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

Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 1 SC476286 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns and manages this children’s home. It provides care for up to five children who may have emotional or social needs.

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Information about this children’s home

There are two managers registered to run this home. One manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020, and one manager registered with Ofsted in May 2024.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/01/2024 Full Good 27/04/2022 Full Good 15/06/2021 Full Good 28/01/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home. At the time of inspection, five children were living in the home. Four children were spoken to who shared their views. One child said they were happy and that they ‘love it here’. Another child said ‘it is great’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are making exceptional and sustained progress. Some children have made significant progress, which has resulted in them moving into family settings. Professionals attribute this progress to the consistently high standard of care children are offered and the relationships with adults who they now trust. Staff provide positive role models for children who have had negative childhood experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have learned to trust adults again. Staff support children to build trusted and secure relationships. Children have a consistently predictable home environment, which has helped them to settle and feel safe. Staff spend time getting to know children to establish trust. Children know that staff care about them and will help them to stay safe, even when they are unhappy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children benefit from a wide variety of opportunities and experiences. Hobbies and interests are explored either as an existing interest or a new challenge. This means children can explore their interests and progress with hobbies. Children are supported to continue trying different activities to widen their experience base. Staff support children to embrace different experiences. This means children widen peer networks and develop friendships. Children have opportunities to enhance life chances and develop their social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children attend educational provisions. Children are learning and overcoming barriers to make exceptional progress considering their starting points. Learning is encouraged and supported. Adults are ambitious for children and provide a high level of support for the child in their learning journey. Not all children are in full-time education, and managers have challenged this to ensure that children are provided with learning opportunities that promote progress. Staff provide activities and learning away from school settings to support children to continue to learn. One child has overcome a learning gap and they are now exceeding expectations. A search for a specialist provision is now in place for one child after managers robustly and continually challenged the child’s existing education plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The model of care is well embedded in practice. Staff are trained to provide care that is therapeutic and research informed. Staff have regular opportunities to engage in clinical supervision that is reflective, and the learning from this is embedded within children’s plans. This means children benefit from care that is research informed. This is making an exceptional difference to the care experiences of children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 4 Important relationships for children are maintained. Some children are living a long way from their home and people that are important to them. Staff ensure that children can continue these relationships safely, promoting meaningful relationships where it is safe to do so. Staff have developed and maintained relationships with children’s important adults. Staff build up positive lines of communication to ensure the relationships progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s lives and experiences in the home are captured in memory scrapbooks. This is a reminder of what they have achieved and been part of while living in the home. The scrapbooks are completed for children, who can take them with them as they progress and move on. Staff ensure that these scrapbooks include photos and are finished in a way that reflects the child’s personality. The memory scrapbooks capture memories that are pleasant to look back on as the future child.

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

Staff deliver care with a strong safeguarding approach. Staff have effective and responsive communication with partner agencies. Staff participate in planning with placing local authorities and informing children’s care plans. When this is not happening, staff who know and understand the children challenge professionals to support the plans in making sure they are right for the child.

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

The child’s voice is heard. Staff ensure that children’s views are considered in their care planning, and children participate in their own decision-making. Staff use consultation with children to gain their views and share those as appropriate. When children share their wishes and feelings, these are captured in written documents and the manager responds to each child individually. Children know that their views have been shared, which means children feel listened to.

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

Children feel safe in their home. Children trust the adults around them to keep them safe and share any concerns they have. When allegations have been made against a member of staff, they are fully explored. Managers complete detailed internal investigations, and appropriate actions are taken to ensure the child’s safety. Information and outcomes are shared with relevant professionals.

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

The manager reflects on the outcomes of any safeguarding concerns and is professionally aware of closed cultures and unconscious bias and how these may impact on safeguarding. This has resulted in the manager using escalation strategies to challenge wider professionals to provide independent oversight. This ensures transparency of practice so that allegations are responded to appropriately and investigations are robust.

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

Incidents of children going missing from the home are rare. When a child goes missing from the home, staff follow the child’s individual plan to ensure a multi-agency safeguarding response. Staff actively look for the child and report immediately to relevant professionals to instigate a joined-up approach in response. The manager has Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 5 challenged the placing local authority when a return home interview was not completed to gather the child’s views of why they went missing. This ensures that children are given the opportunity to express their views following incidents of missing from care.

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

Positive behaviour is promoted, and this is embedded in practice. Staff are skilled at de- escalation strategies and restrictive practice used as a last resort to promote safety. Children and staff benefit from debriefs following any incidents. The registered manager provides oversight and reflection to promote learning and understanding. Children are supported to understand and reflect on the incident and staff explore this with them. Staff use a restorative approach to identify any natural consequences. Children are supported to engage with this process, which helps them to develop an understanding of the impact of their actions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers are inspirational, confident in their role and highly ambitious for the children. They are visible and approachable to staff and children. Managers model the care they expect from staff to meet high standards and promote positive progress for children. Managers lead by example and actively participate in the care being provided to children. This helps to sustain the consistently high standard of care. Managers support the high standard of care to break down barriers for children and sustain the progress identified for all the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have developed a culture of positivity and acceptance in the staff team. They expect staff to meet the highest standards. Managers provide a high level of reflection and oversight to promote this approach, challenging staff to be creative to achieve the highest quality of care for children. Staff are supported to explore the care being provided and consider how to further develop, to continually improve the lives of the children. This has resulted in an aspirational culture. Children benefit from care that develops with them to meet their needs and improve their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers know the strengths and weaknesses of the home. Care provided is reviewed to continually improve and maintain the highest standards. Reflective practice is embedded in all elements of care, including written oversight and supervision for staff. When any shortfalls are identified, these are addressed to support further learning. Any areas that exceed good practice are identified in managers’ oversight. These are reflected back to staff in their supervision and with the team as a point of learning and to share the exceptional practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have built positive working relationships with partner agencies. This ensures that professionals work together to promote the excellent quality of care for children. When this has not been achieved, managers have challenged professionals to prevent any impact on the exceptional quality of care provided to the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have an effective monthly audit tool to monitor the quality of care. They use information from the audit as a learning and reflection opportunity to provide Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 6 consistently exceptional experiences for children. Managers learn from incidents and identify areas for development or aspects of exceptional practice. This is shared with staff to continually develop the care and the experiences for children to enhance their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff receive regular supervision. In supervision, staff are provided with the opportunity to reflect. This provides meaningful learning opportunities to influence children’s care planning and experiences. Staff feel valued and supported by managers, who listen and are available to them. Staff members said they feel valued in their role. Managers share their high aspirations for children and challenge staff to ensure that care is consistently delivered to a high quality.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff benefit from robust training and development opportunities. Managers invest time in upskilling staff to be effective in their roles. This means children are provided with care from staff who can meet their specific needs. Any gaps in knowledge or skill are identified and addressed to maintain the excellent quality of care that is provided. Managers are confident in the ability of the staff, and they are directly involved in working practice. This means managers create opportunities to observe staff providing care and use this to ensure that practice consistently exceeds the standard of good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Case recording and written documents are completed to a high standard. Managers promote use of language that is personalised to the child. Records are written to the child sensitively and kindly, without judgement or expectation. Managers provide oversight on all written documents to ensure that standards are maintained. Any records reviewed by the child in the future would be pleasant to look back on. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 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: SC476286 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: Deborah Robertson-Kesterton

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Steffie Harding Chelsea Brown

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Inspector

Kate Jackson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC476286 9 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 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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