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

Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 1 SC456474 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 which provides care and accommodation for up to six children and young people who may have complex emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/06/2017 Full Good 08/03/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 26/09/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff 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)) 01/07/2018

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Recommendations

 Just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10) Particularly, the use of locks on the office doors and anywhere else in the house must be assessed and the impact on each young person considered.

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Recommendations

 A child’s bedroom should not generally be entered without their permission, though it may be necessary to establish routines to allow for rooms to be cleaned regularly. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20) In particular, reassessment is needed to assess whether nightly searches of one young person’s room remain necessary and proportionate.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24) In particular, the inconsistency of independent visitors needs to resolve to enable effective external monitoring and progress of the home.

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Recommendations

 Decisions about overnight stays with friends should be delegated to children’s homes’ staff by the placing authority for looked after children. The level of delegated authority should be recorded in the placement plan. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 4 8.9) Specifically the home’s manager should agree a safe process which allows the home’s staff to make these basic parenting decisions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people receive care from a conscientious, empathic and happy staff team. Through observation and guidance, the young people are able to improve their social skills, behaviour and relationships with others. In a relatively short timeframe, the staff get to know the young people well and are able to provide care that meets their individual needs. The young people are encouraged to spend time with all members of staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Case recordings, observation and discussion with the young people demonstrate that they are very able to make themselves heard. Any complaints made by the young people are recorded and responded to by the manager. The young people know what the outcome was and why. The young people hold the manager in high regard and one described her as the mother to them in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some young people are placed many miles away from their home, family and placing authority. Staff understand the feeling of isolation this can result in and the importance of family. They will take the young people to see family and friends at short notice, support family time and contact, and provide practical and financial support to families during times of transition and/or restoration.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people often have a history of poor or non-school attendance. There are delays by local authorities in providing the necessary information for this to progress in a timely manner. Challenge of authorities and education providers to sort out educational opportunities for the young people has some success, but not always.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people are anxious about attending health appointments. Staff are quite successful encouraging the young people to gain more urgent medical help and the dentist has been accepted by most as necessary.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Delays in progressing restoration plans for the young people can result in them becoming unsettled, whose focus is on going home rather than developing stable relationships with staff, the other young people, or within the community or education. The young people who wish to spend time with their friends are delayed in doing this due to local authority responses.

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

The young people feel safe, and are able to talk to members of staff and the manager. Staff are mindful of the vulnerability of the young people to exploitation, and key- working sessions are undertaken with the young people to increase their understanding of these risks. Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 5 Incidents of the young people reported as missing from care are frequent. The risk management and individual missing from care plans are very clear. Plans to keep the young people safe are followed, and staff adhere to the reporting protocol when this happens.

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

Changes to return home interviews have recently been made. This means that a consistent independent person who is already familiar to the young people will complete the majority of interviews. The manager and staff encourage informal visits from police officers. The allocated substance misuse worker is also a regular informal visitor and is developing a positive rapport with the young people. This means that he is not a stranger to the young people if they need support regarding any substance misuse.

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

Room searches are undertaken when there are concerns about the safety of the young people living in or visiting the home. These have not always been effective, with staff missing what they were looking for. After such an occurrence, the decision made by the manager for staff to conduct nightly searches means that each search has not been assessed to establish necessity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a suitably qualified and established registered manager. She leads a motivated staff team who enjoy their jobs and work in what they feel is a safe environment. Rotas show that the home has enough staff and excessive hours are not expected of the staff team members.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is able to identify how each young person is making progress. This may be very small steps, but progress for all young people was identified. An independent reviewing officer’s view of progress reflected the views of the manager. The manager understands the difficulties that the young people face, they have all experienced unstable home lives and loss prior to moving to the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Allegations against staff are investigated appropriately. Written records are clear and give the story of how incidents start and escalate. When needed, the manager challenges the actions of staff members and reflects with them a better way of dealing with a situation. The young people are given an opportunity to discuss what has happened and restorative work is undertaken.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monthly monitoring and evaluation of the service delivery takes place. Independent visits undertaken are embraced and recommendations are responded to promptly. There have been some changes to the independent person since the last inspection and this is now the fourth visitor, a situation the home’s manager recognises is not in the young people’s or staff’s best interest.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recruitment is robust. All the necessary documentation and checks are completed. Staff supervision is regular and staff feel supported. They know what is expected of them to safeguard the young people in their care. Training is mostly up to date, and staff feel equipped to undertake their roles safely. Lapsed training means that that person will not Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 6 undertake that task until the training is up to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Currently, office doors are locked when staff are in them. Building work identified from the last inspection is well underway and will allow the manager and staff offices to move so that they are central in the house layout. This will allow the office to have a safe open-door policy which allows the young people to have freer access to staff and own more of their home.

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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: SC456474 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

Angela Norrie, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC456474 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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