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

Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 1 SC437305 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 is a privately run children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to eight young people who have 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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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 28 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The young people make exceptional progress due to the tailored support and nurturing care that each of them receives.  All young people benefit tremendously from the home’s established culture that promotes the importance of learning. This brings great advancement in school attendance and academic achievements for all the young people.  Consultation with the young people is given priority by staff to ensure that young people are listened to. Their views greatly influence the care and support that they receive.  There is a great commitment from the staff team to advocate for the young people, and staff work tirelessly to rebuild and maintain family relationships. This results in the young people having regular contact and visits with their family.  Meticulous planning of the young people’s care and their safety forms part of everyday practice in the home.  The manager leads by example and communicates her high ambition for the

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Key findings from this inspection

young people in her care to the staff team.  This staff team is dedicated, stable, experienced, diverse and child-centred. There is great teamwork that provides consistent care to meet the needs of the young people.  Internal and external monitoring continues to be extensive. Monthly regulation 44 visits robustly support the service’s development, identifying well areas for improvement.

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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

 The home’s bathrooms are showing signs of wear and tear.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/11/2016 Full Outstanding 22/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/11/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 3

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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, domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, refurbish the en-suite shower rooms and bathrooms to maintain the high standard of decoration and fittings that already exists throughout the rest of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young people make exceptional, sustained progress due to the specifically tailored support and nurturing care that each of them receives. The young people benefit immensely from a team of staff who are child-centred, have aspirations and who are committed to making sure that young people have pleasurable childhoods in a family- style environment. The young people flourish and make excellent progress. This includes the young people’s health, education and safety. A young person said: ‘We are a family here; it’s a good place to live.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Particularly enduring, resilient and trusting relationships exist between the young people and the staff. This allows the young people to listen to the guidance given and enables them to embrace the support provided by the staff team that helps them to succeed and prosper.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young people positively respond to all the strategies implemented by the staff and guidance from health professionals. All of the young people have received routine health checks and specialist assessments. A therapeutic parenting approach is successful in supporting the young people with their presenting behaviours and emotional health. Therefore, the young people’s emotional and physical health outcomes improve. A children’s looked after nurse said: ‘This is the best home I go to; the health of the young people is fully promoted. All health assessments are up to date.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All young people benefit tremendously from the home’s established culture that promotes learning. This brings great advancement in school attendance and academic achievements for all of the young people. This improves the young people’s life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Consultation with the young people is given priority by the staff team, and this ensures that young people’s views greatly influence the care and support that they receive. Consequently, the young people clearly demonstrate confidence in expressing their views and preferences. The young people give feedback to the staff about their daily life, Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 4 relating to menu choices, activities, house rules and boundaries, and on such matters as family contact. This is achieved through a number of forums, which include general daily discussions, weekly young people’s meetings and key-work sessions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young people enjoy thriving relationships with their families. The staff recognise that this is so important to the young people. Therefore, with great commitment, the staff team advocates and works tirelessly to rebuild and maintain family relationships. This results in the young people having regular contact and visits with their family even when they live some considerable distance away. A young person said: ‘I see my family and I’m looking forward to having an overnight stay.’ A social worker said: ‘The staff do everything in a positive way. They also support [name of young person’s] mum and dad. This helps when [name of young person] visits them.’ This instils in the young people a strong sense of identity and of belonging, and they are able to keep in touch with those who are significantly important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

There is an emphasis on the young people having a childhood where they enjoy playing and accessing new life experiences. Social and leisure activities are part of everyday life at the home. The young people plan how they wish to spend their time. Each has individual interests. Young people’s comments included: ‘I like playing football and we go to play football a lot,’ and, ‘I love my hamsters, staff help me to care for them.’ Another young person said: ‘I like to go ice skating. I go a lot and hang out with my friends.’ The young people have enjoyed a summer holiday. These activities help the young people to develop good social skills, friendships and increase their self-esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The young people develop good habits that provide them with essential independence skills. They undertake household chores, including cleaning and tidying their own bedrooms. This provides them with the necessary self-care skills that are appropriate to their age.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is clean, well decorated and furnished to a good standard. The young people benefit greatly from the comfortable surroundings that are influenced by their choices for personalising their home. However, the bathroom and en-suite shower facilities are showing signs of wear and tear. This detracts from the otherwise great, homely environment.

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

The young people’s safety and well-being are given the highest priority by the staff team. The staff are clear that it is everyone’s responsibility to safeguard the young people. Meticulous planning of the young people’s care and their safety forms part of everyday practice in the home. The staff are fully aware of the individual risks and vulnerabilities for each young person in their care. Staff methodically follow the detailed individual risk assessments and safeguarding strategies, seeking the advice and guidance from other professionals when required. There have been no incidents of the young people going missing from the home. Staff practice keeps the young people safe. A social worker said: ‘I’m incredibly impressed with the staff. It’s the best placement I Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 5 have; they understand [name of young person’s] needs, give him security, as if he were their own child.’

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

The young people flourish because of the nurturing approach, positive role-modelling and the very strong focus on supporting young people’s positive behaviour. Sanctions are not used, and physical interventions are a rare occurrence. The young people respond exceptionally well to frequent praise and the incentives put in place to help them achieve and succeed. There is close oversight of the young people’s emotional well-being and the behaviour presented. The young people respond positively to consistent care, clear expectations, rules and boundaries. These help young people tremendously to feel safe and secure within their home environment, which is reflected in the extremely low number of risk-taking behaviours and safeguarding incidents.

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

Professionals said that staff do all that they can to keep young people safe. Good staffing levels allow continued close supervision of the young people. This reduces the potential for bullying, ensuring that the staff are nearby to intervene promptly and take action if such incidents should occur. The young people said that there have been no bullying incidents. All the young people understand and are aware that bullying is not tolerated.

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

The well-established relationships between the staff and the young people enable the young people to trust and follow the advice and guidance that is given to them. This protects the young people further from harm.

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

The young people benefit from living in a safe environment. There is frequent monitoring of the environment and this includes all relevant health and safety checks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has an abundance of experience in management and in caring for young people. She holds a social work qualification and the level 5 qualification in leadership and management. She leads by example and communicates to the staff team her high ambition for the young people in her care. The young people benefit immensely from the manager’s determination to make sure that they succeed. This forms the foundation for all that the staff team do for the young people. Accordingly, the young people make continuous progress towards achieving their care plan targets and objectives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This staff team is dedicated, stable, experienced, diverse and child-centred. There is great teamwork that provides consistent care to meet the needs of the young people. The staff access a comprehensive range of training. The majority hold the diploma level 3 in caring for children and young people, with all mandatory training areas kept up to date. In addition, they have undertaken more specialist training. This includes child sexual exploitation, self-harm and Prevent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff are provided with good-quality supervision and regular staff sessions that Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 6 include the use of reflective practice, as well as daily handovers and staff meetings. This allows the staff to learn from experience and equips them exceptionally well to meet the needs of young people. These excellent support and communication systems ensure that the quality of care continues to improve for the young people. A staff member said: ‘We have a great team here and get wonderful support from our manager.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Excellent partnership working with professionals and other supporting agencies ensures that the young people receive the specific care and assistance to meet their individual needs immediately. Professionals said: ‘[Name of young person] is in the right placement. I am delighted with it. [Name of young person] is doing so well. There is great communication. There is a therapeutic parenting approach, but more than that, there is a glue that holds everything together and that is the manager,’ and, ‘This is a fabulous and pretty special team. There is excellent partnership working and communication. The team work with us to get the best for the boys.’ This proactive and collaborative working ensures that young people receive excellent care and support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Internal and external monitoring continues to be extensive. Monthly regulation 44 visits robustly support the service’s improvement. In addition, the manager routinely observes staff practice. The manager is proactive and regularly consults with professionals to gain their views about the quality of care being provided. She gives them feedback on what they do well and what they could do to improve. The manager’s awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the service ensures that vital and efficient action is being taken to address any shortfalls identified. This maintains the high standards of care for the young people and reflects the home’s 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. 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 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, 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: SC437305 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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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: Susan Fitzsimmons

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Inspector

Debbie Foster, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 8 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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