Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Dudley

Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 1 > SC472465 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to five young people who have had adverse childhood experiences and who have complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in January 2020. The registered manager is appropriately qualified and experienced.

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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 on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

A monitoring visit was completed on 9 July 2020 and 26 August 2020. The reports are published on our 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 requires improvement to be 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

Date of last inspection: 11 December 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/12/2019 Full Good 18/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/04/2018 Full Good 06/12/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have trusted and positive relationships with staff. Staff and the registered manager know the children well and offer individualised care. Out of the four children currently living in the home, three have lived in the home for several years. Three children spoke to the inspector and shared positives experiences of living in the home. Stability gives children a sense of permanence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since Ofsted’s last visit, four children have moved on from the home. Of these, one was an unplanned move. The registered manager has reflected on the unplanned ending and has implemented learning into how they planned for the most recent child who moved in. There is good understanding of children’s needs before they move in. New children are welcomed sensitively into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access appropriate education. Three children are enrolled into college and one child attends the organisation’s specialist school. There is good consultation with teachers. The registered manager works hard to ensure that children are accessing education and have the relevant support in place.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered a range of social activities and have enjoyed holidays with staff. A member of staff taught one child to swim. The child wanted to learn but found it difficult attending group swim sessions. The child shared with the inspector their delight at being able to swim. This helps promote children’s self-esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel safe to explore and express their needs in terms of culture, faith and identity. Staff and the registered manager proactively support children by, for example, ensuring that specific dietary needs are met and faith events are celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered opportunities to have their say on a range of issues, including setting goals for the week, activities and any issues relating to staff and children they want to talk about. Staff and the registered manager read children’s meeting records and respond with meaningful comments, actions and praise. This helps children feel listened to and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is good partner agency working with community child and adult mental health services. The registered manager is a strong advocate for children and ensures that children are offered the right level of support. In addition, children, staff and the registered manager have access to the in-house clinical team. This support is used extensively by staff and the registered manager, which they use to gain a better understanding of children’s therapeutic needs and implement strategies to help support children in their care. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 4 Staff work with children to develop appropriate independence skills. This can range from cooking, cleaning, finance and budgeting. One child has their own small kitchen, which is helping them to develop a feel for how to manage it, equipping them with this skill ready for when they move out to appropriate post-18 accommodation in the coming months.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk assessments contain some relevant detail around children’s risks and behaviours and include strategies for staff to help them provide support and care to children. However, for one child who has lived in the home for a few years, the rationale for continuing certain restrictions, for example not being able to have a mobile phone, is not clearly documented. In addition, the staff and the registered manager have missed several opportunities to explore with the child incidents when the child has potentially been at risk. This does not give children skills to help them learn how to keep safe.

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improvement to be good

Generally, safeguarding procedures are followed, with the registered manager and leaders ensuring that they liaise with the local designated officer and undertake internal investigations when agreed. However, on one occasion, the registered manager was not able to evidence how she followed through on a recommendation from an internal investigation for one member of staff. This then can lead to a lack of reflection and learning from incidents.

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improvement to be good

Risks relating to children self-harming are understood by staff and the registered manager. When such incidents occur, which have significantly reduced, staff follow children’s plans. However, in some circumstances, follow-up work with children is not always completed. This a missed opportunity to show what work staff have done with children to help them explore their feelings and learn from such incidents. In addition, some records relating to self-harm incidents are brief and therefore do not provide a full picture of the incident, for example what led to this and what happened next.

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improvement to be good

Missing-from-care protocols are robust, staff understand their responsibilities around this and follow this diligently. Staff offer children support and work with them to try and understand why they leave the home unauthorised. Children are offered independent return home interviews which offer them opportunities to reflect on why they went missing, and this enables staff to learn from these incidents. Children living in the home have not gone missing from care for a significant period.

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improvement to be good

Staff only use physical intervention as a last resort. There have only been two incidents since Ofsted’s last visit. The record seen by the inspector shows that staff try to work with children to prevent the need for an intervention. There is also good management oversight of interventions.

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improvement to be good

Staff work with the children to promote positive behaviours. Staff promote positive behaviours through rewards and praise. This is effective because children currently Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 5 living in the home are settled, and the number of challenging incidents from children has reduced.

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good

Staff have completed mandatory training and have completed additional therapeutic training with the in-house clinical team. However, less than a quarter of the team is qualified with the relevant qualification, and one member of staff is out of the timescale in which to complete the qualification. In addition, one staff member has not had training to help them in their role in undertaking staff supervisions.

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good

Staff are having regular supervision, but records seen show that these are not reflective and lack an action plan to help staff improve their practice. In addition, staff also have not had their annual appraisals, which means that staff are not given opportunities to reflect on their annual performance or agree their goals and areas of development.

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good

The registered manager is skilled and experienced, she offers stability to the home and knows the staff and children well. The registered manager is caring and nurturing and wants the best for children in their care. However, the challenges over that last two years, including issues with staffing, have had an impact on her monitoring and reviewing, and on ensuring that case records are up to date and detailed. This has the potential to compromise the care and support provided to children.

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good

Staff know the children well and have worked well as a team together. Staff have worked hard to cover staffing shortfalls between themselves. This has ensured that children have received care from staff who know them well.

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good

Professional feedback was received by a teacher, two social workers and one independent reviewing officer. Overall, the feedback to the inspector was positive, in particular professionals sharing that there is good multi-agency working, and that the registered manager and staff communicate well with them. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 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

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.

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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

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)(b) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(x)) 15 April 2022

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)) 15 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 7 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 15 April 2022

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may defer the relevant date if the individual—

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Requirement Due date

does not work, or has not worked, in a care role in a home for a prolonged period; or

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Requirement Due date

works, or has worked, in a care role in a home on a part- time basis. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b) (6)(a)(b)) 15 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— 15 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 8 undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4) (a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. Regulation 36 (1)(b)) 15 April 2022

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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: SC472465 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd

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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

Shazana Jamal, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC472465 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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