An independent consultancy built by people who have run these services.

Alex grew up in the care system, placed in foster care at 12 and in a children's home at 15. That experience gave him a clear view of what the system does well and where it lets children down, and Omega exists to close that gap.

After fifteen years working in children's homes, including at a council run secure children's home, Alex re-mortgaged his home in 2015 to found Omega: one home, three members of staff, supporting 16 to 18 year old care leavers.

A decade on, Omega Life is a UK wide provider of children's residential care with sixteen homes across England and Wales. The group runs six stand-alone services covering care, clinical, digital, education, training and transport. Each is its own entity with its own named director. Alex also founded Foundations for Life, Omega's specialist school in Bootle.

With over 25 years of experience in children's social care, Caron Lackenby has built an extensive career across residential childcare, supported accommodation, safeguarding, compliance, and operational leadership.

Throughout her career, Caron has worked at all levels of the sector, developing specialist expertise in children's homes regulations, inspection readiness, quality assurance, leadership development, and service improvement. She has held senior leadership positions, including Responsible Individual and Director of Care, overseeing multiple services across England and Wales, and has significant experience in developing staff, managers, and leadership teams to strengthen practice, confidence, accountability, and regulatory understanding. Caron has supported many deputy managers to develop their leadership skills and progress into Registered Manager roles.

Caron has a proven track record of registering and supporting multiple children's homes, strengthening governance and compliance, and helping services move out of compliance concern and away from inadequate judgements. She has supported managers and teams to achieve high standards of care, compliance, and continuous improvement, with experience contributing to services that have achieved Outstanding Ofsted/excellent CIW judgements. This demonstrates her commitment to creating environments where children and young people can thrive and where staff are empowered to deliver exceptional care.

Known for her practical approach, strong regulatory knowledge, and passion for continuous improvement, Caron established RegReady to share the expertise, insight, and strategies gained throughout her career. Her aim is to support providers, managers, and leadership teams to strengthen governance, improve quality, prepare for inspection, and ultimately achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people.

Her expertise includes regulatory compliance, Ofsted and CIW frameworks, safeguarding, quality assurance, auditing, leadership development, staff development, policy and procedure development, service improvement, and operational excellence.

Caron is passionate about helping services move beyond compliance and create cultures where children, young people, and staff can flourish.