Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in West Northamptonshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 1 SC456719

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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 by a large national provider and is registered to provide care for up to five children with emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There were two children living at the home at the time of the inspection. The children contributed to the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager post has been vacant since 16 January 2026. The provider has appointed a new manager, whose application to register is in progress.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/05/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/07/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 09/04/2024 Full Inadequate 22/08/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 3

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Summary of findings

There have been significant changes to staff since the last full inspection, including the appointment of a new manager. These changes have strengthened oversight of quality assurance, leading to improved support for staff and better outcomes for children. Two children have made positive, planned moves to other settings in line with their care plans.

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Summary of findings

Improvements have been made to the home environment, with further work ongoing, including garden redesign plans. In addition, an unused area of the home has been renovated to a high standard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There have been good outcomes for children living at this home. One child has successfully moved into semi-independent living and attained full-time employment. This is going well. The child has remained in contact with staff following a very successful transition from the home. Another child has moved to foster care nearer their siblings and is also doing well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say they feel safe. Children report that staff understand them and support them with their choice of identity. They report that staff are nice and the home is a good place to live. Consequently, children are settled and making progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s care plans are written from the child’s perspective. They are detailed and include the child’s previous experiences. They have captured children’s wishes, feelings and current needs and any difficulties they may be facing. They record the support available to the child. There are clear targets to achieve that will help the child going forwards. The plans give staff a clear picture of the child, what they enjoy and their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children’s health needs are met. Appointments are made with dentists, opticians and doctors for children, as required. The children’s medication is stored and administered safely by staff. Health professionals are appropriately referred to when required. This includes mental health services and means that children receive the services they need to meet their identified needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff are aware of children’s historic non-engagement with education. Children are not currently attending education provision. Staff have worked closely with schools to try and change this. There has been limited success. At times, children have attended schools and engaged with learning. However, this remains a challenge and children regularly do not engage in educational activities. Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 4 Staff spend one-to-one time with children. This includes key-work sessions that are relevant to the individual child’s life. They are clearly recorded and overseen by the manager. There are also monthly children’s meetings that capture the voice of the child. Children’s wishes and feelings are logged. There is a ‘you said we did’ record, which shows staff following through requests from children.

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

Children have individual behaviour support plans that accurately identify risks and vulnerabilities for children. These are updated after any incidents. They include a robust safety plan, with clear timelines for actions designed to make children safer. The plan includes known triggers to more challenging behaviours. Also, what should be completed after incidents, including a one-to-one session with the child to understand why they became distressed and what other actions can be taken.

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

Staff understand risks to children. Risk assessments and individual crisis plans are created for each child. Risks to children are shared with other professionals to ensure that children have the right support and services in place to offer support. There is a good additional assessment of the risks in the local area. This includes recognition of the house being located on a main road. Risks of child exploitation and drugs are also recognised from local crime statistics and fully included in the location risk assessment.

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

The staff and manager work closely with other professionals involved in children’s lives. This ensures that children get the help and support they need. This includes the youth justice service, exploitation team and youth substance misuse service.

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

There has been a positive reduction in harmful behaviours for one child. Staff are monitoring food consumption because of a concern that this may be harmful to the child. Medical appointments have been made to support a child’s emotional health and sleeping difficulties.

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

When children go missing from the home, staff respond appropriately. The staff make consistent efforts to maintain contact and locate the child and support their safe return home. On return, staff provide the child with time and space to share their reasons for going missing. This helps staff understand the child’s experiences. This informs planning and supports more effective responses in the future. Records of missing-from-home incidents are clear, detailed and well documented. Risk assessments appropriately recognise the increased risk of child exploitation.

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

The manager responds appropriately when a child raised a concern about staff practice. The manager follows the correct procedures and liaises with the right external professionals. This includes a referral to the local authority designated officer. Key-work sessions are completed with the child regarding any allegations. Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager knows the children very well. She speaks about them warmly and has high aspirations for the children. The manager is visible in the home and regularly spends time with children. The manager understands the strengths of the staff team and areas for further development. This is supported by a good workforce development plan. It records staff induction, supervision, training and performance management processes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a comprehensive induction and training programme for all new starters. Staff report that the induction is good and helpful. All staff have completed all mandatory training and a high percentage of additional service-specific training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular professional supervision from a team leader or the manager. These are reflective meetings that focus on the children and staff wellbeing. Staff say they find supervisions very helpful and supportive of the development of their care practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings are held monthly. They are in person, but staff can also attend online if they can’t make it into the home. The manager has plans to introduce more staff development opportunities to the meetings. This includes learning sessions in areas such as child development and awareness of a child’s experience of trauma.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff struggle to find where the home’s policies and procedures are held. This is following a change to online storage. It is important that the manager helps staff know how to easily access these.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses a range of quality assurance processes. Children’s records are monitored through the electronic recording system. The manager completes daily, weekly and comprehensive monthly audits, alongside a detailed monthly audit by the regional manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager feels very well supported by an experienced responsible individual. This includes monthly one-to-one supervision and regular visits to the home. She has valued this support highly, especially coming to this home as a new manager. She also has support from a manager from another of the provider’s homes that is not far away. Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 6

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Recommendations

 The ethos of the home should support each child to learn, emphasising the value of independent study and reading for enjoyment. The home must make available suitable facilities, equipment and resources for learning and ensure that the home’s routines do not form barriers to children wishing to use the home resources to study. Staff must support children with home study by encouraging them to learn independent study skills and helping them to practice those skills. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.18)  In addition to the requirements of this standard, the registered person has specific responsibilities under regulation 34 to prepare and implement policies. This specifically refers to ensuring that staff know how to easily access the home’s policies and procedures. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 44, paragraph p.19)

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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: SC456719 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cambian Childcare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Caretech, Parkview, 82 Oxford Road, Uxbridge UB8 1UX

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Inspectors

Shaun Caplis, Social Care Inspector Rachael Jones, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC456719 8 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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