Children's Home run by Crystal Care Solutions Limited in Staffordshire

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people’s welfare is not promoted. Young people’s care and experiences are poor and they are not making progress.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Young people are not safe. Staff do not promote young people’s safety or assess risk. Young people have made allegations about their peers and staff do not know how to respond. They do not ensure risk assessments include the specific safeguarding needs of young people in respect of fire, or self-harm.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The home does not deliver care as outlined within its statement of purpose. The registered person has not ensured that staff are suitably trained to meet the aims of the service or the needs of young people.  Monitoring of the home and young people’s progress is ineffective. The registered person has failed to take action when staff have not implemented the home’s safeguarding or bullying procedures. Staff recording of significant incidents is inadequate; as a result, crucial safeguarding information gets lost.  The registered person has made poor decisions about matching and admitting children to the home. This has led to chaotic and unsafe placements. Young people have had to move out in an unplanned way, as staff could not manage their needs.  Staff have been unable to manage bullying, violent and threatening behaviour towards peers and staff. Staff are ineffective in changing this. Restraint practice and recording is poor. Staff do not make a clear record

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

and the registered person does not monitor this.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Young people do not make progress from their starting points. They do not attend education. They do not have hobbies. Staff do not help them to make progress.  Staff do not promote young people’s health. They do not secure specific support for young people, such as help with substance misuse, or make referrals for mental health assessments. Staff do not work in partnership with other agencies in order to meet the needs of young people.  Management oversight is poor. The registered person has not notified Ofsted about serious issues in the home, or about the changes in managerial arrangements. The home is in a poor state of repair because of a high level of damage by young people.

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The children's home strengths

 A new manager is in post. He is aware of the failings within the home and has taken steps to make the home safe for young people.

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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 (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

5: In order to meet the engaging with the wider systems standard, with respect to with respect to education, the virtual head and substance misuse and mental health services, the registered person must ensure that staff-

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Requirement Due date

(b) seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child's needs

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Requirement Due date

(d) seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children's home is to provide care and accommodation. 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

6: In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, with respect to managing allegations made by young people, delivering the care plan, staff skills, and maintaining the environment, the registered person must ensure that staff-

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b) (ii) protect and promote each child’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

(iv) provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background with respect to risk management plans.

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Requirement Due date

(c) (i) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

(3)(c) (i) that the care is delivered by a person who has the experience, knowledge and skills to deliver that care with respect to meeting young people’s needs and the aims of the statement of purpose. 04/12/2015 7: In order to meet the children’s views, wishes and feelings standard, with respect to poor peer relationships, admission decisions, and bullying, the registered person must ensure that children receive care from staff who-

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Requirement Due date

(1) (c) take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

8: In order to meet the education standard, that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so, the registered person must ensure that staff-

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a) (i) help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

(ii) support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

(iii) understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

(iv) help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

(v) promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

(vi) maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

(vii) raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

(viii) help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as 04/12/2015 possible;

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Requirement Due date

(ix) help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment;

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Requirement Due date

(x) help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

(b) that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning.

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Requirement Due date

9: In order to meet the enjoyment and achievement standard, the registered person must ensure that -

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b) each child has access to a range of activities that enable the child to pursue the child's interests and hobbies. 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

10: In order to meet the health and well-being standard, with respect to the input of mental health services, the registered person must ensure that-

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Requirement Due date

(1) (b) children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

12: In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that staff-

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a) (i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child's relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

(ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe with respect to addressing unsafe behaviour in the home;

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Requirement Due date

(iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

(iv) manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

(v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered 04/12/2015 person;

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Requirement Due date

(vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b) that the home's day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm.

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Requirement Due date

13: In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must enable, inspire and lead a culture in relation to the children's home that—

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Requirement Due date

(1) (a) helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a) the registered person must ensure that they lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

(d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child with respect to an appropriate gender balance being sought to support the needs of young people;

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Requirement Due date

(e) ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

(f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

(g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on- (i) research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 04/12/2015 14: In order to meet the care planning standard, with respect to proper planning and matching of young people who are admitted to the home, the registered person must ensure that children-

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Requirement Due date

(2) (b) have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire safety) Order 2005 (a) and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the procedure is followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect, in particular describing the measures which may be necessary to protect children following an allegation of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 34(2)(e)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a policy for the prevention of bullying in the home is prepared and implemented, which must in particular set out the procedure for dealing with an allegation of bullying. (Regulation 34 (3)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")has spoken to the user about the measure; and have have signed the record to confirm it is accurate. This is in relation to restraint. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each child's case records contain information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36(1)(a)) 04/12/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of 04/12/2015 care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months. (Regulation 45(1))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must give notice in writing to HMCI, as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so, if any of the following events take place or are expected by the registered person to take place— a person other than the registered person carries on or manages the children’s home, or ceases to carry on or manage the home. (Regulation 49(1)(2)(3)) 04/12/2015

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned home. It is registered to care for up to three young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home specialises in caring for young people who display sexually harmful behaviours.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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inadequate

Young people do not receive individualised care. Staff do not know the young people or understand their needs, due to an inconsistent and inexperienced staff team. Behaviour management plans do not relate to individual young people. Staff do not promote the emotional wellbeing of young people. They do not make referrals to essential services in times of crisis. For example, when young people have significantly self-harmed, staff have not made sure they have seen a doctor; instead they relied on the police to respond.

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inadequate

Too many young people were placed in the home too quickly, coupled with a poorly trained and ill-equipped staff team. A social worker said: ‘They moved too many young people in far too fast; they opened and in two weeks they had three complex young men with a new staff team’. The registered person has not taken care in matching young people. Consequently, young people’s relationships with one another in the home are poor and unsafe.

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inadequate

Young people threaten and physically assault one another. Staff do not support young people to develop safe relationships. They do not engage them in regular and purposeful key working sessions to help them to progress. For example, staff do not address unsafe behaviour with young people after significant incidents of criminal damage, self-harm, sexually harmful behaviour, or violence to their peers and staff. Consequently, their unsafe behaviour continues. Staff cannot manage this behaviour and rely on the police to resolve incidents. One social worker said: ‘Staff were frightened of my young person. He was not safe whilst he was there. Staff could not handle him’.

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inadequate

Young people’s learning and educational development declines on arriving at the home. They do not attend education regularly and staff do not help or support them to learn, or find the right educational provision for them. Staff do not escalate their concerns about poor attendance to placing authorities. They do not help young people to access the right learning environment for them to reach their potential. They do not try to find out what young people want or how they learn most effectively. Staff do not link with the virtual head, or other professionals to promote young people’s education. Staff do not inspire young people to learn. For example, young people do not go on educational trips and they are not stimulated to read or learn within the home. The current manager of the home stated: ‘We have failed our young person. He has not made progress educationally’.

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inadequate

Young people have a poor daily experience. They do not develop hobbies or interests during their time at the home and staff do not actively encourage this either. When young people express an interest in joining clubs, staff do not follow this up. Young people who had prior interests, such as cars and walking, no longer continue with these. They say to staff that they do not have hobbies anymore. A social worker said: ‘I was worried that the young person was placed with another young person who was quite a bit younger than him. He never saw people his own age. I asked for the home to sort activities for him to attend to mix and that didn’t happen either’.

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inadequate

Managers and staff do not help young people move into the home or leave positively. Staff and managers do not consider young people’s needs as a group. New young people are poorly matched with the existing group. Poor peer relationships increase young people’s risk taking behaviour within the home, and staff are unable to manage this positively. Staff do not challenge aggression by other young people. A visiting placing authority described the home’s atmosphere as, ‘chaos.’ Due to poor matching and the increase of violent incidents young people have been moved out in an unplanned way. This does not promote their emotional wellbeing.

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Inadequate

Young people are not safe in this home. Young people experience verbal and physical aggression from their peers. Staff do not understand their complex needs and do not proactively and robustly tackle allegations or incidents of bullying. The registered person has not ensured that staff are adequately trained or experienced in reducing risk of sexually harmful behaviour, or young people’s vulnerabilities to child sexual exploitation. Consequently, they do not know how to assess, or reduce risk. This has left young people at risk within the home, due to their own behaviour, such as self-harm, but also due to damaging and unsafe peer relationships.

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Inadequate

The quality of young people’s risk management plans is poor; they do not address fundamental issues, such as sexually harmful behaviour and violence. The registered person does not ensure that staff have clear current guidance about how to care safely for young people. After restraint, staff do not debrief young people, or give them the opportunity to look at the records about any incident, and talk about what has happened.

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Inadequate

The registered person does not promote young people’s welfare. Managers do not scrutinise, or assess young people’s needs well. They do not respond to their allegations, or manage safeguarding incidents, for example, in relation to documenting one young person’s allegation. Staff do not follow procedures for reporting safeguarding incidents; they do not learn from allegations young people make and this leaves young people at continued risk of harm. The registered person does not put measures into place after allegations are made, such as an increase in staff supervision to make sure young people are safe in the home. Boundaries are inconsistently applied in the home. Young people do not have consistent daily structure and routines, for example, in respect of house rules. Staff do not consistently help them to learn about socially appropriate and safe behaviours. Consequently, young people continue to use violence and their

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Inadequate

The home environment does not meet the individual needs of young people and places them at risk. The registered person does not ensure that safeguarding measures are put into place, despite known risks of fire setting and self-harm. F for example, the home’s fire risk assessment is out of date and windows and mirrors are not replaced with shatterproof safety glass. This places young people with self- harming behaviours at risk.

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inadequate

There have been serious failings by the management of the home. The home’s statement of purpose states that this is a home that specialises in meeting the needs of young people who exhibit sexually harmful behaviour and that: ‘Residential care should provide children and young people with skilled support from a committed staff in a safe, caring and ordered environment’. The registered person has not ensured that the staff team are able to carry out the aims and objectives of the statement of purpose. Crucially, staff are not trained in sexually harmful behaviour. The registered person has not made sure that the staff on shift, including agency staff, have the skills and capacity to manage the young people, or give them continuity of care.

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inadequate

The registered person has not ensured that young people live in a safe environment due to poor decision making about admissions since the home opened. This has resulted in bullying and violence within the home, between young people, and towards staff.

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inadequate

The registered person has not made safe and secure managerial arrangements since the resignation of the registered manager on 25 August 2015, or made Ofsted aware of their concerns about how the home was being managed.

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inadequate

Management oversight is poor. The registered person has not monitored or reviewed the quality of care. The registered person has not taken effective action when it was clear that young people were not making progress. They did not advocate for young people, or challenge other agencies when their service was not good enough, for example, in relation to a lack of educational progress. The registered person has not sought mental health support for young people in distress and after suicide attempts. They have not effectively recorded or documented safeguarding allegations, in line with the home’s own procedures. The registered person has completely failed to promote welfare of young people at the home or keep them safe in respect of managing risk, meeting needs and planning their futures.

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inadequate

The registered person has not been proactive in tackling poor staff practice, or helped them to understand their responsibilities to keep young people safe. Supervision is ineffective, infrequent and of poor quality. It does not provide staff with ongoing direction or learning that they need to provide good quality care to young people. Supervisions are not child focused and they do not allow staff to develop skills. Consequently, young people receive poor care from an unsupported staff team.

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inadequate

Partnership working is poor. Staff work alone and in isolation from other agencies. Work with the police has been reactive when staff call them to support with serious incidents in the home. The registered person has not ensured that placing authorities receive adequate updates regarding their young people. Placing authorities have stated that communication from the service is ‘poor’. The registered person has not learnt from the complaints made by placing authorities and young people have continued to receive inadequate care.

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inadequate

There is a new manager in post. He has been managing the home for three weeks and has not yet applied to register with Ofsted. He has an NVQ 4 in leadership and management and a wealth of experience of working with young people who display sexually harmful behaviour. The current manager has demonstrated integrity and awareness of the strengths and areas for development. He has identified that the home has not been fulfilling its aims and objectives as set out in its statement of purpose. He has started to take steps to address some of the shortfalls, but it is too soon to see the impact of these changes.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk.

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence, write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

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Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn.

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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