Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Wolverhampton

Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 1 SC359846 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered for five young people. The home provides care for young people who have been though adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours. The manager has relevant experience and is registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 7 February 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 7 February 2019, Ofsted conducted an interim inspection and judged the home to have declined in effectiveness. Ofsted served three compliance notices in relation to shortfalls in education and leadership and management.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 20 March 2019, Ofsted undertook a monitoring visit to review the provider‟s adherence to the compliance notices. Two compliance notices were met. One compliance notice was issued to address shortfalls in the support given to young people to help them to return to education. Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 17/04/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/08/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 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

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

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority‟s or a relevant person‟s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child‟s needs are met in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who–

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children‟s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each child is given appropriate advocacy support. (Regulation 7(1)(a)(b)(c), (2)(b)(iii)) 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. (Regulation 8(1)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that–

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, 28/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 4 psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10(2)(c)) The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child‟s behaviour, in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child‟s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding. (Regulation 11(1)(b), (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(v)) 28/06/2019

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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–

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child‟s health. (Regulation 12(1), (2)(a)(i)(ii)(d)) 28/06/2019

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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–

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. 31/05/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 5 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to–

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b), (2)(c)(h))* The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that–

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23(1), (2)(b)(c)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The individual has the appropriate experience, qualifications and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained– 28/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 6 the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (Regulation 32(2)(ab), (3)(d), (4)(a)(b)) The registered person must ensure that all employees–

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(b)(c) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

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”)–

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(i)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(b)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 7

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some young people are still not engaging in education and others are not attending education regularly. Consequently, most young people are not making measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential. Furthermore, when young people are not in school staff do not engage them in constructive activity during the day. Failure to adequately promote young people‟s education may affect their future career opportunities as they transition into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Weekly audits fail to identify shortfalls in staff‟s recording and administration of medication to young people. Staff do not update young people‟s health plans when they receive input from the in-house clinical team and what the outcome of this input is. As a result, managers and staff do not sufficiently track young people‟s progress with their well-being and arrange alternative support, if required. In addition, managers and staff could not evidence whether one young person had attended the dentist. These shortfalls do not promote young people‟s physical health and emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not promote advocacy services for young people. Consequently, some young people do not have access to an advocate to enable them to have an independent voice and to express their wishes and feelings if they are unhappy about where they live or their care plan. As a result, some young people feel isolated and not listened to. This increases their vulnerability to self-harm, and one young person‟s incidents of self-harm have increased.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers and staff do not promptly address maintenance tasks around the home. Furthermore, staff do not effectively undertake health and safety checks around the home to reduce risks to young people. For example, the inspector observed broken glass in the back garden, although the home accommodates young people who self-harm. As a result, young people do not live in a safe environment that is well maintained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite significant shortfalls, young people do make some positive relationships with staff. Young people enjoy varied activities at the home and within the community. For example, they enjoy playing and relaxing in their games room, having meals out, going to the cinema and day trips to the botanical garden. These positive experiences improve young people‟s confidence and social skills and help them to develop friendships.

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

Staff do not work effectively with young people to help them to understand the risks that they are putting themselves and others at. For example, they have not adequately supported a young person to understand the dangers of carrying knives and of criminal exploitation. In addition, they have not helped the young person to develop strategies to reduce risk and keep himself as safe as he can be.

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

During the inspection, a serious incident occurred in which a young person threatened Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 8 the safety of other young people and staff. The police were called and the young person‟s placement ended with immediate effect. This shows that, without effective help and support, young people‟s behaviours can escalate and have serious consequences.

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

Restraint records do not contain all the required information. For example, managers do not consistently undertake debriefings with all staff involved in the incident. As a result, managers are not equipped with all the information they need to evaluate effectively what has happened. In addition, on one occasion managers did not identify and act on a discrepancy between staff‟s and a young person‟s account of a restraint incident. This is a missed opportunity to identify and address any shortfalls in staff‟s practice. Furthermore, this shortfall means that the improvements made at the last inspection have not been sustained.

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

Managers do not consistently follow safer recruitment practice. There is a lack of professional curiosity to explore full details of one staff member‟s employment history. This does not ensure that only safe adults care for the young people.

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

Managers and staff do not update young people‟s risk assessments promptly when significant incidents occur. This means that bank staff and agency staff who work at the home may not always know what the risks are and how to manage them. This has the potential to place young people at risk of harm.

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

Staff do not use restorative sanctions, and managers do not always review the effectiveness of the sanctions that staff do use. As a result, staff are not helping young people to learn and to improve their behaviours. Furthermore, staff do not always record consequences appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager is currently off sick and her absence has created instability in the leadership and management of the home. Monitoring of the home remains poor and ineffective, and is not leading to sustained improvements in the quality of care provided to young people. This affects young people‟s experiences of living at the home and limits the progress that they make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

At the interim inspection, shortfalls in staff training were identified. At this inspection, the inspector has identified further shortfalls in staff training. Staff have not undertaken training in understanding child sexual exploitation and „county lines‟ to enable them to safely care for young people and meet their identified needs. This gap in staff training does not enable staff to pre-empt risks and put safeguards in place to reduce risks to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is still one staff member who is not enrolled on the level 3 course, despite having worked for the organisation for over two years. The interim manager took action during the inspection to start the enrolment process. The manager and senior managers have failed to promptly challenge poor care planning, allowing drift and delay in progressing one young person‟s plans. This has left the young Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 9 person feeling anxious and uncertain about his future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not receive supervision regularly and have not had their yearly appraisal. This is a missed opportunity to provide staff with guidance, address any shortfalls in their practice and enable them to reflect on their own development. This shortfall contributes to the lack of good-quality care being provided to young people. Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 10

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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 difference 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: SC359846 11

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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, Middlesex W6 9RU

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Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC359846 12 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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