Children's home run by Cambian Asperger Syndrome Services Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report children’s home: SC482294 1 SC482294 Registered provider: Cambian Asperger Syndrome Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is currently registered to care for 42 children with learning disabilities. Children are accommodated across eight houses on the site. The home is privately owned by a large organisation, which specialises in providing education and care. All the children access the school, which is located on the site. Care is provided to children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since August 2014.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2019

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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 outstanding

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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: SC482294 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/10/2017 Full Good 07/12/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 04/07/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC482294 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 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 26/04/2019

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have successfully created a safe and comfortable living environment where children experience warmth and responsiveness from staff who understand their complex needs. Children develop trust in the staff and respond to their help and support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress and learn to overcome their social and communication difficulties. They have a wide range of opportunities to try new activities, pursue their personal interests, make friends and have fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff closely monitor children’s health and ensure that their physical needs are met. Staff are also sharply focused on children’s emotional needs and their mental health. With specialist support from the therapy team, children receive prompt and appropriate support for emerging emotional and mental health difficulties. Therapeutic approaches are sensitively integrated into the care provided by residential staff, in addition to personalised, direct interventions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are aware of the importance of helping children develop independence and preparing them for the demands of adult life. Children make good progress in developing daily living skills and confidence in their own abilities. They are learning to take Inspection report children’s home: SC482294 4 responsibility for themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views and opinions are important to, and valued by, the staff. Children have numerous ways to express themselves. House meetings, the school council and key- work sessions are all forums for children to put forward their views. A formal complaints process is readily available to children as an avenue to raise concerns.

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

Leaders, managers and the staff team have established a strong safeguarding culture. Staff are vigilant and diligent in reporting any concerns about the welfare of the children to the team of designated safeguarding officers. Appropriate and effective action is taken to protect children, including referrals to external safeguarding agencies.

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

Through the school curriculum, children receive education about current risks facing them. Individual key-work sessions with the children reinforce the messages of how to keep themselves safe and address specific risks relating to individual children. Staff have a clear understanding of children’s needs and an awareness of the risks associated with each child’s behaviour. They implement supportive and protective measures. However, risk assessments do not always provide staff with clear guidance in relation to children’s specific vulnerabilities.

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

Behaviour is closely monitored, with incidents of challenging behaviour and physical intervention thoroughly reviewed to ensure safe practice. Debriefings with staff following an incident focus on improving the strategies used by staff to avoid the use of physical intervention. The behaviour management lead is proactive in tracking and analysing difficult behaviour, resulting in constructive action points to improve support for children.

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

The registered manager and the staff team have a good understanding of the children’s therapeutic needs. They work collaboratively with the multi-disciplinary therapy team to apply individualised approaches to help children overcome their difficulties. Personalised and structured plans are contributing to a reduction in challenging behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager has extensive experience, and uses his knowledge and skills to provide strong support for the staff team. Along with other members of the senior leadership team, he inspires the staff team to help children achieve their best outcomes and flourish academically, socially and emotionally.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Quality assurance systems are effective. Internal and external monitoring of the home is thorough and there is a passion for continuous improvement. Quality assurance visits, case-tracking audits and a detailed quality improvement plan are examples of a culture in which systematic reviews of the quality of care have resulted in significant recent improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team undertakes a wide range of training to continually update and widen their Inspection report children’s home: SC482294 5 knowledge and understanding to meet children’s complex needs. Supervision is regular, reflective and focused on improving staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Senior leaders recognise that recruiting staff remains a challenge. Intensive efforts have been made to employ new staff. Vacancies remain, but the situation is being managed through overtime, with minimum use of agency staff. Staff report that the consistency of care for the children is not compromised. Leaders continue to implement creative recruitment strategies and focus on approaches to ensure staff retention.

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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: SC482294 6

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: residential special school registered as a children’s home

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Asperger Syndrome Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4th Floor, Waterfront Building, Chancellor’s Road, Hammersmith Embankment, London W6 9RU

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Inspector

Jan Hunnam, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC482294 7 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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