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

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people have built secure trusting relationships with the staff that provide nurturing care with an emphasis on family values.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people greatly benefit from the consistent care provided by an experienced and well trained staff team.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people make good progress in education, independent living skills and risk taking behaviour has significantly reduced.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people are supported to build and maintain contact with their families and other people who are important to them.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people like living in their home and feel well looked after.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff have established and maintain very good working relationships with other professionals to ensure they can best meet the needs of young people and support them positively moving forward in their lives.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, 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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that after consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must- (c) make arrangements for persons working at the home to receive suitable training in fire prevention. (Regulation 25 (1) (c)) In particular, that fire instruction is recorded for all staff including agency staff 28/10/2015

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Requirement Due date

12. The protection of children standard.

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Requirement Due date

12. In order to meet the protection of children standard, in particular that safeguarding procedures are followed immediately on receipt of a safeguarding concern being raised; the registered provider must ensure that staff (2) (a) (vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and (vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. 20/10/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and their arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risk on a day to day basis. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, that all young people have written risk assessments are reviewed and updated as required.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 61, paragraph 13.2) In particular, that senior practitioner’s receive formal supervision at the required intervals.

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of the information provided by such interviews when assessing risk and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 45, paragraph 9.30) In particular, that young people are offered a Voicability advocate to discuss the missing episode and the outcome of this should always be recorded.

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Information about this children's home

This home is run by the local authority. It provides care and accommodation for up to seven young people who have experienced emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

26/02/2014 Interim Satisfactory progress

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good

Young people thrive as a result of living in a nurturing and homely environment where family values and routines are promoted. There are strong expectations to go to school, for everyone to sit down to a home cooked meal together and settle to bed at age appropriate times.

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good

Young people have positive relationships with the staff that care for them. A young person said ‘I like all the staff.’ This is evident in the way that they enjoy each other’s company. Young people seek staff out to talk to, spend time cooking together and chilling out in the lounge watching television.

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good

Young people make very good progress in a number of areas of their lives. This includes: having good or excellent attendance at school; positive behaviour and keeping safer. An education tutor said, ’X is thriving at the home, he is always positive about the staff, and is happier. X attendance in school has improved since his placement at the home and is now 100%.’

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good

Staff strongly promote young people to lead a healthy lifestyle. This includes eating healthily and attending regular health check-ups. Young people have an increased awareness of the dangers and health risk to drugs misuse as a result of the advice and guidance given by staff. However, work continues in this area for some young people to address and further reduce this risk taking behaviour. Where required young people have regular and on-going emotional and psychological support from the children and adolescent mental health team. Staff work closely with these professionals. As a result, young people’s emotional wellbeing is more settled.

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good

Young people benefit immensely from contact with family members. Staff support and assist young people to build and maintain these important relationships. This provides young people with a sense of identity and secure networks. Young people see their parents often and can phone them when they want. A young person said, ‘I look forward to going to stay over and see my parents at the weekend.’

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good

Young people have great opportunities to pursue hobbies, social activities and spend time with their friends. For example, swimming, youth clubs and visits to the cinema. One young person visited Paris with school another attends archery sessions. Young people said they are going to start doing free running. They spoke enthusiastically about their summer holiday in Wales, the fun they had and how they would like to go again next year. All young people have extended their independence living and self-care skills with the support from staff where needed. Each clean their bedrooms weekly and process their own washing. Young people enjoy and participate in cooking homemade meals alongside staff. This is the starting point to prepare young people with the skills which will enable them to look after themselves as young adults.

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good

Staff demonstrate a strong awareness and knowledge of the risks and the vulnerabilities relevant to each young person living at the home. They are clear on how they are to support them to keep them safe.

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good

Young people greatly benefit from the regular review of the majority of individual risk assessments. This includes changes in approaches and strategies where required to better safeguard young people. In addition, corresponding direct work is undertaken with young people. This empowers and equips young people with information about the impact of risks that occur in their life. They use this to make the necessary changes to keep themselves safe.

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good

Young people have reduced their risk taking behaviour of going missing, challenging behaviour and criminal activity. Social workers and education professionals state that this is due to the staff’s support, advice and continuity in approach. In addition, staff proactively work in partnership with other key professionals involved in each young person’s life. Again, this is to ensure that young people are kept as safe as possible.

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good

Young people benefit from staff being quick to act if they are not home on time. There have been a small number incidents when some young people have returned home late. In the majority of instances young people receive a return home interview. However, on occasions staff have not recorded that the advocacy service, have been offered to young people, to undertaken the return interview. This does not always demonstrate that young people have the opportunity of an independent person to establish the reason for them being missing from care Therefore, it is not clearly established if any action is required to further support the young person or make changes to their care to reduce or stop such incidents reoccurring.

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good

Young people said in their view, staff care for them and are fair. Staff are clear on the strategies they use to support each young person, in line with their placement and behaviour plans. Professionals say young people have made continued progress to manage their emotions and feeling. Resulting, with young people presenting more routinely socially acceptable behaviour. Staff focus on the positives, with praise and incentives for young people. A calm, low key approach is used to support a young person when presenting frustration and challenging behaviour. Young people respond well when given time and space to gather their composure and receive a listening ear when they are ready to talk things through.

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good

Young people know how to make a complaint; they name staff that they would go to with a problem. They say staff try to sort things out or it is explained why sometime things cannot change.

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good

Young people live in a safe environment, where health and safety areas are audited, to ensure the home remains a safe place to live. The majority of staff and young people undertake regular fire evacuations and practices. Direct work has taken place with young people on the dangers and risk of fire, following a recent fire in the home, with input and follow up work with a fire service professional. Shortfalls have been found in the records for fire safety, not all agency workers are recorded as receiving fire instruction. The impact of this is reduced as it is a failure to record, as all staff including agency workers receive fire instruction.

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requires improvement

The Registered Manager has been in post eight years, and has a vast amount of experience in working with young people. This is supported with relevant qualifications, in social work and management. His management style ensures that the staff team are clear on their roles, responsibility and how to care for young people well.

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requires improvement

At the time of the inspection the manager has been absent from work for approximately three months. The senior team have experienced further deficits. This has left two senior practitioners overseeing the service with some support from the operations manager. The senior practitioners and staff team have worked tirelessly to maintain a good standard of care for young people. Despite this shortfalls exist in the quality of the management arrangements, which require improvement.

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requires improvement

It has taken senior managers within the local authority considerable time to make suitable arrangements to ensure that a manager is in post. A temporary manager took up post only eight days before this inspection. This is not fulltime; the service will have a manager just three days a week until the permanent manager returns. This could impact negatively on the quality of care provided to young people, as a full and consistent leadership team is not in place A very recent safeguarding concern has been raised with the local authority. Without a full-time manager in post, it has taken over two days to decide on how to proceed with this matter. While adequate action was taken to safeguard young people at the home; this shortfall had the potential to leave young people in an unsafe situation.

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requires improvement

With the absence of the registered manager and the assistant manager some deficits have been found. The senior practitioners have not received regular formal supervision to ensure that they are adequately supported while overseeing the service in the absence of a manager. Short falls in some record keeping have been identified relating to fire safety instruction of all staff and return home interviews for young people after an episode of going missing. One young person’s risk assessment has not been reviewed and updated since their recent admission. Staff did not contact other agencies to clarify and establish the outcomes of initial risks identified. This did not provide staff with an accurate picture to accurately evaluate the risks involved.

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requires improvement

The monitoring by the regulation 44 visitor is robust and thorough. The visitor identifies shortfalls in the service which have been addressed. So in recent months, with the absence of the manager, this has generally provided a secure system to ensure overall that the quality of care provided to young people remains good.

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requires improvement

Young people benefit immensely from being cared for by a very experienced and staff team, who demonstrate that they want the very best for them. Staff are committed and persevere to support young people to move positively forward in their lives. The majority of staff receive regular supervision to assist them to reflect on their practice and the care given to young people. Staff receive suitable training opportunities and are all qualified. The hold the National Vocational Qualification, Level 3 in Caring for Children and Young People. This ensures that they are equipped with suitable skills to meet the needs of young people.

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requires improvement

Professionals report that the staff team work proactively with them, are professional, and communicate all relevant and important information. They state that young people have made good progress, are much safer, with the majority of risk taking behaviours significantly decreased.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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