Children's Home run by Crossway Services Limited in St Helens

SC068206 Unique reference number 2 July 2009 Inspection date Karen Forster Inspector Key Type of Inspection

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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You can obtain copies of The Children Act 2004, Every Child Matters and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Services from: The Stationery Office (TSO) PO Box 29, St Cripins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600 5522. Online ordering: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcome for children set out in the Children Act 2004 and relevant National Minimum Standards for the establishment.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is strong Good: this aspect of the provision is sound Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is not good enough Inadequate: 3 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206

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Brief description of the service

This service is one of a network of children's homes maintained by a independent children's home provider. The home is a mid-terraced property that is situated within a mile of a town centre and all required shopping and leisure facilities.

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Brief description of the service

The home provides a placement for one young person, supported by a staff team of four. The home was occupied at the time of the visit and the young person and staff contributed towards the inspection.

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Summary

This visit is an unannounced full inspection including all of the Every Child Matters outcome areas, plus an additional area of Organisation. The home provides well for the resident young people, promoting and improving their outcomes in most areas. There are shortfalls within the educational programme for service users, and the home's fire safety risk assessment is not sufficiently detailed. The overall quality rating is good. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The provider has suitably addressed one of the two actions raised at the last inspection. The quality assurance reporting procedure now includes feedback from young people, their families and social workers. This means that the procedure is fully compliant with the regulations. The second action related to the home's fire safety risk assessment, which has yet to be addressed. As such this action is reissued at this inspection.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is good. The young people enjoy a well balanced and varied menu within the home. Individual food preferences and any personal allergies are well recorded and closely followed. This means that tasty food is suitably prepared and well presented, in line with any special dietary needs of individuals. Young people feel able to access drinks and snacks according to their wishes.

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Helping children to be healthy

Young people's current health care needs, along with strategies to address the same are outlined in clear health care plans for young people. However, there is a small gap between the content of isolated medical histories and the home's health plan. This means that a small degree of information regarding medical conditions, is not reflected in the health plan. As the young people continue to receive the appropriate level of health service for their needs, the impact of this recording issue on individuals is minimal.

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Helping children to be healthy

Medication storage and administration within the home meets the standards. The service provides a secure cabinet for drugs, stored within the pharmacy's containers. Medication administration records are very clearly maintained and include stock checks on remaining medication. This means that young people are offered medication in line with their medical prescription, and staff on subsequent shifts know when medication has been offered and administered. 4 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is good. Young people's privacy is well promoted and protected by the home. Staff are respectful of occupied bathrooms and bedrooms, and young people know the reasons why room searches might be necessary. Personal data relating to young people is stored securely in line with internal policy and the standards.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home maintains a good procedure for the collection of complaints from service users, their families and other stakeholders. There are currently no recorded complaints within the home's record for concerns.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Children’s safeguarding procedures are good, with young people’s welfare a priority. Staff confirmed that they are aware of their responsibilities within the home’s child protection procedures and have received safeguarding training. The local authority's safeguarding manual is available via an electronic link within the home, to complement the home's clearly written safeguarding policies.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

There is an anti bullying policy maintained within the service, where the stated aim is to support the victim and perpetrator of any bullying. The single status of the placement reduces the risk of bullying between peers, but the subject is still given a suitably high profile in relation to contacts and relationships in the community. This means that young people feel able to discuss any incidences when they may have received or instigated undue peer pressure.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home's protocol regarding young people going missing from care suitably reflects the dependency levels of the service users. Staff members are clear regarding permissible measures to use in an attempt to stop young people leaving the home without authority. The home's policy, whilst meeting the standards, lacks information that the returning young person would meet with an independent person. This means that young people do have the facility to discuss their reasons for leaving the home without authority, but these forums are with staff from within the home. This might impede the amount of information that the young person feels able to share.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

Staff and young people using the service share a consistent understanding of the standard of behaviour expected from the group. This means that young people receive consistent sanctions through different care shifts when their behaviour does not meet the expected standard, typically they involve a brief loss of privilege. The staff group maintains a log of applied sanctions, which are clear and meet the standards.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home's policy regarding physical intervention meets the standards, and all established staff have received instruction in the safe control of challenging behaviours. The preferred model of physical intervention includes de-escalation and restraint is not a feature of the care culture within the home. This meets the standards and helps to keep young people safe.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The home ensures that the environment young people live in is safe and free of hazards, this helps young people to feel physically safe in the home. Although suitable measures are taken within the home to control the risk of fire, the home's risk assessment document lacks detail of the risks of fire presented within the home. 5 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206 The home maintains suitable evidence for all of the clearance checks for new staff, as required by Schedule 2 to the regulations. This means that young people are cared for by suitably cleared staff. The service has suitably risk assessed the home's care arrangements, where one staff member works with young people.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is satisfactory. Young people receive a highly personalised care service which is very suitable to their needs, and promotes their abilities. The level of both verbal and written communication between staff in the home is sound, and means that staff are consistent in their approach towards individual young people. However, the records of direct work completed with individuals, indicate that these forums focus on the breach of behaviour control measures. Whilst this is an important element of the placement, there is no balance of discussion regarding positive elements of the placement.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

Young people are currently unable to access education which is suitable to their needs. Whilst young people feel that they receive help and encouragement from care staff with educational type activities, there is no effective system in place to meet their educational needs. The lack of a current personal education plan for the young people compounds this issue, as there are no firm plans for the education of individuals. It is only fair to comment, that there is written evidence in the home of the repeated contact from home staff with the placing and local authority, to try and address this issue.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is good. The strengths and needs of the young people are well assessed and their medium and short term care objectives are included within very detailed placement plans. The internal placement plans are comprehensive and highly consistent with the contents of the local authority's documentation. This means that service users, commissioners and providers are clear regarding the placement aims.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The care of individuals is independently reviewed, with a high level of involvement from young people and the presence of all relevant parties. This means that an external professional reviews the quality of the service, and gathers feedback from service users themselves and relevant stakeholders regarding the outcomes for young people.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Young people maintain close contact with their families throughout their placement. This is evident by the home's log of both telephone and face to face contact, between young people and significant family members.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

Relevant looked after child documentation is maintained within the home for reference and internal risk management strategies are agreed pre-admission. This provides the home's staff with a wealth of highly relevant information, to inform their safe care of newly admitted young people.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

There are very well developed strategies within the home for the involvement of young people in their placement plans and life choices. Young people are actively encouraged, enabled and supported by all staff within the home, to contribute towards their placement. There is consistent 6 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206 written and observational evidence of young people freely voicing their opinions and making informed decisions regarding their care. Young people really enjoy living in the home and a very warm, caring atmosphere is observed between the young people and support staff.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

The provision is good. The well refined care planning system within the home enables staff to assess the young people's progress with life skills and to plan for development of such skills. There is evidence of positive practice within the home in respect to the promotion of independence skills for young people, which includes the use of public transport, for example.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

Single bedrooms are provided for young people, which are well decorated and personalised. The young people and staff have the use of communal areas that are comfortable, very domestic in style and well maintained. The home is not unduly labelled as a children's home, with no external signs that might inhibit the occupant's integration into the community. This means that young people do feel not feel any stigma from being looked after and make good use of local facilities along side their peers.

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Organisation

The organisation is good. The home provides a clearly written statement of purpose which meets the requirements of Schedule 1 to the regulations. This means that clear and current information relating to the service is available for stakeholders and interested parties.

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Organisation

The promotion of equality and diversity is good. Young people benefit from the staff group's well developed understanding and sensitive approach to their heritage needs. Individual preferences regarding the practising of faith and cultural habits are well documented and included in daily life. All staff have a good knowledge of the young people they are working with, remaining objective in their work, whilst mindful of the impact of previous experiences on young people.

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Organisation

The establishment’s staffing levels are very suitable for the numbers of young people and their care needs. Emergency back up is provided for home staff, via the company's network of on call managers. This means that staff receive appropriate advice and support during emergency situations. The home provides a clear procedural guide for staff, which confirms the company's policies regarding such issues as safeguarding and medication. This means that staff can regularly refresh their understanding of these procedures and their practice is in line with the company's guidelines.

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Organisation

All but one of the care staff within the home are National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) trained at level 3. This means that young people are cared for by competent staff, whose abilities have been verified by an independent body. The service benefits from the supervision of a well qualified and experienced senior staff member. Staff are empowered to work independently with young people, and enjoy sound support networks from their peers and managers.

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Organisation

The home's induction programme reflects the induction standards for childcare staff provided by the Children's Workforce Development Council. The training programme also includes the specialist elements relevant to the service, such as attachment theory. This means that young 7 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206 people benefit from knowledgeable staff, who are confident and consistent in the application of specialist service procedures.

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Organisation

The quality of care is monitored by the nominated representatives of the Responsible Individual. The frequency of these checks is consistently in line with the regulations, and the content of the quality check meets the standards. The internal monitoring of the quality of care provided to young people is completed and recorded by senior staff in line with Schedule 6 to the regulations. The resulting reports are detailed and include feedback from young people, their families or social workers. This means that the home's quality assurance programme is comprehensive, and fully reflects the thoughts of young people and stakeholders on how to improve the care provided.

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Organisation

The service maintains two well indexed files, that contain all of the young people's records as required by Schedule 3 to the Children’s Home’s Regulations 2001. This means that both current and historical personal record information is available within the home.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions, which must be taken so that the registered person meets the Care Standards Act 2000, The Childrens Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The Registered Provider must comply with the given timescales.

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Due date Action Standard

31 August 2009 ensure that the home's health plans for young people are fully reflective of their medical history (Regulation 20) 31 August 2009 ensure that the home's fire safety risk assessment contains details of the provider's risk assessment findings along side the current risk management information (Regulation 32) 30 September 2009 obtain a copy of the personal education plan for young people, and ensure that there are suitable arrangments for the education of individuals. (Regulation 18)

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • ensure that the home's missing from care procedures include the young people's contact with an independent person upon their return (NMS 19) • provide direct work sessions with young people that focus on positive areas of their lives, in addition to the reinforcement of boundaries for behaviour. (NMS 7) 8 of 8 Inspection Report: SC068206

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