Children's Home run by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in Bradford

Unique reference number SC033492 Inspection date 24/10/2012 Inspector Angela Whiteley Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 12/03/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This local authority children's home accommodates 12 children aged from 4 to 10 years of age with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Staff use specific therapeutic models and techniques under the direct guidance of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (child and adolescent mental health services) professionals.

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Brief description of the service

The home accommodates two distinct groups of children. The initial unit looks after 8 children having an assessment in preparation for family or permanent placement. The other unit accommodates up to four, usually older children moving on from the initial unit, for whom an alternative placement has been found.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Adequate : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be outstanding .

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Overall effectiveness

A particular strength of this home is the strong effective working partnership that has developed over several years with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). This enables staff to provide intensive support to very young children who come to the home with histories of family placement breakdown. This helps children form positive attachments to staff and begins to lessen the disturbing and challenging behaviours that children can exhibit at the beginning of their placements. As a result, children are eventually able to move on to other family placements having achieved exceptional outcomes.

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Overall effectiveness

Children and their parents have a very positive view about the staff and the home. It is highly regarded by professionals, such as social workers, teachers and therapists. A headteacher has commented that a child, ‘has thrived since coming to the home’. Another parent said her child, ‘is well cared for at the home’. Children feel safe in the home and settle quickly in a warm and nurturing environment. They make excellent progress across all aspects of their welfare and development, particularly in terms of education, health, behaviour and self-esteem. Children have highly personalised care plans formulated from detailed multi agency assessments. Each child has an individualised 24-hour management plan that gives clear instructions on how to care for them. This ensures a consistent approach to children’s care, promoting their welfare and development.

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Overall effectiveness

The Registered Manager and deputy provide strong leadership and have a clear commitment to an improvement agenda. They have an excellent overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and are committed to developing a skilled and knowledgeable staff team who aspire to support children to make positive progress and achieve their potential. A highly motivated staff team share the management vision; they are well supported and guided in their tasks and demonstrate a sound understanding of safe working practices. There are no requirements or recommendations made at this inspection.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are outstanding .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children benefit enormously from the nurturing environment provided by an experienced and knowledgeable staff team. They are able to develop strong attachments to adults and form positive relationships before moving on to other family placements. Children new to the home settle quickly and flourish in an environment that has clear structures and routines in place. The commitment and motivation of the staff, the intensive therapeutic support, and the use of 24-hour behaviour management plans and effective incentives, help to strengthen children’s emotional resilience and psychological well-being.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children have detailed health assessments and enjoy good health. They attend specialist appointments to maintain their psychological and physical well-being. For example, children have play therapists who work collaboratively with staff to ensure a consistent approach to their care. The looked after children’s nurse commented that one young girl is, ‘blossoming into a young lady’. The children enjoy a diverse range of healthy and nutritional meals; some of the vegetables are from their own gardens. Mealtimes are a very social occasion for the children, they are encouraged to chat and share ideas about things they would like.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Education has a high priority at this home. All children have excellent attendance at school and make excellent progress from their starting points. The staff support children with their learning at home, with a range of educational resources to help with homework and a reading scheme to help children read. Care staff often work alongside teachers in the classroom to ensure children can settle well into the school routine and have a positive learning experience. Some children have successfully gained a grammar school place and are achieving in line with their peers.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The home is very much part of the local community and has excellent relationships with neighbours. Children benefit socially from attending clubs in the local community such as Brownies, Beavers and Sunday school and use the local library; this widens their social network and increases their self-esteem. The home sponsors two flower planters in the village, which the children are responsible for maintaining. They also raise funds to buy mosquito nets for their chosen charity and have held a car boot sale and plant sale for this. This promotes community cohesion and helps children become socially responsible.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children have a strong sense of identity, reinforced by regular contact with family and other significant people, which is clearly set out in their care plans. Some contact arrangements are restricted and staff are fully aware of the restrictions in place. Staff have a good understanding of the impact that contact can have on some of the young children and ensure these children receive appropriate support and care on their return.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Children say they like living at this home and talk about, ‘their family’. They receive high quality care from a staff team that they know well and feel comfortable with. Children learn quickly to live in a group setting and are respectful of one another. They can be extremely well behaved, welcoming visitors by initiating polite conversation in a cheerful and friendly manner.

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Quality of care

The staff team have detailed knowledge of the children’s needs and are committed to learning new skills to achieve better outcomes for children. They are not daunted by initial setbacks or failures, but are relentless in their efforts to help children succeed. Staff effectively deliver individualised and well-planned care packages. Monthly multi-agency ‘team around the child’ meetings fully consider decisions and plans. This ensures individual needs-led plans are in place to achieve the best outcomes for each child. A placing social worker says how pleased she is with the quality of care.

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Quality of care

Children have excellent relationships with the staff and can speak to any of them if they have any concerns. The home has a ‘bright ideas board’, for children to express their opinions and suggestions, for example, new foods, outings and activities. Children pin a request onto the board and the Registered Manager responds by speaking to the child and putting a written response back on the board. The ‘bright ideas’ matter and are taken seriously and many are taken up. This ensures children understand how decisions are made even when their idea is not upheld. Children choose how they want to personalise their bedrooms and make other decisions about their care with the support of staff. The complaints procedures are included in a child-friendly, children’s guide, which the children go through with staff before they move in. Children access independent advocates who can help them to express their concerns more clearly.

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Quality of care

Staff are proactive in their support of children’s education, health support services, and activities and in responding to diversity and cultural needs. Children are encouraged to follow their religion and staff will take them to church and Sunday school. Excellent routines are in place whereby every child has a 20-minute homework session and a 15-minute settling down session before bed where stories are read. A spelling challenge promotes literacy skills with the award of a trophy to recognise achievements. Certificates, artwork and photographs are prominently displayed in the home, so children feel valued and this significantly promotes their self-esteem. Children do a range of activities, such as swimming, street dance, cricket, going to the park, shopping, after school clubs and enjoy holidays away from the home. This enhances their learning experiences and increases their social networks and self-esteem.

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Quality of care

The home is a large spacious house divided into two settings, with separate entrances for the two distinct groups of children. It has a rural outlook within a residential community. Carefully chosen décor, furnishings and room space gives children spacious and homely accommodation where they can participate in many activities. There are playrooms, study rooms and a well-equipped craft room, a large dining room and lounge area. There is a large well-designed wooden outdoor play area and ample space for bikes and other large play equipment. The children have two rabbits and fish to care for. They have a small allotment and greenhouse where they grow and harvest vegetables and soft fruits for the home. There is a woodwork shed where they make useful items for the garden under close supervision. The children are very busy and learn new skills from their new experiences, which promotes their welfare and development.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is outstanding at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children who live in this home are safe. They are protected from harm by competent staff who treat their safety and well-being seriously. Staff fully understand safeguarding policies and procedures and receive quality training, which enables them to respond appropriately to any concerns about children’s welfare. Children understand that bullying is not acceptable. They re-visit anti-bullying information regularly and have access to an anti-bullying champion. Children have confidence in the staff to deal with bullying if it occurs. Highly effective measures protect them from harm, balancing their need for increased independence with safeguarding requirements. All children are closely supervised; as a result, they do not go missing from the home. However, staff acknowledge some children need to take reasonable risks as part of growing up, which form part of their individual risk assessments.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children develop respect for themselves and others through the consistent and individualised approach to behaviour management and the use of comprehensive, regularly reviewed 24-hour management plans. This helps to protect children from harm. Appropriate rewards and incentives are in place to encourage children to behave in a more socially accepted manner; for example, the ‘star of the week’ award is highly prized. Sanctions are reducing as children settle into their placement and these are proportionate and age appropriate.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are trained in the appropriate use of physical restraint, which is only used in the event of a child or others being at risk of harm. Although there are a large number of restraints, many of these are positive holds to enable the child to regain control safely. The manager maintains detailed records to identify patterns and trends and regularly discusses this with CAMHS professionals to review individual behaviour plans and ensure children are cared for safely.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Robust recruitment and vetting procedures are in place and visitors to the home are checked and supervised. Children live in a home that is physically safe and secure and where there is a strong ethos on safeguarding. Health and safety guidelines are followed and there are effective assessments in place of any hazards in the home and for activities outside the home. These practices ensure children are cared for safely and protected from harm.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are outstanding .

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Leadership and management

Children live in a home that is effectively managed. The Registered Manager is highly qualified and experienced and is assisted by a skilled and competent deputy manager. They understand the needs of the children and have high expectations for the smooth running of the home. As a result, children experience improvements in their development and well-being and achieve some exceptional outcomes.

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Leadership and management

The home is well resourced in terms of staffing and finance. Most of the staff have appropriate qualifications; newer staff are working towards the appropriate professional qualification. Recent shortfalls in staffing due to extended periods of absence, have been covered by existing staff and a pool of casual workers who are well known to the children and other staff. This ensures children continue to be cared for by staff who know them and can respond effectively to their needs. Rotas are drawn up to ensure that staff that put children to bed are on shift the next morning to get them up. Experienced volunteers are welcomed into the home. They provide additional resources for the children to experience different activities. The staff team has a good balance of gender, age and ethnicity and offers positive role models to the children. The home meets the aims and objectives of its Statement of Purpose.

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Leadership and management

An enthusiastic staff team say they receive high levels of support and feel valued. They receive regular supervision and yearly appraisals, which ensures they have the opportunity to develop their practice. The home has a strong commitment to staff training and personal development. The manager ensures that staff keep up to date with new developments through specific training events. There is input from specialist professionals, such as child and adolescent mental health services, to training and also to address children’s specific needs, for example, attachment and life story work. Staff routinely undertake mandatory training and e-learning including safeguarding, first aid and behaviour management. This ensures the staff are well equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to meet children’s emerging needs.

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Leadership and management

Children’s records are extremely detailed. They present a good overall picture of children’s experiences at the home. Records are maintained to a high standard and information is well organised within the file. Memory boxes and the ‘leaving CD’ which are given to all children when they move on, offer an excellent account of the positive time they have spent at the home and help children understand their histories and plans.

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Leadership and management

Robust monitoring systems ensure that children enjoy high standards of care. Monthly monitoring reports review the home’s performance, children’s progress and identify areas for improvement. Consultation with children, parents and other professionals influence the progress of the home. The management team fully understands the strengths of the home and actively address areas of improvement. For example, the transition process is a particular focus to achieve better outcomes for children who move to new families. The home has a comprehensive development plan that is reviewed six-monthly to help drive forward further improvements.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011) and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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