Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited

Inspection report children's home: 2496625 1 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 home is owned and managed by a private provider. It provides care for two children who may have behavioural, social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left in December 2020. A new manager has been appointed but is yet to be registered with Ofsted.

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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 last visited this setting on 9 February 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is 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 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: 13 September 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2496625 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/09/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 16/04/2019 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2496625 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home receive a good standard of care. Individual care plans and risk assessments identify the needs of the children and outline the measures in place to meet those needs. Key-worker sessions are individualised and planned in accordance with the children’s care plans. This makes children feel valued and listen to. Children told the inspectors that they like living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are welcomed to the home sensitively, and their needs are carefully considered. Staff actively encourage children to take part in joint activities and young people’s meetings. As a result, children feel understood and have a positive relationship with each other. Warm interactions between children and staff are observed within the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children are in education and have good attendance. There is good communication between staff and education providers. Alternative education activities are offered to children when required, to ensure they have access to learning opportunities. As a result, the children are making good progress from their respective starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are clear plans in place to address the children’s health needs. Staff support children to attend their health appointments and make sense of health information. Some children smoke and staff work with the children in the key-worker sessions to educate them about the risks of smoking and vaping.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from having regular visits with their family. Staff support this regardless of distance or location. Staff carefully plan and support these visits to ensure they remain a positive experience for children. For children who do not wish to have contact with their family, staff respect their wishes. Staff offer support to help the children to understand their feelings towards contact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is warm and welcoming. Staff follow appropriate COVID-19 procedures. All communal areas of the home are well maintained and homely. However, staff have not always supported children to maintain their bedrooms to an acceptable standard. A child’s bedroom is not personalised. This detracts from what is otherwise a welcoming home environment.

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

Children have thorough individual risk assessments. These are regularly reviewed and updated. They provide clear information about the risks to children and how staff should manage the risks. Staff follow the procedures in place and children’s individual risk management plan. As a result, children are better protected. Inspection report children's home: 2496625 4 Staff help children to enhance their understanding of personal safety. Well-planned and effective key-worker sessions cover important and emerging topics, including managing anger, healthy relationships and child criminal exploitation. Staff involve children in the planning of key-worker sessions and encourage them to take age- appropriate risks. This has helped children to learn how to keep themselves safe.

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

Incidents of children going missing from the home are low. The manager has strong links with the local neighbourhood police and follows appropriate protocol. This ensures that vital information about the children is quickly shared and helps to locate them as soon as possible if they go missing.

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

Staff model good behaviours for children consistently, within the home and the community. Staff recognise and celebrate the children’s achievements. Targets and incentives are set in consultation with the children, and they receive rewards when they achieve their targets.

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

Staff treat children with respect and dignity. Staff have used their own initiatives to learn about the children’s culture and family history to ensure the care provided to children is culturally sensitive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager’s post has been vacant since 4 Dec 2020. The provider has taken reasonable steps, and an acting manager is in place. The acting manager works effectively with the senior management team within the organisation. This has helped to ensure appropriate management oversight of the children’s progress and operation of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The acting manager and the responsible individual have an effective auditing system in place to monitor the quality of care provided. The management team use learning from practice and feedback from partner agencies to improve the service and care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have received appropriate training. Some staff who have been in the home for longer period have completed additional training, such as self-harm, ligature training, counter bullying, child criminal exploitation and child sex exploitation training. This means that staff are equipped with better knowledge and information to offer better protection to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings are held to discuss the progress children are making, the home environment and staff well-being. This enables the staff team to develop a sense of shared ownership about its practice. Staff reported that they have good leadership and feel supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular formal supervision which supports their practice. Records of supervision are maintained at the home. However, at the time of the inspection, some supervision records and training records were not readily available. This means the quality of those missing records could not be considered. Inspection report children's home: 2496625 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, 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1) (2)(b)(vii)(viii)(c)(i)) 19 November

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that all records are made readily available to view for anybody who has legitimate reason to view them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)

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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: 2496625 6

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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, Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar EN6 1AG

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Inspectors

Cherie Chen, Social Care Inspector Jacqueline Tate, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2496625 7 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

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

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