Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 1 SC476292 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 home is operated by a private company and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who have complex needs. There is a new manager in post who is not yet registered.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people’s welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 7 February 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home was subject to a 12-week restriction of accommodation notice from 9 February 2018. Ofsted undertook a monitoring visit on 19 March 2018 to monitor the registered provider’s compliance with the notice and to ensure that there had been no new children admitted to the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/10/2017 Full Good 01/12/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 25/05/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 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 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—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure ("the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure.

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Requirement Due date

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")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use 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)(ii)(iv)(v)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— 31/07/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 4 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (2)(c)(i)(ii)) The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to prepare for any review of the child’s relevant plans and to make the child’s views, wishes and feelings known for the purposes of that review. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)) 31/07/2018

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 31/07/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 5 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)(b)(d)) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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;

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ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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ensure that staff have the experience, qualification and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 31/07/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 6 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(h)) The registered person must ensure that an individual who works in a care home in a care role has the appropriate qualification by the relevant date. This is if the individual has attained— (4)(a) the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’). (5) The relevant date is— (a) in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(4)(a)(5)(a)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate professional development. (Regulation 33(4)(a)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)) 31/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)) 31/07/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Ensure that the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home are reviewed at least every year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these, in particular when new young people arrive, and upon receipt of information from police or other agencies. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  Ensure that the registered person builds a strong safeguarding culture in the Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 7 home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.8) In particular, ensure that staff always check visitors’ identification and explain the fire evacuation procedure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have experienced significant changes in staff caring for them. This has compromised the opportunity for children to experience consistent and stable relationships with adults they know and trust. Some staff are not part of this home’s core staff team and come from different homes within the organisation. This means that children experience being cared for by lots of different individuals on a regular basis.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers have failed to consider the needs of children when planning new admissions. This poor planning has resulted in one child becoming anxious and fearful about the behaviour presented by a newly admitted child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home’s statement of purpose describes the provision as ‘promoting a relaxed and homely environment’. However, some of the children’s bedrooms have broken furniture, some children’s toys are broken, and there are signs of damage to decoration around the house that has not been quickly rectified repaired. Some parts of the home are not clean. As a result, children are not living in an environment conducive to their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children can talk to staff in the ‘children’s chat’ sessions. These sessions enable children to express their preferences for activities and menu choices. However, staff do not reflect how children contribute to their own care plans in their case records, and this means that children’s views are entirely absent from key records.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Positively, most children continue to do well in the organisation’s school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One social worker was positive about the service and said, ‘Staff develop an excellent understanding of his needs.’

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

Whistle-blowers have raised significant concerns with Ofsted about the safety and welfare of children living at the home. These concerns include the lack of consistent staff caring for children, poor matching of children moving into the home, damage in the home environment, little staff support and an escalation in children’s behaviour.

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

Admission processes are not thorough enough and have contributed to children not being safeguarded. Children have been admitted to the home without a comprehensive assessment of the impact that their admission will have on other children already living at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 8 One child has had a period of sleeping on the floor on a mattress behind their bedroom door, effectively barricading it, in an attempt to feel safe. The child expressed concerns about another child trying to harm him and so took these steps to protect himself. It is of grave concern that neither the manager nor the staff team has been able to develop a strategy to protect this child and support him to overcome his fears, or to provide an alternative and safe place for him to sleep.

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

One child does not have an informed behaviour management plan. This leaves staff with little information about the strategies required to help keep the child safe.

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

Despite the manager having oversight of all physical restraint incident records, the manager has failed to recognise shortfalls. For example, the manager has not identified that staff have not received the required post-incident debrief and that children’s views are not captured in the record. Records are also missing key information about how staff tried to de-escalate incidents. This is a repeated regulatory shortfall.

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

An item of play equipment has been removed from the garden. This has left two holes in the lawn. This presents a potential health and safety hazard to children living at the home.

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

The manager does not review the locality risk assessment when new children are admitted to the home. This creates a missed opportunity to use local intelligence and the vulnerability of the child to determine if the placement is right for the child.

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

Managers and staff do not always ensure that visitors are aware of the emergency evacuation procedures and that visitors sign out when they leave. This means that visitors are not aware of the home’s emergency procedures and staff are unable to account for people who are visiting the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection the registered manager and several members of staff have left. A new manager has recently started. During this period of change, the support for staff has declined. For example, new members of staff have not received individual supervision with the manager. One member of staff has still not achieved a level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the required timescale. Other staff have not received training in helping them to understand how to care for children who can display sexualised behaviour, despite this being a specialism of the service. These gaps mean that staff lack confidence and competence in meeting children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not confident that managers listen to their concerns about the children, or act to remedy them. They are concerned about the negative impact an ever-changing cohort of staff has on children’s experiences. Staff report being exhausted, and say that they receive little support, and that morale is now low.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring systems are poor and ineffective. Children’s files are missing annual health Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 9 assessments and looked after review minutes. Although the manager has asked the local authorities to send these documents, there has been very little challenge to placing authorities to ensure that essential records are received. Consequently, staff do not have all the essential information they need to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The new manager is aware of the issues the home faces and has taken initial steps to improve practice. However, at this stage it is too early to assess the impact.

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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: SC476292 10

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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

Julia Wright, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC476292 11 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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