Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 1 SC457573

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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 up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties. It is operated by a private provider.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since 27 January 2021. She registered with Ofsted on 29 April 2021.

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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

Inspection dates: 20 and 21 December 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 inadequate

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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: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/10/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/04/2019 Full Good 05/06/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 09/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 3

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requires improvement

Identified shortfalls with the leadership and management arrangements have limited the overall judgement to ‘requires improvement to be good’.

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requires improvement

Staff support the children well with their education. Despite the children’s school attendance being poor before moving into the home, children’s school attendance is good and is improving for some of the children. As a result, most of the children are reaching their expected targets. In addition, the staff support the children to consider their options for after they leave school, such as attending college. This helps the children to remain focused on their goals so that they can strive to reach their future goals.

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requires improvement

Children are supported well to spend time with the people who are important to them. The staff support the children to travel long distances to visit their family. The manager and staff maintain positive relationships with the children’s family members. The communication with family members and the staff mainly occurs during the children’s family time.

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requires improvement

Staff ensure that the children are supported to make healthy lifestyle choices. Staff are generally consistent in their approach around issues, such as supporting the children to improve their personal hygiene and discouraging the children from smoking cigarettes. One child has stopped smoking cigarettes with the support of the staff. A record is kept of all the children’s food intake to promote healthy eating. However, not all of the children need this, making it unnecessary and invasive. The process is not reviewed and there is no plan in place to address any concerns found. This means that the process is ineffective.

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requires improvement

A lack of personalised plans in the home to target the children's specific needs means that the children’s overall day-to-day care is inconsistent. A high turnover of staff means that the children’s needs are not always understood and met. It also prevents the children from consistently building positive relationships with the staff. This means that the children do not always receive a good level of consistent care.

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requires improvement

There is a varied approach to helping the children to record their experiences of living in the home, and in supporting them for their move out of the home. The life-story books that exist are significantly out of date in comparison with the activities that the children have been completing, and the books are not treated with respect and stored safely. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 4 Children’s meetings are inconsistent. More recently, these meetings have given the children the opportunity to share their views about their home. However, the valid issues that the children have raised for several months, such as the poor state of repair in certain parts of the home, have not been resolved. This means that the children do not see any results from their feedback. In addition, the staff do not include the children in their care planning process. Therefore, the children are not supported to voice their opinions to professionals about

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requires improvement

Some areas of the home lack good hygiene. Some of the children’s bedrooms and other areas of the home were in an unacceptable condition. As the staff and the manager had failed to recognise this, they did not address this. Improvements were made during the inspection. However, the inspectors were not given assurances that this would have been addressed had it not been highlighted by the inspectors.

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improvement to be good

There are no serious or widespread safeguarding failures. However, there are areas that require improvement to ensure that there is an effective and consistent approach to safeguarding the children.

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improvement to be good

Not all of the staff know or understand the individual risks in respect of each child. Also, not all of the staff know the children’s safety plans, know the child’s behaviour management strategies and know the overall plan for each child. This means that there is an inconsistent approach to safeguarding, parenting and supporting the children to reach their potential.

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improvement to be good

There are no clear plans in place to help to reduce the children’s individual risks such as drugs misuse and self-harm. This means that there is an inconsistent approach to the staff carrying out searches of the children’s bedrooms despite items of concern being found. Furthermore, there is no direct work carried out with the children regarding these behaviours. This prevents the children from learning about the dangers that their behaviours present, so that the children can become increasingly safe.

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improvement to be good

Children are not helped to learn how to change their behaviour. The sanctions used for the children’s inappropriate behaviours are not restorative in nature and are not regularly reviewed. Consequently, there has been little improvement noted from the sanctions used and the children continue to repeat their patterns of behaviour. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 5 There are few incidents of the children going missing from the home. When this does occur, the missing-from-home procedures are followed quickly, and the interventions used have been effective in ensuring the safe return of the children. However, opportunities to implement disruption plans have been missed, such as coordinating behaviour strategies with the commissioned therapeutic team and liaising with local police officers. This results in an inconsistent approach to managing and reducing these risks.

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improvement to be good

Children are helped to manage their feelings in an appropriate way. Staff only hold the children when this is necessary to prevent them from harming themselves or others. The children understand that this intervention helps to keep them safe.

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improvement to be good

Despite a requirement being made at the last inspection to improve the quality of the home, this has not been achieved. The home continues to be in a poor state of repair and the standard of hygiene is poor. Excessive dust and dirt could be hazardous to the children who may have health conditions like asthma. In addition, some of the children’s bedroom furniture is damaged, despite it being acknowledged by the responsible individual that some of the repairs were ‘quick fixes’. The manager’s poor oversight of these areas may expose the children to unnecessary and avoidable risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leaders and managers do not know the strengths and weaknesses of the home. The registered manager has been ineffective in prioritising, challenging and making improvements to the home, to ensure that the children receive a good level of safe care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of management oversight is poor. The manager does not regularly review the children’s risk assessments and safety plans, and she has failed to respond appropriately to the children’s new and emerging risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Ineffective relationships with partner agencies have resulted in the children not receiving the services that they need quickly. The manager has failed to escalate shortfalls when other services do not meet the assessed needs of the children, such as delays in return home interviews. In addition, the manager has not worked effectively with the provider’s commissioned therapeutic service. This means that there have been missed opportunities to implement trauma-based risk and behaviour management strategies to support the children to improve their emotional well-being and to reduce further incidents of risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The team has been short-staffed for a year. A high use of staff from the provider’s other children’s homes affects the consistency of the care that is provided to the children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 6 The manager does not support her new staff well. The manager has a vision of what the staff’s induction should look like, but this does not reflect what the staff receive. While the company has a clear corporate induction programme, this essentially ceases when staff begin working in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not provide the staff with support to give the children a good standard of care. The staff do not receive regular supervision in line with the company policy. Supervision records are of poor quality and lack detail and reflection. This hinders the manager’s ability to monitor and track the progress and practice of her staff to ensure that the children receive a good level of care. In addition, the manager’s poor monitoring systems means that the manager does not effectively track staff training to prevent it being overdue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Poor staff rotas mean that it is unclear who is providing the care for the children. Rotas are confusing, sometimes inaccurate and at times illegible. Records of the staff’s conversations about what has happened in the day are repetitive and do not show clear actions. It is unclear who will complete which action and by when. This results in the children’s needs not being fully met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider has not ensured that the independent scrutiny of the home improves the quality of care that the children receive. Therefore, this is ineffective. The independent visitor has not viewed the children’s bedrooms during at least three of their visits. As such, the poor state of the children’s bedrooms has not been seen and, therefore, not been addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual and the manager accept that the quality of the leadership and management arrangements fall short of the standards expected. The responsible individual has quickly identified a comprehensive plan to address the shortfalls raised during this inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 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, 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)) 31 January

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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

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iii)(iv)) 31 January Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 8 The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(x)) 31 January

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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 that staff 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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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; 31 January Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 9 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare; and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home's child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home's child protection policies is monitored regularly.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12(1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d)(e)

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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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 31 January Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 10 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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the staff understand the importance of carrying out life-story work or other direct work with the children. Life-story work should be kept up to date and treated with respect. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, pages 16, paragraph 3.14)

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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: SC457573 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: 4th Floor, Waterfront, Manbre Wharf, Manbre Road, Hammersmith W6 9RU

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Inspectors

Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Catherine Heron, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC457573 12 regulates and inspects 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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