A watchdog found ‘serious and widespread failures’ at a Stockport children’s home, that left children unprotected and their welfare ‘not promoted or safeguarded’. Ofsted slapped an ‘inadequate’ rating on the home - which is run by Crystal Care Solutions - after officials visited in March and April.
The home - registered to provide care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties - is not named in the inspection report for safeguarding reasons. The provider says it ‘sincerely regrets’ what it describes as an ‘unacceptable’ but ‘isolated lapse in risk management’ and says action has been taken to rectify all the issues identified by officials.
Inspectors noted that children had made progress in some areas of their lives - including education - but serious shortcomings meant that children’s safety and welfare were ‘not consistently prioritised'.
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It adds: “There are serious and widespread failings in the assessment and management of risk. The manager and staff do not demonstrate that they fully understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe.
Risk-management plans are ineffective because they do not consistently contain relevant and current information about children’s risks. Some known risks and behaviours for children are not clearly assessed.”
Staff were said to be unclear about children’s risks and the actions that they should take to manage and reduce them. “This lack of knowledge does not safeguard children,” inspectors noted.
The report also details how a young child left the home during the early hours of the morning, without staff knowing.
While some ‘practical steps’ were taken after the incident to safeguard the child , the manager failed to ‘embed a robust protocol for staff to follow’ should the child go missing again.
“The plan provided to staff does not reflect the child’s young age and vulnerability," the report add. "Furthermore, staff were unclear about the content of the current plan in place to safeguard the child.”
Plans for some children in times of crisis were also described as ‘unclear’.
“The plan for one child with additional learning needs does not consider the child’s disability or how physical intervention can be used safely,” inspectors noted. "These inconsistencies and lack of clarity about safely caring for a child do not ensure that appropriate care-planning decisions are made.”
James O’Leary, managing director of Crystal Care Solutions, said the organisation accepted the Ofsted’s findings and ‘sincerely regrets the shortfalls identified at that setting, all of which have now been rectified’.
He said: “This inspection outcome is unacceptable to us as an organisation as we strive to provide the very highest standard of residential care to society’s most vulnerable children, something which is evidenced by the inspection history across all of our other settings which are all rated Good or Outstanding.
“Action has been taken within that home alongside in-depth audits of all of our other settings and we are confident this was an isolated lapse in risk management at that home, for which we are very sorry.
“Transparency is key within the care industry and we welcome the vigorous inspection regime implemented by Ofsted and support the work it does in improving the quality of care provided to the nation’s most vulnerable children.”
Mr O’Leary added that the home had since been audited by two separate local authority quality assurance inspectors, while Crystal Care Solutions was ‘ in ongoing communication with the host authority.
“These inspections were positive and no similar remaining shortfalls were identified,” he said. “We would like to reassure any concerned parties that a number of the issues identified were historic and that no children came to harm as a result of them.”
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