Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in North Yorkshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 1 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

A private company runs this home, which is for female children and young people aged between 11 and 18. The home offers a 12-month programme for children and young people who have experienced or are at risk of sexual exploitation. The aim is to provide an individualised approach, with education, clinical and care professionals working together in support of a child’s care plan. This is intended to create a care package that will best meet the needs of each individual child and young person. It is likely that children and young people who are admitted to the home will also have emotional, social and behavioural difficulties as a result of their experiences.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: Requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home is subject to one compliance notice issued in relation to the leadership and management quality standard. Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/01/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/10/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 26/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 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

A person may only manage a children’s home if the person has the appropriate experience, qualifications and skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children. (Regulation 28 (1)(b)(i)) 31/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development (Regulation 33 (4)(a)). In particular, provide all staff training about self-harm, ligatures and the ‘Prevent’ duty. 30/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(c)(5)) 31/05/2018

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Recommendations

 In accordance with regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met), homes must have proactive relationships with appropriate schools and educational support services (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 27, paragraph 5.7). In particular, personal education plans should be up to date and assess how well pupil premium money improves the educational outcomes of children.  Records must be kept detailing all incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3914)). Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.31).  As set out in regulations 31 ─ 33, the registered person is responsible for

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Recommendations

maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1). In particular, ensure that all staff receive supervision in line with the registered provider’s policy. Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from a caring and nurturing environment. Staff spend a lot of time with young people, getting to know them and reassuring them about their immediate concerns and anxieties about the future. Young people are positive about their care and support that the staff provide.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Suitable matching of young people ensures a good degree of compatibility. This promotes positive experiences for young people and guards against there being any negative impact from the mix of young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in promoting young people’s health needs. Young people have good access to services to improve their physical, emotional and sexual health needs. Despite young people being placed out of area, staff have been effective in securing appropriate mental health services. These are supplemented with clinical support in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive good advice and guidance from staff about their health and well- being. This includes dietary advice and advice on how to develop coping strategies to build resilience and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make a range of choices and influence the day-to-day running of the home within the limits of their care plans and risk assessments. They organise food shopping, cook meals and chose activities, and they have helped develop the rewards system.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people maintain and develop their identity through contact with family, carers and friends, individual fashion choices and leisure interests. Staff support contact arrangements agreed with placing authorities and help young people pursue their hobbies, including playing musical instruments, swimming, army cadets and arts and crafts.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote education, and young people are attending school more regularly compared to when they were at their previous placements. With support and encouragement, young people are considering their future and planning potential career routes. Staff provide young people with the space, resources and time for additional study in the home. Personal education plans are not up to date; this is being chased by the management team with young people’s placing authorities.

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

Young people feel safe and secure. They build strong, trusting relationships with staff. Young people commented positively about the way that staff stand by them despite any poor behaviour and that staff are committed to making sure they do not go missing.

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

Staff are good at managing the risks to young people from exploitation, drug and alcohol Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 5 misuse, and a no-smoking environment is promoted. There are appropriate and individualised safety plans that contribute to reducing incidents of self-harm.

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

Staff frequently advise and guide young people about the dangers of offending behaviour, being missing from home, self-harm and exploitation. This helps young people to develop a positive sense of personal safety.

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

There are initial restrictions on young people’s access to money, mobile phones and the internet during the ‘stabilisation’ part of the 12-month programme. Alongside this, staff plan with young people appropriate risk-taking opportunities, such as short periods of free time in the community. These steps are agreed with young people’s social workers to help young people develop their independence and build opportunities to prepare themselves for the transition to adulthood.

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

Young people have agreed with staff their own incentive plans based on a reward chart of pizza slices. This is successful in encouraging good behaviour, and one young person chose to swop her collected pizzas for £20 to open a bank account. Instead of a slice of pizza, young people can pick instant rewards such as make-up or bath bombs. Staff also help young people to manage stress through calm lighting, fidget spinners and stress balls.

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

The positive, child-centred and inclusive environment promotes good behaviour and builds relationships between staff and young people. Staff therefore rarely use physical intervention and only as a last resort to keep young people safe.

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

Staffing levels allow for close monitoring of the young people’s whereabouts and effective implementation of risk assessments. As a result, there are significantly less missing from home episodes and no instances of young people being at risk of sexual exploitation. Staff are persistent in their efforts to ensure that young people return safely when they are missing.

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

The management team has taken the necessary action to fulfil the compliance notice and all but one of the statutory requirements from the last inspection. There are a number of areas that require further improvement for leadership and management of the home to be good.

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

There is one requirement in relation to the quality of the manager’s six-monthly review that is carried over from the last inspection. This is because the next review is not due until May 2018.

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

The manager has been in post just over six months and has applied for registration to Ofsted. She does not have a leadership and management qualification at the required level and has not taken any steps to achieve this.

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

There are gaps in staff training that the management team has been slow to address. Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 6 Plans are in place to rectify this. The staff team is working more cohesively than at the previous inspection. There is good sharing of skills and knowledge between staff and additional support from the in-house clinical team. This has so far minimised the impact of training shortfalls.

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

Staff supervision has not been maintained in line with the organisation’s policy, and monitoring of missing from home records is not good enough. Supervision arrangements have been reviewed to ensure in the future that staff receive regular supervision. The weakness in oversight of records is minimised by management de-briefs with staff of individual incidents, but this does not allow for analysing patterns and trends of young people’s behaviour.

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

The management team has a good oversight of the experiences and progress of young people and uses this to amend care plans appropriately. There is appropriate advice and guidance for staff on a daily basis and through team meetings and team-around-the- child meetings. Consequently, staff are clear about their roles and the aims and objectives of the home, and they provide young people with good standards of care.

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

Staff are motivated and committed to helping young people achieve their potential. They have developed better working relationships with young people’s placing authorities, the police and health services. This is providing good all-round support for the 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 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: 1235818 7

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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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Inspector

Simon Morley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1235818 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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Inspector

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