Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Stockport

Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 1 SC359818

p.1

Cambian Childcare Limited

Monitoring visit Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is part of a large organisation providing care services. The home provides care for up to four young people. It is situated in a busy multicultural and ethnically diverse suburb.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The statement of purpose indicates that staff provide young people with structure, boundaries, care and support. Staff help young people to prepare for the next step in their lives, whether it is a return home, a move to another placement or the transition to independence.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home has had no registered manager since 10 January 2019. A new manager has been appointed from within the staff team and is going through the process of registration with Ofsted.

p.1

This monitoring visit

This home was judged requires improvement to be good at the last full inspection. At the last interim inspection, it was judged that it had sustained effectiveness.

p.1

This monitoring visit

This monitoring inspection was conducted in response to a serious incident that occurred, which resulted in a young person being seriously injured.

p.1

This monitoring visit

The inspector identified significant safeguarding failures. Staff and the manager do not consistently update young people’s risk assessments and behaviour management plans. Furthermore, staff and the manager do not reflect on potential risks or effectively analyse incidents that occur, to ascertain whether additional safeguarding measures are required. This poor practice does not enable staff to understand and manage risk in order to adequately protect young people.

p.1

This monitoring visit

The manager could not evidence what work staff have undertaken with a young person after one incident in which he was assaulted in the community, and another Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 2 incident that involved him being verbally abusive to people in the community. As a result, it is not clear how staff educate young people about how to keep themselves safe and the importance of being respectful to others.

p.1

This monitoring visit

The leadership and management of the home are poor. The manager does not always ensure that Ofsted is notified of all significant events. This means that the regulator is not given relevant information to inform its monitoring and assessment of whether staff respond appropriately when serious incidents occur.

p.2

This monitoring visit

When young people go missing from home, staff make efforts to contact them and follow them to try to get them to return safely. On one occasion, a young person did not have an independent return home interview, to talk about why he went missing and what happened when he was away from the home. This was despite the manager acknowledging that some aspects of the young person’s behaviour were concerning. When return home interviews are undertaken, staff do not always record or know the outcome of these interviews. Furthermore, when young people share conflicting information about missing-from-home incidents, staff do not explore this further with them. These are missed opportunities to gather more information to inform risk assessments and strategies for reducing risk.

p.2

This monitoring visit

Young people are not safe in the home. This is because there are poor arrangements for managing risk and ensuring the safety of young people. There are concerns around the staff’s management of young people’s behaviour, and around their ability to reflect on practice to prevent the reoccurrence of similar incidents. For example, two significant incidents occurred two and a half weeks apart. During these incidents young people caused significant damage to the home. On both occasions, staff requested police assistance to manage the young people’s behaviour. Poor behaviour management practice by staff places all young people and staff at significant risk of harm.

p.2

This monitoring visit

Ofsted has served a suspension notice and issued a compliance notice to protect young people and bring about improvement. All of the remaining requirements and recommendations from the last interim inspection will be reviewed at the next scheduled inspection.

p.2

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 13/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/05/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/01/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/09/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 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

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. (Regulation 8(1)(2)(a)(iii)) 20/04/2019

p.3

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.

p.3

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 and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(f)) 20/04/2019

p.3

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(g)(i)(ii)) 20/04/2019

p.3

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. 27/05/2019 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 4 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(c))*

p.3

Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

p.4

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being. Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change negative behaviours in key areas of health and well-being such as, but not limited to, nutrition and healthy diet, exercise, mental health, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and use of legal highs, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)  Staff should understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non- stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way

p.4

Recommendations

that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) This is with respect to writing records that are useful and informative to children and to staff, so that children are clear about how staff will help them.  As the home will have a day-to-day understanding of young people’s capabilities and needs, children’s homes staff will have a valuable contribution to make to the pathway planning process. They should actively seek to make the fullest contribution, working with other relevant persons. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.28)  Decisions about overnight stays with friends should be delegated to children’s homes staff by the placing authority for looked-after children. The level of delegated authority should be recorded in the placement plan. Where children wish to stay overnight with friends, staff should carry out the same

p.4

Recommendations

kind of checks that responsible parents might make in similar circumstances, to seek reassurance that the child will be well cared for and safe. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.9)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the above principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. (‘Guide Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 5 to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)  Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3(14)). 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

p.4

Recommendations

identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff, or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care (see paragraph 15.2). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.31)

p.5

Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

p.5

Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 6

p.5

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4th Floor, Waterfront, Manbre Wharf, Manbre Road, Hammersmith, Middlesex W6 9RU

p.6

Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma, social care inspector Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC359818 7 to 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.

p.6

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.7

Inspector

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

p.7

Inspector

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

p.7