Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children's home: SC483846 1 SC483846 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This is a private children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six young people, who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

It is owned and managed by a large national organisation and is located on the same site as one of its registered schools and another of its children’s homes.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 10 February 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children's home: SC483846 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children's home is inadequate because

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home’s registered manager has not been in full time day-to-day management of this home which has meant that shortfalls in practice have gone unchecked. The home is not achieving its outcomes as set out in the statement of purpose.  There is very high staff turnover which means that young people do not experience consistency in their care and are not able to develop secure and trusting relationships with staff.  Recruitment processes do not ensure that sufficient staff are experienced and qualified.  Staff cannot consistently deliver care that meets young people’s needs and promotes their welfare.  Progress for most young people is very poor with a number of young people’s behavioural issues escalating from their point of placement.  There have been multiple placement breakdowns due in part to matching considerations and in part to inconsistent staff and management.  The home experiences severe and persistent behaviour management problems

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Key findings from this inspection

with young people, including destruction of property, assaults on staff, verbal abuse and contempt for boundaries. Staff have no effective strategies for the management of these behaviours.  Young people engage in repeated risk taking behaviours including, but not restricted to setting fires, cannabis and alcohol use, criminality, serious damage to property, assaults and climbing on roofs.  The home does not have systems in place to monitor young people’s internet use which puts them at risk.  Managers do not always act on young peoples expressed wishes; their historical requests regarding the water temperature and the installation of wifi have not been acted upon.  Some case records are of a poor standard as they are not easy to understand and often contain insufficient detail to inform the reader on best practice with individual young people.  Fire precautions in the home are not robust or responsive to new risks.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Home conditions are frequently poor and the home and its contents are regularly damaged by young people. Young people do not respect the fabric and furnishings of the home.  Notifications under regulation 40 to the regulator lack detail and frequently do not evidence outcomes or identify further actions. Inspection report children's home: SC483846 3 The children's home's strengths

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home has minimal use of restrictive physical intervention.  The number of missing from home incidents has decreased.  Young people have a high frequency of key worker sessions or ‘planned chats’ which encourage them to discuss problematic behaviours and come up with alternative strategies.  The responsible individual has a good understanding of the home’s weaknesses and has identified a plan to move the home forward and address some of the issues.  Some staff have a high level of skill in developing positive relationships with young people. Young people show more respect for these individual staff.  The home is good at promoting and facilitating contact with young people’s friends and family, often travelling long distances to achieve this.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 21/07/2016 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC483846 4

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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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

*13: The leadership and management standard The registered person must lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes set out in the home's statement of purpose. (Regulation 13 (2)(a) ) 04/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard. Ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child and; demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on- (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received. (Regulation 13(2) ( e ) (g)(ii) )

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to the installation of wi-fi and improving the water temperature. 04/7/2017

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Requirement Due date

32: Fitness of workers The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures designed to ensure children's safety by ensuring each individual has the appropriate experience, qualifications and skills for the work that the individual is to perform. (Regulation 32(1)(3)(b)) 14/8/2017

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Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children's home's overall aims and outcomes it seeks to achieve for children and use this understanding to deliver care that meets children's needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 6(1)(a) and (b) ). 04/7/2017

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Requirement Due date

*6: The quality and purpose of care standard; In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard the registered person must ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. 6 (2)(c)(I). Specifically this relates to the homes decor and damage to the home and furnishings. 04/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

11: The positive relationship standard The positive relationship standard is that children are helped to 04/7/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC483846 5 develop and benefit from relationships based on mutual respect and trust, an understanding about acceptable behaviour and positive responses to other children and adults and; The registered person must ensure that staff meet each child's emotional and behavioural needs and de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children. (Regulation 11 (1) ( a) (c ) and 11 (2)(a)(I) and (xi) ) *12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure that the home’s day to day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (2) (b) ). This relates specifically to developing more effective responses

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Requirement Due date

to issues including, but not restricted to; cannabis use alcohol use internet safety setting fires assaults on staff assaults on young people criminality causing serious property damage. 04/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

14: The care planning standard The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home and have a positive experience of arriving at, or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) and (b) ) 14/8/2017

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Requirement Due date

25:Fire precautions The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to the home, therefore the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that order and any regulations made under it are complied with in respect of the home. This relates specifically to consulting with the fire safety officer in respect of fire setting in the home and children having cigarette lighters in their possession and bedrooms overnight and including the outcome of this consultation in the home's fire risk assessment. (Regulation 25 (2) (b). 04/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

36: Children’s case records The registered person must maintain records for each child which are kept up to date and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(b-c) ) This relates specifically to the quality of risk assessments, contact plans, education and health plans. 04/7/2017

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Requirement Due date

40: Notification of a serious event A notification made under this regulation must include details of the matter and any actions taken by the registered person as a 04/7/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC483846 6 result of the matter. (Regulation 40 (5)(a)((iii) )

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to compliance detailed in three compliance notices.

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Recommendations

 To meet the health and well-being standard, the home must demonstrate that it actively encourages young people to lead healthy lifestyles and in particular, to make good dietary choices. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 34, paragraph 7.10)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The majority of young people in this home do not make positive personal progress for the duration of their stay in the home. Many placements breakdown under difficult circumstances due to young people escalating their challenging and risk taking behaviours which results in unplanned moves for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home has experienced a very high staff turnover, and most staff are inexperienced and unqualified. This results in young people feeling frustrated that staff leave, and uncertainty about which staff will be on the next shift. Young people do not have sufficient opportunity to develop positive relationships as a result of their short placements and the high levels of staff turnover. Young people report that they behave differently for different staff, showing more respect to those they like and have had the opportunity to develop positive relationships with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Because the majority of staff lack experience and qualifications the quality of care they provide is often poor. They show few skills in de-escalation and behaviour management which results in young people behaving chaotically and without boundaries. Some staff who are qualified and have experience can develop positive relationships with young people and this is evident through discussion with young people and observation of staff interaction with young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home does not offer a welcoming and homely environment to young people. Young people cause considerable damage to the home on a regular basis due to their lack of respect and investment in their placement. Some furnishings at the home are damaged and there is clear evidence of the damage young people have caused. There are few soft furnishings and other items such as art work and photographs that would make the home more welcoming and may encourage young people to respect their surroundings more.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Attendance at education is a problematic area for some young people. One young Inspection report children's home: SC483846 7 person took fewer than expected examinations due to her attendance and attitude to education. The home’s records do not show the attendance and attainment levels for young people in education and, as such, it is difficult to determine their progress in this area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people do not always follow a healthy lifestyle. Many young people smoke cigarettes and cannabis and some misuse alcohol. Although the home undertakes direct work with young people around these issues they do not make any apparent progress or reduce their use. One young person followed an unhealthy diet and had issues with weight. Although healthy eating options were planned for her, her records show that on a number of occasions in one week staff had provided unhealthy take away options for her.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people can be negatively influenced by their peers. For example, one young person who was progressing well when he was the sole occupant of the home became highly challenging when other young people were admitted. His behaviours continued to escalate until he was no longer safe in the home and he had to be discharged. One social worker reported she chose the placement because she was informed that the home planned to admit only females. They later admitted young men which contradicted the information previously provided, on which placement decisions had been made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people’s views are actively sought. They have many key worker sessions which deal with issues affecting them and allow them to share their views. Not all young people’s expressed wishes are acted upon. For example, at the last interim inspection the young people complained there was no wifi and that there was an issue with shower water temperatures. Neither of these issues have been resolved at this inspection. This means that young people feel that their wishes are not important or acted upon.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

On a day-to-day basis the young people, and some staff, describe the home as chaotic. This environment is not conducive to young people settling, developing positive relationships and making good progress. Young people can have difficult relationships with each other as well as staff; young people have been discharged due to assaulting their peers. Staff were insufficiently skilled to resolve their dispute. Although staff do invest time in the young people, much of their time is spent managing challenging behaviour or high risk situations which detracts from the time needed to invest in positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

High numbers of placement breakdowns mean that young people are not well prepared for moving on. Most placements have unplanned endings. The home also accepts emergency placements so many admissions are not well planned and the home can admit young people sequentially without giving young people time to settle before a new admission arrives. This is not suggestive of well thought out placement matching.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff at the home work hard to support and promote contact with young people’s family and friends. Managers have a good grasp of the importance of this for young people and work in partnership with their social workers to facilitate and where necessary supervise contact visits. Inspection report children's home: SC483846 8

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

Young people at the home engage in numerous risk taking activities. Risk taking behaviours do not reduce over time and for a number of young people increase and ultimately result in them being discharged from placement.

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

Some young people set fires both within and outside the home. Young people have cigarette lighters which they sometimes refuse to hand in to staff at night. Although the home had planned to consult their fire safety officer about this issue, they had not yet done so and had not amended their fire risk assessment to take account of the potential hazard this could cause. Some young people set fire to aerosols and to books and toilet rolls. The recording of these incidents lacks detail and does not identify strategies to reduce these incidents or manage the risks. Ofsted has referred these issues to the local authority’s fire safety officer for attention.

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

Cannabis misuse is an issue for some young people. Although staff make every effort to engage the young people in key worker sessions about the harmful effects of cannabis misuse this has little impact. Incidents involving cannabis often escalate when staff try to intervene which leads to further risk taking behaviours, for example young people barricading themselves in their rooms to smoke cannabis.

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

There have been a significant number of assaults since the interim inspection of this home. One young person was assaulted by another with a pool cue, one young person reported he was gripped around the throat by a member of staff who was later dismissed. There are several recorded incidents of verbal and physical assaults by young people on staff, including discharging fire extinguishers on staff, significant verbal abuse and smearing one staff member’s car with mud and grass.

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

Young people’s internet and social media use is unsupervised and not monitored. There are no systems in place to ensure they are safe when using social media. The home has no wifi, although this has been requested by young people, and could be monitored and controlled if it was installed. Instead young people have access to the internet through their smart phones over which staff have no measures to ensure their safety. Staff reported very brief online safety training as part of a one day safeguarding course on their induction which is unlikely to be sufficient to ensure they could effectively safeguard young people.

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

Young people are at risk through exhibiting out of control behaviours. Some young people cause extensive damage to the home through aggression, for example kicking doors off their hinges and throwing items of furniture around. There was also an incident where a young person set fire to some of the home’s records in the office.

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

Young people have been able to access keys from the key safe by picking the lock. They have gained entry to the school by accessing the keys and there was concern they had taken keys to the homes vehicle and taken it to a local supermarket during the night, although staff were unable to prove or disprove this had occurred. Inspection report children's home: SC483846 9 There are significant issues with behaviour management. The chaotic conditions that young people often experience highlight a lack of respect for boundaries. Young people’s behaviour towards staff evidences they have little respect for them. There are numerous occasions where staff have been the victims of verbal abuse, physical assault, damage to property, and one incident where two fire extinguishers were discharged over staff.

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

Recording of incidents vary significantly in their depth, and some miss out key information. The actions recorded on incidents are generally not specific to each incident but are a generic actions response to all incidents. This does not differentiate staff responses or give any positive strategies to address individual behaviours.

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

The police have been called to the home on numerous occasions due to staff being unable to manage or contain young people’s behaviours. This has resulted in them becoming criminalised.

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

It is positive that the home only very rarely resorts to the use of physical intervention, although the police have physically managed young people when they have been called to the home to manage young people’s behaviour.

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

Missing from home incidents have reduced for young people. The home has responded positively to the requirement made at the previous inspection in respect to the provision of independent return interviews, with managers from the company’s other homes in the locality visiting young people who have been missing to conduct return interviews.

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

The home has made several notifications to the regulator in respect of safeguarding incidents. Some of these notifications are extremely brief and lack detail. They often contain no useful information about outcomes or further actions which limits the regulator’s ability to effectively monitor any safeguarding concerns in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

At the last inspection this home was judged to have declined in effectiveness. Since this time the registered manager has not been in the home on a day to day basis to oversee the improvements that were needed. Due to this some of the requirements made at the interim inspection have not been met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A requirement was made under the leadership and management standard for the registered person to demonstrate that the practice in the home is informed by taking into account feedback from young people. This related specifically to the installation of wifi in the home and improvement of the water temperature. Neither of these issues have been resolved.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A further requirement was made in respect to ensuring that recruitment procedures were designed to ensure staff had sufficient experience and appropriate qualifications to Inspection report children's home: SC483846 10 care effectively for young people. This has not been met, with a large proportion of the staff team being newly appointed and unqualified. There have also been a high number of staff leaving for a variety of reasons which has impacted on the young people’s opportunities to form positive, trusting and lasting relationships. The staff team are not currently working collaboratively to provide consistency and stability to the young people. Some young people reported dissatisfaction with the number of staff leaving and changes to the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not led the home in way that is in line with the home’s statement of purpose. For example, the home’s statement of purpose states ‘Our vision at Willow House is to provide the highest possible level of care to the young people that reside at the home and to promote a relaxed and nurturing environment and at the same time encouraging the young people to develop their academic, practical and social skills needed to thrive and develop from a young person into an adult.’ And ‘Our aim is to provide outstanding individualised care packages to each young person that we support in a homely atmosphere where staff genuinely care for the young people that we support. Our objective is to support children and young people to achieve positive outcomes and achieve their full potential keeping them safe and free from harm’. None of the above have effectively been achieved for the majority of young people placed in

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

the home who have not made positive progress across the areas stated and have lived in an environment characterised by chaos and have exposed themselves and others to risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not been present in the home sufficiently to ensure that good systems are in place to ensure young people’s continuous progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although placement matching takes place and there are impact assessments for young people, the young people placed have undoubtedly had a negative influence on each other and have contributed to escalating each other’s behaviours. As such the matching activity is not robust or effective in ensuring positive matches which impact least on young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of record keeping in the home is variable. Some records are overly lengthy yet miss out pertinent points such as education records, contact plans and risk assessments. Others are extremely brief where more detail is required. Some records requested could not be located at all. There are not effective systems in place to monitor the record keeping or collate the information into meaningful data that would allow managers to identify patterns and trends in behaviour. The responsible individual and the incoming manager are already taking steps to remedy this and have started to implement monthly monitoring sheets which show improved monitoring systems.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual has recently taken more control of the home and has made the decision to end a number of placements which she felt were incorrectly matched to the home. Although this has increased the frequency of placement breakdown, it does evidence that she has an understanding of young people’s lack of progression and shows her consideration of whether the home is meeting their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual has a good understanding of the home’s weaknesses and its Inspection report children's home: SC483846 11 strengths. She readily accepted the shortfalls identified at this inspection and is now working with the identified incoming manager to make the necessary plans to improve the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has developed some positive links with young people’s social workers who spoke highly of the home’s communication with them and the way in which contact was promoted. One social worker also commented that the staff at the home contributed positively to placement planning meetings and looked after child reviews.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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.

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Information about this inspection

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: SC483846 12

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Cambian, Waterfront, Hammersmith Embankment, Chancellors Road, London W6 9RU

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Inspector(s)

Charlie Bamber, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children's home: SC483846 13 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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

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