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:

 Staff establish extremely strong working partnerships with a number of health professionals, youth offending teams and the police. This provides a swift, proactive approach, and coordinates the best care and support for young people.  Young people benefit immensely from the enduring attachments that the staff who care for them have established. These are of immense value to enable young people to feel secure and to trust those who look after them. This facilitates staff to support and guide young people to keep safe, engage in daily life positively and make continued progress.  Safeguarding young people is a high priority. From young people’s starting points, they have made progress. Some are making significant headway, and others have taken a number of small steps in the right direction.  An extensively diverse, experienced and well-trained staff team provides young people with splendid care. They access positive role models, and tap

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The children's home provision is good because:

into the variety of interests, backgrounds and skills of those who care for them.

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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 ‘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

In order to meet the regulation, the registered manager must ensure that, prior to making a decision about the admission of a young person to the home, their individual needs, along with the group already residing there, can be met.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home's statement of purpose. 22/08/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children's home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16(1)(5))

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the regulation, the registered person must comply with the home’s statement of purpose. This states that the home is a long-term home that occasionally will accept emergency admissions if the child's needs can be met. An admission must be in line with the statement of purpose. 22/08/16

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experiences. (Regulation 33(1)(4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that all staff receive supervision at the frequency set in the home’s supervision policy. 28/09/2016 In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child's needs.

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans; and seek to develop and maintain effective profession relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children's home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, a multi-agency approach and meetings must take place to secure an education placement or equivalent for individuals without a provision. 05/09/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  The registered person should ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside the home (where appropriate) and are encouraged to participate in those activities. (‘Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.5)

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Recommendations

In particular, that each young person receives a balance of activities and pursuits to increase their self-esteem, confidence and expand their life experiences through learning, leisure, hobbies and interests.

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Recommendations

 Any registered manager employed in the home should have sufficient capacity to ensure that the quality standards are met for each child in the home. (‘Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.7)

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Recommendations

In particular, make appointments to the vacant residential staff posts at the earliest opportunity to support the continuity of care, and meet the individual care planning for each young person.

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31 to 33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children's home regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

In particular, that staff meetings take place at regular intervals to provide staff with the opportunity to discuss the care of young people and the other areas that can affect how they care and support young people consistently.

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Information about this children's home

This is a local authority children’s home. It provides care and accommodation for up to eight young people who are experiencing social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

17/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

03/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people have established exceedingly good relationships with particular staff. Each young person named two or three staff with whom they get on very well and would go to discuss private matters or take a concern. A young person said, ‘Well, I get on with all the staff, but I get on best with X and X.’ Staff and young people interact and communicate well. The trusting, positive relationships demonstrate the strongly formed attachments that young people have established with staff to support them in making progress in their lives.

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Good

Young people benefit greatly from the individualised care that they receive. Each young person’s placement plan and other supporting records reflect this. Young people have a core staff team, who work more closely with them on key areas set out in their placement plan. The in-depth work that takes place ensures that young people develop and positively move forward.

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Good

The promotion of young people’s health is a priority. With support, all young people attend routine health check-ups and more specialist health interventions, including those that meet their emotional and psychological well-being. Staff have discussions with those young people who smoke about the risks to their health. There is ongoing work to try to bring about change, to assist young people to stop this activity.

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Good

Most young people have increased their school attendance and some have started to attain, gaining recognised qualifications. However, there are delays in securing further education or alternative training for particular young people. These require a multi-agency approach to resolve. This will ensure that all young people have equal opportunities to achieve educationally in preparation for the world of work.

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Good

Staff support young people to learn daily life and independence skills. A young person said, ‘I can cook. We clean our own bedrooms weekly and I do my own laundry. I’m working on how to budget my money.’ This assists young people to gain independence skills in preparation for adulthood.

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Good

Young people vocalise their views and opinions freely. In addition, young people are consulted within forums that are more formal, for example young people’s meetings, key-work sessions and statutory reviews. In the main, they feel listened to. They have made suggestions for the weekly activities and the meals that they want, and are involved in planning for their futures. One young person said, ‘In the last few months we have had a lot of other young people coming as emergency admissions. Some have not been a good match. This should not happen. I don’t agree with it.’ A young person said, ‘We choose a weekly activity and are going on holiday soon. I have done really well at school and so I have had a reward for this. I am having two sessions at Laser Zone.’ During the inspection, all young people enjoyed a go-karting activity and one young person went clothes shopping. Although young people do take part in social activities, meeting with friends, some

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Good

young people have more opportunities than others. Young people enjoy new social and leisure pursuits. This expands their experience of the world around them and builds on their confidence and self-esteem.

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Good

Young people are actively supported to maintain and/or rebuild contact with those who are important to them, including their parents. A young person said, ‘I see my mum and dad every week. I also stay over for a couple of nights a week.’ This promotes young people’s sense of belonging.

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Good

Staff work tirelessly to safeguard young people. Young people have made progress over time to decrease risk-taking behaviour. Staff implement individualised strategies to try to reduce or eliminate the specific risks for individuals. This includes working in partnership with other professionals and agencies to keep young people safer.

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Good

Some young people’s risk-taking behaviour has reduced over time, due to the work through which staff have supported them. On occasion, other young people still go missing, take illegal drugs, and are vulnerable to and at risk of child sexual exploitation. There is prompt reporting to all agencies when young people go missing, with staff actively searching for young people. An independent person follows this up with a return home welfare check. Ongoing work with young people continues in these areas, with swift action and proactive interventions. Staff know young people well, including the individual triggers that make them susceptible to making decisions that can expose them to danger. This enables staff to intervene and alert other services, for example child sexual exploitation police officers, clinical psychologists, youth offending teams and the missing from care police officers. When required, multi-agency meetings take place to plan short-, medium-

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Good

and longer-term strategies to protect and safeguard young people best.

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Good

Young people respond well to the consistent rules and boundaries of the home. The low use of sanctions and physical interventions reflects this. Young people said, ‘Staff are fair,’ and, ‘We are given a chance to calm down. I need this time when I’m upset about something.’ One young person said, ‘I like having a bedtime routine, it’s nice.’ There is regular monitoring of behaviour strategies, sanctions and physical interventions. The evaluation of young people’s behaviour enables the staff to support them suitably, and in turn be able to self-regulate their emotions and behaviour more positively.

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Good

Staff and young people have established positive relationships with the police. A designated officer is a regular visitor to the home, to support the building of constructive rapport with the police. They give young people advice and guidance as well as carrying out law enforcement, if required. As a result, young people gain positive relationships and an understanding of the police role and function. In addition, they receive help to support and protect themselves in the wider community.

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Requires improvement

The acting manager has suitable experience and qualifications to work with young people. Currently, she is proceeding to register as manager. Presently, she is undertaking the level 5 diploma in leadership and management. The manager is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the service, and is proactive to address the deficits. This ensures improvement to the care and support provided to young people.

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Requires improvement

Staff put the needs of young people first. However, on occasions, due to a number of emergency placements, this has been undermined. Senior managers in the local authority have not explicitly followed the home’s statement of purpose. The manager’s decisions about placements to the home in particular instances have been overridden. This has meant that some of these placements have conflicted with the needs of the young people already living there permanently. The majority of emergency admissions to the home have moved onto other placements in a short space of time. At times this situation has presented a disruption to the daily life and routines of those young people living at the home. The local authority’s senior management team is aware of these matters. However, challenges to these decisions have not been effective.

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Requires improvement

A stable, experienced and diverse staff team delivers good care to young people. Staff are qualified at level 3 to care for young people. They have more specialist training in such areas as mental health, drugs awareness and the risk of child sexual exploitation. As a result, young people profit from their knowledge, experience, commitment and positive role modelling. However, the home has two residential staff vacancies. This has meant the use of casual staff. Where possible, regular workers are rostered to work with young people. With an increase in emergency admissions and the school holidays, the use of casual staff has risen. This can have a negative impact on providing consistent care. Those young people experiencing a crisis do not have relationships with temporary staff and this affects those who can support them through these episodes. Staff are a cohesive team and believe that this is one of their greatest strengths.

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Requires improvement

They receive support and guidance from the manager, senior team and each other. However, in recent months, not all staff have received formal supervision consistently at the frequency specified in the home’s policy. In addition, the frequency of staff meetings has declined. This has reduced the staff’s opportunities for support. It does not provide them with dependable forums to discuss their practice, development and young people’s care and progress routinely.

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Requires improvement

Professionals including the police, clinical psychologists and social workers state that the staff team works inclusively with them in the best interests of young people. Professionals said, ‘X has made so much progress. This is due to the dedication of the staff working with us to support the young person who has experienced trauma and has attachment difficulties,’ and ‘ They keep me well informed by phone, emails and weekly updates. They could not do any more to try to safeguard X.’

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Requires improvement

Robust monitoring of the service supports the manager and staff to continue to work to make improvements to the service and provide young people with good standard of care.

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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’. 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

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 ‘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 0300 123 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, work- based 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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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