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

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged good at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has sustained effectiveness . Young people continue to make good progress due to living in a nurturing home environment where staff have an excellent understanding of their individual needs. Positive relationships were observed between staff and young people during the inspection, and staff have an excellent understanding of how young people’s past experiences can affect their behaviour. Young people like living in the home and recognise the progress that they have made. One young person commented, ‘Staff have helped me with my feelings towards other young people at school and at the home and helped me sort my feelings out about my family.’ Young people receive well-planned care. Staff recognise the importance of structure and routine for young people in their everyday lives, and young people respond well to this approach. Each young person has a weekly session with the in-

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

house therapist, and the therapist gives guidance and advice to staff following these sessions. This ensures that young people’s needs and progress are kept under regular review and that work is consistent and underpinned by a therapeutic base. The majority of young people attend school. When young people are not in school, staff liaise effectively with placing authorities and the virtual headteacher to secure educational placements for them. This ensures that young people obtain school places quickly, which establishes a routine for them that helps them to settle into the home. Staff communicate well with education staff and have recently introduced the use of communications books to enhance information sharing, which promotes consistency between home and school. Staff are proactive in ensuring that young people maintain links with their families when it is safe to do so and in line with their care plans. Staff liaise well with

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

placing authorities regarding contact; they transport the young people and supervise the contact, sometimes at a significant distance, to ensure that family contact can take place. This means that young people maintain positive relationships with family members in a safe way, and some young people’s contact with family has progressed due to the help and support from staff. Staff promote positive behaviour by the use of clear reward systems, which young people understand. This includes young people earning rewards, such as a trip to Wembley, for positive behaviour. Staff are proactive in involving young people with plans for their care. For example, one young person explained his sanctions chart to me in depth and told me that he was fully involved in creating this. He feels that this approach works to address his behaviour and that his behaviour has improved since being in the home. One social worker commented, ‘[Name]’s behaviour is a

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

lot better and he is engaging with therapy much more.’ Staff are sensitive to the needs of young people who move in and out of the home. Staff complete thorough impact assessments prior to any new admissions, which consider the impact of new admissions on the young people already living in the home. As a result, the young people living in the home get on well most of the time and live in a stable home environment. When young people leave the home, staff ensure that this is well planned and staff remain in contact with them after they leave, which provides some consistency for young people. Staff work with young people to help them to learn the skills that they will need for their adult lives, using an adult life pack, which covers all aspects of preparing for independence, such as budgeting, shopping and cooking. Young people are safe living in this home due to the high level of staff supervision. Risk assessments are thorough and clearly identify areas of individual risk and

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

guidance for staff on supporting young people’s individual areas of need and keeping them safe. Young people do not go missing, and restraint and significant incidents are reducing, demonstrating the positive impact that living in a nurturing, structured and stable home is having on young people’s behaviour. Young people engage in a wide range of activities in the community, such as voluntary work and swimming. Staff ensure that risk assessments are in place, to support young people to undertake activities in a way that ensures that the risk to them and others is managed. Risk assessments are reviewed regularly to ensure that young people can access activities in a safe way and the level of supervision required is gradually reduced when it is safe to do so. An example of this is that a number of the young people are engaged in voluntary work in the local community supported by staff, which means that they are meaningfully engaged and have the

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

opportunity to develop new skills and social relationships. The registered manager is child focused and has an excellent understanding of the needs of the young people in her care. Her focus is on providing nurturing care in line with the statement of purpose. She has a good oversight of the home and a realistic understanding of the strengths and areas for development and uses internal and external monitoring systems appropriately to monitor and develop the service. She is currently updating the young people’s guide and involving the young people in the home with this and plans to develop new team members’ roles to include the key working role. She has identified that there is further work to be done with the team members on evidencing the direct work that they complete with young people that was identified as a shortfall during the inspection. The manager has ensured that the requirement made at the last inspection is met

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

and has taken appropriate action to address three out of the four recommendations made at the last inspection. Maintenance continues to be an issue due to the age and size of the home. The leak to the conservatory has not yet been repaired, but there are plans for this to be completed in the coming summer months. A further shortfall was identified in ensuring that staff have adequate understanding of safeguarding training that they have undertaken. All staff receive safeguarding training, but the manager needs to ensure through supervision or team meetings that they understand this and can utilise it in their practice.

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home can accommodate up to four young people who have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

16/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

19/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and that they understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recordings. This includes ensuring that records are up to date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph, 14.4)  Ensure that young people live in homely environments (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9). This is specifically in relation to repairing the leak in the conservatory.  The registered manager should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

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What the inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspection, we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the ‘Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection’.

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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 that 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 whom it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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Information about this inspection

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 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 children looked after 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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