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

Unique reference number SC063498 Inspection date 16/06/2011 Inspector Michelle Moss Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 02/03/2011 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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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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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 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011) and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service that exceeds minimum requirements Satisfactory : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Brief description of the service

This service is managed by an independent company who provide a number of small children's homes. The home provides accommodation for one child and is staffed in accordance with their assessed needs.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

The children live in a caring environment. The registered manager and staff promote a culture that enables children to build confidence so that they feel safe, protected and valued. This is made possible by the positive and encouraging atmosphere created by staff. Children are afforded wonderful opportunities to develop personal and social skills, talents and abilities and to spend time pursuing hobbies and interests that reflect individual needs. Children make exceptional progress in relation to their starting point of their placement across all aspects of their welfare and in particular schooling. This is illustrated in the level of commitment staff give to helping children in become settled in their new placement. This includes helping them to forge new networks of friends and providing a nurturing environment that helps children to build up self-confidence and self-worth.

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Overall effectiveness

Shortfalls in regulations and national minimum standards do not have any direct impact on the care of children. This is because the vast majority relate to weaknesses in record keeping and not direct care practices. For example, there are shortfalls in holding all required information in areas of behaviour management, care planning, complaints and risk assessments. The management fully understand where they need to improve and are beginning to use development plans as a way of evaluating strengths and countering weaknesses. Improvements have been made from the last inspection, with no recurring shortfalls identified. Staff are clearly committed and trained in safe working practices and deploy these skills highly effectively to keep children safe.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children's Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure case records include a child's religious persuasion and any of the child's parents. (Regulation 28(1) Schedule 3(3)(8)) 08/07/2011

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 ensure the behaviour management policy informs on how staff are deployed (Volume 5, statutory guidance, 2.90)  make sure children are able to record their perception about an incident in the records completed by staff (Volume 5, statutory guidance, 2.91)  ensure risk assessments of the whole children's home environment are carried out to identify any potential sources of harm (NMS 10.8)  ensure the review of incidents of challenging behaviour include examining trends or issues emerging. Also, to use this information to enable staff to reflect and inform future practice (NMS 3.21)  ensure children communicate positive as well as negative views in ways appropriate to their age and understanding through the records such as the 'chat book'( Volume 5, statutory guidance, 2.28)  ensure children know how they can take up issues in the most appropriate way, inclusive of complaints. (NMS 1.6)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are outstanding .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children experience a genuine caring, stable and secure relationship with an established care staff team. Children describe their care staff as 'great'. Children have wonderful support to help them stay healthy including having access to professionals in areas of physical, emotional and mental well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children are supported and encouraged to participate in lots of physical activities of their choice, for example, going swimming, attending Brownies, participating in various after school clubs, having day trips to the seaside and visiting places of interest, of which children hold fond memories. Immense work is undertaken by staff to help children overcome significant barriers, including self-esteem, feeling safe and secure. The staff optimise every opportunity to help children engage in the wider community and to forge new friendships which helps in building confidence and form a sense of identity.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children's enjoyment of school is reflected in their 100 % attendance. Children are making exceptional progress and have a strong sense of pride in their achievements. This is equally recognised and celebrated by the staff. From the starting point of children commencing their placement and starting new schools, their attainment and progress in areas of learning are remarkable.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children's contact with family and friends is managed with the uppermost sensitivity to secure the required levels of safeguarding and respect.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Irrespective of ethnicity, faith, gender or belief, children are accomplishing significant personal milestones.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is good . Children have opportunities to develop their personal and social skills with a stable staff team who they trust. Children learn about healthy eating and access healthy food. Children view the quality of food as being the best thing about the home with staff coming a very close second. Equally, children are encouraged to participate in a wide range of physical activities to help them sustain a healthy lifestyle. Children have a safe, secure, caring and stimulating environment, where they are able to develop and achieve physically, emotionally, educationally and spiritually. They have excellent access to effective healthcare, assessment, treatment and support. The staff team play a central role in coordinating appointments and corresponding with health professionals to ensure children’s health needs remain fully met.

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Quality of care

Children thrive on all the wonderful range of activities and are not shy in asking to pursue new interests and hobbies. They have opportunities to participate in creative activities both within the home and throughout the community. The staff team promote and encourage children's education. As a result, they are making excellent progress and achieving realistic expectations to maximise their learning.

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Quality of care

The arrangements for dealing with medication are safe and effectively managed to ensure children receive medication important to their health. Health plans, like care plans, are tailored to individual needs. However, some aspects of religious identity are not formally captured. The staff team implement positive behaviour strategies to support children in developing skills to manage their emotions and work in partnership with designated practitioners, so that a holistic approach of care can be secured. However, behaviour plans are not detailing all triggers that are known to escalate children’s behaviour. Furthermore, there is no evaluating of incidents to look at trends and patterns and then using this information to help review action/risk assessment plans.

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Quality of care

Children also have access to helpline numbers which they can use independently of staff if they need to talk to someone outside of the home. There is a complaints procedure in place and is included in the children’s welcome book. However, the design is not reflective of the age of children to enable them to fully understand the process involved and what happens when they raise a concern. This limits children’s understanding how concerns are dealt with in the home. Children also have access to helpline numbers which they can use independently of staff if they need to talk to someone outside of the home.

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Quality of care

Children are being helped in building up a sense of self-worth, attachment, belonging and identity. The staff use their positive rapport with children to build trust. Children’s views are captured in a 'chat book'. However, sometimes the records reflect more on negative aspects of life such as behaviour and do not reinforce the celebration and pride staff give children during their interactions. This hinders children getting balanced views captured in formal records of which they have ownership.

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Quality of care

Children are confident to talk with staff and like spending as much time as possible with them, especially if it involves playing games. Given the age of children, appropriate levels of engagement in key decisions are actively secured. This enables children to positively contribute to decisions that affect them.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is good at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. The staff continuously give children supportive messages so that they feel safe and secure. There is a clear recognition about the particular vulnerabilities children have and how support needs to be tailored to reflect individual needs. The staff ensure they follow clear processes for recording incidents, concerns and for making referrals relating to any emerging welfare matters to the right agencies. Contact details for local child protection services are well known by staff.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children are helped to learn the rules of what is acceptable behaviour which takes account of their age and background. The staff do not use any form of physical restraint with children. Instead, they manage behaviour through providing support, guidance, de-escalation and re-direction. Staff are trained and skilled in using breakaway techniques when children display their anger directly at them to minimise people getting hurt. Nevertheless, the behaviour management plan is not detailed enough in identifying all triggers that can escalate children's behaviour and what are the successful interventions to counter their effects. The deployment of staff is also not captured in the behaviour management policy to reflect the contingency plans required to respond to changes in children’s levels of aggression. Staff do not use sanctions very often with children and instead use rewards. However, when a sanction is necessary, children’s comments are not held in the same recording book.

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Safeguarding children and young people

This leaves children opinions absent from the same bound log held by staff. The staff are also well versed with the vulnerability of children being bullied. Any early triggers of possible bullying are identified quickly and action taken without delay to ensure children are not affected.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Safe recruitment of workers is well established and meticulous records are made of all checks completed to show staff working with children are suitably vetted.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Care plans hold assessments that identify risks and provide protective factors that help the staff to keep children safe. However, there are some gaps in areas of hot water safety, window safety and behaviour related risks. Despite these shortfalls in the written detail the staff care practices ensure risks are quickly identified and action taken to safeguard children.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children do not routinely go missing from care. If this was to occur procedures for safeguarding are in place to protect children from harm. Supportive risk assessments are in place that clearly identify risks specific to individual child's vulnerability and age.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The premise’s are kept safe and appropriate to take into account the needs and characteristics of children. This means children are able to live in an environment that promotes their health and well-being. This includes regular safety checks being carried out on fire precautions and annual checks on electrical and gas safety.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are good . The staff team show immense care and respect towards children. They are provided with good quality training, support and resources to enable them to understand the developmental needs of children, includes areas of need relating to attachment. Joint working is common place. Multi-agency partnerships are forged with health services, placing authorities and schools. This partnership enables working together to become well established and action taken in the best interests of the children. Care plans are drawn up with a multi-disciplinary partnership. This ensures children are getting the required resources to enhance their education, health and welfare. This is managed with realistic levels of what children can achieve and holds the right balance of providing safeguarding and still meeting diverse needs. All records made by staff are appropriately compiled, kept up to date and stored securely.

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Leadership and management

Children are supported by sufficient numbers of staff to meet their needs. Regular debriefing sessions and comprehensive handovers are well established to ensure key information about the welfare of children is known by all staff. There are adequate resources to meet the needs of children both in the range of domestic arrangements and in the number of leisure facilities made available within the home and beyond. The home has forged good relationships with the local community and neighbours to enable children to receive a warm welcome into their neighbourhood.

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Leadership and management

The management team monitor and sign appropriate records as part of their internal quality assurance. Regular Regulation 33 visits take place to provide an additional quality assurance mechanism and include consulting children wherever possible. The management have a strong commitment to meeting the needs of children. The level of progress children have made is a testament to the impact the staff and management have made in helping children aspire, irrespective of their heritage, ethnicity, gender or faith.

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Leadership and management

The home has a clear, accessible and comprehensive Statement of Purpose that sets out its aims and objectives. These objectives are being utilised in everyday practice, inclusive of ensuring children are supportive to feel safe, protected and well cared for.

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Leadership and management

The home has taken action to address previous requirements and recommendations arising from previous inspection. For example, greater emphasis is made to ensure all safeguarding processes are rigorously maintained. Also, Regulation 33 reports are more detailed so that key information is always captured. Information for children is more tailored to reflect children’s age and understanding.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is good .

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