Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Stockport

Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 1 SC457506 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

This children’s home is owned by a large national provider. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children and young people who have experienced adverse childhood experiences which have led to associated trauma and complex behaviours. The home offers short-, medium-, and long-term placements for children and young people. They prepare children and young people for the next step in their lives, whether it is a return home, a move to another placement or the transition to independence. The current manager was registered with Ofsted on 7 January 2018.

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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 that children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted. The care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 17 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2018 Full Good 06/09/2017 Interim Not judged 08/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/08/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 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

(1) The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

(a) that staff— (i) help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

(iv) help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment. 14/09/2018

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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 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;

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies; and that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as 24/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 4 to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))

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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.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(h)) 14/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the correct recording of medication administered. (Regulation 23 (1)(2)(c)) 14/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 All staff in a care role, including external agency or bank staff, must have the qualification in regulation 32 (4) within the relevant timescales in regulation 32 (5). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, April 2015, page 22, paragraph 10)  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 48, paragraph 9.50) In particular, ensure that computer games and DVDs are age-appropriate and do not exceed the age of the young people accessing them. Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people’s outcomes and progress from their initial starting points are poor. The matching of young people and their individual needs are not given due care and consideration before young people are admitted to the home. This means that young people have influenced one another, leading to young people becoming involved in risk- taking behaviours. These behaviours were previously low risk prior to the admission of new young people to the home. For example, young people are once again involved in drug misuse and there has been an increase in the occasions of young people going missing from home. One young person did not have a history of drug misuse before his admission to the home. Since his admission to the home, there have been a number of occasions when young people have been observed to be under the influence of illegal substances and, on occasions, have been suspected of smoking illegal substances in the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

home. Young people continue to go missing and smoke cannabis because the strategies that are in place to reduce these behaviours are ineffective. This has had a negative effect on the overall progress of young people and places them at risk of harm. The local police have raised concerns about the involvement of one young person in ‘county lines’ and potentially being involved in drug running. As a result, the manager and staff felt unable to keep this child safe and made arrangements for the child to be moved. This resulted in another move for this child which will impact on his ability to form positive attachments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Due to the high number of occasions when children are missing from home, they have had minimal engagement with education. One child had started to attend education. However, this stopped when another child, with a history of going missing from home, was admitted to the home. Because of a lack of routines and structures in place at the home to support children to engage in education on a regular basis, both children started to go missing from home together. This impacts on young people’s learning and results in a lack of educational progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are registered with healthcare professionals. Staff encourage them to attend appointments and, where required, support them to attend. However, children are involved in substance misuse and smoking which impacts on their overall health and well-being. Because children are going missing from home, staff are not able to support them to maintain healthy diets. Records show that the children return with takeaway meals or send out for meals. They purchase these meals with money that they have gained when away from the home. This includes doing card tricks for money in the nearby city. Staff are unclear about the level of money that the young people have brought back with them. Due to their ages, this places them at a greater risk in the community when they are absent from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff work hard to promote appropriate contact as identified in care plans for the children with their family and friends. This is positive for the children as it enables them to continue with relationships with people who are important to them. Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 6 Children have access to a range of activities, both within the community and at the home. However, they do not regularly participate in these because they are missing from home or they choose to stay in their bedrooms. One child was offered a boxing apprenticeship but did not wish to engage with this. Staff continue to try to find activities which will interest and engage children, but due to the lack of routine and structure at the home, this is proving difficult to achieve.

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

Risk management arrangements in the home are inadequate and do not effectively protect children from harm. Initial impact risk assessments and the matching of young people’s needs are inadequate. As a result, one young person who had been making progress, reverted to previous behaviours of going missing and substance misuse. This behaviour also impacted on another child who lives at the home. Managers and staff have failed to implement behaviour management strategies to help children to manage their own behaviours and to stay safe. As a result, children have continued to be involved in behaviours, both within the home and in the community, which places them at risk of harm. Examples of this include going missing from home, involvement in substance misuse and suspected involvement with ‘county lines’.

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

Staff lack understanding of safeguarding practice. For example, a young person made an allegation about a member of staff and their practice. This was recorded as a complaint rather than as a safeguarding allegation. The manager failed to follow safeguarding procedures and did not raise this allegation with the relevant safeguarding agencies, including the designated officer for the local authority and HMCI. The member of staff who was the subject of the allegation left the organisation prior to a management investigation being completed. As a result, young people were not adequately safeguarded because the organisation did not fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities to the children in their care or other vulnerable children and adults.

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

Staff do not consistently identify and act upon risks associated with young people who access computer games that contain content that is inappropriate for young people’s age and understanding. Staff do not demonstrate an understanding of the potential impact that this can have on young people. When young people bring these games into the home, staff do not challenge young people effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management of the home are inadequate. Safeguarding procedures were not followed after a young person made a serious allegation about a member of staff. Although the manager sought advice from senior managers in the organisation, the manager failed to recognise that this advice was incorrect. Subsequently, the necessary referral was not made to the relevant safeguarding agencies as required to support the safety and welfare of young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager commented during the inspection that outcomes for young people had deteriorated. Going missing from home incidents have increased significantly during a Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 7 three-month period. Young people who were not previously involved in substance misuse have been suspected of being under the influence of cannabis and have smoked this within the home. There has also been at least one occasion when children smoking at the home have set the fire alarm system off at night. Staff had to call the fire brigade and police to the home to deal with this incident.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager and provider have failed to ensure that the staff team has the necessary experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of the young people at the home. Only the manager and deputy manager hold the required childcare qualification. One team leader is due to complete this by December 2018. When the home operates as a solo placement with one member of staff on duty, there are times when there is not a suitably qualified person in charge of the home. Despite the manager being aware of this, they have not taken any action to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The supervision of staff was identified within the independent visitor’s monitoring report as not being completed consistently. The manager addressed this by holding a staff meeting. This does not provide opportunities for staff to reflect on their practice or for the manager to address effectively any issues with staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The independent visitor has raised a number of shortfalls within their monthly monitoring report which the manager has failed to address within the agreed timescales. This has resulted in these actions being carried forward to the next month. This does not demonstrate effective management oversight of the 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: SC457506 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:

Sarah Oldham: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC457506 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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