Children's Home run by Crystal Care Solutions Limited in Stoke-on-Trent

Inspection report children’s home: SC358638 1 SC358638 Registered provider: Crystal Care Solutions 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 home is registered to provide care for one child. The home specialises in providing a therapeutic environment for children who display sexually harmful behaviours. A private company manages this home. The registered manager was registered with Ofsted in October 2019. He holds a level 5 diploma in leadership and management.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 11 to 12 November 2019

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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: 19 November 2018

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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: SC358638 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/11/2018 Full Good 03/10/2017 Full Good 14/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/08/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC358638 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(d)) 31/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own safety both inside and outside the home to the extent that any good parent would. Staff should help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected and be protected from significant harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9)  As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The same child has lived in the home since the last full inspection. During this time, he has made good progress in all areas of his life. This is because of the good quality care that he receives. Inspection report children’s home: SC358638 4 Staff genuinely care about the child and are committed to helping him to achieve his full potential. He is consulted about all aspects of his care and as a result he experiences positive affirmation, which encourages him to achieve his goals. Staff promote the child’s education. Because of this proactive approach, he now attends school regularly. The good communication between the staff and the child’s teachers helps to ensure that his emotional needs are understood and sensitively managed. Staff work closely with the organisation’s therapists, who advise and train them about how best to respond to the child’s needs. This ensures that staff are well equipped to

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

provide individualised care that reflects the child’s specific needs. Staff carry out individual work with the child to improve his personal care and social skills. However, this work is not always used to help the child to understand the impact of his actions. This creates a missed opportunity to help him to learn to make positive choices for his future. Staff work hard to support the child to keep in touch with people who are important to him. Staff take time to plan these visits carefully. This enables the child to have positive experiences with his family.

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

Staff ensure that the child is safeguarded. Risk assessments are clear and up to date. This ensures that staff understand the risks that the child faces and are clear about how they need to respond to these risks. The child benefits from consistent boundaries and expectations. This good practice, combined with the ability of staff to de-escalate situations, has seen a significant reduction in incidents in the home. Staff use a range of methods to reward the child’s positive behaviour. These rewards are relevant to the child’s interests, and as a result have supported his improved behaviour. For example, he has not gone missing from the home in the past year. Staff ensure that the child lives in a safe and well-maintained home. The child has been involved in planning colour schemes for a recent refurbishment. This enables him to take pride in his home, and as a result incidents of damage to the home have lessened.

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

Since the last inspection, senior managers have made improvements to the organisation’s staff recruitment policies. However, managers do not always demonstrate professional curiosity when considering the information provided to them. This means that managers do not always have all relevant information when deciding whether someone is safe to work at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is also registered with Ofsted as the manager of another children’s home within this organisation. He spends his time equally in each home during the week. The manager has been employed at the home since June 2019. During this time, he has made significant improvements to the monitoring and review systems in the home. This has ensured that he has strong oversight of the service and is able to drive Inspection report children’s home: SC358638 5 improvement. The home currently has two staff vacancies. The manager has had to rely on agency staff to fill these gaps, but has worked hard to ensure that the agency staff who work at the home are consistent. This has enabled the agency staff to build trusting relationships with the child, and as a result the impact has been reduced. The manager ensures that permanent staff are well supported, with regular supervision and access to a comprehensive training programme. This means that staff have the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

necessary skills and knowledge required for their roles. However, this support and training has not been extended to agency staff who work at the home. The manager has implemented therapeutic consultations for these staff in the interim period to address this shortfall. Nevertheless, it does mean that occasionally agency staff do not have all the expected knowledge to enable them to respond to the child’s complex needs.

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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: SC358638 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Crystal Care Solutions Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Bank House, Market Square, Congleton, Cheshire CW12 1ET

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Inspector

Tracey Coglan Greig, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC358638 7 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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