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

Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 1 SC033492 Registered provider: Bradford Metropolitan District Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and run by a local authority. It is registered to provide care for up to seven children and young people of either gender. It specialises in placements for children and young people who have experienced difficult and unsustainable placements in foster care.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since July 2018.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 20 February 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

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

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2018 Full Outstanding 15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/08/2016 Full Outstanding 02/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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 within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(d)) 31/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(b)) 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience: and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 31/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(5)) 31/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 4

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. The system should cover the action that should be followed if the event arises at the weekend or on a public holiday. Notification must include details of the action taken by the home’s staff in response to the event. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children benefit from the stability created by the consistent routines that are in place in the home. They are making steady progress because of the care provided by the experienced and committed staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff know the needs of individual children very well. This enables them to build warm relationships, which provide the children with the nurture and secure attachment they need.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s education is well supported by the staff. All the children have high levels of attendance at school and are making good progress in their education. The staff maintain good working relationships with schools. The children are encouraged to extend their learning through the completion of homework daily. The children’s education is also supported by a teacher who works with them after school in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s physical and emotional health is promoted well. A family member said, ‘X looks so much better, her hair is shiny, her skin is healthy.’ The children receive an enhanced level of support and care in response to their therapeutic needs because of the input of a psychologist and speech and language therapist that is provided under the local authority’s ‘Be Positive Pathway’ project.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children enjoy access to a range of activities and community resources. The staff are careful to structure children’s free time to ensure that they are active and can pursue their interests. One child is developing her confidence by attending the local Scout group.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children find living in a group of seven difficult. They identified that living with so many others is what they liked least about living in the home. This has a negative effect on their experience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are sensitive to the impact that contact with family can have on the children, and support them to deal with their conflicting feelings. A grandparent said, ‘All the Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 5 family think she is doing so much better. She is a different child.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the children have lived in the home for several years. This has provided them with stability. However, there is recognition from the staff of the children’s need for permanence in a family setting. Two children have been matched with foster carers and are preparing to move, which will provide them with the benefits of a family life.

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

The staff provide comprehensive supervision to the children, which protects them from harm. They use their detailed knowledge of children to ensure that their plans identify any risks. The staff take appropriate action to address any vulnerabilities, which helps to keep the children safe.

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

The children’s fragile self-esteem is protected by the staff’s approach to behaviour management. The staff do not use sanctions, preferring to use incentives, such as activities. The staff also involve others to help to teach the children about danger. For example, the police visited to talk to the children about the risks involved in running away.

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

The staff are adept at anticipating the triggers that may provoke crisis behaviour from the children. They make good use of distraction and de-escalation to prevent such behaviour whenever possible. However, the number of children living in the home and their age and stage of social development can, at times, make the dynamic of the group volatile. The children and the staff identify this as a challenge, because the children constantly squabble and struggle to contain their emotions. This has an impact on their sense of well-being and security.

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

Staffing levels do not always support the staff to deal with a child in crisis while meeting the needs of the other children. All the children are involved in some form of therapy and often display unregulated behaviour because of the difficult feelings this engenders. The staff frequently use physical intervention with some children to protect them and others from harm. This could have a negative impact on children’s outcomes.

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

Allegations from children are dealt with swiftly by the management and are reported to the appropriate bodies for oversight. Action is taken to ensure that children are not at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed effectively by the registered manager and her assistant manager. She was registered in July 2018 and is appropriately qualified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The assistant manager’s experience of working with children in care is helping the manager to strengthen the process of moving children on to more permanent placements. They have plans to develop existing local authority foster carers to provide placements for these children. The staff and management at the home are supporting Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 6 these carers to promote the longevity of the placements. Two children have recently been matched with foster carers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The good level of support from the management team is assisting the staff to embed the PACE approach (playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy) into their practice, in line with the home’s therapeutic model of care. This approach is helping the children to build their feelings of self-worth and security.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager’s good monitoring systems, coupled with her commitment to children, help her to identify ways of improving the experiences of children. However, there is no system for consultation with families or other professionals; such a system could result in valuable feedback and give scope for further improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team regularly works directly with the children to cover staff shortages. This reduces the time that they have available to undertake management tasks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has updated the home’s statement of purpose, but she has not sent it to the regulator as required. There are also delays with the manager’s submission of notifiable events. This may not have an impact on the care of the children and young people directly; however, it reduces the regulator’s oversight of how the home is managed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The regularity of staff supervision is inconsistent. The staff have not received an appraisal of their performance for over a year. This reduces the opportunity for them to receive support and development in their role and for the manager to monitor their performance in relation to their care of the children.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 7 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bradford Metropolitan District Council,

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Janet Black, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 9 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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