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

Unique reference number SC065552 Inspection date 21/11/2012 Inspector Paul Scott Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 15/12/2011 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is run by a local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 8 young people of either gender between the ages of 8 years and 14 years. The home provides support for young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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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

Young people live in a safe, caring and extremely supportive environment that enables them to make substantial progress relative to their age, individual circumstances and time in placement. All young people are positive about the care they receive and can identify areas in their lives where they have made progress, in particular their education, behaviour and independence.

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Overall effectiveness

Care planning and care practice is highly individualised. This means young people's needs are clearly identified and met on a day-to-day basis. Staff work in a coordinated way with young people, their parents and care professionals. As a result, young people get the right support and guidance to help them achieve positive outcomes in their lives.

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Overall effectiveness

Staff take every opportunity to gather young people's views about all aspects of their care, listen to their opinions, suggestions and complaints and always take them seriously and fully into account. Consequently, young people feel valued and respected as individuals in their own right.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people are kept safe and made to feel safe. Good systems and consistent care practice ensure young people’s welfare and safety is promoted at all times. Staff have a good understanding of young people's vulnerabilities and risks they may face and effectively manage these risks and encourage young people to keep themselves safe. The home is effective and efficiently managed. The manager and staff place a strong emphasis on improving young people's lives by providing them with a high standard of care, and through ensuring continuous improvement and development. One recommendation is raised to enhance staff knowledge about working with young people who present sexualised behaviour. This will help further improve the quality of care and outcomes for young people.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 ensure staff are equipped with the necessary skills required to meet the needs of children living at the home, in particular working with young people who present sexualised behaviour. (NMS 18.1)

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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

Young people are making very good progress in many aspects of their lives. They benefit from well-planned care, which is highly personalised to their individual and specific needs. Staff use a number of age appropriate strategies to help young people develop an understanding of their lives. For example, one young person spoke enthusiastically about starting a life story book with his keyworker. This enables young people to grow in confidence, become better at managing their issues and make good progress by overcoming the challenges in their lives.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people’s healthcare is well managed. Healthy diets and regular exercise are important part of young people's routines. Strong links with a wide range of healthcare services mean young people are provided with the right support, information and guidance to meet their current and emerging health needs. For example, one young person recently had the opportunity to care for a virtual baby. The young person said, 'I have learned that babies are hard work and I know not to have one when I am young.'

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's participation in education is exceptionally good. This is because the staff fully support and encourage young people to go to school. For example, young people who have missed a lot of school are supported to return to the learning environment very quickly. Consequently, young people have excellent attendance at school and their achievements in education are very good.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Well-organised and safe arrangements are in place for young people to have contact with their families. Staff work hard to help young people understand and manage the complexities of family relationships. They provide young people with the emotional and practical support needed to ensure contact is as positive an experience as possible. As a result, young people enjoy appropriate levels of safe contact that helps them to develop and sustain positive relationships with the important people in their lives.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are encouraged and supported to develop independence skills appropriate to their age, ability and level of understanding. They are routinely involved in the running of the home and regularly contribute to household tasks including setting and clearing the table and helping tidy their rooms. Young people are successfully developing confidence in their social and life skills. They are encouraged to make age appropriate decisions about everyday life. This helps young people to develop both practical competencies and skills for negotiating everyday life.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is outstanding .

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Quality of care

Young people are living in a stable and supportive environment. They benefit greatly from an experienced staff team who always place their individual needs at the centre of the work they do. Staff have high aspirations for young people and demonstrate enthusiastically their commitment to addressing their specific care and safety needs.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from a consistently high standard of care, structure and routine that helps them find stability in their sometimes chaotic lives. Staff are very good at getting to know young people and work hard to develop strong and trusting relationships. They think creatively about how they can help young people to find ways to manage strong feelings constructively. For example, one young person was noted to have an empathy for the horses while visiting an equine assisted therapy centre. Staff have used this information to help the young person better manage their angry outburst by using pictures of the horse and keyword prompts, encouraging the young person to think about how their behaviour would affect the animals. This approach has proven highly effective in reducing the number and intensity of incidents for this young person.

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Quality of care

Young people confirm that that their views are genuinely sought and acted upon. Staff provide opportunities for daily group and one-to-one discussions, keyworker sessions and young people's meetings. This enables young people to be actively involved in making decisions about their lives and contribute to the day-to-day running of the home. If young people are concerned or dissatisfied they are encouraged to make representation or complaint. Complaints are taken seriously and young people believe that staff will address them effectively.

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Quality of care

Young people benefit from well-planned care that is personalised to their individual and specific needs. Individual development plans and staffs’ day-to-day practice recognise young people as individuals with different backgrounds, interests, needs behaviours and risks. Young people are helped to develop an understanding of their personal goals, relevant to age and emotional maturity. They say they feel that they are making good progress because of the support they receive from staff. Staff show an excellent understanding of young people's needs and provide them with high levels of support. Staff are diligent in monitoring and recording young people's progress and use this information effectively to inform further assessments and reviews. Strong partnerships with external agencies and social workers ensure young people get the support they need. One social worker said, 'Staff are really proactive. They are strong advocates for young people and will always ensure young people get

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Quality of care

the services they are entitled to.' This means young people receive the necessary support to help them make excellent progress in their lives.

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Quality of care

Young people live in a healthy environment that actively promotes their physical, emotional and psychological well-being. Detailed health plans are used as working documents to plan young people's healthcare. Young people have easy access to healthcare services. Staff carefully monitor their health and encourage and support them to attend routine health checks and appointments. When issues of concern arise, staff quickly engage with, and work collaboratively with specialist healthcare professionals including child and adolescent mental health services, the looked after children’s nurse and dieticians. For example, staff have recently had training on foetal alcohol syndrome to help them better understand the effects of this on young people's development and behaviour.

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Quality of care

Staff ensure the daily routine supports young people's participation in education. Arrangements for young people's education are highly individualised and take into consideration individual circumstances. Staff work effectively with education professionals to challenge and overcome the barriers to young people's full-time participation. Staff support young people by attending parents evenings and helping young people complete their homework as necessary. As a result, young people's education attendance and progress is very good.

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Quality of care

Young people live in a purpose built home that provides a warm and friendly atmosphere. The home is well decorated, furnished and maintained to a high standard. Young people feel that they are involved in the day-to-day running of the home and its appearance. One young person proudly showed his bedroom which was highly personalised. Good use is made of the communal areas and extensive grounds where young people can socialise and enjoy a wide variety of games and activities. The home is close to local amenities and leisure facilities providing a range of recreational opportunities for young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

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

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people say they feel safe and if they had any concerns they could talk to staff. Safeguarding arrangements are effective and keeping young people safe is integral to daily practice. Comprehensive risk assessments are used as working documents to guide staff who are suitably trained to implement safeguarding procedures. This ensures young people live in a safe home where they are effectively protected from harm. There are very few incidents of young people going missing from home. On the rare occasions when they do occur, staff always take the right actions to promote young people's welfare. Bullying has been identified as an issue in the past. Young people confirm that staff have implemented strategies to reduce incidents of bullying and help young people protect themselves within the home. As a result, there are no concerns currently about bullying and young people feel much safer and happier.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff work hard to maintain a calm and supportive environment that is suitable for young people with complex emotional difficulties. They take a non-confrontational approach to behaviour management which means young people's extremely challenging behaviour is managed sensitively. For example, staff use a number of well thought out strategies to respond appropriately to young people who display sexualised behaviour. As a result, risk is well managed and young people's dignity is upheld. However, staff have not been trained in working with young people who display sexualised behaviour. This means they do not have the knowledge and skills to provide young people with the emotional support they require to help them understand and modify their behaviour.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There have been an extremely high number of sanctions and physical restraints since the last inspection. Where restraint has been used, it has been used professionally by staff, who are trained to prevent young people harming themselves or others. Young people confirm that when restraint has been used, staff did it for good reason and with minimum force. The numbers of sanctions and restraints have reduced significantly over recent months. This is attributed mainly to moving some young people on from the home because their needs could not be met without placing others at risk. Also, staff have recognised the need to be more evaluative when reviewing the effectiveness of such strategies.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff and volunteers working with young people in the home are carefully selected and vetted. The manager makes sure that staff have the right skills and competencies to work with vulnerable young people. Visitors to the home are appropriately monitored. Consequently, young people are not exposed to people who present a risk to them.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people are protected by a range of health and safety procedures, risk assessments and checks. Staff and young people regularly participate in fire drills to ensure they know how to safely evacuate the building in the event of a fire.

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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

The home is effectively managed in the best interests of young people. The manager and staff demonstrate a strong commitment to delivering exceptionally good childcare practice that places the needs of young people at the centre of their work. This has resulted in young people making excellent progress in many aspects of their lives, including increased emotional stability, resilience, personal growth, education, behaviour management and relationships. The home meets the aims and objectives of its Statement of Purpose. Young people and their social workers speak very positively about the service and confirm they are clear about the services and support the home provides. The home demonstrates its capacity to improve based upon its excellent track record, performance and compliance with standards and regulation. A range of internal and external monitoring systems are effectively used to evaluate the operation of the home and

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Leadership and management

identify any areas requiring improvement. For example, the regulation 33 visitor highlights young people's progress as well as identifying and escalating concerns where necessary. This means managers clearly understand what the home is doing well what areas they need to prioritise to keep young people safe and further improve the quality of care and outcomes.

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Leadership and management

Young people benefit from being cared for by a suitable number of experienced and qualified staff. There are good opportunities for all staff to develop their knowledge and skills through supervision, support and training. Team meetings and handovers are routinely used to discuss the running of the home, to look at ways to improve the service they offer and reflect on young people's progress and how best to support them. This ensures staff have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities and have the right attributes to meet the current and emerging needs of young people in their care.

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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 and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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