Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report children's home: SC457272 1 SC457272 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 privately owned and provides care for up to three children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The registered manager left in November 2022. The manager has been in post since March 2023 and is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC457272 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/05/2021 Full Good 11/01/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/04/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children's home: SC457272 3

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improvement to be good

Since the last full inspection, two children have moved on from the home. For a short length of time, between September and November 2022, there were no children living at the home.

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improvement to be good

Currently, one child is living at the home. Staff were unable to get the child to visit before they moved in. However, the staff were welcoming and helped the child to settle in on the moving day.

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improvement to be good

The child is not attending school. However, there has been some improvement with their engagement in education. External tutors come to the home for eight hours every week to provide home learning activities. Good communication between the home’s staff and the tutors encourages the child to learn. The school staff describe the staff at the home as ‘incredibly supportive’. Staff use incentives to reward the child. The child can earn unsupervised free time, which can be reduced or increased depending on how engaged they have been with their lessons.

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improvement to be good

Staff help the child to maintain family relationships. Family visits are carefully assessed. During the inspection, staff were unable to intervene quickly enough before the child opened the door and allowed a family member to enter the home without agreement. The front door requires a key to open it from the outside and is locked from the inside, however, it is easily and quickly opened from the inside. On a previous occasion, staff have not followed the risk assessment and allowed a family member to visit the home. By not following the guidance, staff have failed to manage the risks posed to the child in line with the agreed placement plan.

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improvement to be good

Staff have made sure that the child’s support plans are clearly written. Risk assessments are detailed and include appropriate strategies to support staff in managing risks. These are regularly reviewed and updated following any incidents. This helps the staff to feel confident and to respond consistently.

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improvement to be good

The home is welcoming and homely. Improvements have been made to the garden. Trees have been cut down and the garden is now well maintained and provides a pleasant outside space.

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improvement to be good

There have been incidents of the child leaving the house and being reported as missing from the home. The child is at risk of harm when they go missing. Staff respond well initially; however, independent return home interviews are not consistently carried out. This reduces the staff’s understanding of the child’s experiences and the risks they encountered while they were away. Inspection report children's home: SC457272 4 Staff talk with the child about the risks of lighting fires. This is after two fires have been started at the home and in the garden. During the inspection, managers were unable to show that these concerning incidents had been recorded. Furthermore, the fire risk assessment has not been reviewed. This lack of recording and review does not ensure that all risk mitigation strategies are documented and shared.

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improvement to be good

There is an alarm on the child’s bedroom door which monitors the child’s movements. Although this may be appropriate at night, it is unclear why the alarm is in use during the day. The unnecessary use of alarms does not encourage independence and is a restriction that the child may not necessarily need.

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improvement to be good

The home’s risk assessment for lone working assesses staff’s ability to work alone once they have completed their induction and training. The risk assessment specifically sets out the training that staff must complete before they can cover sleep-in shifts alone. One member of staff has not completed all the training before covering sleep-in shifts alone. This does not ensure that staff are suitably trained or that they are working in line with the home’s risk assessment.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand safeguarding and generally respond appropriately to concerns. However, on one occasion, staff have not followed safeguarding procedures when the child made an allegation against staff. This fails to ensure that the child is safeguarded effectively and protected from the risk of harm.

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good

The registered manager left in November 2022. A new manager started in March 2023 and has applied to register with Ofsted. Additional support from leaders and managers from the organisation was provided to cover the absence of a manager.

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good

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced for this role. In the short length of time that she has been in post, she has developed a good knowledge of the home. She is aware of the home’s strengths and weaknesses in staff practice. The manager has worked with leaders to devise a workforce development plan to address these.

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good

The location risk assessment sets out a variety of risks in the locality. However, the assessment refers to an incident of a child being pushed by a member of the public, but there is no date or specific details in relation to the incident. Therefore, the assessment of risk and the arrangements to reduce risk require updating.

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good

Staff are provided with the training that they need to fulfil their roles safely and knowledgeably. Despite this, leaders and managers could not easily provide records to demonstrate the training that staff have received, particularly training around substance misuse. This makes the staff’s knowledge and training difficult to monitor. Inspection report children's home: SC457272 5 Safer recruitment practices have not been consistently implemented. One member of staff has been permitted to work without receiving all the overseas checks, as required by the organisation’s policy. This could lead to unsuitable adults working at the home.

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good

Staff say that they feel well supported by the managers. However, some members of staff are not receiving regular supervision. In addition, newly appointed staff, on their probationary period, are not receiving fortnightly supervision in line with the home’s policy. This means that staff do not benefit from the oversight and guidance that they need to support them as they learn their roles.

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good

Leaders and managers work proactively with other agencies to build positive relationships. Feedback from professionals is positive. They are confident that the managers are aware of the risks posed to children. Communication between staff and professionals is good. Professionals say that they are regularly updated and informed of areas of concern.

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good

Since the last inspection, the two requirements have been met. Managers have ensured that case files contain relevant education plans, formal review meeting minutes and up-to-date local authority care plans. Extensive improvements have been made to the garden. Inspection report children's home: SC457272 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

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;

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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)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff follow arrangements as agreed in children’s plans and risk assessments for family visits; 01 June 2023 Inspection report children's home: SC457272 7 ensure that leaders, managers and staff respond effectively and take appropriate action when a child makes an allegation.

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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

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

ensure that staff receive regular supervision and training in line with the home’s policies to enable staff to fulfil their roles;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that safer recruitment procedures are followed;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work in accordance with risk assessments. 01 June 2023

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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, subject to regulation 22 (contact and access to communications), contact between each child and the child’s parents, relatives and friends, is promoted in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 14 (2)(d)) 25 May 2023

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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

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 25 May 2023 Inspection report children's home: SC457272 8 child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that there is a written record of independent return home interviews with the child.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that bedroom door alarms are only used for safeguarding purposes. 25 May 2023

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the fire risk assessment is reviewed following incidents or changes. 01 June 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that location assessment includes the identification of any risks and strategies for managing these. In particular, ensure that the content of the assessment is up to date. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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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 children's home: SC457272 9

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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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Inspector(s)

Rachel Watkinson, Social Care Inspector Leanne Lyon, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC457272 10 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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