Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 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. It provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since September 2022. An interim manager has been in post since March 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

There were three children living in the home at the time of this inspection. The inspector spoke with two children during the inspection.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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Enforcement action since last inspection: none

Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/04/2022 Full Good 29/06/2021 Full Good 15/10/2019 Full Good 11/07/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have good relationships with staff. There was a lot of chatting and laughing seen during the inspection. Children have favourite people with whom they like to spend time with. The children can share their worries with these staff, to ensure that they have ongoing emotional support from carers that they trust.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support the children with their education. The children are either in school or have a tutor who goes into the home. Children make progress, particularly those who have been out of education for many months. Some of the children have bespoke timetables that focus more on vocational courses. This helps them to learn practical skills for the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support the children with their health and well-being. This includes specialist care for those children who may be struggling with their mental health. The children can have access to in-depth assessments for issues such as ADHD. This gives staff a better understanding about the children’s needs and any extra help that is required.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Planning is sensitive when children move in and out of the home. For example, decisions are made in a child focused way. If children have struggled living at the home, they are not blamed for this. Staff support those children who need to move on. This makes sure that the children have a positive ending to their time in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is large and has a lot of space both inside and out. The children and staff have made it homely despite its size. The children benefit from having the space to have time on their own if they choose. This also allows the children some independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children get to see their friends and family. They are free to bring people back to their home for tea or for other activities. If children do not want to do this, other arrangements are in place. This ensures that the children have opportunities to see the people who are important to them.

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

Staff provide the children with support to help them with individual issues. This includes staff educating the children about their risk-taking in focused discussions. These sessions include current issues such as knife culture, social media, anti-social behaviour and healthy relationships. These discussions increase the children’s understanding in order to help to keep them safer.

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

Staff help children who try to harm themselves. The staff are knowledgeable about how to help the children when they are in crisis. The work completed by the staff Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 4 with the children encourages them to find coping strategies that work for them at the time when they feel vulnerable and feel that they might use self-harming behaviours.

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

If the children go missing from care, the children have a protocol that the staff follow. The staff try to find the children as quickly as possible. This lessens the risk of harm when the children are away from the home.

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

Staff rarely need to hold or guide the children to keep them and others safe. The staff team’s approach is to use encouragement and focused discussions, and they give consequences as ways to reinforce the children’s positive behaviours.

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

The children’s risk assessments are comprehensive and detailed. However, one child’s assessment is very long and contains historical information. This means that there is a lot of information for the staff to read and absorb. Also, the office door remains locked. Reasons given in risk assessments are not individualised and say the same thing. Plans are not currently reviewed to see if the locking of this door is still necessary for each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is currently run by an experienced interim manager who has worked at the home before. She is passionate about the children, staff and the home. She has expectations and wants the children to achieve their potential. The interim manager has worked hard to create a positive environment. This is noticeable throughout the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since working at the home, the current manager has implemented effective monitoring systems. Between October 2022 and February 2023, there was a lack of management oversight. This led to some practice issues. For example, a notification to Ofsted about a significant incident was very late. Also, it is unclear whether follow up actions for referrals were done. The manager identified shortfalls and has worked hard to address these successfully.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said that they are happy working in the home. They said that they are well supported by the management and leadership team. The team is cohesive, and they all support each other. One person said, ‘The staff will do anything for each other.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff can talk about the children, safeguarding concerns and other issues within their supervision sessions. This helps the staff to consider their approach and how they might change things for the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager acts when children are not settling into the home. For example, a child was not happy being a long distance away from friends and their hometown. This manifested in them going missing from care. The manager advocated for the child to ensure that the views of the child were heard. This resulted in the child moving closer to home. Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 5 Staff develop good relationships with multi-agency professionals. There is excellent communication with the staff, who provide weekly updates about the children. Professionals said they always know what is going on with the children they work with and do not have to chase for information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The views of the children are important to the manager and staff. Children have access to an independent advocate. This makes sure the children have an independent person advocating on their behalf. Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager should ensure the risk assessments for children reflect individual risks around safeguarding concerns, contain current information and are user friendly for staff. 1 September 2023

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises —

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised. (Regulation 21(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager should ensure that if any doors are locked, for example the office door, that the reasons for these limitations are included in each child’s risk assessment, are necessary and are regularly reviewed. 2 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 7

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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: 1236026 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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Inspector

Miriam Dolman, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1236026 9 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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