Better technology must strengthen responsibility, not remove it.
ORB is designed to support adults working in residential children’s homes while keeping safeguarding, professional judgement, accountability and final decision-making human.
Human responsibility remains central.
Residential childcare depends on relationships, judgement, curiosity and accountability.
Technology can help adults organise information, reflect on an event, improve a draft and identify details that may need further attention.
It cannot understand a child in the same way as the adults who know them. It cannot hold professional responsibility, make safeguarding decisions or approve a record.
ORB is therefore designed as a support tool. The adult remains responsible for checking accuracy, following policy, applying professional judgement and deciding what happens next.
The boundaries are part of the product.
Trust should not depend on a disclaimer at the bottom of a page. It should be reflected in how the product is designed and used.
Human reviewed
Anything prepared with ORB must be checked, corrected and approved by the adult before it becomes part of a record or professional decision.
Child kept central
The product should help adults preserve the child’s words, experience and humanity without inventing information or speaking for them.
Responsibility stays human
ORB does not own the record, the decision or the action. That responsibility remains with the adult and their organisation.
ORB supports the process. The adult owns the outcome.
The adult remains involved from the first question to the final decision.
Provide context
The adult explains the question, situation or task and chooses what information is appropriate to use.
Receive support
ORB helps organise information, prompt reflection or prepare a draft.
Review carefully
The adult checks facts, removes assumptions, adds missing context and applies policy and judgement.
Decide and approve
Only the adult decides whether the wording, response or action is appropriate.
What ORB can support and what it cannot replace.
ORB can support
- Organising rough information and notes.
- Prompting reflection and professional curiosity.
- Preparing a clearer draft for human review.
- Identifying information that may be missing.
- Supporting factual and child-centred wording.
- Helping managers examine evidence and follow-up.
- Exploring questions about residential childcare practice.
ORB does not replace
- Professional judgement.
- Safeguarding procedures.
- Provider policies.
- Statutory responsibilities.
- Management oversight.
- Emergency action.
- Human accountability.
- The relationship between an adult and a child.
Safeguarding concerns must remain with the adults and procedures responsible for responding.
ORB is not an emergency service and does not replace the safeguarding procedures of the home, provider or local area.
Where an adult believes a child is at immediate risk, they must follow their organisation’s procedures and contact the appropriate safeguarding or emergency services without waiting for ORB.
ORB may help an adult organise information or reflect after immediate safety action has been taken, but it must not delay or replace that action.
Sensitive information should be handled carefully and only where appropriate.
Organisations remain responsible for deciding what information can be used, how it should be handled and how their own policies and legal responsibilities apply.
Use only what is necessary
Adults should avoid including unnecessary identifying or sensitive detail where the task can be completed without it.
Follow organisational policy
The provider’s privacy, information governance, record-keeping and acceptable-use requirements continue to apply.
Check before saving
Adults should review the content carefully before copying, approving or entering anything into an official record.
Report concerns
Suspected privacy, safety or information-handling concerns should be reported promptly so they can be examined and addressed.
A specialist assistant must be tested against real residential childcare practice.
Quality is not simply whether an answer sounds confident. It is whether the response is useful, accurate, appropriately cautious and supports safe human decision-making.
ORB can be useful and still be wrong.
Like any technology, ORB may misunderstand a question, miss important context, provide incomplete information or produce wording that is not appropriate for the situation.
It does not know the child, the home or the full circumstances in the way the adults involved do.
This is why responses must be reviewed rather than accepted simply because they appear clear or confident.
Where the situation is unclear, high risk or outside the adult’s competence or authority, the correct response is to involve the appropriate manager or professional.
We want concerns to be raised, examined and learned from.
Concerns about safety, privacy, accuracy, bias, inappropriate wording or unexpected behaviour should not be ignored.
Clear reporting helps identify weaknesses, protect users and improve the product.
Raise a question or concern directly with the founder.
Contact TomThe adult remains responsible. The child remains central.
ORB is being built to support clearer thinking and stronger practice without taking judgement, accountability or relationships away from the people responsible for care.
ORB supports professional practice and human decision-making. It does not replace safeguarding procedures, statutory responsibilities, provider policies, management oversight, emergency action or professional judgement.