtain sufficient information about children’s risks and needs before children move into the service. They accept children with needs that the service cannot meet. As a result, not all children make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers do not ensure that children’s support plans are reflective of their needs at the time they move in or as needs emerge. Children make limited progress as a result.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers do not challenge children’s behaviour. For example, children use illegal substances in their homes and make threats to staff. Children do not learn to address their difficulties as a result.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff do not support children to develop independent living skills. For example, children are not allowed keys to the front door and must ask staff to let them in, and one child has had their money managed for them. Staff do not regularly support children to promote their independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children with high levels of independence skills at the referral stage have made progress through the service to independent living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children to understand the rules when they move in and ensure that children have information about where they are living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children live in a comfortable environment that is decorated to a good standard. However, excessive CCTV in communal areas intrudes on children’s right to privacy.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff, leaders and managers do not respond proactively when children share that they feel unsafe and unhappy where they live. Children’s wishes and feelings are unheard or overlooked. This affects children’s progress and their ability to form trusting relationships. One child is self-medicating with cannabis due to lack of support with past trauma.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff do not demonstrate the skills or professional curiosity required to understand and respond to children’s needs, which limits their ability to keep children safe and to support their physical and emotional wellbeing. Staff fail to explore children’s welfare following missing-from-home incidents and do not seek more information when children engage in risky online behaviour. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 3 Leaders and managers do not ensure that support plans and risk assessments are consistently in place and updated as incidents occur to reflect children’s emerging vulnerabilities. There is an inconsistent response to incidents, and Ofsted is not notified of serious events. This hinders regulatory oversight of how effectively the provider safeguards children.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers accept children with needs that are too high for the service to meet and sometimes in an unplanned way. One child was hospitalised within days of moving in, for example. Leaders and managers do not consider the risks to other children when someone new moves in.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not communicate effectively with placing authorities. One social worker said that communication from the service was poor and stated that the provider had ignored numerous actions from a child’s review meeting. Children’s needs are not being met as a result.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers implement robust recruitment practices which ensure that staff are safe to work with children.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff understand the process to follow when a child goes missing from home; however, their response when a child returns home is poor. Staff miss opportunities to ensure the safety of children as a result.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have placed children with needs too high for the service to meet. They have also admitted young people outside of the stipulations of their registration. They are working outside their own statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers lack oversight of the service, and there has been no registered service manager since February 2025. This means children’s needs and emerging risks are significantly overlooked.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers are unaware of significant incidents affecting children, and consequently, children are left with inadequate support. Leaders and managers do not ensure that children’s plans address their emerging needs effectively. They do not work collaboratively with placing authorities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not supervise staff in line with their own policy, and as such, there is minimal oversight and review of the effect of staff’s work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not ensure that staff training is up to date, which results in staff being ineffective in supporting children’s emerging needs. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 4

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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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work effectively as a team, where appropriate, to meet the needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place to manage referrals of children to the supported accommodation undertaking and admissions of children to premises used as supported accommodation, including, where relevant, emergency referrals and admissions;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision, training and development of staff. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(g)) 29 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

*The protection standard is that children are enabled to feel safe and that their needs are met.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 29 March 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 5 ensure that children—

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation or any other harm, and act to reduce such risk;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with children to help them understand how to keep safe, by offering guidance and support on how to minimise any potential risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies, and share information where relevant to keep children safe. (Regulation 5 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(f)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

*The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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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

ensure that children are encouraged and enabled to take a lead role in determining the support they receive and to participate in and influence how the supported accommodation operates;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that plans for support are based on initial referral information, are meaningful and are created in full consultation with the child, taking account of relevant plans for the child;

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Requirement Due date

keep the child’s support under review, taking into consideration the plans for support, and relevant plans, to ensure that the child’s needs continue to be met and that the child is kept safe;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that children are supported to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(n)) 29 March 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 6 The registered provider must appoint an individual to manage the supported accommodation undertaking if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered service manager in respect of the undertaking, and

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Requirement Due date

is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the supported accommodation undertaking. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(iii)) 29 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify the CIECSS and any relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child and the registered person considers that incident to be serious;

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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 27 (3)(b)(d)(i)(f)) 29 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain a system for monitoring and improving the quality of support provided by the supported accommodation undertaking by completing a review (“a quality of support review”) at least once every six months, which must take into account—

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Requirement Due date

the views of children, including any feedback and complaints received;

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Requirement Due date

feedback from individual children on the impact the supported accommodation has had on the child’s life, especially regarding how well prepared the child felt for transition into supported accommodation and how well prepared the child feels for transition out of supported accommodation;

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Requirement Due date

feedback from each child’s accommodating authority, staff and any relevant persons. (Regulation 32 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 29 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 7

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the use of CCTV respects children’s need for privacy and is no more intrusive than necessary. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 30)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Orsa Housing Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: The Orsa Hub, Ettymore Road, Dudley DY3 3SG

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: mattdudley@orsahousing.co.uk

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Inspector

Amie Pearson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Orsa Housing 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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