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

Inspection report children's home: SC457181 1 SC457181 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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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 privately owned home provides care and accommodation for one child who may emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

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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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people do not make sustained progress from their starting points. Inspection report children's home: SC457181 2  Leaders have not challenged other professionals when they have not fulfilled their roles and responsibilities in a timely way. This potentially causes delays in planning appropriate care for young people.  Individual risk assessments are not robust and do not provide staff with sufficient guidance on how to manage potential risks.  The local area assessment does not provide a thorough evaluation of the local area or identify how all potential risks can be realistically managed by staff.  Some errors were found in staff rotas. This potentially undermines any future safeguarding investigations because the rotas do not always reflect the actual staff on duty each day.  Gaps in staff training and knowledge are not being routinely identified or bridged. This particularly refers to substance misuse and recognising the signs

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Key findings from this inspection

when a young person is under the influence of a harmful substance.  The home requires some repairs and general maintenance to enhance the welcoming and homely environment.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people benefit from personalised care provided by a nurturing team that understands their needs and behaviour.  Young people’s views are important in this home. Staff constantly seek young people’s views and involve them when making decisions about their care and home.  Staff work well with young people’s relatives and this helps young people to keep in touch with those who play a significant role in their lives.  Staff follow clear procedures when young people go missing. This has assisted other safeguarding professionals, such as the police and placing authority, to carry out their safeguarding duties.  The home has recently appointed a new manager who acknowledges the home’s strengths and the areas that require improvement. She is aspirational and demonstrates commitment to driving the service forward and making the required improvements.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/10/2016 Full Requires improvement 07/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 02/12/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC457181 3

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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

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure that children’s needs are met In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c)) In particular, challenge the company’s therapist when assessment reports are not provided in the agreed timeframes to prevent delays in care planning. 11/08/2017

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that— staff assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm; that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded. (Regulation 12 (1) and (2)(a)(I)(b)(c)) In particular, ensure that individual and local area risk assessments are robust, and that staff daily rotas accurately reflect the days that each staff has worked. 11/08/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the 11/08/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC457181 4 children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1) and (2)(c)) In particular, identify gaps in staff knowledge, such as drug awareness, and make arrangements to bridge any gaps.

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely and welcoming environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, repair damp walls and refresh the decoration of the home.

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improvement to be good

At the time of the inspection, there was no young person living at the home. The previous young person, who had lived at the home for some time, had recently moved to another placement due to safeguarding concerns. Although the home had served notice on this placement, the young person was moved to an emergency provision in an unplanned way. This was largely down to the home not being able to keep him safe in the local community. Staff have a good understanding of young people’s individual needs, strengths and vulnerabilities. They are actively involved in care planning and obtain all relevant information and documentation from the placing authority, which informs their own placement plans and care. However, the home has not always challenged other professionals when they have not fulfilled their responsibilities within the required timescale. In particular, the company’s psychologist failed to provide a psychological

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improvement to be good

report, in respect of their assessment of a young person, to the local authority on the agreed date. This potentially caused delay in the local authority assessing the young person’s needs and the suitability of this placement. Staff work collaboratively with the company’s schools to re-engage young people back into education. Furthermore, the home promotes a healthy lifestyle by ensuring that young people have access to all routine health checks, including regular visits to the dentist. When necessary, young people are referred to sexual health clinics, the company psychologist and drug counselling services. However, despite these efforts, young people’s progress is not sustained because staff struggle to encourage young Inspection report children's home: SC457181 5 people to accept this support or to remain engaged with these services. Staff nurture positive relationships with young people. This was observed during

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improvement to be good

inspection when a member of staff telephoned the young person who had recently moved out to find out how he was doing. Furthermore, a member of the young person’s family reported that he liked, and got along with, all staff. Young people’s views are important to staff and are regularly sought. This includes finding out their views on each member of staff and to feed this into their individual annual appraisals. Furthermore, young people’s comments were recorded throughout their records, demonstrating that they are actively involved in the planning of their care. Staff work in partnership with the young people’s families to ensure that they keep in touch with their relatives in a safe and positive way. This was reflected in a relative’s comments, ‘I cannot fault staff, they are all fantastic. They keep in regular contact.’ Staff support young people to meet up with their relatives, despite them living a distance from

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improvement to be good

the home. Maintaining positive contact with family members supports young people to develop a sense of belonging and retain their family identity. Young people are provided with plenty of opportunities to take part in constructive activities in the local community. Staff have arranged for them to attend local cadet groups, trampolining clubs and trips to the cinema. Despite staff’s attempts to direct young people into positive activities, young people have engaged in high-risk behaviour, which has resulted in them having to move out of the home and area.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s risk-taking behaviour is a significant concern. Incidents of missing from home, drugs misuse and offending behaviour seriously affect young people’s progress, welfare and safety. However, the manager recognised that staff were unable to keep the young person safe and took action to ensure that a more suitable placement was sought. Risk assessments, including the home’s locality assessment, are not robust. They do not assess all potential risks associated with missing from home, such as criminal and sexual exploitation. Furthermore, the assessments do not provide staff with realistic strategies to prevent potential harm. For example, in order to prevent young people from accessing a potentially dangerous bridge, the strategy was for two staff to supervise the young person every time they leave the home. The manager acknowledged that this is not achievable or appropriate. The review of all risk assessments is included in the manager’s

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improvement to be good

action plan. Staff are knowledgeable on missing from home procedures and follow them well. This includes trying to keep in contact with the young person, as well as contacting their friends and other local children’s homes to help establish their whereabouts. This has resulted in young people being quickly located and returned home safely. The missing from home co-ordinator spoke positively about the home, commenting, ‘My experiences with this home have been positive. Missing from home reports have been in line with missing from home protocol and the reports all suggest that staff have made attempts in the local area to locate the young person. Meetings have been held where necessary and Inspection report children's home: SC457181 6 plans implemented to try to reduce concerns/risks. The home is always welcoming during meetings and visits from the local community police officer.’ Partnership working with the

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improvement to be good

police is a strength of the home. Staff are skilled at de-escalating potentially harmful situations. They support young people to reflect on their actions and respond to their emotions in a less aggressive way. As a result, the use of restraint has not been necessary for some time. The home implements safer recruitment practices. This ensures that staff are suitably vetted before they start to work at the home. However, staff daily rotas were not always accurate. Although this had no direct impact on the young person’s safety, it has the potential to do so. For example, errors in staff rotas could undermine investigations into complaints and allegations against staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has a new manager and she intends to submit her application to register with Ofsted once all relevant documentation is complete. The manager has over 10 years’ experience in children’s residential care and has previously worked for this company as a deputy manager in another home. Furthermore, she is working towards attaining the required management qualification. The manager has ambitions for the service and clearly has young people’s best interests at heart. She fully acknowledged the areas that require improvement and has plans in place to improve and develop the home. Her immediate priority is to redecorate, repair and refurnish the home to ensure that it presents as a welcoming and homely environment. Staff feel wholly supported by the manager. She has ensured that each member of staff receives monthly professional supervision. In addition, staff’s practice is appraised annually and this provides staff with an opportunity to evaluate their work and seek

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

feedback from their manager. However, staff supervisions and appraisals can be strengthened by using them as opportunities to identify and bridge gaps in staff’s learning and development. For example, staff had not benefitted from recent training on substance misuse and, therefore, had limited knowledge on this subject, despite this being a concern in the home. Despite staff receiving ongoing training to enhance their knowledge and skills, the manager is not routinely evaluating the training provided to staff or the impact that it has on their learning. As a result, staff are not fully equipped with the relevant knowledge and understanding to protect young people from all potential harm, in particular extremism and radicalisation. The home has a clear statement of purpose, which the manager has updated to ensure that it accurately reflects staff details. Staff work hard to achieve the aims and objective

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

set out in the statement of purpose, which includes, ‘The home ensures that it lays out a strong set of rules and boundaries in terms of behaviour and attitude towards education. The key to its success lies in consistency and persistence in the face of challenge’ (statement of purpose, page 21). Inspection report children's home: SC457181 7 Undoubtedly, young people make progress in their education from their starting points, which is down to staff’s commitment and care. However, progress has not been sustained. Staff have not been able to prevent young people from engaging in high-risk behaviours that impact on their learning and development. In a short space of time, the manager has taken steps to move the service in the right direction. The recommendation raised at the last inspection has been met. The manager has undertaken a thorough review of the quality of care provided and identified areas for

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

development. This includes improving risk assessments, streamlining paperwork and ensuring staff’s continuous development. Once these plans are embedded into staff practice, the service will be in a better position to consistently provide a high standard of care and protection to young people.

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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: SC457181 8

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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

Marina Tully, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC457181 9 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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