Children's Home, Residential special school run by Cambian Autism Services Limited in North Yorkshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 1 Registered provider: Cambian Autism Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 23 children and/or young people. This home provides a 38- and 52-week, mixed gender residential provision and a day school for children and young people aged eight to 19. Children and young people may have a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder and other related conditions. Springhill School, in addition to the residential and education teams, has a clinical services team that works seamlessly across the provision. The registered manager has been in post since December 2015.

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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 failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 13 February 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: 1227060 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/02/2018 Full Good 21/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 23/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 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 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

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; and

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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 (2)(a)(i)(iv)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to:  ensuring that risk assessments are up to date and that they provide staff with clear actions about how to manage risk;  ensuring that room searches are recorded, and the quality is monitored; and  ensuring that physical intervention records provide details about how the welfare of children is monitored during the hold. 09/12/2018

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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 aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child 09/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 4 and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers having oversight of children’s and young people’s risk assessments and plans. The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(e)) 09/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to escalating issues with the young people’s placements and taking effective action if the local authority does not respond when a placement can no longer be safely sustained. 09/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1)(3)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the statement of purpose includes the details of the experience and qualifications of all staff. 09/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Progress for one young person is limited due to the serious nature of their self-injurious behaviour. This has escalated in severity and frequency over recent months. Staff have not always appropriately intervened to reduce the impact on the young person’s overall well-being. Other children and young people have witnessed these behaviours, which have had a detrimental impact on their emotional well-being. The multi-agency plan to mitigate the concerns has not reduced the risks. Staff have not intervened appropriately to prevent injury even when the extent of these incidents has been significant.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff do not always supervise the children and young people effectively. The level of supervision is not always actioned in line with children’s and young people’s care plans. There has been concern raised by parents about their children engaging in inappropriate sexual behaviours. Consequently, some children have been exposed to harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Most of the children and young people make progress in many aspects of their lives. The staff have a good knowledge of each child and young person and they listen to their wishes and feelings. The children and young people maintain a sense of identity because the staff promote family contact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The young people enjoy activities such as bowling, climbing and swimming. Participating in these activities improves their social skills. The children’s and young people’s attendance in education is good. The staff actively encourage the young people to attend the on-site school.

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

Robust action plans are not in place for staff to supervise one young person appropriately and to monitor his welfare.

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

Some children’s and young people’s risk assessments do not always provide the staff with clear action to mitigate the risk factors. Some risk assessments do not reflect the children’s and young people’s current risks because they are not up to date. As a result, there is a lack of robust risk analysis and it is hard to track themes around the children’s and young people’s behaviour.

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

There is no recorded evidence that the staff undertake room searches to make sure that children and young people are safe and are not in possession of any implements that they could use to self-injure. Where room searches are undertaken it is company policy to record these, and to not do so contravenes company policy.

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

The multi-agency plan for one young person is not reducing the risk of harm to them. Staff do not always physically intervene appropriately. Not all records highlight whether a member of staff monitors the welfare of children involved in high-risk floor holds. This Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 6 could result in a child or young person sustaining a serious injury.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

One young person is at risk of serious harm because of escalating self-injurious behaviours. While the home’s manager and staff have followed the young person’s care plan, the leaders have not taken effective action quickly enough to ensure continued and safe management of escalating risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager’s oversight of plans and individual assessments, particularly in relation to risk management, is poor. Consequently, some risks are not managed effectively, and some children and young people are not kept safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager does not always report significant incidents to the regulator. The leaders of the home have not complied with the regulations by notifying Ofsted about significant events. Consequently, Ofsted is not able to accurately monitor the home’s safeguarding practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not kept the home’s statement of purpose up to date. The document does not detail the experience and qualifications of staff. This does not provide the regulator and stakeholders with a true understanding of the expertise or the staffing levels at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff team completes a range of training to help the staff understand the children’s and young people’s complex needs. For some staff, refresher training relating to physical interventions is not up to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leaders track the children’s and young people’s social progress. As a result, the leaders can identify individual children’s and young people’s achievements. The leaders model a nurturing approach to caring for the young people. The staff team follows this model in most cases.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff feel supported by the managers. Staff receive regular supervision, which helps them to feel confident about their roles.

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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. Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 7 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

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Information about this inspection

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: 1227060 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Autism Services Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspectors

Jamie Richardson: Social Care Inspector Simon Morley: Social Care Inspector Jan Edwards: Her Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1227060 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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