Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in St Helens

Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 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 provides care for one child who may have emotional and social difficulties. It is part of a large national provider of children’s homes.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the home’s first inspection since it was registered on 25 February 2021.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 3

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improvement to be good

Children’s overall experiences and progress are not yet consistently good. This is because of weaknesses in the care planning, education, help and protection that they receive and the leadership and management of the home.

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improvement to be good

The child living in the home is settled and has positive relationships with staff. He feels that staff listen to his wishes and feelings. He is aware of his rights and knows how to make a complaint.

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improvement to be good

Since coming to live at the home, the child has started to take part in education and is making progress in English and mathematics. Nevertheless, the child continues to struggle to go to school every day. On the day of the inspection, he had not been in school for over a week. However, staff are not making sure that the child has a suitable daily routine that encourages him to engage in education, gives him opportunities to learn informally, assists him to return to school as soon as possible, and prepares him for employment in the future.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff are not aware of the Local Offer setting out the support available for children with special educational needs or disabilities. This means that they do not know about professionals and services that may be able to help the child achieve his full potential.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand children’s health needs and encourage them to have healthy lifestyles. Staff make sure that children always get the care, advice and treatment they need to ensure that they are healthy. Staff have been successful in encouraging a child to go to health appointments, including the dentist and the doctor. They are helping him to understand about his own health needs and get the help that he needs. The arrangements for storing and managing children’s medication are safe.

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improvement to be good

Children move into the home in a planned way. They have the chance to meet and get to know the manager and staff and to visit the home. Children are welcomed and their introductions are sensitive to their needs and level of understanding.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff have worked successfully with a child to prepare him to move to another home. The manager and staff worked in partnership with the child’s new carers to make sure that they were aware of his needs and the arrangements for his care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 4

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improvement to be good

The practice in relation to helping and protecting children needs to improve. However, there are no serious failings that have led children to be at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

The understanding and management of risk are not always effective. Children’s impact risk assessments do not show the strategies required to manage and reduce identified risks effectively. In addition, the impact risk assessments do not consider the potential risks associated with the child’s age and level of understanding.

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improvement to be good

Staff have struggled to support a child to manage his feelings and to follow socially acceptable behaviour. Staff have not always been able to help the child when he was experiencing difficulties to prevent the situation from becoming worse. Often, staff had to use physical interventions to protect the child from harm. The use of physical intervention is proportionate and appropriate. Each incident is reviewed and evaluated by the manager or senior managers.

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improvement to be good

The child living at the home feels safe and is protected from harm. He has a sense of security and belonging. The child feels able to talk to staff when he is worried or upset. The child is not involved in high-risk behaviours and does not go missing from home. Staff support children to be aware of their own personal safety and how to protect themselves from harm.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff have a clear understanding of the safeguarding procedures. They have the knowledge to recognise any signs that a child may be at risk of harm or exploitation. They take effective action to protect the child.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff work effectively with the local authority, police and other agencies to identify potential risk of harm and put in place measures to manage the risk safely. For example, when staff were worried that a child may have been under the influence of substances, they checked with a health professional to make sure that it was safe to give the child his prescribed medication.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers follow safe staff recruitment procedures designed to minimise the risk to children from unsuitable people.

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good

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced in providing residential care for children. The staff are caring, enthusiastic and resilient. They provide children with a positive and nurturing place to live. Staff feel valued and supported by the manager.

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good

However, staff are inexperienced, and several do not have the required qualifications. Consequently, the home is not meeting the aims of its statement of purpose: that children are cared for by a staff team that is trained in complex trauma, attachment issues and challenging behaviour. Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 5 The planning for children’s care is not always effective. The manager agreed to care for a child without making sure that that staff had the experience, skills and knowledge to respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs. The shortfalls in care planning resulted in the staff being unable to meet the child’s needs. The child had to move on to another home and experienced further disruption in his life.

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good

Staff have not always had training relevant to the needs of children, including supporting children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or helping children who may have been abused.

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good

The manager had identified that staff needed training in attachment and trauma, but this did not take place until the child had been living at the home for several months. In the meantime, the child had experienced difficulties in managing his feelings and staff did not have the expertise to support the child.

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good

During one child’s time living at the home, he was cared for by a number of different staff. This did not provide him with stability and continuity of care. The child was not always supported by adults he knew or understood his needs. This limited opportunities for the child to build positive relationships with staff over time.

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good

The manager has a clear understanding of children’s progress and has acted appropriately when staff have struggled to meet a child’s complex needs. The manager shares his concerns with other agencies and professionals appropriately. The manager made sure that the child’s plan was reviewed, and worked with the other agencies collaboratively to identify additional specialist support and resources to try to meet the child’s needs and achieve better outcomes.

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good

The manager is not always using supervision and team meetings to understand and develop staff’s confidence, knowledge and skills to meet the assessed needs and risks of each child. Staff are not getting opportunities to reflect critically on their work with the children in their care to improve the quality of care they provide. The manager is not evaluating staff’s learning from training and serious incidents to make sure that they have the right knowledge and skills. Team meetings are not used to share skills and develop strategies to make sure that the support children receive is consistent and effective.

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good

Overall, the manager is aware of the shortfalls and showed the capacity to make the necessary improvements. Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (d))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered person and staff understanding the Local Offer setting out the support available for children with special educational needs or disabilities. 30 January 2022

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Requirement Due date

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

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment; 30 January 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 7 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; and

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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. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(x))

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to impact risk assessments for children showing the strategies to manage and reduce the risks identified in the child’s relevant plans. 30 January 2022

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and 30 January 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 8 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(e))

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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.

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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 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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered person agreeing to provide children with care and accommodation for children only when they are satisfied that staff have the experience, skills and training to respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs and identified risks set out in the child’s relevant plans. The registered person must make sure that they have access to the child’s relevant plans to inform their decision-making. 30 January 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered person making sure that, in supervision meetings, staff are encouraged and supported to reflect critically on their practice with the children in their care and serious incidents and learning from training.

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Requirement Due date

Furthermore, the registered person should evaluate staff’s learning following training and how they are using it to improve the care and support they provide for each child, and to make sure that staff have the required knowledge and skills. 30 January 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 9

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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 for children’s home: 2624711 10

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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 EN6 1AG

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Christopher Parkinson

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Inspector

Nick Veysey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2624711 11 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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