OWL Turning Lives Around

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 1 OWL Turning Lives Around Registered provider: Turning Lives Around

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This is part of a consortium of 3 services; each registered separately with Ofsted.

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provider

The service can accommodate 25 individuals in self-contained units where the accommodation is for the sole use of one person. The service also offers 9 emergency accommodation bed spaces in 1 premises and 17 shared or group-living bed spaces across 3 homes that are not limited to accommodating looked-after children or care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, there were 36 young people being accommodated by this service. There were also 4 children aged 16 and 17 who were looked-after children or care leavers.

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provider

The registered service manager is also the locality manager for the service. The service manager registered with Ofsted when the organisation was registered in March 2024. The nominated individual is also a director of the organisation.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 7 September 2026 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 9 to 11 September 2026.

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Outcome

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects some children’s experiences, and this may limit their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements. The next inspection will be within approximately 18 months.

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Summary of findings

Children have good relationships with caring staff who know them well and who they enjoy spending time with.

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Summary of findings

To benefit children’s transitions from this service, staff help them to understand the local support that is available to them. This includes helping children to understand the financial, housing, health and educational support available. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 2 Some staff do not understand that children may be affected by incidents that occur in the service, even if they are not directly involved. On some occasions, this causes delays in sharing information with the manager so that effective action is taken to protect and support children.

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Summary of findings

While the manager is keen to continue to develop the service to improve support for children, his capacity to do this is at times limited due to holding additional roles for the organisation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s experiences are mostly positive. On some occasions, their experiences are negatively impacted when there are shortfalls in staff’s understanding of their role to take action to prioritise children’s safety and wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children enjoy positive relationships with staff. Dedicated staffing during evenings and weekends helps children to spend meaningful time with staff. Staff promote social opportunities for children. These provide a space where children can socialise and meet new friends. This helps them to develop self-confidence and emotional resilience as they move towards adulthood and independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children to look after their health. Children learn how to make appointments and understand the importance of attending routine health checks. To support their emotional wellbeing, they have access to specialist support from the service’s own in-house hub, which offers services such as counselling. In addition, children learn the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and how to carry this into adulthood. Staff promote activities such as mental health walks and basketball to help them stay fit.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children are involved in their support planning. New independent-living skills booklets help children to identify where they have skills and which skills they would like to develop. The learning they complete is preparing them well for independence in later life. Skills they learn include completing applications for accommodation and employment, cooking and budgeting .

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff prioritise supporting children to achieve their goals. They work closely with the service’s own engagement and employment team to find the right education, training or work. This helps children to value their learning and decide on future career and employment options.

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How well children are helped and protected

The systems for ensuring there is prompt and consistent management oversight of serious incidents are not always effective. Staff do not always recognise that incidents can affect children even if they are not directly involved. This includes the Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 3 management of allegations against staff. Once the manager is aware, prompt action is taken to keep the children safe.

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How well children are helped and protected

Some areas of the service’s premises have been refurbished. There are plans in place to expand the improvements as there are some areas with worn decor and excessive signage. In one property, there were damaged fire doors that had been reported but had not been fixed. Action was taken during the inspection to fix the doors to ensure risks of fire were managed.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children learn how to keep themselves safe, both in their homes and in the community. For example, staff are skilled in helping children to understand risks such as substance misuse and how this may impact on them now and in later life. The work they complete is effective, and children’s risks reduce.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children do not regularly go missing from home; although when children do, staff act as quickly as possible to locate them. When children are absent from their homes, staff keep in contact and record regular checks on their welfare.

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How well children are helped and protected

To meet a requirement set at the last inspection, leaders and managers are improving their oversight of recruitment practice. New monitoring systems are helping leaders and managers to ensure that checks are complete so that staff are safe to work with children. These new procedures also focus on oversight and monitoring of bank and agency staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered service manager is committed to his role. He is keen to make changes and improve the quality of the service for the children. The manager has a good understanding of the strengths of the service and the areas for development and uses 6-monthly reviews of the service to set actions to help him focus on further improvements. However, the 6-monthly review do not include feedback from accommodating authorities. The lack of feedback is a missed opportunity to gather others’ views to further help develop the service for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The manager is working hard to embed the positive changes made in response to the requirements set at the last inspection. However, his ability to consistently develop and monitor the service is hindered as he covers 2 roles; as the manager and as a team leader. His time is stretched and this results in gaps in the oversight of some records. This situation also limits the manager’s ability to implement changes and to oversee staff practice, particularly for staff who work evenings, nights and weekends.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The manager has positive relationships with other professionals, including social workers, substance misuse services and youth justice professionals. These positive relationships help to make sure that children have access to the services they need. New monthly reports support good communication between the service and the placing authority. These reports help to keep children’s social workers up to date Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 4 with their progress. One professional commented, ‘They have gone above and beyond. There is nothing that they could do better. They have excellent communication.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders recognise the importance of staff training to help them understand children’s needs. A new training coordinator and a new training system are providing access to a broad range of training to strengthen staff knowledge and skills. Staff are positive about these changes. One member of staff commented, ‘I enjoy the training. The new online training is good; there are lots more courses.’ However, some essential staff training is not completed within timescales. The out-of-date training includes essential courses, such as safeguarding refreshers, first aid and fire updates, and this potentially impacts on children’s safety and welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff have supervision sessions that help them to reflect on their practice. These sessions support staff and challenge their practice where needed but are not always completed within timescales. This is a missed opportunity to consistently monitor and develop staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not consistently notify Ofsted of all serious events. This limits the regulator’s oversight of safeguarding practice across the service. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 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 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

are familiar and act in accordance with child protection policies;

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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

understand the relevant roles and responsibilities assigned to them by the registered person in relation to protecting children. (Regulation 5 (2)(a)(i)(f)(i)(ii)(vi)) 13 November

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Requirement Due date

The accommodation standard is that children experience a comfortable and secure living environment.

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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 the premises used as supported accommodation—

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Requirement Due date

are adequately maintained so as to provide a welcoming and homely environment within both individual and shared living spaces;

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Requirement Due date

are designed, furnished and maintained to remove avoidable hazards which could pose a health and safety risk to children; 12 October 2026 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 6 comply with all relevant statutory provisions dealing with health and safety or fire safety matters. (Regulation 6 (1) (2)(b)(viii)(ix)(x))

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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

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation or child criminal exploitation;

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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 an allegation of abuse against the supported accommodation undertaking or a person working for it;

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry);

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Requirement Due date

there is an incident involving the use of a measure of restraint of a child;

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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)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must notify Ofsted if a child is not directly involved in an incident but the incident effects their safety or wellbeing. 13 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 18 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff receive regular and consistent supervision in line with policy. 13 November

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in 13 November Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 7 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure staff are up to date with all training.

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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

feedback from each child’s accommodating authority, staff and any relevant persons. (Regulation 32 (1)(c)) 31 May 2027

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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: OWL Turning Lives Around 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Turning Lives Around

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered address: Photon House Percy Street Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 1EL

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Robert Chandler

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: rchandler@turninglivesaround.co.uk

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Inspectors

Jamie Richardson, Social Care Inspector Laura Grundy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: OWL Turning Lives Around 9 and inspects 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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