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

Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 1 SC437305 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run children’s home. It is registered to provide short-, medium- and long-term care and accommodation for up to eight children who have experienced behavioural, emotional and/or social difficulties. At the time of the inspection, five children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since the home opened in 2011.

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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 good

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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: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/01/2019 Full Outstanding 08/02/2018 Full Outstanding 28/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/11/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are blossoming in a very safe, structured and nurturing home that is steeped in a child-centric culture. The breadth of improved outcomes for the children and young people is impressive considering their adverse starting points. Consequently, the staff are supporting the children and young people to have the skills and resilience to develop healthy lifestyles, progress with family and friends time and make headway in their plans for permanence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people who have left the home since the last inspection are supported successfully. New children and young people who have moved into the home since the last inspection, or are due to move in imminently, are met with a warm and friendly welcome and they settle in quickly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people forge genuinely caring relationships with the staff, who provide consistency. This enables the children and young people to respect and trust the adults sufficiently to open up and talk to them about their feelings, emotions and activities. Well-planned individual work offers creative and fun ways of engaging the children and young people in some difficult, and at times, hard-hitting conversations. Their full immersion in their plans and the running of the home makes their voice heard and the staff advocate on their behalf to reinforce their wishes and feelings effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people’s participation in a full array of activities boosts their confidence and gives them some quality free time. Photographs of the children and young people involved in trips away, sporting events, celebrating cultural events and enjoying family time are in abundance. This captures the good memories and gives the children and young people a visual indicator of their significant progress thus far.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people’s health needs are well met and monitored effectively. They learn to make informed health choices and improve their self-care skills through the positive interactions with the staff. Children and young people’s emotional health is improving. Their active involvement in therapy is helping them to learn more about their past experiences and inform their current and future lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most of the children and young people benefit from good school attendance and attainment and receive all the support they need to learn and achieve. The registered manager has been highly instrumental in securing additional support. She takes decisive action to challenge any identified barriers to the children and young people’s access to learning. However, one young person who is not in full-time education currently does not have a structured plan to support them until their educational placement is resolved. Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 4

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

The dynamics between the current group of children and young people exemplify a stable family atmosphere. A significant contributing factor lies in the quality of the impact risk assessments that carefully consider the needs of the children already living in the home with the needs and risks of children and young people who might potentially move in.

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

The children and young people’s challenging behaviours are managed exceptionally well. The children and young people are learning to self-regulate and improve their responses to situations. They own soft toys and they make creative use of the environment, which provides sensory relief and offers the children and young people the space to regulate their emotions. Physical intervention is rarely used. This validates the skills of the staff to de-escalate challenging behaviour and implement positive strategies.

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

The children and young people are not exposed to bullying, radicalisation and/or extremism. Staff talk to the children and young people about these and other risks, including child sexual exploitation and grooming, during workshops, young people’s meetings and individual sessions. The learning has enabled those children and young people affected to identify risk and talk to the staff about their risky behaviours.

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

Most risk management strategies are effective. The multi-agency approach to safeguarding children and young people serves to protect individual vulnerabilities. However, in relation to one young person who is vulnerable to child sexual exploitation, the extent of risk is not fully understood by the staff team within the wider safeguarding context. Consequently, the risk management plan has not been updated to mitigate the child sexual exploitation risk while wider assessments are being updated following two incidents. The registered manager has taken this matter very seriously. She is taking remedial action to militate against any current and future risk.

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

The children and young people rarely go missing. On the two occasions when a child has gone missing, the staff have worked diligently to find them. However, the delay in reporting the child missing is out of sync with the child’s missing-from-care protocol. This has not impacted on children and young people’s safety and welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has suitable qualifications and extensive childcare experience. Her intensive nurturing and highly astute knowledge of the children and young people’s complex backgrounds makes her an exceptionally good advocate for them. She is well respected by people both inside and outside of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff are valued and feel appreciated, which supports their high morale. The members of the team are motivated and dedicated to the children and young Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 5 people. The team is effective and stable, with no staff leaving for some time. Team meetings facilitate good information-sharing and include feedback from external sources and discussions about the children and young people. Training, including specialist training, informs practice. The staff receive regular supervision, but the current supervision format does not lend itself to discussions about the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has internal monitoring systems to improve service delivery. The independent visitor to the home provides positive feedback consistently and considers the children and young people to be safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The highly child-focused physical environment is a well-maintained, calming place for children and young people to live. Refurbishment work in the home has started and the bathroom has been upgraded. This addresses the recommendation raised at the last inspection and continues to be work in progress. Although there are no limitations on children and young people’s movement around the home, the reasoning for having locks on doors to communal rooms is not included in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Serious safeguarding incidents are not typical. However, at least two significant incidents have not been notified to Ofsted. This inhibits Ofsted from reviewing safeguarding practices in the home. The record that relates to one of the incidents is not sufficiently detailed. The registered manager has reflected on one incident in detail and is in the process of taking remedial action to improve practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager holds other professionals to account, ensuring that the children and young people get the right support at the right time. The communication between the staff team, professionals and families is a major strength of the home and the collaboration with other professionals is effecting positive change in children and young people’s lives. Compliments about care practice demonstrate confidence in the management and staff team to deliver high- quality care. Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 6

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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—

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

 Ensure that clear and robust risk management is put in place without delay to safeguard children and young people from the risk of child sexual exploitation.  Consistently adhere to the child’s missing-from-care risk assessment when children and young people go missing from home.  Provide accurate details of all incidents to ensure a clear and accurate audit trail of events. 31/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

Keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, include details about the practice of having locks on the doors of communal rooms in the home. 31/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(e)) 31/03/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 7

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Recommendations

 Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  13.2 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. Professionally qualified staff employed by the home, e.g. teachers or social workers, should be provided with

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Recommendations

relevant professional or clinical supervision by an appropriately qualified and experienced professional. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Recommendations

In particular, that the needs of the children and young people are discussed during supervision as appropriate.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC437305 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Road, Potters Bar, EN6 1AG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Susan Fitzsimmons

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Inspectors

Jacqueline Malcolm, Social Care Inspector Lisa Summers, Her Majesty’s Inspector, Social Care Inspection report children’s home: SC437305 9 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.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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