Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Cambridgeshire

Requires Improvement

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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because:

 The home has not consistently informed the local authority of every admission of a young person into the home.

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because:

 The home does not have a robust impact assessment that considers the needs of any potential new resident against the individual complex needs of those young people already in placement.

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because:

 Young people are not consistently offered time and space by staff to consider their thoughts and feelings following a physical intervention.

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because:

 Staff have not undertaken specific training identified as a necessity to meet the needs and reduce risks to some young people in placement.

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because:

 Staff supervision has not consistently taken place in line with organisational policy.

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because:

 Monitoring visits have not sought consultation with the parents or carers of the young people in placement.

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because:

 Young people do not choose their goals and incentives. Staff use house meetings to discuss individual goals and incentives, rather than individual sessions.

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The children's home strengths

 Staff are appointed following robust recruitment and selection checks.  A recently formed, permanently employed staff team has begun to offer consistent care to young people.  The staff team are committed to achieving positive outcomes for young people.  Some young people have formed trusting relationships with some staff.  Staff value young people’s family. They are supportive, facilitate family contact and build on family relationships.  Young people have individualised packages of care, where placement plans and risk assessments are reviewed regularly.  The staff team value cultural identity and have specifically supported young people in their religious beliefs.  The staff act efficiently, effectively and in line with protocol when a young person goes missing.  Effective and supportive transitions are in place for those young people who enter the home in a planned way.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets 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 with the given timescales.

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Requirements Due date

The registered person must ensure that 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) (c)) 09 Nov 2015

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Requirements Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person, if they consent, to interview in private the parents of the children in residence. (Regulation 44 (2) (a)) 09 Nov 2015

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Requirements Due date

13: The leadership and management standard: In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person must ensure that: (2) (c) staff have the skills to meet the needs of each child, in particular, undertaking training to gain specific knowledge to meet the individual needs of young people in placement. 26 Dec 2015

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Requirements Due date

The registered person must notify, without delay, the local authority for the area in which the children's home is located of every admission of a child into the home and every discharge of a child from the home. (Regulation 41 (1)) 09 Nov 2015

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Requirements Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice based supervision in line with organisation policy. (Regulation 33 (4) (b)) 09 Nov 2015

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Requirements Due date

11: The positive relationship standard: In order to meet the positive relationship the registered person must ensure staff: (2) (a) (viii) strive to gain each child's respect and trust. 09 Nov 2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that placements are only accepted for children where the registered person has fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Information about this children's home

This home provides care and accommodation for three young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. A private organisation owns and operates this setting.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2015 CH - Interim Improved Effectiveness

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Requires Improvement

A committed staff group care for young people with complex needs. Young people benefit from a permanent, albeit, newly formed staff team, who offer familiar and consistent care. Some young people were able to identify just one member of staff that they feel they can trust and could talk through any issues they may be feeling. Some young people felt that the staff did not know them at all, even spelling their name wrongly. Therefore, trusting relationships have yet to be established in order that young people feel staff hold their welfare and wellbeing as central to their work.

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Requires Improvement

Young people are able to enjoy a much improved home environment. Staff have encouraged and supported young people’s involvement in ideas for the redecoration and choice of soft furnishings; this has resulted in a stylish, homely living environment for all. This has given some young people a sense of pride and a commitment to living in this home.

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Requires Improvement

Planned moves into the home have been very successful. Skilled staff positively engage young people from the outset and a well-managed move into the home offers them a smooth transition. These young people appear open and responsive to the care given and positive change is apparent. One family member described how their child has ‘changed quite a bit, for the better’ and how boundaries put in place helped the young person change their behaviour.

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Requires Improvement

Young people make some progress from their starting points. For some, high levels of supervision have meant they are now in full time education and beginning to settle. A young person said, ‘staff help me and support me’. For other young people, education or training is progressing. Similarly, some young people are now attending their meetings and actively participating. Family and professionals believe the home is making some positive difference to young people, even if for some, it is early days.

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Requires Improvement

Staff endeavour to keep young people safe; they are aware of safer care practices and work in the young person’s best interest. A set pattern of assessment is prevalent when young people first enter the home to ensure their safety in those early days. Ongoing risk assessments and plans are under regular review. Staff do not consistently implement interventions identified in risk assessments. An example is a lack of action to provide support for young people in respect of drug and substance misuse. A real strength of the home is how family is valued and how staff positively engage young people in family contact. Family contact is significantly important to the young people placed and the staff proactively support and facilitate this. Parents and family members report a good, close working relationship with the home. In some cases, shared parenting strategies ensure young people receive consistent care. Staff help the young people to positively build on their family relationships

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Requires Improvement

ensuring the strengthening of family ties and identity.

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Requires Improvement

Staff have undertaken particularly helpful work with some young people around their religion and culture. Young people were proud to show their images and symbols of the catholic faith and to discuss how they specifically related to their family. This work has helped young people feel connected to their family and their sense of identity.

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Requires Improvement

Some young people feel settled and secure living in the home. One young person said: ‘This is my home, I feel safe here.’ For other young people, fairly recently into placement, the home has not had the same impact. However, staff are committed to providing a service where all young people feel safe, secure and feel at home.

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Requires Improvement

Staff care for young people who present with complex and challenging behaviours. To ensure the best possible outcomes for all young people placed, robust planning and matching is of significant importance. A compatibility assessment is in place but only considers the presenting risks and needs of the new resident. It does not consider how these presenting behaviours may impact on and affect the young people already in placement. This has the potential for poor matching, where young people may not feel safe and feel or be at risk of harm.

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Requires Improvement

When a young person goes missing, the staff team deliver well-coordinated responses in accordance with policy and procedure to ensure the safe and timely return of that young person. As a result, young people placed are safeguarded and their welfare protected. Episodes of young people missing from care have significantly reduced in recent months due to a change in the young people now resident in the home.

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Requires Improvement

Individual behaviour management plans are in place; these identify actual or potential presenting risks and challenges for the young person. Staff also identify strategies to assist the young person in managing their behaviour. For some young people, the positive change in behaviour is apparent; for others, they believe that staff are not acting quickly enough to help them address their issues, in particular, delay in making referrals to outside agencies. The home operates an incentive scheme in which young people earn rewards for adhering to individualised positive behaviour plans. This scheme operates to encourage personal growth in identified areas. Staff define the goals and the incentive to be earned. The individual goals are set in a public forum, via the house meetings. One young person said: ‘I don’t know who chooses what I have to work on, it’s certainly not me.’ This does not enable young people to feel part of their

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Requires Improvement

plans or committed to achieving the goals set.

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Requires Improvement

Staff are trained in de-escalation techniques, to help young people manage their behaviour in times of crisis to manage. This skill set has seen a significantly positive reduction in the need to use a physical intervention with young people. This is a positive outcome for young people as they begin to manage their own negative feelings. At times, when a physical intervention is used, staff do not consistently offer young people space and time to discuss their thoughts and feelings in a timely manner following the event.

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Requires Improvement

The manager brings a wealth of experience to the post, having worked across both residential childcare and schools since 2004. She took up the post of manager for the home in April 2015 and became the registered manager in August 2015. She is appropriately qualified, holding a level four qualification in leadership and management.

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Requires Improvement

The manager has succeeded in recruiting a permanent staff team to provide consistent and familiar care to the young people. The organisational recruitment and vetting processes are robust, ensuring that only suitable staff work with the young people in the home. Staff receive good induction and core training to assist them in understanding the policies and processes that the home operates. A number of staff are qualified at level three, some are working towards the level three diploma and others are due to begin the course following the outcome of a successful probation period.

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Requires Improvement

Some staff have not received supervision in line with the organisational policy. This is prevalent with newly appointed staff on probation. Staff work with a vulnerable group of young people who, because of early life trauma, display a range of complex behaviours. New staff in particular require support and guidance through professional supervision to assist them in understanding this highly complex work and to meet the multidimensional needs of young people in placement.

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Requires Improvement

The manager is aware of the young people’s plans and their individual needs. She is keen to improve the care experiences for them. At the manager’s insistence and perseverance, the home has undergone a significant transformation. Decoration and repair is apparent throughout, which offers a warmer more homely living environment for the young people. Further refurbishment is planned, to offer young people access to a number of modern amenities.

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Requires Improvement

The manager has not consistently informed the local authority of new admissions into the home. This does not directly impact on young people but it prevents the local authority from having clear oversight of the needs of young people living in the home.

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Requires Improvement

The manager is aware of some of the strengths and shortfalls of the service. Monitoring processes and a development plan are in place, however, further analysis of findings have not taken place. This does not support the manager to make continued improvements to practice or promote better outcomes for young people. The manager has not recognised that the independent monitoring undertaken has not consulted with parents or carers about the care young people receive.

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Requires Improvement

The statement of purpose gives the reader a full description of the provision, its aims, objectives and the ethos of the home. The children’s guide is an engaging, illustrative booklet, setting out expectations of the young people and offering them advice and guidance about being a child in care and living in the home. The organisation has updated all policies, procedures and paperwork to conform to the 2015 regulations and quality standards.

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Requires Improvement

All young people in placement are placed at a distance from their families. A close working relationship with local agencies, the wider professional team and family members is pivotal to ensure staff can meet the individual needs of young people. A social worker said that generally, communication is good and that she receives weekly reports and updates. Similar messages came from education professionals, who also report a very good relationship with the home. Parents enjoy a good level of frequent contact. This collaborative and proactive working style ensures a wide range of views are considered and actioned.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, 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 who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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