Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Walsall

Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 1 SC476270

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Cambian Childcare Limited

Monitoring visit Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a private organisation and provides care for up to five children who have suffered significant harm or childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has not had a registered manager since December 2019. A permanent manager has been appointed who will be making an application to register.

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This monitoring visit

This children’s home was judged as inadequate at a full inspection on 19 and 20 July 2021. Following this inspection, three compliance notices were issued. In addition, a notice of restriction was issued on 21 July 2021 to prevent any further children from being admitted to the home.

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This monitoring visit

The purpose of this inspection was to evaluate the provider’s progress in meeting the compliance notices and to ensure that it is complying with the restriction notice. The requirements will be reviewed at a subsequent inspection.

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This monitoring visit

The inspector found that no further children have been admitted to the home. Therefore, the restriction notice has been adhered to.

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This monitoring visit

At this monitoring inspection, the inspector found that the provider had made good progress in meeting the compliance notice in relation to the care planning standard. As a result of these improvements, this compliance notice is met.

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This monitoring visit

Some progress has been made in meeting the two other compliance notices. However, not all of the required steps have been completed. Consequently, two compliance notices have been reissued and the notice of restriction remains in place. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 2 Managers and staff have reviewed children’s risk and behaviour management plans and made the necessary amendments. As a result, these plans fully capture the risks associated with children and provide staff with clear strategies to manage risk. Staff have updated their knowledge of these plans and fully understand their role in implementing and managing them.

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This monitoring visit

Managers and staff have worked hard to address the shortfalls in relation to the home environment. The home has been fully redecorated since the last inspection. All areas of the home, including children’s bedrooms, are well presented. Furthermore, the provider has taken appropriate steps to address the climbing risks identified at the previous inspection. For example, new fencing is in place and access points to the rear of the home have been blocked.

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This monitoring visit

The provider has reviewed the quality of one-to-one support provided to children. In addition, managers have implemented a schedule to ensure that one-to-one support is timely and in line with children’s needs. However, the inspection found that the quality of one-to-one support is variable and does not yet equip children with the knowledge to understand their risks. As a result, this step of the compliance notice remains unmet.

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This monitoring visit

Staff told the inspector that they do not feel that there are adequate staffing resources to provide consistent and safe care. For example, on occasions, the home is staffed with two staff supporting both children living in the home. However, some staff are pregnant. Pregnant staff are expected to remove themselves from challenging situations. This means that the remaining member of staff has to support both children. This poor planning means that staff cannot provide children with proactive care or appropriate supervision. The provider took steps to rectify this shortfall following the inspection. However, these plans are yet to be tested.

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This monitoring visit

The vast majority of staff have completed their mandatory and essential training. As a result, children receive care from an increasingly knowledgeable staff team.

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This monitoring visit

The provider has taken steps to review the home’s statement of purpose. Managers have plans in place to improve the quality of care children receive. They acknowledge that these plans are in their infancy and that it will take time to embed the necessary change. For example, there are plans to provide staff with specialist training to engage children through play. In addition, senior managers have spent time in the home observing staff practice to identify learning. However, while there are signs of improved practice, this has not yet been sustained. As a result, this step remains unmet.

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This monitoring visit

Managers have taken steps to review the home’s monitoring systems. There are early indications that these systems are effective in identifying shortfalls. However, during the inspection, staff raised a number of concerns in relation to staffing resources and practice. Managers were not aware of these issues prior to the inspection. This does not indicate that monitoring systems are sufficiently robust to Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 3 identify shortfalls in the care arrangements to keep children safe. As a result, this step remains unmet. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 4

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/07/2021 Full Inadequate 19/12/2019 Full Outstanding 12/03/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 30/04/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 5

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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

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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 (b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person escalating concerns and challenging the relevant organisations and professionals to ensure that children receive the support they require to meet their needs. This includes an education provision. 3 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably; and

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Requirement Due date

provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(vii)(viii)) 3 October 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 6 This specifically relates to ensuring that the home environment is safe, welcoming and well maintained. This also relates to ensuring that there are adequate age- appropriate toys and activities available to children. The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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 achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(viii)(x)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all children have access to appropriate education and learning. This also refers to ensuring that children are provided with informal learning opportunities. 3 October 2021

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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. 3 October 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 7 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that staff provide sufficient supervision of children to safeguard them and to prevent incidents from occurring.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered persons must all ensure that all staff support children to understand and reduce their own risks. * 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.

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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

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) (2)(a)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to ensuring that there are effective monitoring and review systems in place to review and 3 October 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 8 improve the quality of care provided to children, and ensuring that children’s views on all aspects of their care are gathered and considered.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at this last inspection and is restated. The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (b)(c)(i)(ii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the home’s gardens. Children should have unrestricted access to this space unless it is unsafe to do so. 3 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and

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Requirement Due date

is an organisation or a partnership. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)(b)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registration of a suitable registered manager for the home. 3 October 2021

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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

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— 3 October 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 9 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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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (1) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff obtain the level 3 qualification within the required time frame. The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to sanctions and ensuring that all sanctions are appropriate, that the manager reviews their effectiveness and that sanctions are explained to the children. 3 October 2021

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; 3 October 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 10 ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff rosters are up to date and maintained in line with regulatory requirements.

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 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: Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 1AG

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Inspector

Gareth Leckey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC476270 12 to achieve excellence in the care of children and children, 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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