Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in East Riding of Yorkshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 1 SC457308 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

A private provider owns and manages this home. It provides care for up to five children with emotional and/or social difficulties. The registered manager is appropriately qualified and has been in the role since the home registered with Ofsted in 2012. At the time of the inspection, one child was living in the home. Another child had temporarily moved out to unregulated accommodation.

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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 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: 15 February 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/02/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 02/06/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 19/06/2019 Full Good 20/11/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care is personalised for children and takes account of their needs and vulnerabilities. They are supported to develop their own sense of identity and encouraged to celebrate their individuality. Children’s bedrooms are comfortable and reflect their interests and personal background. This helps to promote a sense of stability and belonging for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The building has been adapted to meet children’s specific health needs. This recognises barriers for children and promotes their independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is effective communication between staff and other professionals. It is frequently the manager of the home who initiates multi-agency discussions. In this respect, the managers and staff are strong advocates for the children and ensure children’s views are central to decision-making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s specific needs relating to their emotional and psychological well-being are met effectively. Staff promote engagement with health professionals and undertake sophisticated preparatory sessions to motivate children to work with psychologists and therapists. This increases the likelihood of children attending appointments. Therapy has led to a decrease in incidents of self-harm and, although progress is not linear, overall, children are more able to manage their emotions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children choose leisure activities and participate in community groups. This helps them develop their self-confidence. Some children also make progress in education, sometimes after a lengthy period of non-attendance when they lived elsewhere.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to be more independent. Boundaries are imposed when increased independence leads to intolerable levels of risk. This helps children develop skills for adulthood in a safe way. This also contributes to them becoming more emotionally resilient.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are living away from their home areas, staff support them to maintain links with people who are important to them. This recognises the emotional impact on children of being a long way from familiar family, friends and places.

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improvement to be good

Staff recognise and understand the long-standing risks to children; plans and assessments record these clearly. However, risk assessments and plans do not always accurately reflect emerging or escalating risks. By not recording these, staff are not supported to respond consistently. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 4 There has been a serious safeguarding incident in the home since the last inspection. The initial response to this was not sufficiently timely, and therefore did not promote the well-being of the children. Actions taken by staff did not align with the organisation’s safeguarding policy. This exposed children to continued harm. Since the incident, practise has improved, and staff and managers have taken more effective action to ensure processes are followed.

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improvement to be good

Children do not go missing from home often. Staff follow plans in respect of searching for them and making reports to the police. However, on at least one occasion, staff failed to return children home safely at the earliest opportunity. Learning was identified from this incident; however, actions intended to decrease the risk of repetition were not taken. This did not, therefore, effectively address the shortfall in staff practice.

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improvement to be good

Medication records are generally well maintained. However, when medication is not administered as prescribed, it is not the home’s practice to provide an explanation as to why this is the case. This leaves the potential for a lack of clarity and does not support children to receive their medication properly.

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improvement to be good

Health and safety within the home is generally well promoted. However, there have been lapses around water temperature checks. Additionally, the continued refusal of one child to participate in fire drills leaves them vulnerable in the case of a real event. This does not promote the safety and welfare of children.

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improvement to be good

There have been some significant incidents which have not been notified to the regulator either in a timely way or at all. This prevents the regulator from having sufficient oversight of serious events.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is established and is held in high regard by the staff. She shows commitment to children and have been creative in meeting children’s needs. There is a wealth of evidence of the manager advocating for children. They are central to her decision-making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Following the serious incident, one child, who is over sixteen years old, is currently staying in unregulated accommodation with support from the home’s staff. Another child is recognised as having needs outside the usual expertise of the staff. However, the staff have been flexible and continued to support both children. This ensures consistency and stability until alternative care can be arranged.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been staff shortages, and the manager has responded quickly by recruiting further staff. Availability of staff does not appear to have impacted on the children who always have one-to-one care in the home as a minimum. The manager has encouraged staff to develop strong relationships with the children. This promotes their engagement and helps them to trust the adults who care for them. This results in children who have previously lived in many different homes accepting support, settling and putting down roots. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 5 There have been challenges in keeping up to date with supervisions due to sickness and staff shortages. Sometimes very short, non-reflective conversations have been held, with the intention that these replace the full supervision sessions. These do not provide sufficient opportunity for staff to review their practise or for managers to

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

check out staff competence and knowledge. This is not in line with the organisation’s policy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training has continued throughout the pandemic, sometimes moving online when face-to-face training has not been possible. This leads to a skilled workforce. The development of staff is prioritised and there has been supplementary bespoke training relating to the needs and vulnerabilities of the current children. This means that children are supported by staff who are knowledgeable and able to deliver appropriate care. However, the records which track staff training are not reliable and do not assist the manager in evaluating staff progress. Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 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

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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to ensuring risk assessments and behaviour support plans reflect all risks and have strategies to mitigate risks. It also refers to missing-from-care plans having clear instructions for staff to follow at all stages of a child being missing. Staff should be familiar with and follow the home’s safeguarding policy. 31 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 7 there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4) (e))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home complies with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that records are kept of the administration of all medication, which includes occasions when prescribed medication is refused. Regulation 23 requires the registered person to ensure that they make suitable arrangements to manage, administer and dispose of any medication. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)  The registered person should ensure that staff assist children to understand the risks and manage their behaviour to keep themselves and others safe (including participation in fire drills). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional. This should allow them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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 for children’s home: SC457308 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 EN6 1AG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Susan Fitzsimmons

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Inspector

Rachel Ruth, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC457308 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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Inspector

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