Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Warwickshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 1 SC476249 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

This home is privately owned by a large organisation and provides care for up to five children who have complex behaviours due to childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since January 2022. A manager was in post between January 2022 and June 2022, but they did not apply to register. A new manager started in June 2022, and in September 2022 submitted an application to register.

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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

Date of last inspection: 25 January 2022

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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: SC476249 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/01/2022 Full Good 28/02/2020 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/07/2019 Full Good 29/01/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 3

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, two children have left the home and one child has moved in. There are currently two children living at the home.

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improvement to be good

The quality of the environment is poor. In places, the home is unclean and not welcoming. Senior leaders are aware of these issues and there is an ongoing environment plan to improve.

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improvement to be good

Managers do not always effectively plan care to help children move on from the home in a planned way. Feedback from social workers around care planning for children has been mixed. One social worker spoke positively about their child moving on. However, another social worker did not share the same positive experience. Another child’s belongings had been left in the home for several weeks after the child had moved on.

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improvement to be good

Staff and managers do not provide sufficient support to help children to progress. For example, one child spends a lot of time in their bedroom, and targets in care plans around getting children specialist support have not been pursued. Staff respond to children in a nurturing way and children speak positively of their relationships with staff. However, these shortfalls prevent children from making as much progress as they could. Leaders have recognised this and started to implement plans to improve.

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improvement to be good

Children’s health outcomes are varied. One child receives good support for their ongoing health concerns. This includes good encouragement to attend appointments and work with health professionals when they find this difficult. This child’s social worker spoke highly of the health support for this child. However, another child has not had some basic health needs addressed.

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improvement to be good

Not all children receive sufficient support with their education. Staff successfully supported one child to improve their attendance over recent months. Staff support the child with their home learning and access to education resources. However, another child, who is not in education, does not receive the same support. Managers have not escalated that the child’s statutory education review is delayed, or have plans to support them back into education.

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff have not provided sufficient support to keep children safe. Some children are now more at risk than before. Missing from care incidents have increased and there are serious concerns about children’s safety online. Before one child moved in, managers identified a potential conflict and increased potential risk. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 4 Despite this, the child moved in and staff were unable to support children sufficiently. In the last month, some children have moved out, reducing some risk.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always take quick action to look for children when they go missing. Staff do not always search in known places, or call people the children may be with. In addition, there are delays in reporting to the police and the local authority. This is contrary to the children’s missing plans. Return home interviews are often significantly delayed. Despite these shortfalls, staff welcome children home. The manager identifies patterns and works hard to engage in statutory meetings with other agencies to think about how to keep children safe.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not taking enough action to ensure children are safe online. For example, where there is known risk, the supervision of children has been poor and serious incidents have occurred.

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improvement to be good

While staff have built some supportive relationships with children, there is a lack of in-depth work with children to reduce risks. The manager at times has not challenged other agencies when plans to keep children safe might not be working. This has led to some risks for children persisting.

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improvement to be good

When allegations have been made against staff, leaders inform statutory agencies and follow their guidance, including internal investigations when necessary. However, on one occasion, there was a delay in reporting, and in another incident the social worker said they were not given the full details about the concern. Managers recognise that this is an area of development and have increased their oversight in recent weeks.

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improvement to be good

There have been serious incidents since the last inspection where staff have held children to keep them safe. Restraint records lack detail. Managers have improved their monitoring and oversight of restraints, and are identifying any weaknesses.

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improvement to be good

Children receive positive praise and rewards. However, consequences are not always restorative. For example, one child missed out on horse-riding, which was really important to them and their well-being.

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good

There has been no registered manager since January 2022. Managers have been appointed, but have not registered as soon as possible. This impacts on the effectiveness of leadership and management. The current manager began working in the home in June 2022 and submitted her application to register in September 2022.

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good

Managers have systems to monitor the quality of care and experiences for children. These quality assurance systems have identified many of the shortfalls. However, not enough action has yet been taken to address these. Leaders speak in an aspirational way about how they aim to improve. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 5 The manager’s oversight of individual incidents is not always effective to address shortfalls. For example, managers did not identify staff failure to follow children’s missing plans, concerns arising in internet safety checks, or a lack of purposeful work with children to help reduce risk.

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good

Managers’ communication with other agencies is sometimes poor. There have been times when there are delays in notifying Ofsted of significant incidents, and around ensuring that actions for children are addressed by other professionals. This impedes children’s progress and prevents their risks from reducing as effectively as they could.

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good

Staff say they feel supported and speak highly of the managers. They receive regular supervision, which is practice based. Training is up to date and specific to meet the needs of children. Staff are qualified, and those who need to be are enrolled and working on the qualification. This helps ensure that staff are prepared to meet the needs of all children.

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good

Ensuring children receive consistent care has been a challenge due to some staff vacancies. Permanent staff have worked additional hours and managers have ensured any use of agency staff has been limited to a few of the same staff. Managers have done their best to meet the shortfalls while new permanent staff are recruited. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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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; and

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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 (a)(b)(c)(d)

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that they seek to involve other professionals in children’s care, in line with their relevant plans; and, where the responses they receive are insufficient, that they challenge these with other agencies. 7 December 2022

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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. 7 December 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 7 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children’s plans being clear about children’s targets, and how staff work to meet those targets so that children reach their full potential.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the previous inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

This also specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that the home environment is clean, welcoming and homely for children.

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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

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)(a)(i)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that there are clear risk management plans in place that guide staff on how to manage risks for individual children. Staff should follow these plans, and have the skills to spot signs when children may be at risk and take effective action.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the previous inspection and is restated. 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 8 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that the manager has the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child, by meeting requirements specified in regulation 28 relating to fitness of manager for registration as required by s11 Care Standards Act 2000. 23 November

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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

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))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that they use monitoring and reviewing systems to understand the quality of care provided to children; and use these to make improvements. 23 November

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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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)) 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 9 This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that children’s care is properly planned with the child, other agencies, and also when thinking about moving children’s belongings when they are going to move on from the home.

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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

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring they notify Ofsted of any serious incidents in a timely way. 7 December 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 10 will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC476249 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 5th Floor, Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar EN6 1AG

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Inspectors

Fiona Roche, Social Care Inspector Nicola Lownds, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: SC476249 12 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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