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

Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 1 SC033492 Registered provider: Bradford Children’s Specialist Service

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is a purpose-built unit that provides a placement for up to seven children in care who are aged between seven and 12 years, whose placement with a family has broken down and who need a period of specialised help before they try living within a family again.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2018

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 15 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff group of the home is a key asset because it is well trained and highly experienced and is able to demonstrate a deep empathy for the children who live at the home.  All report-writing and record-keeping by the staff is completed to an equally high standard.  The staff’s ability to understand what it is to be the child and to express it clearly, both verbally and in writing, makes the home an excellent place for a vulnerable child to be in care.  Following recent changes to the layout of the building, all the children now live together in the environment of a children’s home. Within its constraints as a unit built for another purpose, the home is now a comfortable environment for the children to live and grow up in.  Changes to the use of the home’s building as a physical resource have provided the staff with a significant amount of dedicated space to undertake highly skilled one-to-one or group-work with the children.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Educational attainment is highly prized within the home and the children achieve a remarkably high level of school attendance.  The home is a safe environment for the children to live in and the number of reported restraints has recently reduced significantly.  The newly formed management team has made an immediate and directly positive impact on plans for the home’s development.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home would benefit from a clearly understood pathway for the children to move on to foster care when they are judged as ready.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/08/2016 Full Outstanding 02/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/11/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home provides an excellent environment to live in for troubled children who have experienced family and placement breakdown, and provides them with the help they need before they try again to live within a family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A key to the home’s success is its first-rate staff group which is highly experienced in working with children. The staff’s ability to understand and empathise with the children is evident in all that they do.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All staff are able to capture their understanding of the children’s needs very well in written plans and reports, and some staff are especially able in this respect. This means that the staff are able to express what it is like to be the children, in documents such as fostering profiles. The staff’s high level of understanding has a highly positive effect on the children’s prospects when they move on to try to live in a family again, because their needs are very well understood and stated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home has recently changed as a physical resource. It is no longer deemed a ‘transitions unit’ and all of the children now live communally in the environment of a children’s home. This change has meant the welcome removal of institutionalised and depersonalising signage from the outside of the building, and it has opened up for the children a considerable amount of space, which has been used very well by the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home now has an impressive number of specialised activity rooms, including a well- used arts and crafts room and a music room. The home benefits from a visiting music tutor and the children are currently rehearsing a musical performance to be given at an awards evening next month.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Additional space also allows ample opportunity for the staff to meet and work with children on an individual basis. In addition, children are encouraged to take part in activities outside of the home in the local community. Individual children are currently engaged in activities such as cub scouts, swimming lessons, a drama group and karate classes, and this is especially beneficial for their social development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children’s individual development plans are supported by an exceptionally wide range of specialist workers, including Catholic Care, the youth offending service, children looked after education services, and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). A CAMHS worker provides the staff group with a monthly reflective practice session to help it take a thoughtful approach to the children’s sometimes challenging behaviour. Educational attainment is highly prized at the home, which achieves a remarkably high level of school attendance, with all seven of the children attending 100% of the time in the last school term.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Observation of the children coming home from school and waiting for their evening meal is a delightful experience. Children were doing homework, helping staff to cook and Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 4 talking naturally among themselves about their community activities and how much they are looking forward to them. Each child is supported by a member of staff who is evidently aware of the overall development plan for each individual child and their 24- hour care plan, which is well informed by an assessment of risk. Staff are evidently very well informed, trained and equipped to meet the children’s needs, but their personal interaction with the children themselves is natural and nurturing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

It is as a nurturing environment that the home excels. The overall ethos of the home is to provide children, who are troubled by their prior experiences, with a therapeutic and nurturing environment. Because of things like the outside garden area and the flower troughs that the home keeps in the surrounding area, the arts and crafts and music facilities, the home’s pets, the opportunity for children to bake and cook for the residents’ group and the support for their outside activities, the home is an exceptional place for the children to grow up in.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The children living at the home are safe. As they are a young group, the children are chaperoned to and from school and to any evening or weekend activities. The staffing ratio is sufficient to offer the children safe care and this has been further enhanced by closing the transitions unit, which frees up staff time as well as physical space within the home. Increases in staffing ratio also puts an end to lone working.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

No children have been reported missing since the last inspection. None are the victims of sexual exploitation, although the staff are aware of the children’s vulnerability to it given their previous life experiences. The current resident group of predominantly young females is not prone to criminal behaviour, and a good relationship with the local beat police officer is therefore focused on crime prevention and keeping the children safe.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The primary safeguarding issue at the home since the time of the last inspection has been the recently formed management group’s approach to using measures of physical restraint. Previously, reported use of restraint was unexpectedly high for a nurturing environment for younger children, with 34 reported instances since the last inspection. The staff are now encouraged by their managers to use distraction techniques or other non-physical means of intervention when children’s behaviour becomes challenging, and to use restraint only as a last resort. This has resulted in an evident and significant reduction in the use of restraint, which is now proportionate and rare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A period of high turnover in the home’s management team has recently been stabilised by the formation of a new management team. The registered manager has been redeployed to the home and is suitably qualified and highly experienced. The deputy manager is a qualified social worker who is also able to bring a wealth of experience to the management task.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team is well supported by regular independent visits under Regulation Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 5 44 of the Children’s Homes regulations 2015 and it uses the learning from these visits well. The team is operating to a clear and transformative development plan for the home. For example, the closure of the transitions unit and reduction in reported restraint have been as a direct consequence of its leadership, as have significant alteration and improvement to the physical appearance of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home was purpose-built in a past period, and reflects what it meant for children to be in care then. Its new management team has enhanced its traditional appearance and made it look more homely. As a result, the decoration of the building and its surrounding areas appears fresh and well kept. The recent addition of an appealing fitted kitchen with a central island is inspired, because the children can sit on high stools and help staff to prepare meals under supervision. The outside play area has been smartened up, and there are further plans to restore the home’s dilapidated greenhouse and grow fruit and vegetables. Within its constraints, the home is a very comfortable physical environment for children to live in and grow up.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff of the home are provided with regular management supervision, which is variably recorded. Better recording establishes clear boundaries for the staff and sets down management’s expectations of what it is to work at the home and prepare children for moving on. The manager’s efforts in this area would be better supported by clearly stated and shared criteria of what being ready for family placement looks like, and the pathway to moving on. Current lack of clarity in this area means that some children wait too long in an environment in which they see others leaving. Although they know that they will not be staying at the home into their teenage years, they do not know where they will be moving on to.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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 whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, 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’.

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Children’s home details

Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 6 Unique reference number: SC033492

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sir Henry Mitchell House, 4 Manchester Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD5 0QL

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Inspector

Ian Young, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 7 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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