Children's home run by Cambian Childcare Limited

Inspection report children's home: 2544803 1 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

This home is owned and managed by a large private organisation. It provides care within a therapeutic environment for up to 4 children with a range of emotional and social needs.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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

Date of last inspection: 19 February 2025

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2544803 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/02/2025 Full Outstanding 12/09/2023 Full Outstanding 15/11/2022 Full Outstanding 19/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2544803 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, 2 children have moved out and 2 children have moved in. At the time of the inspection 4 children were living at the home. Two of the children spoke to the inspectors.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child moved out in a planned way. Staff supported the child to move into their new home with carefully planning. This helped the child to prepare for the move and experience a positive ending. The child remains in contact with staff demonstrating strong relationships. Another child moved out of the home following an incident. Staff offered to meet with them to support a positive ending without success. Staff have ensured the remainder of the child's personal items are safe. Staff will reestablish contact should the child wish to do so.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children appear happy and settled. They have developed positive relationships with staff who know them well. The children have open conversations with staff and feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences. Children spoke positively about staff and said that they have formed good relationships with them. Regular children's meetings give children opportunities to share their views, wishes and feelings. Staff also speak with children individually to seek their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand children's health needs and support them to access routine health appointments. Children maintain good personal hygiene which is an improvement for some children. Staff provide emotional support to children and help them to talk about their feelings. The children are developing greater confidence and are increasingly able to manage their emotions. One child is being supported to find a boxing club and another has attends a gym. These help children to stay active and improve their overall wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise and celebrate important events and achievements in children's lives. During the inspection the lounge was decorated to celebrate one child's birthday. Staff have supported children to attend awards ceremonies where their achievements have been recognised. Children are supported to explore and celebrate their identities and interests. One child has been helped to find restaurants that reflect their cultural background and a barber who understands their hair care needs. Another child has been supported to buy a guitar to explore music. Staff help children to celebrate wider cultural events and traditions. These experiences help children to feel valued and proud of who they are.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some maintenance work is currently taking place to repair a leak. However, other areas show signs of wear and tear. There are marks on walls, some furniture is worn or damaged and some areas of the home are sparse. One child said that there was an issue with insects in the bedroom and attempted to resolve this issue themselves. These issues detract from a homely and welcoming environment. The child's attempts to Inspection report children's home: 2544803 4 address the issue themselves indicate that they do not always feel confident that the problem will be resolved for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make efforts to engage children throughout the day, and check that children are safe and well. However, some children are not currently accessing education and spend significant periods of time in their bedrooms. All children have an identified education provision. One child is currently engaging in full-time education and their attendance is good. However, another child is not currently accessing education. Staff have made some attempts to engage the child with learning, including visiting a school. These attempts have been unsuccessful it is not clear how staff are supporting the child to learn, or build a healthy structure to their day.

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

Behaviour management plans are individualised and provide staff with clear guidance about children’s known behaviours and how best to respond. This ensures that staff respond consistently and in line with children’s individual needs.

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

Regular key-work sessions take place with children. These help children to understand risks and reflect on their experiences. The children have been supported to develop their understanding of internet safety, including risk associated with communicating with people online. As a result of this work, 2 children felt confident to share concerns about online activity with staff. This has enabled staff to help the children to stay safe.

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

Staff are clear about the actions to take if children go missing from the home. Missing incidents have been managed appropriately, and staff respond promptly to ensure children’s safe return. External professionals have provided positive feedback about how staff work collaboratively with other agencies. As a result, incidents for children have reduced.

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

Significant incidents are generally well managed. Staff demonstrate a clear understanding of children's individual risks and take appropriate action to safeguard them when incidents occur. Staff follow children's plans and respond in a calm and proportionate manner to keep children and others safe. Overall, incidents have reduced. This shows that the staff responses and risk management strategies are helping to keep children safe.

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

The staff use effective de-escalation strategies to manage behaviour and support children to regulate their emotions safely. Staff encourage positive behaviour through consistent encouragement and praise. Children have reward charts and their achievements and positive choices are celebrated. This approach helps children to build confidence and reinforces positive behaviour.

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

Consequences are generally appropriate and restorative in nature. Managers routinely evaluate consequences to ensure these are fair and proportionate. However, debriefs with staff are not consistently completed. This reduces opportunities for staff and managers to reflect on incidents and consider what could be done differently. The Inspection report children's home: 2544803 5 children do not always have the opportunity to discuss the reasons for the consequence and reflect on their behaviour. As a result, opportunities to support children’s understanding and help them make more positive choices in the future are reduced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a qualified and experienced manager. The manager knows the children well and has a good understanding of their individual needs and risks. The manager is ambitious for children and provides clear direction to staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to mandatory training as well as training that reflects the individual needs of the children. Leaders and managers emphasise staff development and support staff to complete their level 3 diplomas. Staff are positive about the opportunities for progression in the organisation and express a desire to remain working for the company. This investment in staff development helps to build a skilled and knowledgeable workforce.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive supervision sessions in line with the organisation’s policies. These sessions include reflective discussions about practice and provide opportunities for staff to share any worries. These sessions ensure staff receive regular feedback on their performance. Safeguarding scenarios are used during supervision to test staff’s understanding and identify any areas for development. This helps to ensure that staff remain confident in their roles and can safeguard children effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular team meetings and consultations with the therapist. These sessions provide staff with therapeutic insight into the children’s needs and suggest ways for the staff to improve their practice with the children. Significant incidents are also reflected on during team meetings. This ensures that staff remain up to date with risks for children and understand any actions that they need to take. Helpful learning takes place during meetings. These help the staff develop a shared understanding of children's needs and risks, helping to ensure that practice across the team remains consistent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight of the home is effective. Areas of practice are regularly reviewed by the manager. The manager maintains good oversight of the home through regular handovers with staff. Any practice issues identified are addressed with staff through supervision or team meetings. This helps to ensure that practice is monitored and improved as necessary.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work effectively with external professional to safeguard children. Feedback from external professionals is consistently positive. Professionals said that communication is good, staff know the children well and have formed positive relationships with them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some information is not always as clear or detailed as it could be. The daily records do not consistently include the times that children go to bed and some food is recorded simply as 'snacks.' In addition, some information in an incident report was unclear. This limits the manager’s ability to fully understand children's routines, diet and information Inspection report children's home: 2544803 6 during incidents when reviewing records. As a result, opportunities for effective oversight and evaluation of practice may be reduced. Inspection report children's home: 2544803 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, 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 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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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child's education and training targets, as recorded in the child's relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child's learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

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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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child's relevant plans (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(x)) 29 May 2026 Inspection report children's home: 2544803 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff encourage children to take a proactive role in looking after their day-to-day health and well-being. In particular, support children to develop routines to improve their well-being, and enable them to take part in meaningful activities. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 34, paragraph 7.10)  The registered person should ensure that the home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of children. In particular, ensure that the home is well maintained and provides a welcoming environment for children. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the above principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. Following the use of

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Recommendations

consequences, staff should complete debriefs and speak with the children to understand their views about the consequence used. This will help to promote reflection, learning and the consistent use of fair and proportionate discipline. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 46, paragraph 9.36)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Records should be completed in a way that is easy to understand what has happened and when. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2544803 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: 4th Floor Parkview, 82 Oxford Road, Uxbridge, England UB8 1UX

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Inspectors

Emilja Myers, Social Care Inspector Harkerat Lidhar, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2544803 10 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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