Children's Home run by Bristol City Council in Bristol

Inspection report children’s home: SC031504 1 SC031504 Registered provider: Bristol City Council

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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 short-break centre is operated by a local authority in the South West of England. The home is registered to provide short-break care and accommodation for up to five children and young people at any one time. Twenty-two children currently receive a short-break service. Children and young people who stay at this home may have a learning disability and/or physical disabilities.

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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: 21 November 2017

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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: SC031504 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/11/2017 Full Good 22/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/08/2016 Full Good 29/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC031504 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. In particular, the registered person should ensure that the process of verifying recruitment information, including conversations with referees, is clearly recorded on staff personnel files. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards 2015’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  Ensure that the home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ (April 2015, page 62,

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Recommendations

paragraph 14.5) In particular, ensure that the recording of incidents is rigorous and child centred and that it is in a format which can be easily read and monitored.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children, young people and their parents receive exceptional support from this short- break service. The registered manager and staff have created a homely, inviting and nurturing environment. The walls are decorated with attractive artwork. There are numerous photographs and congratulatory certificates showing the children and young people’s progress. The home provides very good facilities to help children and young people to enjoy their activity-based stays. Children and young people who use this service come from a wide range of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. They are encouraged to celebrate cultural diversity. This month’s country of cultural celebration is Romania. Romanian flags and national recipes help the children and young people to understand some of that country’s culture and heritage. Individual bedrooms are carefully designed to meet the children and young people’s needs. Their personal possessions are placed in the room before they arrive, to make

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

them feel at home. Children and young people can keep the same bedroom every time they visit, if they like it and feel settled there. The children and young people continue to make good progress. For example, some children are now able to go to the shops with staff, when they could not previously manage this safely. The swimming group members are all swimming unaided, which is a fantastic achievement. Children and young people’s successes are always acknowledged Inspection report children’s home: SC031504 4 and rewarded appropriately. Consultation with the children and young people is exceptionally good. The registered manager and staff plan activities and meals very carefully to accommodate the children and young people’s wishes and abilities. There are regular, themed children and young people’s meetings. Themes have included celebrating differences, Black History month, positive relationships and stranger danger.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Each child and young person has a detailed placement plan to help the staff to care for them well. Their healthcare needs can be very complex. The staff have good-quality information about the children and young people’s medical conditions. This helps them to make the right decisions if the children and young people experience difficulties during their stay. The children and young people normally live with their parents at home. Parents take the lead in communicating with schools and medical services.

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

Children and young people are kept safe when they visit the home. Risk assessments are clear and detailed, with strategies to help the staff to respond to situations that may arise. The staff and manager understand the need to avoid situations which the children and young people find stressful. Children and young people develop trusting relationships with staff. Children and young people do not go missing from this home. There has been one safeguarding allegation since the last inspection. This was responded to appropriately. The home uses the local authority’s standard system for recording safeguarding incidents. The health and safety forms used are not child centred and are designed to report accidents and injuries to staff. There is no provision on the form to record a child’s name, sufficient detail about the incident, or to allow staff and the manager to reflect on practice. This system is not sufficiently rigorous to record incidents concerning

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

children. A recommendation has been made. There were no identified shortfalls in staff recruitment practice at this inspection. The recommendation made at the last inspection was about recording the outcome of the telephone reference conversation. The home has not yet recruited any additional staff, so cannot produce evidence of compliance with the recommendation. For this reason, the recommendation has been repeated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is very well managed. The qualified, experienced registered manager has been in post for many years. The registered manager is ambitious for the home; to this end, she has welcomed the home’s involvement in the local authority’s research project into short-break services. The manager coordinating this research has attended a number of team meetings to share her findings with the staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC031504 5 The home has sufficient, permanent staff to care for the children and young people well. One-to-one staffing with familiar, highly skilled staff is an important factor in the quality of this service. The staff sleeping-in room is welcoming and nicely decorated. This shows that staff are valued and supported, which in turn has a positive impact on the quality of care that they provide. The staff feel very well supervised and supported. They receive good-quality training and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

are highly motivated in their work. The manager has a good workforce development plan. All the home’s care staff are qualified to at least level 3. Some are working towards their level 5 award in leadership and management. The registered manager has a very good understanding of the contribution that the home makes to positive outcomes for children and young people. She sets clear targets for each child, reviews any incidents in detail and ensures that the staff learn from them. The registered manager has very strong relationships with a wide range of other professionals, including social workers, school staff, the child and adolescent mental health services and the designated officer. This helps to ensure that children and young people receive the services and support that they need. At the previous full inspection, one requirement was made concerning regulation 45 reports. At the time, they were not being sent to Ofsted, but this has been remedied.

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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: SC031504 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Director of Legal Services, City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR

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Inspector

Heather Chaplin, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC031504 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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