Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Rochdale

Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 1 SC456850 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

This is one of a number of privately run children’s homes operated by a private company. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person who may need support with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The registered manager also manages another home within the company, and both homes are in close proximity to each other.

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 December 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/12/2017 Full Good 19/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/08/2016 Full Good 10/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 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

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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies; that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each

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Requirement Due date

child effectively from harm. (Regulation (12)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children to aspire to their full potential and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 13(b)(2)(a)) With particular reference to ensuring the service has effective on-call management cover at all times. 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children to aspire to their full 31/07/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 4 potential and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff have the experience, qualification and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(2)(c)) The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes— a description of the measure and its duration; the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about

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Requirement Due date

the measure and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and within 5 days of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(iv)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 31/07/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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improvement to be good

The home is currently unsettled with the young person exhibiting challenging and often risky behaviour. Staff are working hard to provide support to the young person. However, despite their best efforts, the young person’s risk-taking behaviours have Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 5 continued to increase. Consequently, the young person’s safety and welfare is not prioritised. The registered manager has recognised that the situation cannot continue. She has worked collaboratively with social workers and the organisation’s commissioning service to exhaust all options in an attempt support the young person. However, the registered manager has remained realistic in terms of the current situation and concluded that the home can no longer ensure the young person’s safety. As such, notice has been served and an alternative provision has been identified for the young person. More positively, the young person has made good progress in school. The promotion of

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improvement to be good

education is a key strength of the home. Effective liaison with educational professionals has resulted in the young person sustaining educational placements and achieving good outcomes. Staff ensure that the young people’s health needs are met. Expertise from external agencies is sought and information and resources are made available to staff in order to best meet the young person’s health needs. The young person engages in activities in the local community. Staff support the young person to develop her individual interests and hobbies, for example swimming, circus skills and dancing. This has provided the young person with an opportunity try new things and develop social skills. The young person maintains appropriate contact with her family. This is facilitated by staff who understand the importance of helping the young person to maintain these significant attachments. Staff are conscious of the impact of contact and remain

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improvement to be good

supportive in their approach. This ensures that contact remains a positive experience for the young person. The home requires some redecoration and repair work. This includes replacing damaged fixtures and fittings. The manager has a maintenance plan for the required work. This will make for a more homely environment.

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improvement to be good

It was not possible to speak with the young person about her experiences of living at the home during the inspection. However, through observations, discussions and review of documentation, there is clear evidence that the young person’s welfare and safety is being compromised by poor safeguarding practice. Staff receive training in how to manage challenging behaviour. However, not all staff have used their learning to good effect and the young person’s behaviour has quickly escalated on a number of occasions. This has resulted in a number of assaults on staff, damage to the home and increased episodes of the young person self-harming. Evidence gathered during this inspection highlights that staff approach situations with best intentions and determination, but have become frustrated when interventions have been ineffective. Staff say, ‘X [young person’s name] is really complex. We’ve tried lots of different strategies, but they’ve just not worked. We need more tools in our toolkit so

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improvement to be good

Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 6 that we can support her.’ Staff have restrained the young person to try to keep her safe. The recording of these incidents is poor. The registered manager does not ensure that a full record of the restraint is completed. This means that important information is lost and the registered manager is not able to monitor and improve staff’s responses to the young person’s behaviour. The registered manager has acknowledged that further training is required to improve recording practice and behaviour management at the home. There are risk-management plans in place. However, staff do not ensure that plans are regularly reviewed and updated. For example, a risk-management plan around substance misuse and e-safety has not been included in the most recent risk assessment. This leaves the young person vulnerable to risk. When the young person has gone missing from the home, staff follow and actively look

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improvement to be good

for her. They complete key-worker sessions about safety and discuss reasons why the young person went missing. Staff ensure that the young person has an independent return-to-care interview. This means that the young person has the opportunity to share any vital information with an independent person, which could prevent further instances of going missing. When allegations about staff are made, the registered manager works closely with the designated officer for the local area and the placing authority to investigate the incident and come to an informed outcome. The registered manager ensures that safer recruitment practices are adhered to. This means that any person employed by the home is carefully vetted for their suitability to work with young people.

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

The registered manager acknowledged that the home has experienced considerable upheaval. However, she is fully aware of what needs to improve and has a plan in place to address shortfalls raised during this inspection. This includes redecoration of the home, additional training for staff, full staff team debrief and an evaluation of practice. Moving forward, this will help to rebuild staff morale and improve future practice.

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

The out-of-hours on-call system is ineffective. Staff do not have access to an up-to-date on-call manager duty list. Furthermore, on at least one occasion staff were not able to contact the on-call manager for support and guidance. This demonstrates poor managerial oversight by leaders and manager. The staff team benefits from regular supervision. Supervision is seen to be reflective and supportive for staff, with a focus on the welfare of the young person they care for. However, the manager is not recorded as having supervision for over six months. This means that there has been a lack of oversight by senior management and the registered manager has not had the opportunity to reflect and develop her own practice. Partnership working continues to be a strength. The manager has effective working relationships with placing authorities, safeguarding professionals, the police and Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 7

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

education and healthcare staff. She has a good understanding of the benefits of multi- agency working and uses this effectively to ensure that the young person receives the services and support that she requires. Not all staff complete incident reports with sufficient rigour. On occasions, staff have used judgemental and opinionated language. The manager accepted that this is an area for improvement during the inspection and has identified systems that she can implement to address this. Regular monitoring of the home, both externally and internally, is sufficient. Monthly visits by an external visitor are undertaken to ensure independent scrutiny of the quality of care provided. Any shortfalls identified as part of this process are quickly addressed by the manager. The manager has recently completed the required six-monthly report on the performance of the home. It is suitably detailed and demonstrates some analysis and

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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: SC456850 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

Ceri Evans, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC456850 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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