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

Unique reference number SC033628 Inspector Parveen Hussain Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Registered person address City Hall Centenary Square BRADFORD West Yorkshire BD1 1HY Responsible individual Julie Jenkins Registered manager Joanne Slaven Date of last inspection 16/06/2014 2 of 6 Inspection date 03/03/2015

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Previous inspection outstanding Enforcement action since last inspection none

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This inspection

This home was judged outstanding at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has sustained effectiveness .

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This inspection

The last inspection raised a recommendation relating to records not being signed or dated. There continues to be some shortfalls in this area however the acting manager has implementing an action plan for every child’s file to be audited. Some progress has been made and in time, this system will ensure the previous recommendation is adequately addressed.

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This inspection

The short breaks service continues to provide an essential service to local children, young people and families.

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This inspection

In the absence of the Registered Manager, interim arrangements are in place for the deputy manager to oversee the running of the home. The acting manager has made an application to Ofsted for registration. She is highly experienced, knowledgeable and has relevant qualifications for the role. The dedicated and flexible staff team are fully supportive of the changes. This is reflected in the relationships that exist within the staff team.

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This inspection

The staff team feel well supported. They benefit from regular and consistent supervision and training. This promotes their ability to reflect on practice; keep up to date with practice issues; and maintain a focus on safeguarding issues. Staff develop excellent relationships with parents, social workers, health and education professionals. This ensures any health, medical or safeguarding concerns are swiftly addressed and information is shared effectively. Their care and commitment focuses on providing children and families with a seamless and safe service.

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This inspection

All children and young people are supported to attend school or alternative education provision. Staff have good insight into children and young people’s individual education plans and special needs statements. Risk assessments provide an accurate account of individual behaviours. However, some of the risk 3 of 6 assessments are not signed and dated. Some decisions from child-care reviews are also not documented on the child or young person’s file. This can make it difficult to establish whether information held about children and young people is up to date and whether it accurately reflects their current needs. However, staff have an excellent understanding of individual children and their personal care needs. A daily risk assessment identifies how best to match individual children and young people to the staff team on duty. These safeguards along with the manager’s existing action plan help mitigate the impact of this shortfall on children and young people.

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This inspection

Children and young people enjoy their time at the home. They benefit from a warm, welcoming home environment that assures their safety and wellbeing. They establish good friendships with other children and young people. This is facilitated through the careful planning undertaken by staff. Consideration is given to the age and individual needs of children and young people and their ability to develop relationships. The friendly approach and consistency afforded to children and young people, helps develop trusting relationships with staff. One young person said, ‘I love coming to the home. I love playing ball games with staff.’ Children and young people benefit from a range of stimulating games and activities. They enjoy going swimming and take trips out to the cinema. Activities are in line with their individual abilities and goals. This helps children and young people increase in confidence and make progress.

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This inspection

Staff have aspirations and goals for individual children and young people and work hard towards achieving these. They respond to them individually despite their complex communication needs. Staff are skilled in a variety of non-verbal communication techniques. For example, they read facial expressions, body language and behaviours of children and young people. This helps establish their wishes and views. Staff show high levels of respect and dignity when attending to personal care needs. They advocate strongly and support parents to ensure their children’s health and medical needs are met. An example of this is where a staff member wrote a supporting letter to a consultant and emphasised a child’s pain when wearing his adaptations. As a result, the date of his operation was brought forward and the painful support is no longer used. This has led to the child presenting as happier and no longer showing signs of distress.

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This inspection

The acting manager has taken a rigorous approach to the internal monitoring of the home. This has led to increased levels of management oversight. This ensures timely and appropriate action is taken to address potential shortfalls. It also enables the acting manager to better evaluate the quality of care afforded to children and young people. This is further complemented by the independent person’s monthly monitoring which continues to be effective. Notifications and complaints are rare; however, they are acted upon swiftly by the manager and the staff team. Compliments are received regularly and are maintained on the home’s electronic system. These relate to the excellent service and care provided to children and families. 4 of 6 Admissions and discharges are carefully planned and include visits to the home prior to overnight stays being organised. This ensures a full assessment is collated in line

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This inspection

with individual needs and enables parents, children and young people to become comfortable with the environment and staff team. Discharges are generally well planned in line with young people turning eighteen. Staff support parents to identify future services including through friendly discussions at coffee mornings and open days. As a result of this caring approach, collaboration between parents and staff is very positive. 5 of 6

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority setting provides six overnight places for short breaks care and also day and tea-time sessions. All the children have learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/06/2014 Full outstanding 26/03/2014 Interim good progress 23/10/2013 Full outstanding 11/02/2013 Interim good progress

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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 the manager regularly monitors, in line with regulations, all records kept by the home to ensure compliance with the homes policies, to identify any concerns about specific incidents and to identify patterns and trends. Immediate action is taken to address any issues raised by this monitoring (NMS 21.2) Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Recommendations

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What inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspections we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection.

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Information 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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Information 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 framework of inspection for children's homes.

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