Children's home run by Crystal Care Solutions Limited in Cheshire East

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people are safe. Their risk-taking behaviours reduce. Any incidents in the home are well managed and staff follow young people’s individual risk management plans.  Young people have well-planned endings to their placements. They are prepared for when they leave and staff complete good-quality work with young people to help them to be ready for semi-independence.  Matching of young people to one another is good. When young people move into the home, it is planned, and young people have positive experiences of moving into the home.  Relationships between staff and young people are good. Young people enjoy new experiences and staff encourage them to take part in activities in the community.  Young people make progress across all areas of their development. Staff support young people to access education. Some young people are making excellent academic progress.  Partnership working is a strength of this home. The registered manager and

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The children's home provision is good because:

staff work closely with the therapists, placing authorities and local police. This provides young people with consistency and a team approach to their care planning and assessments.  The registered manager is child focused and committed to providing young people with excellent quality of care. He has good management oversight of the home and supports his staff team. He knows the strengths and areas for development in the home.  Recommendations have been made in this inspection. These relate to young people being more involved with all aspects of their placement documents, revisiting and documenting young people’s feelings after they have had physical interventions, making sure that the home complies with all health and safety requirements including fire, and that staff have good-quality face- to-face training around important areas such as safeguarding and missing from care incidents.

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What does the children's home need to do to improve?

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 within the given timescales.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that children's homes are nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, and that it is a homely and domestic environment. Children's homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and that there are arrangements in place to protect them. Their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 42, paragraph 9.5).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that a record is kept documenting that the child has talked about their feelings in relation to a physical intervention, no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (regulation 35(3)(c)). Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 50, paragraph 9.60).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person enables staff to access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and that they understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 52, paragraph 10.11).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff encourage children to see the home's records as 'living documents' supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 58, paragraph 11.19).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that there are systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.2).

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Information about this children's home

This home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home specialises in providing a therapeutic environment for young people who display sexually harmful behaviours.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 25/01/2016 Full Good 28/09/2015 Full Inadequate 26/01/2015 Interim Not judged 07/10/2014 Interim Not judged

p.5

Good

Staff provide good quality individualised care to young people. Staff are innovative in how they engage young people and try to understand their feelings. For example, staff encourage young people to use different cards which represent different emotions. This gives staff insight into young people’s feelings. Staff know the young people and have good relationships with them. One young person says; ‘The good bits about being here is that the staff give you a chance.’

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Good

Young people’s behaviour management plans are good. Staff regularly review them and amend them to meet the changing needs of young people. Staff work with young people to put together individual behaviour management plans in respect of young people’s daily routines, bedtime routines and behaviour expectations, which young people keep as ‘contracts’. However, young people are not involved in all of their placement documents, such as their placement plans and risk assessments. The involvement of young people in some of their routine plans, provides them with consistency and clarity.

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Good

Young people experience positive moves from the home to semi-independence, and positive experiences of arriving at the home. Before one young person moved out of the home, the registered manager, staff and placing authority put together a timetable of the young person’s move. This included the young person and staff visiting the young person’s new home, increasing contact with his friends and family members in that area, and enrolling the young person into college. The young person’s social worker says; ‘My young person visited the area he was moving to, saw his flat, and re-engaged with support networks in that area. Staff did a fantastic job with helping to prepare him for the move. The registered manager has done a fantastic, consistent job as have the staff team. They have given the young person the level of consistency he needed when his behaviour fluctuated before he moved.’

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Good

On the whole, young people enjoy positive relationships with one another. The registered manager takes care when matching the young people to one another. Staff encourage young people to learn how to live positively with other young people. Occasionally, young people go out and enjoy activities together such as bowling. Staff promote and encourage young people to develop their own individual interests, such as playing musical instruments, volunteering at a local farm and playing football. A staff member says; ‘It is a good mix of young people in the home. They are all very different. We make sure that they keep their own identities.’ Staff promote young people’s individual cultural identities. For example they have sourced local areas of worship and adapted the home’s daily routines and the young person’s family contacts for cultural practices such as Ramadan.

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Good

Young people make progress. Staff work closely with young people’s teachers and tutors. They regularly review young people’s educational progress. Staff understand the importance of education and they support young people to gain qualifications in a way which meets young people’s individual needs. For example, the registered manager is exploring whether a young person can take their mock GCSE exams in an annexe of the home, due to the young person’s anxiety with new settings and people. Staff encourage young people to go on to further education and young people start to have aspirations for their futures.

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Good

The safeguarding of young people in this home is good. When young people go missing, staff follow them and search for them. Staff link in with other professionals such as the police and therapists to promote young people’s safety in the home and in the community. Young people have return interviews after they have gone missing. Staff learn from times when young people go missing, for example, areas to search when young people go missing. Although risk assessments are individualised and of good quality, they do not always contain all of the subtle aspects of young people’s placements; for example, any changes in young people’s interactions with one another, so as staff can pre-empt potential safeguarding concerns.

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Good

Young people’s risk-taking behaviours reduce. Staff work closely with the therapeutic team to review young people’s engagement in the placement and any changes in behaviours. A therapist says; ‘Staff have been good at giving young people safe boundaries and consistency. If an approach isn’t working then staff keep re-visiting it with the young person and with us as a therapeutic team. They make the changes needed for an approach to work most effectively. What staff have been good at is individualising their approach to young people.’ Any changes to young people’s therapeutic programme such as an increase of independence or the use of a mobile phone, is thoroughly risk assessed. Staff encourage young people to gain independence skills in the community while remaining safe.

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Good

Overall, incidents of aggression in the home are low. Staff know the young people and use their relationships to talk to young people and try to understand how young people are feeling. A young person says; ‘I like staff. If I am unhappy with anything I tell staff. I feel safe, definitely.’ Young people have opportunity after incidents or physical interventions to talk and document their feelings regarding the incident. However, after physical interventions young people do not always want to talk about their feelings straight away, and staff have not always re-visited the issue with young people. This has led to young people not consistently sharing their views about physical interventions with staff.

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Good

Although the registered manager has made sure that there have been updated risk assessments in respect of the home’s health and safety aspects and young people’s behaviours, he has not always been rigorous enough in seeking input from specific professionals such as the fire service. However, fire risk assessments are regularly reviewed and updated and staff are trained in this area.

p.8

Good

There is a registered manager in post who is qualified up to NVQ level 5 in leadership and management. Out of the 8 staff members, 5 are qualified up to NVQ level 3.

p.8

Good

Management oversight in this home is good. The registered manager has worked hard to rectify the shortfalls in the home identified in previous inspections. The registered manager says; ‘We have become much more proactive over the last year. For example, we make sure education is put in place earlier and we raise any concerns if young people are not getting the services they need. We are forward thinking.’

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Good

The registered manager is child focused and committed to providing young people with good experiences and opportunities which are also safe. For example, he arranged for the young people to go on holiday during the summer holidays, and he is currently in the process of getting a house pet. The registered manager is aware of the future development of the home and he has high aspirations for the young people in the home.

p.8

Good

He has supported staff to develop their skills and knowledge of young people. Staff attend regular training although important areas of training such as around safeguarding are online rather than face-to-face. Through the registered manager’s links with the local police team, staff have had training on radicalisation. The therapeutic team regularly provide staff with up-to-date training relating to the specific needs of young people, such as autism and pathological demand avoidance. This gives staff the knowledge they need to be able to provide good quality care to young people. Staff supervisions are good. They allow staff to reflect on the young people’s behaviours and risks. Staff say they feel well supported. A staff member says; ‘The support is fantastic. One of the strengths of this home is the management and the team. We have excellent team work in this home.’ Whilst the registered manager provides his staff team with good supervisions, he does not always have regular

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Good

Good quality partnership working has provided a team approach to young people’s care planning, as well as consistency. Good communication has contributed to effective risk management plans for young people and has supported young people to make progress. The registered manager is delivering the home’s statement of purpose. A therapist says; ‘As a therapeutic team, all we ask is that the staff team are receptive and open to learning and I think that we have been getting this from them. The registered manager in his role has allowed that.’

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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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