Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Middlesbrough

Inspection report children's home: SC454266 1 SC454266 Registered provider: The Cambian Group

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home is contracted to provide services to a local authority. The home provides care and accommodation for four children or young people. The manager has been in post since May 2018. Currently she is not registered with Ofsted; her application is in progress.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 27 to 28 September 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 children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and/or 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: 19 December 2017

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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: SC454266 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/12/2017 Full Good 15/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 13/09/2016 Full Good 24/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children's home: SC454266 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, the 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 6 (1)(2)(a) (b)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)) 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

*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

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

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Requirement Due date

that staff— 30/11/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC454266 4 help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment; and

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, when young people are refusing to engage in education, staff should provide a structured day that involves some form of learning. The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from relationships based on—

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. (Regulation 11 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)) 30/11/2018

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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—

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Requirement Due date

that staff— assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into 30/11/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC454266 5 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;

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 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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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(a)(c)) 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

This regulation applies to a child who is looked after by a local authority. 30/11/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC454266 6 The registered person must cooperate with the child’s placing authority in agreeing and signing the child’s placement plan. (Regulation 17 (1)(2))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children's home: SC454266 7

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some children and young people are not making sufficient progress as a direct result of living in this home. Not all staff are sufficiently engaging the children and young people or building quality relationships with them, and the quality of the care and support provided is inconsistent. There is not a shared understanding or implementation of boundaries and house rules, and this is not effective in keeping children and young people safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children and young people have access to education, although not all are well supported by staff to attend or engage in education. Staff do not engage children and young people consistently well in educational activities or a daily routine when they are not in education. In these instances, children and young people have unstructured time to themselves. As a result, one young person has not had any education for almost half a term.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children and young people are not receiving the specialist health services that they need. There have been delays in accessing some of these assessments and consequently the support they need. Not all staff have had sufficient training to ensure that they can meet the complex emotional issues of children and young people placed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The statement of purpose states that the home provides a ‘specialist behavioural service’. However, not all members of staff on duty during the inspection displayed a clear understanding of the therapeutic model used within the home. Children and young people are being given too much responsibility for self-regulating their behaviour and keeping themselves and others safe, and targeted intervention by staff is at times lacking.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children and young people are regularly consulted about activities and are engaging in these activities, which is supporting their involvement in new experiences.

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

Inconsistent, and sometimes poor, behaviour management by staff means that children and young people do not have clear boundaries or routines. Children and young people are not consistently supported to make safe choices. Staff do not always know where children and young people are and do not know their friends. Staff do undertake key- worker sessions with children and young people, but these are not sufficiently focused on children’s needs, nor are they effective in reducing risk.

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

Some children and young people are at risk of harm. Not all risk assessments reflect the level of risk or sufficiently analyse the impact of risk-taking behaviours; in addition, these are not updated when risks change. The risks that children and young people face when using the internet and social media are not fully understood by all staff. In addition, children and young people’s online activity is not properly monitored by staff in line with Inspection report children's home: SC454266 8 their risk assessments. Some children and young people with harmful behaviours have unlimited access to social media when their risk assessment states otherwise. This has resulted in some children and young people being exposed to avoidable risk through their use of the internet. Important and vital information is not always given to the home by the local authority. One young person was placed without the necessary

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

documentation. Consequently, there was no shared understanding between the home and the placing authority of the level of risk and the young person’s needs.

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

When concerns are raised that a child or young person could harm themselves or others, effective action is not always taken. Searches of young people’s rooms are undertaken. However, staff have not been provided with training relating to conducting appropriate searches and safely managing self-harming behaviours. Some children and young people had items in their room that were identified as a risk to them and requiring removal. Some staff have had no training in self-harm or the use of ligature cutters. As a result, they do not know what to do in the event of a child or young person attempting to take their own life.

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

Missing from home episodes have reduced in recent months, but staff are not consistently following procedures when children and young people do go missing. This increases children’s and young people’s vulnerabilities at these times.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager is new to the home and is managing a predominantly new staff team. The team has undergone significant change and experienced members of staff have left. Staff with little or no experience have been employed who are not fully trained to manage the identified needs and risks of the children and young people. This is not in line with the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some young people have been admitted to the home without a full understanding of their needs and the risks they present. Delays in receiving important information about how to support young people and manage their behaviours has placed children at risk. This does not support sound decision-making around admissions and is not conducive to ensuring that staff are equipped to meet the needs of children and young people placed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager is working hard with her team to support the needs of children and young people. However, training has not been sufficiently focused on meeting the needs of children and young people, and on the whole the staff team is inexperienced. Consequently, the team does not respond consistently to known risk or have a shared understanding of the levels of risk and how to manage risky behaviours effectively. Identified specialist training, for example on harmful behaviours, had not been arranged at the time of inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Supervision varies in quality; the manager carries out detailed supervision of her team leader. However, the team leader does not address concerns about practice in her supervision with staff members. Consequently, staff are not appropriately guided and supported to meet the needs of children and young people placed. Inspection report children's home: SC454266 9

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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: SC454266 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Waterfront, Hammersmith Embankment, Chancellors Road, London, Middlesex W6 9RU

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Inspectors

Abigail Maspero: social care inspector Rachel Holden: her majesty’s inspector Inspection report children's home: SC454266 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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