Children's Home run by Cameron & Cooper Limited in Surrey

Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 1 Registered provider: Cameron and Cooper Limited 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 registered to accommodate up to six children. The statement of purpose states that it admits children who need therapeutic care and support. The home is the only home owned and operated by this small, private organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is currently applying to be registered with Ofsted.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 14 February 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home’s current restriction notice expires on 28 October 2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/02/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 22/05/2018 Full Good 05/02/2018 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 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 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. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to regularly monitor systems to ensure that inconsistency and errors are identified without delay. 31/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

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 medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed. (Regulation 23(2)(b) 31/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. 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(3)(d)) 31/01/2020

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan. The plan should: – detail the necessary management and staffing structure, (including any staff commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s Statement of Purpose; – detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications); – detail the process for managing and improving poor performance; Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 4 – detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice and keep appropriate records for staff in the home. – The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing

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Recommendations

training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home’s manager. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24) In particular, the home should have a service development plan that is written and contains timescales that can be regularly reviewed and monitored to evidence progress.

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Recommendations

 It is for the registered person to judge whether the incident is sufficiently serious to make formal notifications and, if it is, which other relevant persons may be notified, for example, the police, probation service, health professionals, the local authority for the area the home is located in (if this is not the child’s placing authority) and others involved with the care or protection of the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.12) Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are benefiting from the recruitment of experienced staff at the home. Staff have created a more settled and stable environment. This is enabling children to make progress against their agreed goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Educational attainment is good. Some children benefit from having a school on site. They enjoy attending and are achieving well. Children have also been supported into further education placements. Staff recognise the challenges that children face in making the transition to mainstream education. They work closely with education staff to provide stability and encouragement for children. In one case, where engagement is a challenge, staff are persistent and continue to prioritise regular attendance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff show an improved understanding of the complex needs of children in their care. Senior staff have provided an important focus on the therapeutic ethos of the service. They have created a more embedded and consistent culture of reflective practice across the whole team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The age range of the children in the home means that there is a strong focus on preparing for independence. Senior staff are preparing a ‘pathway to independence’ framework, which they hope to have accredited by AQA. They can then demonstrate to placing authorities how staff are supporting children in their preparations for adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child said that the staff focus on what matters to the children. They said that staff identify individual goals and support the children to achieve them. Senior staff aim to develop children’s engagement in daily life at the service. They strive to find innovative ways to promote participation.

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

Senior staff have made significant improvements in risk-management recording and practice. Staff are more confident in recognising risks for children in their care. Staff have worked closely with the police and local authorities to reduce the risk of criminal exploitation of children in the community.

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

Staff follow clear procedures if children go missing from the home. They ensure that each child’s ‘missing from home’ strategy prioritises the specific concerns for that individual. They recognise that strategies need to be age-appropriate if they are to work effectively.

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

Children are supported by staff to engage in accredited training programmes, including on criminal and sexual exploitation, radicalisation and e-safety. This is enabling children to recognise risk and develop their own strategies for keeping themselves safe.

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

Staff are developing confidence in managing more challenging situations in the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 6 This increased understanding and improved skill set is helping to reduce incidents and decrease the severity of situations when they do arise. Senior staff acknowledge that this is the key to the future success of the home. They intend to fully embed the staff team before gradually bringing more children into the home.

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

Senior staff had some hesitancy in deciding whether significant incidents required notification to Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have driven forward some significant and positive changes at the home. They have created a new stratum of experienced team leaders and seniors. This is providing consistent role-modelling to newer members of the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

New staff praise the depth and quality of the induction programme. The manager ensures that training and supervision schedules for staff are well maintained. Staff have access to specialised training in therapeutic childcare and working with attachment issues. They say that this has been important in supporting their understanding of children, enabling them to develop effective strategies and improve relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Senior leaders show a well-developed understanding of children’s needs. They promote high aspirations and a vision for children’s futures, which are shared by the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There are examples of some deficits in the manager’s internal monitoring processes. One child had been receiving the wrong dosage of a prescribed medication. This had not been picked up by the manager or any seniors for an extended period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Some staff commenced work in the home before their Disclosure and Barring Service results had been received. The manager was not aware of this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager and responsible individual have clear plans for the development of the service. These are not yet committed to a formal service development plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Professionals and parents give positive feedback about the home. They are confident that children are safe and making progress. Senior leaders have also developed effective partnerships with the police and external services to support the well-being of children. One social worker spoke about how well staff had supported a young person when he had been involved in the criminal justice system. He said that staff had advocated well for the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Senior leaders have successfully enabled children to express diversity. Staff attended a conference to find out about key issues in the effective support of LGBTQ+ children. Staff have supported children to create murals in the house which celebrate diversity. Staff are given training on gender and sexuality awareness.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Children also recently went on a trip to Belgium. They were looking at the history of Jewish extermination in the Second World War. This tied into school work and gave Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 7 children lots of opportunities to explore issues of race and persecution. Children have also been supported to explore their cultural and ethnic heritage.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager says that one of the key areas of improvement has been in the quality of relationships with children. She feels that this provides children with opportunities to regularly feed back to staff on the quality of care and support in the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 8

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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: 1256973 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cameron and Cooper Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Accord Accountants, 191–193 High Street, Hampton Hill, Hampton TW12 1NL

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Inspector

Peter Jackson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1256973 10 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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