Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 1 Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a large national company. It provides care for up to 2 children with mental health difficulties who may not be able to live in the community without continued support. The home aims to provide children with a period of stability and assessment.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, one child was living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there was no registered manager in post.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a separately registered school on site. The inspector only inspected the social care provision.

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

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 3 November 2025

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/11/2025 Full Inadequate 10/09/2024 Full Good 22/11/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, no children have moved in or out. The child living at the home took part in the inspection in a way that felt comfortable for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child has not made progress. Staff do not help the child with areas of their life that they need support with, such as providing a structured daily routine, a healthy sleep routine or a healthy lifestyle. This affects all aspects of the child’s lived experience in the home. During the inspection, the child said they were happy as they were told they would be moving. After hearing this, they immediately started packing their belongings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff enable the child to vape. The child openly vapes in the house and was seen doing this in front of staff with no challenge. When this was discussed with managers, they were not aware of it. The child said that if they are respectful with their vaping and do not do numerous puffs in succession, that they can vape wherever they like. Staff also confirmed that the child vapes in the house, saying, ‘That’s just the way it is.’ Staff do not understand that vaping is harmful to the child, and they have not taken charge to ensure a sensible child-focused boundary is in place. Also, there has not been appropriate consideration about how the child acquires their vaping paraphernalia. Staff and managers said that they think this is brought to the child by important adults, however, neither managers, nor staff have confirmed this. This means that discussions to ask important adults not to bring in vaping equipment have not taken place. This

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

demonstrates a culture where vaping by children is normalised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not help the child to have a healthy sleeping and waking routine. The child is now sleeping in their bed, rather than on the floor. This is progress for them. The child has no routine or structure to their day. The child is often awake late at night and sleeping during the day. They said that they do not like staff encouraging them to go to bed as this upsets them and reminds them of past trauma. Managers and staff have not considered basic alternative strategies such as waking the child up earlier in the morning. Some advice on sleep hygiene has been given by the clinical team. The lack of boundaries in relation to sleep hinders the child’s daily routine, affecting their readiness for school and ability to thrive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The lack of routine affects the child’s diet. Staff’s approach to the child’s diet is unclear. A menu is in place, however, records show that the child has ‘personal choice’ offered for each meal. Details of the choice are not provided. Records of the food the child has eaten show that the child misses breakfast because they are asleep, or they are having unsuitable options such as noodles from a plastic pot. They then often eat large meals for supper. The links between poor sleep hygiene, diet and routine are not understood by staff and managers and there is minimal creative support or encouragement from staff to consider how to improve this. Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 4 The child has a mobile phone. Several daily records show the child often uses their phone late at night. Managers are unclear who funds the phone and whether the internet in the home turns off at a certain time. Staff think the child is watching fantasy

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

television series, however, staff are not clearly able to describe the child’s online activity or any boundaries to this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the overall lack of progress, there are some small signs of improvement. The child has recently begun to meet with a friend who lives a considerable distance away. Staff support the child to meet with the friend regularly. This is particularly important as the child does not attend school and does not have other peer relationships. Staff need to ensure that appropriate planning is in place to provide these trips. Records show that one staff member said they needed to leave the visit early as they were going on holiday which led to disappointment for the chid.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child has been having regular art therapy sessions. The child engages with these and the therapist decodes the child’s pictures into messages that the child is communicating and shares this with the staff team. This helps to provide context to the child’s behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child is supported to have a pet The child values this immensely and takes pride in talking about the pet and the regime they have to ensure the pet has a comfortable life.

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

Staff do not keep the child safe. The number of incidents is decreasing, however, when they do happen, staff and managers have not taken the action necessary to protect the child from harm.

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

Following a physical intervention, 2 staff members noticed that the child had an injury. Staff gave the child first aid, however, they did not consider how the injury was caused and whether this was a result of the physical intervention. Managers were not aware of this until it was raised at the inspection. Following a second physical intervention, the child made a comment that they were hurt. The staff member the child spoke to was one of the staff who noticed the injury from the previous restraint incident. Again, they did not follow this up with the child. Neither staff member recognised the potential safeguarding issues and they did not respond appropriately. Managers have also not identified the issues in a timely way. This means that staff have not been guided at the earliest opportunity following incidents to understand safeguarding matters and as a result, a second matter has not been responded to promptly. This means a child may

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

have been hurt twice by staff during a restraint and no action has been taken.

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

Staff do not follow risk assessments. On one occasion, staff did not follow clear instructions on how best to communicate with the child. This led to a serious incident. This failure to follow a risk assessment was not dealt with by the manager .This led to a second incident involving the same staff member, where failure by them to follow a risk assessment led to the child swallowing batteries. Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 5 The child has a court order in place stating that staff working with them should be appropriately trained. This has not always been adhered to by managers and staff and has led to the child being able to cause harm to themselves. In one incident, an untrained and inexperienced staff member was supervising the child and the child self- harmed. The staff member did not intervene to prevent this. The supervision provided was ineffective and led to the child being exposed to a harmful situation.

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

Following incidents of self-harm, accurate records are not completed. Two incidents of self-harm have taken place. Both reports have been completed by staff who were taking breaks and who were not present. This means that important information about what happened has not been collected. This prohibits learning about what might reduce risks in the future.

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

During the inspection, the child was clearly seen to have a significant, sore wound on their arm. This was raised with senior managers by the inspector, which led to medical attention being sought. However, a staff member who was new to the home had been with the child earlier in the morning. They had not made managers aware of this themselves or taken steps to explore what level of medical intervention was necessary. Staff are oblivious to signs that the child needs emotional and physical support.

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

Staff do not use the prescribed therapeutic model with the child. There is minimal evidence of thoughtful, trauma-informed communication taking place with the child early in incidents to minimise escalation. This has not been identified by managers. There is little evidence to demonstrate how staff are providing the service described in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is no registered manager in post. The deputy manager has been acting as the interim manager. He has been supported by a senior manager who has been assigned to the home to provide quality assurance and coaching. A new responsible individual has also recently started. Between them, the oversight of the home is poor, and they have failed to identify significant safety concerns or to provide any sustained improvements to the child’s outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not provide meaningful oversight of incidents. Records have been evaluated, however, they have not been considered through a trauma-informed lens and safeguarding shortfalls have been missed. This means managers have not taken effective action to ensure the shortfalls do not happen again.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have completed work on care plans and risk management plans, and these are much improved. However, managers have not recognised that staff need to be shown how to implement these plans in practice and have not role modelled this to them. Managers have also not supported staff in practical ways to ensure they effectively record how they interact with the child on a day-to-day basis. Managers do not understand what staff need to provide the care described in the statement of purpose. Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 6 Managers have not ensured that appropriately trained staff are on shift. Rotas do not provide an accurate record of who is on shift. Managers were unsure whether one staff member was trained or not. As a result, managers have failed to ensure court ordered staffing arrangements are met. This has exposed the child to increased risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not provide agency staff with an induction to the home. Agency staff have been trained in a different restraint method to core staff. Despite working with a child who is at high risk of harm, this differing restraint knowledge and how it translates into practice has not been considered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers were clear that staff do not understand the court order in place for the child, however, they have not ensured sufficient sharing of information or training to provide staff with the relevant knowledge to underpin their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A social worker provided negative feedback. They said they do not understand how the child is able to continue to cause harm to themselves when there is supposed to be a high staff presence allocated to the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

One staff member said they enjoy working in the home and feel supported in their role. Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 7

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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 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff and managers are skilled at identifying safeguarding matters.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that staff follow the instructions in risk assessments.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 31 March 2026

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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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 31 March 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 8 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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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; and

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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)(a)(c)(d)(f))

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that effective systems are in place to monitor the day-to- day events in the home.

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Ensure that managers evaluate practice through a safeguarding lens.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure managers take action when staff do not follow risk assessments.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure rotas meet court orders, for example, that staff allocated to the child are appropriately trained and experienced.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that rotas clearly demonstrate who is on shift and that risk assessments are completed to address any shortfalls.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure agency staff and staff from other homes are appropriately inducted into the home to equip them with appropriate knowledge to keep the child safe.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met; 31 March 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 9 children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the child does not vape in the home and that staff enforce this.

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Ensure that staff help the child to have healthy sleep routines, taking into account the child’s needs.

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Ensure the child is supported to have a healthy diet.

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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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use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect; 31 March 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 10 provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff understand and use the prescribed therapeutic model and make appropriate records to demonstrate this.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure staff use the therapeutic model to enable effective and useful key-work sessions.

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Ensure that managers are skilled at identifying when staff are not following the model and that they take effective action.

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The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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promote opportunities for each child to learn informally. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 31 March 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (1) (5)) 31 March 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 11

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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: 2730001 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 4th Floor, Parkview, 82 Oxford Road, Uxbridge UB8 1UX

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Inspector

Hannah Phillips, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2730001 13 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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Inspector

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