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

Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 1 SC405713 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 home is one of a group of homes operated by the same organisation. The home provides care for up to three children or young people. The statement of purpose indicates that the home provides a therapeutic approach to care.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

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

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children‟s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/05/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 01/08/2017 Full Good 23/02/2017 Interim Not judged Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 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)) 31/05/2019

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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— 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; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home‟s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(c)(e)(h)) 31/05/2019

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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— that staff help each child to achieve the child‟s education and training targets, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans; understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and 31/05/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 4 take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. (Regulation 8(1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)) The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children‟s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(2)(3)(d)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes— details of the child‟s behaviour leading to the use of the measure; within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)— has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(ii)(b)(i)(ii)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which— include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)) 31/05/2019

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Recommendations

 For children‟s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of

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Recommendations

staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 61, paragraph Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 5 13.1)

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improvement to be good

Children do not consistently make good progress while they live at the home. Some children‟s placements have ended early because the staff could not meet the children‟s needs effectively.

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improvement to be good

Children‟s care and placement plans are not up to date. They do not reflect changes to children‟s education arrangements or plans for children‟s futures, nor do they contain information about how staff should respond to self-harming behaviour. As a result, children do not always receive consistent and coordinated care.

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improvement to be good

Children enjoy a good level of activities, including going to weekly clubs. Participating in activities means that children have the opportunity to mix with their peers, develop confidence and learn new skills.

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff advocated for a child to see her family and, as a result, she now sees people who are important to her. Consequently, a requirement raised at the last inspection has been met.

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improvement to be good

Staff seek children‟s views regularly through key-work sessions, house meetings and monthly questionnaires. When children raise complaints, managers respond to these quickly. They keep children informed about how their complaint is being dealt with and tell them the outcome. This shows children that their views are important and that staff listen.

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improvement to be good

Some children refuse to engage in education. One child attends school but the school is unable to meet the child‟s needs appropriately. Consequently, children do not make sufficient educational progress from their starting points.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to attend health appointments. When children misuse drugs, staff liaise with services to ensure that children receive support to help them to stop this risky behaviour. Staff consult with a therapist via the telephone to gain advice and support about how to manage the children‟s needs. However, therapists do not currently visit the home as much as they once did, and this limits the level of support available to children. One child is moving to another home to receive a more therapeutic approach to her care.

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improvement to be good

Children do not live in a homely environment. The home is not personalised and has an institutional feel. This does not help children to invest in their home.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children moving on from the home well. Children visit their new home and receive visits from staff who will be caring for them. This enables children to prepare for Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 6 their move and allays their fears. One child told the inspector that she is looking forward to moving to her new home.

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improvement to be good

When safeguarding concerns arise, managers work well with safeguarding professionals and children‟s social workers to ensure that these concerns are thoroughly examined. This promotes children‟s welfare.

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improvement to be good

Staff use praise and rewards to encourage children to behave well. However, when children display challenging behaviours, staff do not always give them consequences that are restorative in nature to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves and others.

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improvement to be good

Staff occasionally need to restrain children to keep them and others safe. Restraint records do not always contain enough detail about what has led to the incident. Furthermore, managers fail to review restraint records in a timely way. This means it is difficult for managers to properly assess what has happened and challenge potentially poor practice quickly.

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improvement to be good

Children occasionally go missing from the home. When this happens, staff search for children and attempt to contact them. When children return, staff provide children with appropriate support and successfully encourage them not to repeat this behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments contain strategies designed to help staff reduce levels of risk and protect children from harm. However, it is not clear if all staff have familiarised themselves with the information contained in these assessments, which could impact on their ability to promote children‟s safety.

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improvement to be good

Recruitment records fail to show that all checks have been carried out on new staff. For example, some records contain gaps in staff‟s employment histories. In addition, managers do not take up enough references and verify why staff have left previous jobs when they worked with children or vulnerable adults. This means that managers have not taken robust action to ensure that only safe adults work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The shortfalls identified at this inspection show that managers do not monitor the home effectively. The absence of the registered manager due to illness has contributed to the lack of consistent management oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

New staff receive a good induction and staff undertake a range of training. However, staff do not receive adequate training to meet the specific needs of all children living at the home. For example, staff have not undertaken training in understanding autism spectrum disorder, despite a child who has autistic traits living at the home for over a year. Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 7 Most of the staff have worked at the home for less than four months. High staff turnover means that children do not always receive consistent care. Furthermore, it does not help children to develop trusting relationships with staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff said that they are well supported by managers, including those managers from other homes within the organisation who have provided cover in the absence of the registered manager. One staff member only received two supervision meetings in six months. However, this is now an improving picture and most staff receive supervision and an appraisal in line with the organisation‟s policies and procedures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home‟s development plan is detailed and shows a wide range of changes that are needed to improve the service. The previous inspection identified five areas requiring development. Two of these have been met after improvements in the arrangements for children to see their families and better responses to children‟s views. Three areas remain unmet. There are ongoing concerns about the continuity of care that children receive, staff not being knowledgeable about the content of children‟s risk assessments and children‟s care plans not being up to date.

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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: SC405713 8

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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

Andrew Hewston, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC405713 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 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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