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

Inspection report children's home: SC035657 1 SC035657 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 children’s home provides care for up to seven children who may experience emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. At the time of the inspection, three children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The purpose of placement here is to provide medium- to long-term care for children who have a plan to return to live with relatives or move on to independent living.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager of this home was registered by Ofsted on 10 August 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We visited this setting on 11 June 2020 and 5 August 2020 to carry out monitoring visits, and on 2 and 3 September 2020 to carry out an assurance visit. A full inspection was completed on 27 and 28 May 2021. The reports are published on the Ofsted website.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate Inspection report children's home: SC035657 2

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Three compliance notices were issued on 4 June 2021: under regulation 12, the protection of children standard; regulation 13, the leadership and management standard; and regulation 14, the care planning standard. Inspection report children's home: SC035657 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/05/2021 Full Inadequate 24/04/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/02/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 01/05/2018 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC035657 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are developing positive and trusting relationships with the staff. They said, ‘Staff are great here.’ and ‘This is the best home I have lived in.’ The children feel included in the decisions made about their lives. This is because the consultation process with children has significantly improved. Children are now central to the decision making about their care. They comment on and review their individual placement plans and direct-work sessions that take place to support their placement goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Planning for children’s care has improved. The individual needs of children are now collaboratively assessed to ensure that they receive the correct support. A range of external agencies provides individual and group sessions for children, including topics such as positive relationships, being safe in the community and supporting a healthy mind. Children engage in these sessions and provide positive written feedback on what they have learned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education attendance and engagement is now strengthened by the expectations and routines provided to children. Children feel valued and able to achieve. As a result, two children are working towards GCSE examinations and one child is exploring college options to study engineering. When difficulties arise, staff now take prompt action to address concerns. This helps the children to maintain their confidence in the education environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understanding of the importance of contact for children and their families has improved.. As a result, arrangements are now in place that are clear and unambiguous. This ensures that arrangements for meeting families are planned, monitored and safe. When relationships have broken down, staff work hard to help children rebuild positive relationships with family members. Through positivity and persistence, some children have re-established relationships with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are settled and are gaining the confidence to try out new activities with their peers. These include attending the gym, playing football or basketball, visiting theme parks and taking trips to coastal areas. Children are beginning to spend more time in the home and are keen to help staff with cooking and baking or playing football in the garden. This means that they are spending less time in negative friendships in the community and are building positive attachments in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The support required to address children’s physical and emotional health is now in place. Various services are working with the staff and children to help them with issues, such as negative relationships, gang affiliation, drug and alcohol misuse and developing a healthier lifestyle. Children engage in these sessions and are developing solid, trusting relationships with the external professionals who work with them. Inspection report children's home: SC035657 5

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

There is a collaborative approach to ensuring children’s safety. The staff work closely with placing authorities and external safeguarding agencies, to develop risk management plans and strategies to mitigate the risk of harm to children. This has resulted in less frequent incidents of children being missing from the home and being involved in potential criminal activity.

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

Children engage with external services that provide structured guidance and support, with a specific emphasis on gang culture and crime. These sessions help to bolster the direct-work sessions undertaken with the staff team. This wrap-around care enables children to open up about their risk-taking behaviours and be provided with guidance and support to help them make different choices and decisions.

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

Staff are trained in de-escalation and redirection techniques to manage children’s escalating behaviours. Overall, these measures are effective in preventing incidents from escalating and in helping the children to channel their emotions safely. There have been no incidents that have required a physical intervention since the last assurance visit in September 2020.

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

The management of children’s behaviour has improved. Children are now supported with individual plans that detail the strategies that work well for children and those that do not. These plans, alongside individual risk assessments, are now reviewed by children and updated with their own ideas about what helps them to become calm. This has helped children to gain a sense of control over their lives and of the plans and strategies in place to help them.

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good

At the last inspection, the information relating to the assessment of new admissions to the home was found to be deficient. Since then, there have been no further admissions to the home. Therefore, improvements that have been made to this process could not be assessed or tested at this inspection.

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good

The provider has taken significant steps to improve the overall monitoring of care. A new electronic monitoring system has been introduced across all the company’s children’s homes. This can be accessed and reviewed by the responsible individuals, directors and the chief executive officer. This means that registered managers and senior managers have a greater capacity to ensure that areas identified for improvement are addressed promptly. However, because this system only began operating recently, it requires time to embed in order to be sufficiently tested.

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good

Since the last inspection, the provider and external agencies have provided a range of training sessions to staff. A member of staff said, ‘The training has been brilliant. We have a better understanding of why children behave in a certain way and how we can help to keep them safe.’ This learning is reflected in the updated risk Inspection report children's home: SC035657 6 assessments, care plans and behaviour management plans that are created and revised in partnership with the children. However, the registered manager and staff will need to demonstrate over a period of time that a consistent approach to the care of the children is sustained.

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good

The registered manager’s monitoring of the quality of care has improved, including information recorded in children’s records. The manager has developed a ‘golden- hour’, which is a period of time dedicated to monitoring. This enables the registered manager to assess the quality of work that staff produce and record his views accordingly.

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good

A review of the roles and responsibilities in the staff team has taken place and has resulted in some tasks being delegated to senior members of the staff team. This will allow the registered manager to focus on the on-going development of the home and increase his capacity to sustain those developments already in place.

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good

Since the last inspection, the children’s home has been redecorated and recarpeted and is looking much brighter and homely. Children are provided with a substantial supervised budget to help make their bedroom into their personal space. One child said, ‘I didn’t really want anything for my room; I liked it as it was. But now I am adding things and I like it better.’

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good

The home was judged inadequate at the last inspection. Three compliance notices were issued on 4 June 2021. The notices were reviewed as part of this full inspection and are deemed to be met. Inspection report children's home: SC035657 7

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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, the 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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

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;

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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)(a)(c)(e)(f)(h)) 22 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. 22 August 2021 Inspection report children's home: SC035657 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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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: SC035657 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Maria McGranaghan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC035657 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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