Children's home run by Crossway Services Limited in Liverpool

Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 1 SC061438 Registered provider: Crossway Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child who may have social, emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2017. She also manages another one-bedded home for the organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

The child living in the home was not spoken with during the inspection but was seen interacting positively with staff.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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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

Date of last inspection: 15 January 2020

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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

15/01/2020 Full Good 12/12/2018 Full Good 27/09/2017 Full Good 24/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is cared for by a small and consistent staff team who know her well. She has been at the home for over 12 months, and staff were confident in talking about the progress she has made while living at the home. Staff have a good understanding of the child’s early experiences and presenting behaviour; they respond with nurturing and reassurance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is supported to see the people who are important to her. Staff are pro- active in involving the child’s family in their day-to-day care in a safe way. Staff have made appropriate checks so that the child is able to have overnight stays with friends. Friends are also able to visit her in the home; this was seen during the inspection. The child has recently been on holiday with staff; this gives the child lasting positive memories.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is being supported to develop her independence appropriately. This includes planning, making meals, budgeting and using public transport. This helps the child to develop the necessary skills when she moves on from the home to live independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has taken part in a work placement at a children’s zoo during the summer. Following this placement, she applied for a job there. The child has been supported to make progress with her education, and she has recently started at a college in the local area. Her mother told the inspector that her daughter is gaining more confidence in the college environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has supported the child to engage with specialist services to improve her health. During the inspection, staff supported the child to attend one of these sessions. They plan to do further work with the child to promote her confidence and self-esteem.

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

Comprehensive risk management plans cover a range of risks posed to the child. These are reviewed and updated with relevant information. Staff practice supports reduction of risks. However, risk management plans lack clarity regarding the frequency with which staff should monitor the child in the home when staff have concerns for her welfare and regarding when staff should seek support from the on- call manager to attend the home, in order to undertake a room search.

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

There have been a number of incidents of the child being missing from the home. When the child has been missing, staff actively search for her and follow the actions identified in her plans. The staff maintain regular contact with the child when she is not in the home, to check on her welfare, both via telephone and face-to-face contact. The child was missing at the beginning of the inspection. The inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 4 observed staff following the missing-from-care protocol. On her return, the child was welcomed home by staff and significant information was shared between professionals. Although independent return home interviews have not always taken place, arrangements had been made for the social worker to visit following this episode.

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

Staff work closely with others to manage the child’s associated risks. Staff understand the complex relationships the child has with her friends and associates. They are pro-active in establishing links with her friends’ parents and professionals to manage this effectively. Staff help the child to reflect on her relationships with others through creative consultation sessions. These help her to understand what a healthy and supportive relationship looks like.

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

During recent periods of lockdown, due to the coronavirus restrictions, the child and the staff made changes to the garden so that this space was a nice environment where the child’s friends could safely visit the home. However, the physical environment of the home requires attention to bring this to a higher standard and to better utilise the space in the house. External doors require a key to open them which means that the child would be unable to leave the home in the event of an emergency. The registered manager has requested changes to the locks; this has not yet been actioned.

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

There is a strong emphasis on the use of meaningful rewards to promote positive behaviour, and proportionate consequences are used in response to some behaviours. However, the registered manager has not ensured that records are evaluated for their effectiveness and capture the child’s view.

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

Staff have undertaken independent research to inform their own knowledge and support their understanding of the child’s past experiences. This demonstrates their commitment to continuously improving their own practice.

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good

The home is managed by an experienced and qualified manager who is supported by a committed deputy manager. The organisational structure has recently changed, and the deputy manager now works shifts and cares for the child. This has limited their managerial capacity.

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good

Staff spoken to say that they feel supported by managers; however, records do not demonstrate that the staff and the registered manager receive regular practice- based supervision, nor have their performance appraised annually. This does not help the manager to identify any practice issues and to ensure that improvements are made.

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good

Recruitment procedures are in place to ensure that staff are properly vetted before being employed so that unsuitable individuals do not work at the home. However, the registered manager has not always had oversight of these checks prior to an Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 5 individual starting work in the home. As such, the registered manager cannot assure herself that these checks have been undertaken prior to a new member of staff commencing employment.

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good

Although the manager has reported all safeguarding concerns to other partner agencies and professionals, she has not always notified Ofsted of such concerns when it has been appropriate to do so. This prevents the regulator from ensuring that the provider has taken any action required.

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good

The registered manager has submitted a review of the quality of care within the correct timescale. However, the report lacks evaluation and does not include actions for the development of the home within the next six months, in order to improve the quality of care provided. The report does not include consultation with the child about her experience at the home. This limits its effectiveness. Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 6

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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, The 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—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to risk assessments being clear regarding arrangements for room searches and regarding the frequency of monitoring the child, and ensuring that thumb- turn locks are fitted to external doors. 28 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that supervision records demonstrate that all staff and the registered manager receive regular supervision and annual appraisal. 28 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 7 The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure ("the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered managers’ monitoring and evaluation of each measure and evidence to demonstrate consultation with children regarding the measure. 28 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 28 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— 28 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 8 the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring feedback from stakeholders about the home and the actions that the registered person considers necessary improve or maintain the quality of care of the provision for children.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they have assured themselves that recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to children and be clear about the arrangements in place to manage this in their absence. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Crossway Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7JU

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Inspector

Genevieve O’Reilly, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC061438 10 to 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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