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

Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 1 SC477209 Registered provider: Crystal Care Solutions Limited 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 up to three children. The home specialises in providing a therapeutic environment for children who display sexually harmful behaviours. A private company manages this home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 24 September 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/09/2019 Full Good 05/06/2019 Full Inadequate 07/11/2018 Full Good 08/11/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since September 2020, two children have left the home and three have moved in. Staff support children to have well-planned moves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children currently live in the home. Two children have lived there for around a year and one child for three months. Careful matching ensures that children are settled and making progress from their starting points. Social workers are extremely positive about the nurture and well-planned care staff give to their children and the progress they have made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff ensure that the home is a homely place for children to live. Children’s bedrooms are highly personalised. One child’s bedroom has dinosaur- themed wallpaper and dinosaur models are proudly on display. Another child’s bedroom is decorated with an outer space theme. The home is clean and well maintained and children and staff carry out daily chores together. This helps children to invest in the home and to develop a sense of pride. This welcoming environment increases children’s self-esteem and their enjoyment of spending time at home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff work with clinicians to understand children’s complex behaviours and to ensure children’s emotional needs are met. This enables staff to support children during times of crisis. Children also benefit from regular face-to-face therapy. Over time, children build resilience and they progress socially and emotionally from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education is a high priority. When children do not have a school or college place, managers and staff support children with home learning. Teachers praise staff for their caring attitude, resilience and commitment. Good communication between the staff and the children’s schools means that the children’s emotional needs are understood and sensitively managed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children well and are providing good-quality, individualised care. Children’s plans are purposeful and have clear targets and objectives. Staff include children in planning their care. This means that children invest in decisions about their life. Staff diligently follow these plans, and this helps children to make good progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with social workers to ensure that children maintain relationships with people who are important to them. They support children to meet with family members in person and online.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to explore issues relating to culture, diversity and equality, and staff and children celebrate a range of events and festivals together. This helps to increase the children’s understanding about difference and inclusion, and it develops their curiosity and social awareness. Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 4 Staff complete children’s records in a way that is impersonal and full of jargon. This means that children do not have a child-friendly record of their time in the home that they can look at in the future and which may help them to build resilience.

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improvement to be good

Although regular health and safety checks take place, staff are not always vigilant about risks. For example, a toolbox with bladed items and screwdrivers was left open and unattended in an annex to the home which is used by children. A large quantity of paper records was stored insecurely in the annex and managers allowed a child who had COVID-19 to isolate there. Although the child was supervised, the building was not included in the home’s fire risk assessment and managers had not considered the safety of this arrangement. This is both a breach of children’s confidentiality and a fire risk. These omissions leave children vulnerable and at risk.

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improvement to be good

However, staff are skilled at de-escalating children’s behaviours. Good-quality risk assessments, which include children’s views, give staff clear guidance about children’s complex and challenging behaviours. Children talk knowledgeably about their triggers and about the strategies that they use to manage their own complex behaviours. This means that although incidents do happen, these are well managed, and they generally decrease over time.

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improvement to be good

The manager has not ensured that, when restraint has occurred, records contain full and accurate information. For example, when debriefs take place with children, staff signatures on the records are not always legible. On one occasion staff were not debriefed by an independent person. These omissions potentially compromise the quality of children’s care and their safety.

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improvement to be good

Staff have an excellent understanding of the importance of safeguarding. Staff involve children in plans to safely increase their independence in the home and in the community. Staff use their strong relationships with children to educate them about risks. As a result, children’s risks decrease and children become increasingly safe.

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improvement to be good

Children are protected by the organisation’s safe recruitment practice. Staff are vetted and assessed as suitable before any appointment is confirmed. These procedures promote children’s safety by preventing unsuitable adults from working with them.

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improvement to be good

Clear rules and boundaries enable children to feel safe and secure. Children receive incentives for positive behaviour and for being kind, and bullying does not happen.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has worked at the home for 18 months and the deputy for four years. They have been a consistent presence in the lives of all three children. The manager Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 5 and deputy have an open-door policy to ensure that they are available to staff and children. The manager talks with pride about the children in her care and the progress they have made. Staff are positive about the support they receive from the manager and say that morale in the team is high.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Social workers are extremely positive about the care and support their children receive. They say that communication is generally good and any issues are quickly resolved. They also say that children’s confidence and self-esteem are growing and that children are making progress from their starting points.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers understand the home’s strengths and areas for development. There are clear development plans in place that are reviewed monthly, and staff are involved in this process. This allows changes to be made to the care provided and demonstrates managers’ drive to continually improve the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Clinicians regularly meet with staff to discuss children and trauma-informed practice. This enables staff to reflect on situations that have arisen and consider alternative approaches. Good-quality face-to-face training in areas such as attachment and trauma ensures that staff have a comprehensive and fully informed understanding of children’s complex behaviours. As a result, when children show these behaviours, staff are nurturing and empathic in their responses, enabling children to rebuild relationships and move on positively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive an in-depth, good-quality induction. Staff, including agency staff, receive regular supervision, and core staff receive probationary and annual appraisals. This helps them with their development and to reflect on their practice. However, supervisions lack focus on safeguarding and do not address staff whistle- blowing. This is a missed opportunity for managers to further embed a safeguarding culture in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff have worked hard to ensure that children have consistent care. This has involved staff picking up extra shifts and managers covering some shifts. Because of an increase in the level of supervision of children, agency staff are regularly used. Managers have tried to ensure that staff are known to children. This means that children build trusted relationships with known adults who care for them. Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 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, 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

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)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to leaders and managers ensuring that staff are vigilant when using tools for maintenance around the home and, when they are not being used, store them in a safe place which children cannot access. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to leaders and managers ensuring that the annex to the home is included in the home’s fire risk assessment. 1 May 2022

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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

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure; 1 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 7 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; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result 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. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to leaders and managers ensuring that staff signatures on records of restraint clearly identify the individual completing the record and that staff are debriefed by a person who was not involved in the restraint.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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Requirement Due date

securely in the children’s home during the period when the child to whom the case records relate is accommodated there; and 1 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 8 in a secure place after the child has ceased to be accommodated in the home. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to leaders and managers ensuring that children’s records are securely stored.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home, so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’,

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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 for children’s home: SC477209 9

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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

Karen Gillingwater, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC477209 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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