Children's home run by Crossway Services Limited in Liverpool

Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 1 SC061438 Registered provider: Crossway Services 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

The home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child who may have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced and was registered with Ofsted in October 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 December 2018

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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 good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 27 September 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/09/2017 Full Good 24/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/05/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

staff assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 30/01/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive regular supervision of their practice in line with the timescales outlined in the company’s supervision policy. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, placement plans should clearly outline the young person’s current needs and the strategies in place to manage these.  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role

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Recommendations

they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  Under regulation 46 the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  Ensure that the independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 4 of the home’s arrangements with the report from visits demonstrating this. The independent person should regularly consult with stakeholders. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person living at the home continues to make good progress in all aspects of her development. Staff know the young person well and have positive relationships with her. Consistent care has helped the young person to develop her self-confidence and self-esteem. Consequently, she is socialising more with her peers and enjoys spending time with them in and out of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person has experienced some difficulties in education due to her behaviour, which occasionally results in her receiving a detention. However, the manager and staff have worked closely with education staff to ensure that strategies are in place to help the young person manage her behaviour at school more appropriately. Despite some unsettled behaviour, the young person continues to make progress in education and is predicted to achieve well in her national qualifications at the end of this academic school year. A member of staff from the young person’s school said, ‘I do not feel that there is anything else the manager and staff at the home could do to help and support the young person. They are in regular communication with us to share information and push us to ensure that the young person’s educational needs are met well.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The health and development needs of the young person are met well. The manager and staff support and encourage the young person to have a healthy lifestyle. Meals are planned with the young person and she is encouraged to have a varied and well- balanced diet and take regular exercise. The young person is supported to attend routine health and development appointments which are attended well, except for dental appointments. The young person has refused to attend several dental appointments as she does not feel that she needs to attend as she is not experiencing any dental issues. However, the manager and staff have continued to encourage her attendance and have implemented an incentive for her to attend her next appointment. Furthermore, they have spent time talking to the young person to raise her awareness of the importance of good dental care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is good and ensures that the young person receives the best possible care. The manager and staff have a good understanding of the young person’s needs and the strategies to address these. However, the young person’s plans are lengthy, with a significant amount of historical information included. This makes it difficult to understand what the young person’s current needs are and the strategies to address them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm and welcoming and provides a nurturing environment for the young person. The young person is encouraged to invite her family and friends to the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 5 She enjoys spending time at home socialising and watching television with her friends. Furthermore, the young person now has equipment to do false nails and spends time doing the nails of her friends and staff.

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

Safeguarding practice at the home is good and helps to keep the young person safe from harm. However, although suitable action was taken in response to an incident of self-harm for the young person, the manager and staff were unclear on the details of the incident. This is due to poor recording, with incident forms and the young person’s risk assessment failing to include information relating to this incident. This shortfall could potentially result in the young person not being safeguarded from the risks associated with self-harm.

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

The manager and staff support the young person to access the internet safely due to her previous unsafe internet use. The young person has had a period with no internet access on her mobile phone to help to keep her safe. However, due to the work that has been completed with her to raise her awareness of the risks the internet poses, she can now access the internet on her mobile phone. The manager and staff regularly check the young person’s mobile phone when she hands it in at night to ensure that she has not accessed any inappropriate internet sites and her social media activity is safe. Consequently, the risks relating to internet use have reduced for the young person.

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

Behaviour management at the home is effective and promotes positive behaviour from the young person. Incentives and rewards for positive behaviour help to reduce incidents of negative behaviour from the young person. Staff and the young person have a clear understanding of what is expected from them to ensure that behaviour is appropriate. There have been no incidents requiring the use of physical intervention or the need to complete a room search of the young person’s bedroom. Consequently, the positive behaviour management at the home means that the young person is settled and happy.

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

The registered manager has not consulted with relevant people to gather information for the home’s location review. Consequently, the review lacks sufficient information about the risks in the community. This does not demonstrate that the young person is safeguarded in the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led and managed efficiently by a suitably experienced and qualified registered manager with an extremely supportive deputy manager. They are both actively involved in the young person’s day-to-day care and prioritise her welfare and focus on improving outcomes for her.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported and motivated by the registered manager and deputy manager. Supervision for staff allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the young person. However, there are some gaps in the frequency of supervision for staff. In particular, a new member of staff has not received supervision every two weeks in line Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 6 with the company induction policy. Furthermore, the new member of staff has not completed some of the company’s mandatory training, such as medication and fire safety. This potentially places the young person at risk as the member of staff is not suitably trained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have established strong working relationships with professionals who are involved in the young person’s care. The manager and staff work closely with the young person’s school and social worker to make sure that the young person receives the most appropriate care and intervention to meet her needs. The manager and staff are strong advocates for the young person and challenge other professionals appropriately to help to make a positive difference for the young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The monitoring and review systems at the home need to be strengthened to help the manager to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the home and staff team. Improvements in recording incidents would enable the manager to have sufficient oversight to ensure that the young person is receiving the best possible support and intervention to meet her needs. The independent monitoring of the home does not regularly include consultation with stakeholders and reports from the visits do not always demonstrate a rigorous assessment of how well the manager and staff promote the young person’s welfare and safeguard her.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The young person is involved in discussions about the development of the home. The young person is given the opportunity to attend some team meetings. If she does not attend, her views are sought in relation to any issues she wants to be discussed at the meetings. The manager and staff regularly discuss the young person’s progress, achievements and plans during team meetings. This demonstrates that the young person and her views, wishes and feelings are integral to the development of the home.

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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: SC061438 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Crossway Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rouse House, 2 Wyther Lane, Leeds LS5 3BT

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Inspector

Lisa Mulcahy, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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