Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

Good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 The manager provides strong leadership that is child centred and focuses on supporting young people to become ambitious and to succeed in life.  Young people make good progress in respect of their education, behaviour, developing their interests and reducing risk taking.  Staff provide young people with high levels of support, understand their needs and take an active interest in their well-being.  Staff are warm, caring and accepting of all young people, regardless of the challenges that they present.  Young people develop good relationships with staff and maintain contact with people who are important to them.  Safety is a priority and there is good risk management to keep young people free from harm.  The manager is proactive in engaging other agencies and professionals to ensure that young people receive good, holistic care.

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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 within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45(5)) 24/02/2017

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns this children’s home which is registered for up to five young people on a short-, medium- or long-term basis. One of these placements is a semi- independence flat at the top of the home. The provider also runs a school in a nearby town that young people can access if it meets their needs.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/11/2015 Full Good 16/12/2014 Full Good 22/05/2014 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

Young people benefit from living in a home where staff genuinely care about them and are determined to help them to succeed. This starts with effective care planning at the point of referral and collaboration with placing authorities to decide that this is the right home for young people to move into. The good care planning and quality of care that young people receive impact positively on their experiences and progress, and ensure that their diverse needs are met.

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Good

Young people’s education is a priority and the manager has developed good links with a range of different provisions that offer alternatives to the provider’s own school. There is a clear expectation that young people attend some form of education, whether this is mainstream school, special school, alternative provision and/or home tuition. The proactive approach helps young people to identify a provision that is best suited to their needs, increases their attendance and achieves more. For example, one young person improved his attendance and is learning more than he was at his previous school after moving and starting a diploma in service and engineering maintenance.

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Good

Staff promote physical health through regular exercise. The young people walk a great deal, play football regularly and benefit from the home’s indoor table-tennis table. Sometimes young people are reluctant to attend health appointments, though staff encourage regular health checks. Alcohol and substance misuse is discouraged, and staff utilise a local substance misuse agency to help young people to make positive choices about their lifestyle. Any concerns are shared with placing authorities and the police to prevent young people from engaging in risky behaviour.

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Good

Young people receive high levels of emotional support from staff, who have access to regular clinical advice. Staff use this to help young people to manage strong emotions, build resilience, communicate better and develop positive, meaningful relationships. Young people benefit from staff who are caring and willing to engage them in open discussions about reasonable expectations, acceptable behaviour and keeping safe. Young people do not always like what they hear, but staff are understanding as well as persistent in encouraging young people to be sensible and responsible.

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Good

Staff are committed to keeping young people safe, while at the same time allowing young people to learn from their own mistakes as part of growing up and becoming more independent. Young people are also empowered as staff listen to their views and support them to make decisions about their care and the running of the home. This positive approach helps young people to build trusting relationships with staff, which for some young people is a new experience. It also helps them to feel valued and boosts their self-esteem.

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Good

The young people are not yet old enough to be on a formal pathway or transition plan. They still develop independence with regards self-care, personal hygiene, practical household tasks and learning to use public transport. Staff work hard to make transitions positive. In one case, a young person left to move to another home and, for the first time in his life, he did not need a secure escort.

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Good

There is good support for young people to maintain their family contact. This is regardless of distance, which is important for young people placed out of their home area. Contact plans are agreed with social workers, and staff are flexible in helping with the arrangements and transport. Staff advocate to help young people to increase levels of contact, and one young person now has extra stays with his extended family. The same commitment is given to young people with medical appointments, and one is supported to travel home to maintain the support of his mental health worker. This approach promotes both young people’s health and independence.

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Good

Young people feel safe, and staff work hard to keep it this way. There are occasional altercations between young people. Staff address any such incidents, and promote respect and tolerance of everyone’s differences. Young people are aware of how to complain and happily voice any concerns directly to the manager, who is positive in her responses to their wishes and feelings.

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Good

The manager gives strong consideration to new referrals, considering the needs of young people and the potential impact on each other from group living. Careful deliberation and robust care planning help to reduce any negative impact and keep young people as safe as possible. Impact risk assessments are completed and referrals are well managed. This ensures that there is minimal impact from young people sharing the home. The manager reviews group living risk assessments regularly, taking account of the changing needs and behaviour of young people. If risks increase, the manager will review the viability of a placement with the aim of keeping all young people safe. The manager also takes good account of risks in the local area when deciding who to admit to the home, so that young people are not put at risk unnecessarily. For example, dangerous activities in the nearby park at night-time preclude young people at risk of child sexual exploitation. Her robust

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Good

and continuous attention to risk management helps to protect young people from harm. The same level of attention and detail is given to assessing risks to young people from their own individual vulnerabilities. For example, one young person has a specific safety plan relating to sexual behaviour. Its effective implementation improves both his own and other young people’s safety. Good risk management leads to young people, over time, reducing the level of their offending behaviour and missing from home incidents.

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Good

Good practice, staff awareness of safeguarding matters and strong management oversight all contribute to keeping young people free from harm. There is thorough communication within the staff team and any concerns are promptly shared with professionals from other agencies. The manager is proactive in facilitating multi- agency planning and decision making. This effectively drives both short- and longer-term strategies to keep young people safe.

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Good

Staff practice is good when young people leave the home without permission. Staff follow and search for young people if they cannot be located, and are proactive in getting them home safely. Collaboration with the police is improving, with better sharing of information and more effective working together to support young people.

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Good

Staff sensitively and firmly promote clear expectations, boundaries and structure to help young people to feel secure at the home and reduce levels of challenging behaviour. Staff are resilient and consistent in their support of young people, who can be physically and verbally aggressive. The use of de-escalation techniques and the implementation of therapeutic plans help young people to develop better coping strategies and teach them about positive relationship building.

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Good

There are times when staff need to hold young people, but only as a last resort to keep young people safe. Staff reflect on these incidents to ensure that practice is appropriate and meets young people’s needs. There is good management oversight, which includes recent consideration of when it is the right time to intervene, for example with one young person who likes hugs but, instead of asking, tends to seek physical contact through his challenging behaviour. This is a good example of staff developing individual strategies to support young people.

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Good

The registered manager has much experience in residential child care and has achieved the required leadership qualification. She knows the young people in her care very well and prioritises their diverse needs effectively. She is supported by three experienced senior staff who work well together. They ensure the smooth running of the home and consistent, high-quality care for young people. Staff receive good levels of support, supervision and training. This helps to keep young people safe, promotes positive attachments and supports young people’s progress. The manager ensures an effective level of reflective practice that relates directly to the needs of young people. This helps staff to develop and ensures that they remain child centred in their practice.

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Good

Over time, and given young people’s individual circumstances and past experiences, they make good progress in different aspects of their lives. Staff are aspirational and genuinely want the best for young people, persistently guiding them in the right direction to succeed. Young people’s progress is not always linear, and the manager swiftly raises any concerns and potential risks with appropriate agencies and placing authorities. This ensures that short- and long- term plans, aims and objectives are quickly reviewed, with young people’s best interests at heart, for example supporting young people to engage with a local substance misuse agency, sourcing the best education provision and, if necessary, reviewing the viability of continuing a young person’s placement.

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Good

The manager maintains a thorough oversight of young people’s behaviour, needs and progress. Her monitoring of the service is good, and her evaluation is insightful and contributes towards making improvements, for example reviewing the admissions process and matching of young people to reduce the risk of negative impact. The registered provider has also taken steps to address lacklustre monitoring by an independent visitor. New arrangements have led, so far, to a better quality of external scrutiny and a system that the manager finds more effective in driving improvement.

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Good

The manager and staff build good working relationships with local agencies, in particular with schools, police and the youth justice team. Young people benefit, as this impacts positively on their education, safety and behaviour. The manager strives to provide young people with the best support from such robust multi- agency working. She is tenacious in challenging partner agencies that fail to meet young people’s needs, and seeks positive solutions that are in young people’s best interests.

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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’. 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

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 0300 123 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, work- based 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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Information about this inspection

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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