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

Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 1 SC486606 Registered provider: Bradford Children’s Specialist Service

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority short-term home provides care and accommodation to meet the needs of children and young people between the ages of 11 and 18 who find themselves in an emergency situation where they cannot return to their current placement/home and need a safe and caring environment while longer-term plans are made and agreed on. The manager has been registered since November 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 November 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 outstanding

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/07/2017 Full Good 09/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/10/2016 Full Good 11/08/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who— develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff— help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child; regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (2)(a)(iii)) In particular, to include a section in the children’s home’s meeting book to outline the actions taken by the manager following children’s requests or comments made at these meetings. 01/01/2019

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Recommendations

 Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38). In particular, to look at the current system of monetary sanctions and to develop a restorative approach in line with the home’s current therapeutic model. Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people settle quickly due to the nurturing and friendly staff team. Staff create a caring and family atmosphere at the home. This is important as newly admitted children and young people arrive at the home in an emergency after a family or placement breakdown and they are often anxious as a result.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team uses a therapeutic parenting model of care. Staff are child focused and sensitively work at a child or young person’s pace. This helps the children and young people to develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. They feel safe to open up about their past experiences. One child said, ‘I am more confident and wouldn’t speak to anyone when I moved in.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote and support the children’s and young people’s learning and development. This is done by prioritising and instilling the value of education. Home tutors provide support for those children and young people who arrive at the home without an educational placement. Staff meet with school teachers to share information about how best to support children and young people during lessons. This leads to increased attendance and improved engagement at school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Multi-agency care planning commences from the time the children and young people move in. Staff attend formulation meetings with the in-house multi-disciplinary team. These provide staff with an early understanding of the children’s and young people’s holistic needs. Staff actively seek feedback from the children and young people, so that they feel involved and take part in their care planning. House meetings are regularly held to seek children’s and young people’s views about the day-to-day running of the home. However, the manager does not feed back to the children and young people the decisions she has made following their requests or comments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff closely monitor and review the children’s and young people’s individualised plans. This ensures that there is no drift in care planning. When children and young people move on from the home, this is well planned and positive. Staff continue to meet children and young people to provide them with ongoing emotional and practical support. This short-term intervention helps to maintain the children’s and young people’s future longer-term placements.

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

Staff keep the children and young people safe due to the strong safeguarding culture at the home. The staff team has improved its links with external safeguarding agencies such as the police, youth offending and other specialist services. This results in effective collaborative working. Staff provide intelligence to these agencies which makes sure that any concerns can be quickly shared and addressed.

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

Episodes of going missing from the home have reduced in frequency and duration. Staff Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 5 plan strategies with the children and young people such as maintaining contact when they are away from the home. Staff help children and young people develop self- protection skills to keep themselves safe. Consequently, the associated risks of criminal and sexual exploitation are reduced.

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

Staff understand how the children’s and young people’s adverse experiences affect their emotional well-being. Individualised and positive support plans give staff clear guidance on supporting children and young people who may present with angry or aggressive outbursts. The in-house clinical team provides ongoing reflection and advice to enable staff to individualise their responses. This brings an openness within the staff team to discuss their reaction to children’s and young people’s negative behaviours. The use of restrictions of movement have reduced in frequency due to the staff team’s effective behaviour management strategies. However, on occasions staff still use monetary sanctions rather than a restorative approach.

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

Staff provide guidance and encourage positive social skills and behaviour. This is both informally and during the good-quality individualised work undertaken. The children and young people are open about their behaviours, such as their misuse of drugs and alcohol. This provides opportunities for staff to provide them with advice, support and education. Staff help the children and young people to manage their frustrations and develop alternative ways to convey their feelings and emotions. This results in a reduced number of self-harming behaviours as the children and young people learn to self- regulate their emotions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is now a registered manager in post who is described by staff as being very child- centred and approachable. The manager works closely with a committed senior team to provide strong management and oversight to ensure the effective running of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team comprises workers from different local authority homes which merged together after the last inspection. New staff have also joined the team. Staff spoke of the benefits of the buddy system which links workers together to share practice and ideas, so that they learn from each other. The manager’s focus has been on developing the staff team. This has helped it become unified. A staff member said, ‘We have a good, strong team. People text you if you have had a bad shift. There is a culture of supporting each other.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children and young people benefit from being cared for by a very experienced and eclectic staff team. Staff come from different backgrounds, have a variety of skills and hold a multitude of qualifications. The manager and staff work alongside experienced clinicians such as the psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and education specialist. These professionals make up the in-house multi- disciplinary team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager knows the children and young people very well and maintains a thorough oversight of their needs, progress and behaviour. The managers and staff team are Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 6 passionate, enthusiastic and committed about providing the best care for the children and young people. Consequently, staff are highly motivated to help children and young people make progress in their lives, even if they only stay at the home for a short time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive excellent ongoing training. They benefit from their close contact with the multi-disciplinary team, which provides in-house training and guidance. This keeps staff’s knowledge up to date as they receive information and training about current and wider issues that affect children and young people, such as county lines. The staff are very reflective and use research to improve their practice. Staff speak of receiving high levels of support and supervision and particularly enjoy the hands-on approach of the managers. The access to a wide range of training reflects the manager’s commitment to staff’s professional development.

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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’. Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bradford Children’s Specialist Service

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Adoption Service, Sir Henry Mitchell House, 4 Manchester Road, Bradford, Yorkshire BD5 0QL

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Inspector(s)

Tina Ruffles, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC486606 8 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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