Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Birmingham

Assurance visit report: SC424851 1 SC424851

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six young people. The home provides placements for young people who may have faced adverse childhood experiences, trauma, placement and family breakdown.

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Information about this children’s home

A manager is in post and is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection date: 17 September 2019

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection judgement: requires improvement to be good

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Information about this visit

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), Ofsted suspended all routine inspections in March 2020. As part of a phased return to routine inspection, we are undertaking assurance visits to children’s social care services that are inspected under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF).

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Information about this visit

At these visits, inspectors evaluate the extent to which:

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Information about this visit

 children are well cared for  children are safe  leaders and managers are exercising strong leadership.

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Information about this visit

This visit was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000, following the published guidance for assurance visits.

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Information about this visit

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s social care system has delivered child-centred practice and care within the context of the restrictions placed on society during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Findings from the visit

We did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit. Assurance visit report: SC424851 2

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The care of children

Overall, children are happy living at the home. One child spoke very highly of the manager and the staff team. He views living at the home as a positive experience.

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The care of children

Staff help children to explore and engage in hobbies they enjoy. One child is encouraged to pursue his passion for music. During the lockdown, he has been writing music.

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The care of children

A consistent team of staff provides children with continuity of care. Staff and children enjoy positive relationships with each other. When incidents occur that impact upon children’s relationships with staff, swift action is taken. For example, following a recent incident, reparation work between a child and a staff member was completed. This was effective and has helped to strengthen their relationship.

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The care of children

During the COVID-19 pandemic, children continued to access education via online tutoring. In addition, staff engaged children in educational activities and hobbies. The manager has advocated for one child to access education outside of the home as an alternative to home tutoring and online education. This has been successful.

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The care of children

Staff support children to stay in touch with their families. Staff promote face-to-face meetings with family when possible and speaking on the phone in other instances.

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The care of children

Staff encourage children to develop their independence skills and help them prepare to move to new homes.

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The care of children

The home has an institutional feel. Some areas of the home are looking tired and are in need of redecoration and repair. Further required maintenance work identified in the home’s fire risk assessment has not yet been completed. Despite this, there is no imminent risk of harm to current children living in the home.

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The safety of children

Safeguarding incidents in the home are rare. When such incidents do occur, staff and managers take appropriate and effective action.

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The safety of children

Despite this, during the lockdown period, there was an increase in missing behaviours for one child. This was in part due to the child becoming frustrated by the government restrictions. When the child went missing, staff followed agreed missing protocols to ensure the safe return of the child.

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The safety of children

The manager critically reviews missing incidents to identify lessons learnt, improve staff’s skills and keep children safe in the future. This has been effective and missing incidents from the home have reduced.

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The safety of children

Children are helped to develop strategies to manage their behaviour. These are successful. Because of these, children’s behaviours do not escalate as often, and the use of physical interventions has reduced. Assurance visit report: SC424851 3 Staff have completed training on topics, including county lines and anti- radicalisation. Some staff need more training in relation to managing incidents of children going missing from home.

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The safety of children

The manager and staff communicate regularly with other professionals. This contributes to a multi-agency approach to keeping children safe.

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The safety of children

Leaders and managers have taken the decision to reduce the number of children that can live at the home to two children. This was due to the challenge of matching six children in a home that is situated in an area that has a high rate of crime and gang culture. This shows leaders’ proactive approach to keeping children safe.

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Leaders and managers

The home has been without a registered manager since December 2019. A new manager is in post. She is in the process of registering with Ofsted. The manager is fully aware of the home’s strengths and areas for development. The manager has made a positive and significant impact on the home in a short period of time. This has been beneficial for both children and staff.

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Leaders and managers

The quality of supervision provided by the manager has improved. Supervision sessions are child focused and promote the development of staff’s skills and knowledge. Not all staff have obtained the relevant qualification within the required time frames. The manager is alert to this and is supporting staff in achieving the required qualification.

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Leaders and managers

The manager has good monitoring systems in place. She values the independent monthly visits and recognises how these help improve the quality of care provided to children.

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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— 30/10/2020 Assurance visit report: SC424851 4 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

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d)) 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—

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Recommendations

 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 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31) This relates to staff being trained to manage missing from home incidents. Assurance visit report: SC424851 5

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare LTD

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Cambian Child Care LTD, Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 1AG

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Inspectors

Lisa O’Donovan, Social Care Inspector Sam Dulay-Kainth, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: SC424851 6 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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Inspectors

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

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