Children's Home run by Crusoe Care Limited in East Sussex

Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 1 SC434573 Registered provider: Crusoe Care Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two young people who have complex difficulties. Accommodation is provided in a single storey bungalow located in a residential area. The home is owned by a private company that has one other small children’s home located very close by. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since July 2011.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/10/2016 Full Good 17/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/05/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure that children— 14 (a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home (Regulation 14(a)) In particular, ensure that care plans are reviewed regularly to reflect the current situation and 24-hour plans are effective working documents. 01/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire authority the registered person must— ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as is reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedures to be followed in the case of fire. (Regulation 25(1)(d)) 01/08/2018

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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 and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(b)(c)) 01/08/2018

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Recommendations

 Children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)

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Recommendations

 As part of the polices for protection of children, the registered person should include information about whistle blowing, with clear procedures for how a staff member should report to an appropriate authority any concerns they have about a child within the home being either at risk of, or already experiencing, significant harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.15)

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Recommendations

 Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 4 help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience a range of activites. Staff encourage them to attend clubs in the community. One child is attending a camp following successful integration into the local scouts group.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school regularly. Staff care about children’s education and welfare while they are at school. When a child went missing from school the registered manager and responsible individual responded by searching for and locating the chid. This quick response was appreciated by the school staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff gain children’s views through regular, well-planned key-work sessions, which are responsive to children’s needs. However, more formal children’s meetings do not take place. This limits the ways that children can express their views about how the home is run.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children have positive contact with those who are important to them. They work closely with the children’s local authority and parents to fulfil children’s care plans. They are working with a child, his family and his social worker to achieve his goal to live back in the family home. A parent said, ‘He has started overnight contact since he has lived there. They are brilliant.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are effective in putting down boundaries and providing a consistent approach to children. Effective teamwork ensures that staff work together in the children’s best interests. They work well with external agencies, such as therapists, to ensure that the children’s emotional responses are better understood. A child who is struggling to manage his emotions about leaving the home is encouraged to talk to staff and explore his feelings. Staff are available when he is ready to do this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff genuinely care about the children. The ethos of a homely atmosphere with children receiving one-to-one attention is achieved in practice.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff are trained in safeguarding and keep the children safe by taking effective action if they go missing or put themselves at risk. Staff follow children who go missing and do their utmost to bring them home safely. They challenge the local authority if it does not complete return interviews. The completion of return interviews enables staff and external professionals to learn about and respond to any difficulties the children may be experiencing. Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 5 Policies have been updated, but not all staff have signed them to confirm that they have been read. The whistle-blowing policy lacks clarity about when external agencies should be informed. Staff spoken to were clear about their roles and responsibilities to report safeguarding matters immediately. This failing does not affect the safety of the children.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children have positive relationships with staff, who supervise them closely. Children can earn unsupervised time, which is reviewed for their own safety if they do not adhere to the agreed plan. Children’s agreement to these plans and close relationships with staff mean that they generally respond positively to boundaries set. When a child is struggling with their behaviour, staff and managers work together to understand what has triggered this.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff help children to recognise and minimise risk-taking behaviour by undertaking direct work with them and reinforcing safety messages. Records of these conversations are reviewed by the manager; however, this is not done consistently. Close scrutiny of the work undertaken by staff enables the manager to analyse the effectiveness of these interventions.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Relationships with the police are positive, and their input when used is a last resort. Staff work with external agencies, such as a project helping children to make positive relationships to reinforce acceptable behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has had stable management, and the registered manager has a level 4 qualification in leadership and management for care service and health and social care. However, despite the positive progress children make, leaders and managers have not effectively monitored the service to ensure continued improvement in all aspects of the home. While staff know the children well, some care plans and behaviour plans have not been updated to reflect recent changes in children’s behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff are provided with supervision and team meetings, although these are not conducted as frequently as the provider’s policies indicate they should be.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The statement of purpose states that fire drills occur monthly and fire tests are fortnightly. This does not occur, and this failure had not been identified by the manager’s auditing processes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Children are not consistently encouraged to make amends for negative actions by using restorative practice. Children are regularly fined for swearing, for example. Leaders and managers have not considered more effective and relevant sanctions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff access a comprehensive training programme. They report that the training is informative and challenging. Bespoke training is available to staff as necessary. Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 6

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, 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’. Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Crusoe Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 25 Clinton Place, Seaford, East Sussex BN25 1NP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Timothy McIlwaine

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Inspector

Suzy Lemmy, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC434573 8 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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