Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Stockport

Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 1 SC359818 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 part of a large organisation. It provides care for up to four children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in September 2022.

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Information about this children’s home

Three children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 19 November 2024

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/11/2024 Full Good 27/02/2024 Full Good 14/03/2023 Full Good 26/05/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s care is compromised by poor safeguarding practice and ineffective management oversight. This means that some children’s overall safety, progress and experiences are adversely affected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, three children have moved into the home, and two children have moved out. Planning for children to move into the home is poor. Children are not adequately prepared or consulted with before moving in. Strategies are not identified as to how staff can manage the impact that children’s individual needs and behaviours may have on each other. One child moved into the home in an emergency, and managers did not consider how they could manage the child’s needs and known risks alongside the children already living in the home. As a result, risks to one child increased, and their safety was compromised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the safeguarding concerns, some children have made good progress. One child has been living in the home for four years, and another has been living there for nearly three years. Both children are settled and are achieving in different areas of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are encouraged and supported by staff to attend school. When children are not in education, staff ensure that they have structure to their day, and they encourage them to take part in activities. Staff also support children to enjoy a range of hobbies and interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are supported to have relationships with people who are important to them. Staff have been able to mediate between family members, which has led to staff being able to facilitate safe family time for one child who lives a significant distance from their family. This helps children to maintain and develop relationships that are important to them.

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

Managers and staff do not consistently understand or manage risks. This is significantly impacting on some children’s safety and well-being, leaving some children vulnerable to harm.

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

Staff are not acting to manage risks sufficiently for children who go missing from home. Staff did not notify the police and other professionals within the required time frames when two children were missing. This is despite there being known and significant risks relating to the children going missing from home and spending unsupervised time together. When children return, staff do not always talk to them about their experiences or support them to understand the risks and safety concerns related to them being missing from home. These failures put children’s safety at risk and do not promote their well-being. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 4 When children harm themselves, staff do not respond with urgency. On one occasion, they did not seek medical advice or support from specialist services. Staff show little professional curiosity to understand what has led to incidents. These poor responses

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

mean that children’s emotional well-being is not being well supported.

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

Staff have taken limited steps to equip children with the essential knowledge and skills to navigate the online world safely. Parental controls to block inappropriate content are not applied, and staff do not carry out device checks to manage risk as outlined in the children’s plans. This poor response to risk has impacted significantly on one child whose safety online was compromised and was at risk. Managers took action in response to a risk to one child and consulted with the child’s placing authority. However, this information was not shared effectively with the staff team, so strategies to mitigate risk were not consistently followed.

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

There have been some incidents when staff have physically restrained children. However, children are not always spoken to or given the chance to talk about what has happened. Additionally, staff are not consistently spoken to about their practice and use of restraint. This absence of follow-up work means that managers are unable to identify whether restraint practices are proportionate, safe or effective, and this restricts opportunities for staff to learn.

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

Staff do not undertake good-quality work with children to support them to understand their behaviours and how they may impact on others. This has included when children have used discriminatory behaviours towards staff. These are missed opportunities to help children to develop and make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not always provide strong leadership or give consistent guidance and direction to staff. Consequently, staff do not understand the actions they need to take to keep children safe and provide them with good-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Senior leaders do not provide effective oversight of the home to assist the manager in ensuring good-quality care. However, there has been a recent change to the responsible individual. The new responsible individual has begun audits of the home and started to identify some shortfalls.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

When children raise concerns about staff practice, leaders and managers complete investigations and take appropriate action to address the concerns raised. However, there are no records of the outcomes being shared with children. This leaves children without resolution to concerns they raise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff retention in the home is good. Staff say that they enjoy working in the home, and they speak positively about the children they care for. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 5 Team meetings take place regularly and have helped to identify some shortfalls, including faults with the door alarm system. Managers did report these faults, however there was a delay in repairs taking place and the manager did not escalate their concerns. This impacted on staff’s ability to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Safer recruitment checks are in place, with most necessary checks being carried out. However, the manager had failed to identify inaccuracies within one staff member’s application form. While, on this occasion, this has had no impact on the care provided to children, oversights like this have the potential to do so.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Feedback from professionals was predominantly positive. They said that they receive regular communication from the staff, including a weekly summary. However, one professional said that they were not aware of the specific risks relating to a child who moved into the home, either before or after they moved in. Not sharing information affects the ability of professionals to assess whether risks to children can be safely managed. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 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, The 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans.

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust; 29 June 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 7 understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)(viii)(ix)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that staff build trusting relationships with all children and children are educated on safe behaviours.

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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;

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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; 29 June 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 8 that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(e))

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children are supported in line with the home’s statement of purpose and that monitoring systems are robust and able to identify any shortfalls in children’s care. 29 June 2025

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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.

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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 children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

that arrangements are in place to— 29 June 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 9 ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children have positive experiences of moving into and out of the home and that full consideration is given to known risks to children and how these may affect other children.

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that following any physical intervention, staff and children are spoken to within regulatory timescales. 29 June 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 29 June 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 10 In particular, ensure children’s records are clear, factual and up to date.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: SC359818 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspectors

Kate Savage, Social Care Inspector Jas Nahar, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC359818 12 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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