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

Unique reference number SC068206 Inspection date 04/07/2011 Inspector Michelle Moss Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 07/03/2011 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 one of a network of children's homes maintained by an independent children's home provider. The home provides a placement for one young person, supported by a staff team of four.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

The staff team fulfil their responsibility to provide care and protection, which in turn helps young people to feel and stay safe. The leadership are ambitious and motivated to improve and decision making is always child-focused. Close rigorous monitoring on the quality of care means management have a clear understanding over the strengths and the weaknesses within the home. Development plans are starting to emerge to help benchmark the quality of care and to strive for greater improvement. Proactive and imaginative support provides young people with every opportunity to develop and achieve physically, emotionally, vocationally and spiritually.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people hold their quality of care in high regard. This extends to viewing the staff as a major strength of the home. There is a wonderful rapport between young people and staff that is trusting and sincere. This warmth means young people are confident to express their views and opinions. Young people describe the home as ‘the best’.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people make exceptional progress in relation to their starting point of the placement across all aspects of welfare. All aspects of care planning and practice are highly personalised to meet the individual needs of young people. The home particularly excels in helping prepare young people during their transitional stage to adulthood. This includes helping young people to be aware of how to stay safe.

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Overall effectiveness

There are no breaches of regulations. Where shortfalls in national minimum standards do emerge, these are not having any direct impact on the tremendous support which young people value. The weaknesses are instead isolated to shortfalls in the safeguarding policy, handover times and young people’s comments being included the bound sanction records.

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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 child protection procedure is submitted for consideration and comment to the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) and to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) (NMS 20.4)  ensure the safeguarding policy clearly sets out other routes staff can take if required to involve other bodies such as the local authority, a police officer or to HMCI (Volume 5, statutory guidance 2.68)  ensure staff rotas have time scheduled to ensure handovers are held (NMS 17.7)  ensure young people have the opportunity to have their views recorded in the record required to be kept by the home where any sanction is used by staff. (NMS 3.18)

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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

Young people have a trusted relationship with a consistent and dedicated staff team. This successful attachment enables young people to have a sense of belonging and enhanced identity. Young people are afforded substantial opportunities to participate in lots of physical activities of their choice inclusive of sustaining friendships and building talent.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people experience individual tailored support that enables them to develop a sense of self-worth and form a positive self-direction in regards to decision making and confronting challenges of everyday life. Young people are given every possible opportunity to develop vocational skills and to build up on their educational achievements that will ultimately equip them for adulthood. Young people, personally recognise they are making exceptional progress as a result of their placement and put this down to the support they receive from care staff.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's contact with family and friends is positively encouraged. Friends are consistently made welcome and young people feel very comfortable bringing friends back to what they consider their home. Irrespective of ethnicity, faith, gender or belief, young people are accomplishing significant personal milestones. This is made possible by their own self-motivation and the reinforcement of praise and respect from enthusiastic staff.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding . Staff maximise every opportunity to help young people engage in further education and training after leaving school, to help them prepare for employment in adulthood. This supportive approach not only enables young people to build up knowledge and skills, but also helps to develop values and attitudes they need to enable them to stay safe and fully prepared for adult life. With every success comes unconditional praise which gives young people a real sense of achievement. Care plans and pathway plans actively contribute to helping young people build up their independence. The home works tirelessly with other partners to help ensure young people have the right level of access to all resources, benefits and training necessary to secure greater independence. Young people are supported to understand and take responsibility for maintaining their own physical well-being. This includes care staff

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Quality of care

ensuring young people are able to access effective healthcare. Young people are able to learn about healthy eating, including having opportunities to prepare their own meals. This extends to building up the required skills for managing a budget. Equally, young people are being actively encouraged to participate in a wide range of physical activities to help them sustain a healthy lifestyle. Staff show great interest in young people’s hobbies and ensure they can actively pursue them.

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Quality of care

The arrangements for dealing with medication are safely and effectively managed to ensure young people receive medication important to their health. Health plans, like care plans, are tailored to individual needs. The staff team implement positive behaviour strategies to support young people in developing skills to manage their emotions and to work in partnership with designated practitioners, so that a holistic approach of care is secured. Risk assessments are comprehensively developed so that the right level of protection is in place. These are regularly reviewed as risk levels change.

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Quality of care

Young people have access to helpline numbers which they can use independently of staff if they need to talk to someone outside of the home. The excellent rapport with staff means young people are confident any concern will be addressed. There is a comprehensive process well established for recording incidents, concerns and for making required safeguarding referrals. This clear process ensures there is always prompt response made to address concerns about the safety or welfare of young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is outstanding at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. Young people experience a safe, positive and encouraging atmosphere which is forged through a excellent bond between worker and child. Proactive and creative safeguarding practices are in place and mean young people feel safe. Positive ways of managing the behaviour of young people is utilised highly effectively and therefore no physical restraint is ever required. Management and staff promote an exceptional culture that ensures young people feel listened to and always respected as individuals. The staff team do not use sanctions very often with young people. However, when a sanction is necessary, the young person’s comments are not held in the same recording book completed by staff. This leaves the young person’s opinions absent. Nevertheless, young people are afforded opportunities to comment in an incident log that links to any imposed sanction.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The staff team are very aware of their duties to safeguard young people and know of the external agencies they can approach independently of the home. However, the details of these external agencies are not captured in the safeguarding procedure. The staff team ensure risk assessments are in place for assessing all possible risks faced by young people, especially activities that can involve time spent away from the home. These are comprehensive in their levels of detail and demonstrate how the staff take all reasonable steps to manage the risk without compromising growth or development. Concise guidelines exist for the appropriate use of information technology, such as email, digital cameras and websites. This makes sure young people are not put in danger or exposed to exploitation.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The careful selection, recruitment and retention of staff helps young people feel secure and to have a consistent team of staff that know them well. There is a substantial commitment to working and engaging constructively with internal and external stakeholders to secure the safety of young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people do not routinely go missing from care. If it does occur, procedures that safeguard young people from further harm are well established and known by staff. These include the full recognition of specific areas of needs and vulnerabilities young people have.

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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 young people. This means young people 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 . Leadership provides a strong sense of commitment to openness and fairness of opportunity. The staff team treat young people with the upmost respect and dignity and support them in overcoming significant barriers. The staff team tailor their support to respect the cultural, ethnic and religious needs of individuals.

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Leadership and management

Staff team are provided with quality training, support and resources to enable them to understand the developmental needs of young people. Joint-working is common place. Multi-agency partnerships are forged with health services, placing authorities through to services such as connexions to ensure all work together in the best interests of young people. Young people confirm they are able to be involved in meetings where key decisions are made about their futures, including contributing to decisions. However, despite this strong link, the home has not forwarded their safeguarding policy to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) or the Local Children’s Safeguarding Board for comment and consideration.

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Leadership and management

Care and pathway plans are drawn up through a multi-disciplinary partnership. This enables young people to gain the right access to resources, benefits and education, necessary for achieving progress during transition stages. This is managed with realistic levels of what young people can achieve and with the right balance of providing safeguards to meet their diverse needs. All records that are compiled are kept up to date and stored securely.

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Leadership and management

The staff have a strong focus on promoting positive outcomes and to enhance the well-being of young people. The staff work proactively to help young people overcome barriers so that they can succeed. Handovers are undertaken for each shift to ensure key messages are passed over. However, the staff rota has no specified time for conducting these handovers.

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Leadership and management

The home takes a proactive approach to building and sustaining strong relationships with the local community and equally ensuring young people have a sense of community inclusion.

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Leadership and management

The management team are excellent at monitoring and signing appropriate records as part of their internal quality assurance. Regular Regulation 33 visits take place to provide additional quality assurance mechanisms and involve consulting with young people wherever possible. The management has a strong commitment to meeting young people’s needs and ensure when they complete Regulation 34 reports, a whole section is dedicated to seeking the views of young people. The level of progress young people have made despite their history is a testament of the impact the management and staff are having on ensuring young people aspire, irrespective of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or faith.

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Leadership and management

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

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Leadership and management

The home has taken action to address the one previous recommendation raised at the last inspection. This has enhanced the procedures in case of young people going missing from care.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is outstanding .

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