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

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged good at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has sustained effectiveness .

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The interim manager is currently registering with Ofsted and the home’s statement of purpose has changed. The service will now provide short-term emergency placements only. However, the revised statement of purpose has not been submitted to Ofsted.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Young people receive care from a very child-focused, resilient and experienced staff team. Staff quickly build positive relationships with young people. Consistent, structured routines and boundaries assist young people to feel safe and secure after their crisis admission into care. A young person said: ‘I have been made welcome; I did not know where I was coming to. The staff are fine; I get on with X best.’

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff make every effort to support young people to have positive everyday life experiences. They work tirelessly to get young people to attend health check-ups and education; to keep them safe; and to support them to participate in activities and interests that they enjoy. As a result, young people become more settled, engage in positive routines, and reduce risk-taking behaviour.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Young people benefit from planned moves to new placements. A number of young people have successfully moved back to live with their families, or have moved on to alternative placements. A staff member from a new placement said: ‘We had a good handover from the staff about X’s needs and care. We visited and met X, who has settled well. This was helped by the good handover we received from the staff.’

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Appropriate police intervention has occurred on a number of occasions. This intervention has taken place when de-escalation techniques have failed to work and young people’s challenging behaviour has continued to accelerate to the point that it either causes serious damage to property or puts young people and others at risk of harm.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Missing-from-home incidents have fluctuated in number. Some young people have a high number of incidents, but for others the number of episodes is low. Staff actively implement missing-from-care protocols. This includes searching for young people and reporting them as missing to the police. When young people return, staff undertake follow-up work with the young people that focuses on the dangers and risks that they may find themselves in when they go missing.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Proactive partnership working exists between the home and a number of professionals. These professionals include the child sexual exploitation hub, the police and social workers. A professional said: ‘I we home very well. We have a good relationship and there is good communication. Staff send frequent emails ensuring that I receive all essential information.’ However, there has been a missed opportunity to organise a multi-agency meeting in order to address the issue of young people visiting from other children’s homes. On occasion, these young people influence the behaviour and encourage the negative activities of a young person who currently resides at this home.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

A number of auditing and monitoring systems assist the home to make and maintain improvements to the quality of care that is provided to young people. Staff state that they are well supported by the senior team and by each other. The home currently has taff vacancies. This could affect the continuity of care if it was to continue in the long term.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Action has been taken to address the one requirement and one of the recommendations that were made at the last inspection. Complaint documents now clearly record the action that has been taken and the outcome. Direct work records demonstrate the progress and achievements of young people.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The manager has partially implemented two further recommendations. Young people benefit from the improvements that have been made to the decoration of a number of rooms in the home, and changes have been made in order to prevent access to the flat roof. However, the bathrooms still lack personalisation. In addition, not all young people’s personal education plans include grades and targets to enable the staff to support their educational progress further.

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Information about this children’s home

This is a local authority registered children’s home. It provides care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 25/10/2016 Full Good 11/08/2015 Full Requires improvement 22/06/2015 Full Inadequate

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions, which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meet(s) 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 must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Keep the statement of purpose under review and where appropriate, revise it; notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 28/04/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Sufficient staff means a home having enough suitably trained staff on duty to meet the assessed needs of all children in the home, and that those staff are able to respond to emergency placements, where accepted. The registered person must demonstrate every effort to achieve continuity of staffing so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted, including ensuring that the employment of any temporary staff will not prevent children from receiving the continuity of care that they need. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)

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Recommendations

In particular, recruit to vacant residential practitioner posts to secure a full staff team.

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Recommendations

 Staff need to have the knowledge and skills to understand each child’s education and training targets and their next steps for learning. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.11)

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Recommendations

In particular, staff must make sure that young people’s personal education plans include grades and targets to enable them to support young people’s educational progress.

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation; however, in doing so; homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

In particular, personalise bathroom facilities.

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Recommendations

 The registered person has a key role in seeking to develop the home’s effective working relationships with each child’s placing authority and with other relevant persons; these may include services, individuals (including parents), agencies, organisations, and establishments that work with children in the local community, such as the police, schools, health services and youth offending teams. These working relationships will also be key to delivering the care planning standard. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.3)

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Recommendations

In particular, convene multi-agency meetings to assist in addressing the incidents of other young people calling to the home to cause difficulties and negatively influence young people who reside at the home.

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What the inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspection, 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

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 that 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 focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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Information about this inspection

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 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, work based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for children looked after 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Text phone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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