Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Leicestershire

Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 1 SC436372 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

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for six young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is owned by a large private provider and offers medium- to long-term placements for young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make good progress from their starting points. Staff provide young people with opportunities to make progress in their personal, social and emotional development.  Staff support young people to access education, advocating for them and working closely with partner agencies to ensure that young people have the opportunity to achieve their academic potential. Some young people have made excellent academic progress, supported by a clear ethos in the home.  A stable staff team ensures that young people experience consistent care. Staff are able to set clear expectations and enforce boundaries.  Staff demonstrate a good understanding of young people’s complex emotions and they manage challenging behaviour well.  Staff are well trained and well supported. They demonstrate a commitment to providing young people with good quality care. Staff development is innovative, with a strong focus on engagement with other agencies and understanding of

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Key findings from this inspection

current issues.  The home provides a welcoming environment, and staff ensure that young people arriving at the home feel valued and welcomed.  The registered manager is ambitious for young people and seeks to make continual improvements to the home and the care provided.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 It is not always clear that independent return interviews are taking place following a missing episode. There is no consistent record of whether placing authorities are fulfilling this expectation.  Staff need to be more tenacious in ensuring that placing authorities provide them with essential plans, such as pathway plans and personal education plans, for young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/07/2016 Full Good 02/09/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/05/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 4

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Statutory requirement

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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 12(1) and (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This is with reference to incidents of missing from care and ensuring that independent return interviews are taking place as defined in the statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care. (January 2014) 02/10/2017

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Recommendation

 The home should play a full part in promoting the best interests of the child, proactively advocating for the child to ensure that others play their roles and deliver the high-quality support that is needed. Such partnership working should always take place: before a child arrives; while the child lives in the home; and where the child prepares to return home, move to another setting or leave care. When a placement is made in an emergency, the registered person should quickly engage with relevant persons to provide the best immediate care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.4)

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Recommendation

This is with reference to ensuring that placing authorities provide the plans underpinning the young person’s care in a timely manner, specifically pathway plans and personal education plans. Managers should escalate concerns about plans not being provided by placing authorities. Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress from their starting points, particularly in their personal, social and emotional development. Staff set clear expectations for young people, especially in relation to engagement in education and in regulating their own behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

With the exception of the young person most recently admitted to the home, all young people are engaged in education or training that is tailored to their individual needs. Staff have been tenacious in advocating on behalf of young people to ensure that they have the opportunity to achieve their academic potential. One young person in particular has experienced tremendous success in his education, as well as successfully achieving the bronze Duke of Edinburgh award. The young person’s independent reviewing officer made the following comments about his progress:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is the most stable placement he’s had. The biggest success is in his education, with 100% attendance. I’m very impressed with his educational outcomes, and his level of aggression has reduced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

For some young people, there have been delays in placing authorities providing the home with personal education plans. This has not prevented staff advocating for young people or meeting their needs, but it has meant that staff have not had the agreed, formal plan to refer to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Partnership working is good. The social worker responsible for the most recently admitted young person said: ‘Communication so far has been excellent. They are working together to stabilise him and get all the support and services in place, such as school. I’m very pleased so far.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The social worker for another young person echoed this, saying:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has been very successful for him. Staff have reduced the issues he had. Liaison between school and home has been incredible and has led to good outcomes. Information sharing is good, staff understand their role, and there is a supportive team around him.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have access to universal health services. Staff ensure that any specialist health needs are met. They monitor the effectiveness of any long-term medication and escalate any concerns to the appropriate medical practitioner. Since the last inspection, an error in the administration of medication has taken place. This was investigated thoroughly and procedures for administrating medication have since been strengthened, including in relation to training for staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are appropriately experienced and skilled and have a good understanding of Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 6 young people’s individual needs. In our observations, staff demonstrated excellent relationships with young people. Young people receive dependable and familiar care because of the stability of the staff team. Young people make good progress in becoming more self-aware and in developing the emotional maturity to help them manage difficult or overwhelming feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people’s contact with family and friends, in accordance with the young person’s care plan. Staff recognise the significance of these relationships and the need to promote a sense of identity, sustain attachments and build emotional resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a very good level of engagement from young people in the home. Young people’s meetings are well attended and cover innovative topics. Staff sometimes use these as an opportunity to deliver important messages, for example on safeguarding. Staff use good quality resources, including getting specialist practitioners to deliver information when possible. There are lots of opportunities for young people to have their say, learn and contribute to their plans and how the home is run. There is also good provision of accessible, age-appropriate information for young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Admissions to the home are managed well. Staff use impact risk assessments to ensure that young people being considered for admission are well matched alongside young people already living in the home. The manager and staff are able to identify the areas in which young people are not making progress, or when the home is not meeting a young person’s needs. In these instances, swift liaison with placing authorities ensures that the young person’s needs are considered and next steps can be agreed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Age-appropriate independent-living skills are encouraged. Each young person is expected to take on responsibility for small tasks, with this increasing as they mature into young adults. Staff carefully consider transitions and are integral to preparation and planning. Staff understand that moving on from the home creates anxiety and needs to be carefully managed. During the inspection, one young person whose transition plans were actively being progressed had not yet received a copy of her pathway plan. Given the complexities of care planning, and the young person’s age, this should have been provided. A recommendation has been made to ensure that staff escalate the matter if requests for essential documents are not responded to.

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

Children are safer as a result of living in the home. During the inspection, examples of direct work undertaken with young people were seen. Key-work sessions are used to good effect to discuss issues affecting young people and to provide young people with the understanding and the strategies to keep themselves safe. This includes in relation to the use of social media and risks associated with this. The risks and Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 7 benefits of having mobile phones, for example, are explored and revisited as risk assessments are reviewed. Good resources are used to facilitate discussion about healthy relationships, the risk of exploitation and radicalisation.

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

Behaviour within the home is managed well. Young people have detailed behaviour management plans that outline their triggers and the strategies to use to avoid escalation of any challenging behaviour. If these do not work, staff are trained in an approved physical intervention method. Physical intervention to manage behaviour is seen as the last resort, and, until very recently, incidents of physical intervention were rare. Any incidents are recorded, monitored and evaluated, to see whether there is any learning to be gained to inform and improve future practice. Both physical intervention and sanctions are used appropriately.

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

A social worker commented that staff manage challenging behaviour very well, saying that he had observed staff using ‘brilliant de-escalation strategies’. Managing the behaviour of young people away from the home, when young people are out in the community, has presented challenges. To address this, admissions are carefully managed to ensure that young people’s needs can be met appropriately by staff.

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

The manager understands the role of the designated officer for the local authority. There are clear procedures for managing potential safeguarding concerns, and staff are fully aware of their roles and responsibilities in relation to these procedures. Staff benefit from safeguarding training as part of their induction that includes whistle- blowing procedures. Safeguarding awareness is maintained by informal team training, including the use of guest speakers. This has increased the staff’s awareness and understanding of current issues and risks.

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

Staff follow multi-agency guidance when responding to incidents of young people going missing from care. Staff record incidents well. Young people are welcomed back into the home. Staff speak with young people to find out why they went missing and what they can do to prevent this happening in the future. The recording is less clear about whether placing authorities have made arrangements for independent return interviews, as detailed in the multi-agency guidance. The manager was unable to say whether independent return interviews had taken place or not. This is a missed opportunity for staff to learn about the incident and consider updating risk assessments accordingly. Young people should also be given the opportunity to speak to someone independent of the home about why they have gone missing. A requirement has been made to address this.

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

Young people are encouraged to be part of their community and have free time with friends. Free time in the community is risk assessed and agreed with placing social workers. The home’s location risk assessment is up to date and details any issues in or around the home or in the wider community.

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

The home itself is well presented. It is a large house with a number of reception rooms, enabling young people to have individual space if needed. The manager is aware of some minor maintenance issues, but these are already scheduled to be addressed. The home does not present any obvious health or safety risks. Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 8 Safe recruitment processes are followed, including for the use of bank or agency staff. Agency and bank staff receive supervision, enabling the member of staff to reflect on their practice, check things out and discuss any issues in the home. Equally, managers can provide staff with constructive feedback about their practice and ensure that staff fully understand their roles and responsibilities. New staff are subject to a probationary period in which there is more frequent supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last full inspection, a new registered manager has been appointed. As the former deputy manager, she is suitably experienced and skilled and knows the home well. She has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and areas for development. She is currently working towards the requisite diploma in leadership and management qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is an enthusiastic and motivational leader. She is embracing this new challenge and successfully consolidating her learning from the diploma course in the day-to-day running of the home. She knows the young people very well and understands their individual needs. She empowers and enables staff to meet those needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has made a very strong start and she has a clear vision for the home. Monitoring processes are good. This includes listening to and acting on feedback from young people, families, partner agencies, the independent visitor and Ofsted. Young people are aware of the complaints process and can use this to raise issues about the home or the care they receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff place the needs of young people at the centre of the service, and they communicate well with partner agencies. Staff challenge partners if there are deficits in service provision, but at times this has not been effective and in future will need to be more robust.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to a wide range of training opportunities, and the manager promotes a culture of learning and development. The use of partners to deliver training and the use of topical materials and resources keep staff development interesting and current. The manager plans to develop this further as new staff join the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular good-quality supervision. The manager acknowledged that supervision frequency slipped a few months ago as a result of competing priorities, but supervision frequency has now improved. The manager feels that the responsible individual supports her effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is aspirational for young people, and for the home. The experience and progress of young people and the ethos of the home are reflected well in the Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 9 statement of purpose.

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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 differences 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. Whenever 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 whom 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 and 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: SC436372 10

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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 Group, 4th Floor Waterfront Building, Chancellors Road, Hammersmith Embankment, London W6 9RU

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Alison Blyth-Bishop

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Inspector

Corrinne Barker, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC436372 11 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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