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

Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 1 SC389649 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to three young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities. The home is privately owned and managed. The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2017.

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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: SC389649 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/06/2017 Full Good 01/11/2016 Full Good 02/08/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 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 registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)(c)) This relates specifically to the home’s registered manager. 20/07/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure children should be in full-time education whilst they are of compulsory school age, unless their personal education plan contained within the care plan or other relevant plan states otherwise. The home must aim to support full time attendance at school unless the child’s relevant plan indicates this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 5.14, page 28)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. The statement of purpose is an important document in the process of care planning as it sets out the needs of children the home is set up and equipped to care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 11.4, page 56)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that relevant plans are in place for the young people. This relates specifically to obtaining a personal education plan for those young people who require one. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 3.1, page 14)

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Recommendations

 Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 4 them as an individual. This relates specifically to encouraging and, where necessary, supporting young people to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 3.7, page 15)

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Recommendations

 Children’s home staff should take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental-stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. Staff should discuss the decision with the child’s placing authority where appropriate. This relates to ensuring that any changes to a young person’s sleeping arrangements are formally assessed and approved. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 9.7, page 42)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from effective, good-quality support from staff that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to change and improvement in their lives. Young people make measurable progress taking into account their individual starting points across most aspects of their physical, social, emotional and behavioural development. Young people enjoy good relationships with staff and have positive relationships with each other. They benefit from continuity of care and have stability and consistency in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people report, ‘My old care home was completely different. My last care home was worse. Here you can tell that some staff care about you.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home maintains effective partnerships with the providers of young people’s education to promote their progress and learning. Staff have sourced education to help those young people who are not attending school to resume their education at the earliest opportunity. Some young people attend school on a regular basis. However, school attendance for some young people remains an ongoing issue and not all young people have a personal education plan to promote their educational achievement. Recommendations are made in respect of these issues.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from effective support to promote their good health. They are registered with a doctor, dentist and optician and have access to these services when they need them. The arrangements for the storage, safe keeping and administration of young people’s medication are managed safely and effectively by staff. Medical consent is obtained so that staff are clear about the types of health decisions and responsibilities that are delegated to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides young people with a physically safe, appropriately secure, warm, comfortable and homely environment. The home has been recently redecorated and has Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 5 had new furniture, carpets and laminate flooring. As a result, good-quality accommodation is now provided for young people. However, on inspecting young people’s bedrooms, one room was found to be messy and untidy. The room was later cleaned by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home works closely with the families of young people and actively promotes and supports contact. This ensures that young people can sustain their close relationships with the people who are most important to them. A young person reports, ‘I get to stay at mother’s [home] on a Friday after school and then on Sunday I come back. I’m working towards moving back home with my mum.’ Her parent reports, ‘They’ve done some really good work with her. I have a very good relationship with staff. They’re really supportive. It’s lovely… the manager is really proactive. They have made our lives so much easier. It’s like having an extra family. It’s been good for her there and she’s settled.’

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

Staff place the safety of young people at the centre of their practice irrespective of the challenges that this presents. Staff develop a good understanding of young people’s emerging needs and vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. Risks associated with young people are well known and understood by staff.

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

There is evidence of change and improvement in the lives of young people. For example, young people are better equipped to self-regulate their feelings and behaviours safely and the home has seen a reduction in incidents of self-harm. Young people report, ‘My life’s changed a lot. I was mental when I first came here. Now I can control my anger and know how to deal with it when I’m upset.’

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

Staff are trained to manage the behaviours of young people safely and effectively. Restraint, if used at all, is only ever used as a last resort to protect young people from harm. There have been no restraints since November 2017. Consequences used by staff to address negative behaviour are fair and proportionate. Staff ensure that good behaviour is rewarded. Positive behaviour is consistently praised, acknowledged and reinforced.

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

The registered manager completes a risk impact assessment prior to a young person’s admission to the home. However, the home has taken a young person recently whose emerging needs and vulnerabilities the home is unable to manage safely. This is partially due to the location of the home and external risk factors that are present. These risk factors put this young person at a greater risk of harm. The young person has slowly begun to disengage with staff and frequently goes missing. As a result, the registered manager has served notice on the young person’s placement as the home cannot keep them safe. The home has lessons to learn from this experience and a recommendation is made in relation to the increased scrutiny of the referral information received by the home.

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

Staff follow the home’s procedures when young people go missing. They maintain Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 6 effective partnerships with the police and actively look for young people to locate them quickly and promote their safe return. However, one young person frequently stays out overnight at his girlfriend’s mother’s home without permission. The home has had a meeting with the placing authority to request a formal assessment by the social worker of the occupants of this home. An assessment would confirm that the young person is safe and negate the need for staff to report the young person as missing. A recommendation is made for the registered manager to escalate this issue.

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

Significant incidents are promptly reported to the appropriate authorities. This ensures that the right professional agencies can take action if needed to support and protect young people. The home maintains effective partnerships with all safeguarding agencies to promote the safety and well-being of young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has met and addressed two of the three recommendations from the last inspection. Staff have received ligature training so that they can deal competently and confidently with any emergency situations to protect young people from harm. The home has also ensured that there are appropriate cooking facilitates for young people and staff to use to prepare their meals. The recommendation that was previously made in relation to young people’s education has not been fully met. As a result, this recommendation is repeated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular supervision and are well managed, supported and led. However, the registered manager has not received professional one-to-one supervision for some time. Consequently, the registered manager is isolated in his role due to the limited support being made available to him.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to good-quality training. The registered manager assesses staff’s performance and ensures that their training needs are identified and met effectively. The home meets the aims and objectives as set out in its statement of purpose. Overall, it provides a good-quality service for young people that contributes to their safety and well-being and encourages positive change and improvement in their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager can demonstrate that he prioritises the needs of young people and champions their needs effectively. The home maintains effective partnerships with all professional agencies to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help and all-round support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has escalated concerns where other services fail to deliver the services and support needed to meet young people’s specific needs. This is something that the registered manager is increasingly now more prepared to do in acting in the best interests of young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are good systems in place for the routine monitoring of the performance of the home. The home is visited each month by an independent professional who scrutinises the conduct of the home and its arrangements to safeguard young people and promote Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 7 their well-being. This enables the registered manager to have a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. He tackles any identified weaknesses and makes positive use of the home’s external and internal monitoring activities to secure the home’s continuing improvement.

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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: SC389649 8

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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, Waterfront, Hammersmith Embankment, Chancellors Road, London, Middlesex W6 9RU

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC389649 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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