Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 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 to care for up to three children who have emotional and/or social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

This home was registered in March 2021. There is no registered manager. There is an acting manager who has been in post since January 2022. She is the registered manager of another children’s home.

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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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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: This is the first inspection for this home.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are happy and settled. They have positive and trusting relationships with the adults in the home. This supportive and nurturing environment helps the children to make progress with managing their feelings and helps them to feel safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have a positive experience of moving into the home. Moves into the home are well planned and are at the child’s pace. Children are embraced emotionally by the staff. The staff take the time to get to know the children well. This helps the children settle quickly. Children who move on to independence are well supported. Children are helped with learning independence skills well in advance of any planned move, to prepare them for living independently. The staff support the children with the necessary skills to apply for jobs and to attend job interviews.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A child-friendly daily logbook is kept for each child. Each entry includes a letter from one staff member who has worked with the child during that day. This summarises the child’s day in the home and their achievements for that day. This is supported by photos. The child takes this book with them when they move on from the home. This is a valuable resource to help the children to understand and to remember their time spent in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access education. Some children’s progress is better than others. The staff and the manager advocate for the children to ensure that they receive an education. This has resulted in one child accessing tutoring in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children enjoy a wide variety of activities in the home and the local area. Unfortunately, community-based activities have not yet been identified to support the children’s sense of belonging in their local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff engage as a team in regular therapeutic consultations with the provider’s own clinical psychologist. This supports the staff to help the children with their complex emotional behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children attend meetings held for them. This allows them to have a say about the care that they receive, and about how their home should be run. However, the children have identified some inconsistencies in these meetings, and they would like to have a greater input into how these meetings are managed.

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

Children say that they feel safe in the home. When children raise concerns or make allegations, these are taken seriously and result in investigations. Children are supported throughout the process and they are informed of the outcome. As the children feel believed, they develop and enhance their trusting relationships with the staff. Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 4 The children’s health needs are met. They enjoy a healthy balanced diet. The children have been supported to understand the risks associated with COVID-19. Due to the positive direct work that the staff have completed, one child has now had their COVID-19 vaccine.

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

Children make progress with managing their behaviours and keeping themselves safe. This is because the staff manage the children’s behaviours effectively. This is reflected by the high number of rewards given to the children, which far outweigh the number of sanctions. In addition, the staff know the children’s needs, risk assessments and behaviour plans well. When new environmental risks are identified, the staff and the manager take immediate action to mitigate these risks. Children become increasingly safe because of this.

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

The staff have needed to support and hold a child on one occasion. They have also conducted one room search of a child’s bedroom to ensure that this was safe. These incidents have been managed in line with the children’s detailed care plans and have been managed well by the staff. This practice promotes the children’s welfare.

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

There has been one incident of a child going missing from home. The manager made suitable enquiries to identify and assess any known risks about this child with the child’s social worker before the child moved in. Not all of the child’s known risks were shared. Despite this, the manager and the staff responded appropriately and quickly when the child went missing from home. The manager escalated the poor information-sharing with the child’s placing local authority. In addition, she intends to broaden her enquiries with other professionals before any other children move in.

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

Staff use a restorative approach and support the children in their relationships with each other. When children have felt scared or worried, the staff have supported them well with this. This means the children feel safe and well cared for by the staff.

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

There was an isolated incident of a staff member failing to lock the office door at night. This resulted in the children having unsupervised access to the office and the information in their files, without having any support from the staff.

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

During the same evening, a member of staff failed to ensure that the children were supported and supervised safely when the children were heard to be downstairs. The provider and manager took swift and effective steps to address this incident. Following their investigation, they have implemented revised training for all the staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been a change in management and staffing since the home opened. The provider has employed a staff team that the children already know. These staff, from another of the provider’s children’s homes, create continuity of care for the children. This ensures that the children’s progress and sense of stability are not unduly affected. Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 5 The acting manager is experienced, passionate and ambitious. She is supported by a deputy manager who is ambitious in securing the best outcomes for the children. The manager seeks to lead by example, and she has high expectations of her staff and high aspirations for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has identified the key strengths and has a clear vision for the future development of the home. She has already improved the record-keeping and she has a clear audit process in place. The manager intends to further improve the records for the children who move into and out of the home. These improved processes ensure that the children’s experiences are better captured in their records. This helps the children to have a clear and accurate record of the progress that they have made during their time in this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager values the staff. She seeks to manage staff retention by ensuring that the staff feel valued, and that they are supported with their professional development. Staff say that the manager is incredibly supportive and nurturing in her approach.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Under the manager’s leadership, all staff have completed the provider’s required training programme. The manager has also identified additional training that she feels is beneficial to the staff and the children. The provider’s clinical psychologist said that she has noted an improvement in the staff’s approach to caring for the children since the current manager has been in post.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has forged effective relationships with professionals and external local agencies. This means that she can tap into resources readily and easily when a need is identified for a child. However, when necessary, the manager is confident in challenging professionals’ decision-making and escalates concerns when appropriate. This includes formally challenging poor practice, which has compromised children’s safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The children’s guide is child-friendly and is a good visual tool for children moving into the home. However, it does not contain the details of how the children can contact the Children’s Commissioner or how the children can contact an independent advocate. This oversight prevents the children from having quick access to external support and resources.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Ofsted was not notified about an incident which involved one child threatening another child and resulted in the police being called. This has prevented Ofsted from being assured that all the necessary actions were taken to safeguard the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent person who completes the monthly visits to the home has not assured themselves that the children’s bedrooms are safe, appropriate and well maintained. This is because they have not seen the children’s bedrooms for several months. The provider acknowledged this was an oversight on their part and they have put satisfactory steps in place to address this. Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 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 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)) 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b)) 15 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)) 15 April 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children are consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care. In particular, the children should be consulted about how they wish to be involved in the children’s meetings. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11) Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 7  The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide helps the children to understand how they can access advocacy support and how to contact the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)  The registered person should ensure that any assessment carried out by the appointed independent person must be vigorous in assessing safeguarding in the home and in assessing the home’s ability to promote the welfare of the children.

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Recommendations

In particular, the appointed independent person must be satisfied that the children’s bedrooms are safe and appropriate to the needs of each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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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: 2634754 8

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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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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Susan Fitzsimmons

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Inspector

Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2634754 9 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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