Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Torbay

Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 1 SC456910 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is registered for up to two children. It is owned and operated by a national provider of children’s services. The home looks after children who may display complex emotional and behavioural needs and/or a learning disability.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 10 to 11 December 2018

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 11 January 2018

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/09/2017 Full Good 09/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 15/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

p.3

Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, this is in relation to arrangements being in place for children who go missing to have an independent return home interview on their return. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)) 31/12/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

p.3

Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child; and enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(c)(i)(ii)) 31/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 4

p.3

Recommendations

 Ensure that the local authority provides opportunity for children and young people to have independent return home interviews when they have been missing. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home. This information should be shared with the placing authority and, where appropriate, with the child’s parents. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care.

p.4

Recommendations

Where a child runs away persistently or engages in other risky behaviours, such as frequently being absent from the home to meet with inappropriate adults, the registered person, in consultation with the child’s placing authority, should convene a risk management meeting to develop a strategy for managing risks to the child.

p.4

Recommendations

Children missing-from-home agreed protocols with local authorities should be reviewed regularly and be scrutinised by the local safeguarding children’s board (LSCB) when the above is not happening. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraphs 9.23–9.32)

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children who live in this home like living here. They feel cared for and appreciate how hard the manager and staff work to benefit them. Children are supported to develop an appropriate sense of permanence and belonging.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children receive highly individualised care and support. Their needs are very different, and the manager and staff are effective in responding appropriately.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of relationships that exist between staff and children is excellent. Good attention is also given to developing very positive relationships with parents, and they are complimentary about the home. Comments from them include: ‘I feel really confident about the home’, and that staff ‘certainly have patience and do not want to give up on him’. Professionals are also complimentary about the conduct of the home, referring to their effective partnership working.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are actively encouraged to participate in day-to-day and more complex decision making. Routines have been reviewed recently to ensure that practices and decision- making are responsive and child-centred. One-to-one discussions with children are now Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 5 referred to as ‘weekly talk time’. A record is kept of these discussions.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has excellent school attendance and is making good progress academically and in her behaviour. The other child finds the school environment difficult, but from his starting point he has made some progress. Outside of school, both children have a varied and busy social life. They are well supported to spend quality time with their families.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The physical environment of the home is comfortable and attractive. It very much reflects that children live there. Children are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms. For one child, staff need to be more diligent and creative about how to help create a warm and inviting personal space.

p.5

improvement to be good

The manager and staff have a thorough understanding of their responsibilities to help and protect the children in their care. They are committed to reducing risks.

p.5

improvement to be good

One of the children goes missing from the home regularly. This is due to him wanting to spend more time with friends. While such incidents are gradually reducing, concerns remain. Additionally, leaders and managers have failed to ensure that children are offered an independent return home interview after each missing incident. This means that vital opportunities are being missed for the child to share important information with professionals.

p.5

improvement to be good

On one occasion recently, staff did not know that a child had left the home late at night. They had checked on him and said goodnight by text and not in person. This practice is unacceptable. The manager has addressed it, ensuring that all staff have reflected on this incident and improved their practice.

p.5

improvement to be good

In other respects, the manager and staff have been diligent in their safeguarding practice. For example, concern about the conduct of a member of staff resulted in effective action being taken by staff, leaders and managers.

p.5

improvement to be good

Behaviour is positively managed. Good attention is given to working with the children to help them to understand why certain aspects of their behaviour may need to improve. Incentives and instant recognition rewards are used, and these work well. Sanctions are rarely used. If they are, the manager provides good oversight to ensure that these are by way of a natural consequence to help the child to learn from the experience.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has appropriate qualifications and a wealth of experience in the management of a children’s home. She leads by example and has high expectations. The manager establishes an excellent relationship with the children in her care and advocates strongly for them. Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 6 The registered manager and the responsible individual have an excellent working relationship. They share an ambitious vision and have high expectations for what the children can achieve. They provide a supportive environment for staff, mentoring less experienced staff and enabling personal development.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recently, when the manager was absent, the company arranged for other managers to support the staff team. The responsible individual also visited regularly and provided support. These arrangements worked well, but on reflection it has been acknowledged that a more streamlined approach would be more effective.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team provides good continuity. Daily working hours have recently been adjusted so that children have the same staff to help them in the morning and welcome them home from school.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular informal and formal supervision, team meetings and annual appraisal. They report that training opportunities provided by the company are varied and of good quality, supporting them to improve their knowledge and practice. All staff have either achieved, or are on target to achieve, a professional qualification in residential childcare, within required timescales.

p.6

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.

p.6

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: SC456910 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4th Floor, Waterfront Manbre Wharf, Manbre Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9RH

p.7

Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nicola McClements

p.7

Inspector

Norma Welsby, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC456910 8 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.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8