Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 1 SC457180 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 children’s home is owned by a large national private provider. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for three children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There are currently three children living in the home. The registered manager has been in post since 16 February 2018.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/08/2017 Full Good 14/02/2017 Full Good 21/09/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 17/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that the registered provider must ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(2)(c)) 21/02/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  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)  Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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Recommendations

 Staff should understand the system for rewarding and celebrating positive behaviour. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 47, paragraph 9.39) Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive well-planned, nurturing care from a stable and experienced staff team. This care contributes to children making progress in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A strength of the home is the staff’s ability to develop warm, positive relationships with children. Staff do this by spending time with the children and listening to them, which helps them feel valued and develop a sense of permanence. Children were highly complimentary about the staff and how the staff have helped them in areas such as contact with family and their behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children attend school. When they are not in education full time, staff ensure that there is structure to their day and they are proactive at working with education professionals to ensure that the children return to full-time education. Staff work collaboratively with school staff to ensure that children are supported with any difficulties at school. This approach helps children to make progress in their education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children remain healthy and attend health appointments that help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Some children have made progress by being able to attend dental appointments that they could not attend previously. Their attendance is due to the support and guidance provided by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager is committed to obtaining children’s views and responds to these effectively. Staff support children to express their views in meetings and to professionals and use creative ways to support children in doing this. For example, each child has a notebook in their room to write their views in. This has helped children share their views in meetings. As a result, children feel listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s experiences on a day-to-day basis are positive. Children are encouraged to participate in community activities that they enjoy, such as the cadets and dance lessons. This helps children develop their own interests, which increases their confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a warm and homely environment, which has been improved since the last inspection through redecoration and a new kitchen being fitted. The kitchen floor, however, needs repair and there are ongoing difficulties with ensuring that maintenance work in the home is completed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to develop the skills that they will require in adulthood, such as travelling independently and budgeting. Children confirmed that this work has helped them develop new skills and become more independent.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s contact with family members in line with their care plans. They transport children to contact and supervise this when necessary. Staff communicate well Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 5 with placing authorities about contact arrangements and any difficulties that arise during family contacts. This ensures that children can spend time with family members in a safe way.

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

Children feel protected and safe in the home. Risks for children are reducing due to effective risk management strategies in place.

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

Risk assessments identify children’s known risks and actions that staff are expected to take to reduce risks. These are shared with placing social workers and updated regularly to ensure that staff have the most up-to-date guidance to follow.

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

When children go missing from the home, staff are proactive in trying to search for them and report children missing to the police promptly. The manager completes thorough debriefs when children return to the home. Staff spend time with children in keywork sessions, helping to educate them on the risks associated with going missing and child sexual exploitation. As a result, children understand the risks and the number of missing from home incidents has reduced for some children.

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

There is a low level of restraint used in the home. This is because staff know the children exceptionally well and know what strategies work best to de-escalate behaviour. Staff receive advice from the organisation’s psychologist, which they implement consistently to help manage children’s behaviour. As a result, children learn to self- regulate their behaviour more effectively.

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

Staff have effective working relationships with the police to ensure that children are kept safe. The police community support officers visit the home regularly and spend time with children helping them to stay safe.

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

Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding processes and take the correct action, for example, when a child makes an allegation.

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

Staff do not all understand the system for rewarding positive behaviour. Any rewards given are not consistently recorded and there is a lack of written guidance for staff about rewarding positive behaviour. As result, children do not receive a consistent response from staff if they have done something well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a suitably qualified and experienced manager. The manager is supported by an experienced deputy manager and they are both committed to ensuring that children receive high standards of individualised care. The manager and deputy manager know the children exceptionally well and understand the progress that children make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is staffed by a stable and experienced staff team. The manager and staff Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 6 recognise the importance of having a consistent staff team to support children’s progress. As a result, staff go above and beyond in covering shifts to ensure that there is rarely a need for external staff in the home. This provides children with a high level of consistency in care and ensures that care is provided in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff like working in the home; the amount of time that some staff have worked in the home is a testament to this. Staff feel well supported in their roles by management and by each other. Staff reported having monthly supervision. However, recording of discussions in supervision is poor and does not reflect regular, up-to-date discussions about practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals were complimentary about the home, and it is evident from children’s case files and professional feedback that staff communicate effectively with professionals, such as placing social workers, to support children’s progress. When other services are not fulfilling their duties to children, managers are proactive at challenging them, to ensure that the child’s voice is heard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses and there are good internal monitoring systems in place to ensure a good standard of care. There is a new independent visitor to the home, who was unable to access the required information to assess the home’s arrangements for safeguarding the children in the home’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are up to date on mandatory training. However, some staff have not received up- to-date training on drug misuse or self-harming behavior. Some staff also lack knowledge about the internet and online gaming. This means that staff do not always have the required knowledge to ensure that children are kept safe from harm.

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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: SC457180 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC457180 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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