Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Rochdale

Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 1 SC456542 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 provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties that result in complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living in the home. The child appeared comfortable in their home and spoke freely to inspectors.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in March 2024.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 16 September 2025

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/09/2025 Full Good 20/08/2024 Full Good 27/09/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/09/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 3

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Summary of findings

Two children have lived in the home during the inspection period. One child made limited progress while living in the home and has now moved out. One child has moved in and has been living in the home for 7 weeks, and therefore progress is naturally limited. However, children who live at the home are safe.

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Summary of findings

Reflective practice of staff is limited. This hinders the tracking and understanding of children’s progress and the ability to change and improve practice to achieve better outcomes for children. The manager has not understood the punitive nature of some of the responses to incidents and the consequences given for behaviour.

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improvement to be good

The child who moved out made limited progress while living at the home. Some vulnerabilities and negative behaviours increased in the months leading up to the child moving out of the home. The manager identified that staff were no longer able to meet the child’s needs and worked with the local authority to support a positive transition to the child’s new home.

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improvement to be good

Both children who have lived at the home have faced significant barriers to education. One child was successfully enrolled in school and attended sporadically after being out of education for a number of years. The child living in the home remains out of education and has not been supported or encouraged to attend their exams. An alternative plan was agreed in a recent multi-agency meeting; however, there has been no progress towards this yet. This means children have not made academic progress while living at the home.

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improvement to be good

The home environment lacks personality and does not reflect the child’s decorative taste, including in their bedroom. The child has made several suggestions for improvement and personalisation of the home. The manager has yet to develop a plan to ensure these changes happen. The home has a cat, which has recently had an accident, resulting in it being housebound. This has contributed to a bad odour in the living space, and cat faeces was observed behind a chair during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Staff have lots of conversations with children. The quality and focus of these conversations are variable. Several positive conversations take place, but staff lack understanding or agreement about what conversations are important to support children to make progress or reduce risks. The lack of planning means most work is ad-hoc and not all conversations are revisited. Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 4 Staff prioritise children’s health needs. They ensure that children attend relevant health appointments. They seek out specialised support when this is required. This intervention, together with clear boundaries around vaping, has resulted in the child reducing the amount they vape.

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

The child living in the home said that they feel safe. Professionals and parents agree that staff in the home act in a way to maximise children’s safety. Staff have a good understanding of the child’s vulnerabilities and understand the plans in place to keep the child safe. However, the written documents do not always provide the up-to-date information that staff hold.

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

Staff build nurturing relationships with children. Staff speak to children in a positive way about their vulnerabilities and talk about ways to keep them safe. The child has warm relationships with multiple members of staff. One member of staff proudly listed several achievements that the child has made since living in the home.

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

When children go missing, staff usually go and search for them. They contact others who may be with the child or may have seen the child. Staff liaise with relevant agencies in a timely way to support children to return home safely. Staff understand the importance of supporting the child when they return home.

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

When incidents have occurred, staff have not always been able to support children to manage their emotions. Currently, items from the home such as pens, cutlery, crockery and condiments have been removed and locked in the garage. However, there is no plan or proposed timescale for these to be returned to the home. These responses and consequences are not proportionate to the risks and do not support the child to learn how to deal with their emotions. The manager’s oversight of these incidents is not reflective and does not identify any learning opportunities. This means that practice remains static.

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

There are effective systems in place to manage allegations and complaints. When there are complaints, these are appropriately investigated and responded to. Allegations are managed in a way to minimise risks, and information is appropriately shared with all relevant partner agencies.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has not yet enrolled on the relevant leadership and management training course. She has until September 2026 to complete this qualification. This was discussed in the manager’s supervision at the beginning of 2026, but no action plan has been put in place to ensure that this happens.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager reviews most of the children’s documents. However, this oversight does not lead to any action. For example, when the manager reviews documents, there is no Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 5 reflection on staff practice or consideration of how staff may consider trying an alternative response to the children. This hinders the improvement of staff practice and prevents the manager from being able to effectively evaluate the progress made by children. There is also a lack of evidence to demonstrate the progress made by children or the work that is happening to support progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff said that they feel supported most of the time. Supervision takes place regularly but lacks reflection or any focus on staff development. Team meetings take place regularly, but minutes do not show that this is an opportunity for information-sharing or reflection on practice for the team. This is a missed opportunity to have honest conversations and improve practice individually and across the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The written documents often paint a negative picture of the home and the child. Minutes from team meetings refer to many months as ‘challenging’. Furthermore, the child’s risks are deemed as major when the child’s behaviours are not significantly negative. Staff give a sense of waiting for things to become quieter instead of embracing the role of caring for the child. This is having an impact on the child and their understanding of being ‘good.’ Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; 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)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager should ensure that all staff receive reflective supervision that supports staff practice to continuously improve.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the manager should ensure that systems are in place to ensure that their management oversight supports staff 7 September 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 7 to improve the quality of care and experiences of children in the home.

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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

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 who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(ix)(x)(b)) 7 September 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 8

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Recommendations

 The registered manager should ensure that consequences are restorative and help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. Staff should have the skills to be able to consider appropriate restorative actions to support children to develop an understanding that reduces that behaviour. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered manager should ensure that staff have a clear plan to ensure that they achieve the required qualification as soon as is possible. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)

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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: SC456542 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: Caretech, Parkview, 82 Oxford Road, Uxbridge UB8 1UX

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Inspectors

Joanna Beal, Social Care Inspector (lead) Mariam Sawaiz, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC456542 10 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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