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

Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 1 SC472977 Registered provider: City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to 15 children and young people who have learning disabilities. Children and young people use this service for permanent and shared-care placements. The service also provides short-term care to children and young people who are undergoing assessments by a Behavioural Evaluation Support Team (BEST). It is owned and operated by a local authority. There are two managers registered at this setting. They were registered in October 2013 and May 2017.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 11 February 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/02/2019 Full Good 20/09/2017 Full Good 15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 3

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improvement to be good

There has been a high level of staff sickness and staff vacancies over many months. A child moving to the home on a full-time basis has added extra pressure to the already depleted staff team. Some of the children and young people have limited communication and respond better to well-established staff team members who know them well. The use of a number of temporary staff has resulted in a lack of continuity of care for the children and young people.

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improvement to be good

There is inconsistency in respect of the activities available to children and young people. Some do not go out often, whereas others go on holiday. There is no weekly planner, especially during the school holidays. Children and young people do not have a structured week, which leads to boredom. One child had his weekly visit to the youth club cancelled due to staff shortages. Staff are good advocates for the children and young people and raise their frustrations at the lack of activities. One young person wrote, ‘I’m bored as I stay in my bedroom and I am on a week holiday. Nothing to do as no activity planner. I want to have a day out and I haven’t been out in a while.’

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improvement to be good

There is damage to the home caused by some children and young people. The BEST service has a fully equipped sensory room. However, the main home’s sensory room has broken furniture and a lack of sensory equipment. There is no suitable space to help the children and young people to self-regulate or to relax and receive sensory stimulation. Repairs are not completed in a timely way and damaged furniture such as a dining-room table was left in the garden. This could present a health and safety hazard. One young person’s bedroom smells of urine due to damage to the flooring as a result of his enuresis problem. This is an ongoing issue as it was initially raised as a complaint by a parent. This does not provide children and young people with a message that they are valued.

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improvement to be good

Half of the children and young people are due to move out of the home to their adult provision within the next six months. Although these young people have lived at the home for many years, none of them know where they will be moving to. This leaves limited time for staff to prepare them for their moves. Additionally, there is a lack of independence work completed with the young people, such as staff teaching them how to shop and prepare a meal. There is no detailed assessment of their skills. This lack of information does not assist the social care team in identifying the most suitable adult homes for the young people.

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improvement to be good

Staff are still not collating photographs and information to provide children and young people with important memories to take with them when they leave.

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improvement to be good

Some of the permanent staff members have worked at the home for many years and know the children and young people very well. This provides the children and young Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 4 people with adults they can trust to tend to their personal care needs. Staff have now received Makaton training and there is the improved use of signs, symbols and aids around the home. Staff work with the schools to provide consistent approaches to communication such as now and next boards and objects of reference.

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improvement to be good

The staff provide supervision and support to the children and young people, who are vulnerable due to their complex needs. One young person has lived at the home for many years without a full assessment of their cognitive and developmental ability. This leaves staff without the knowledge of how best to meet their communication, social and emotional needs.

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improvement to be good

Some of the children and young people display self-injurious and self-harming behaviours. For one young person, the number of self-harming incidents has increased. This is due to their anxiety and lack of certainty about the move to their adult home.

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improvement to be good

The staff team is working with an external behavioural specialist to help manage a child’s aggressive and violent outbursts. The staff team is provided with clear instructions to help manage the child’s behaviour. However, the staff do not always follow the strategies detailed in the plan, resulting in increased outbursts of negative behaviour. On occasions, staff use physical intervention to keep children and young people safe and records are maintained to reflect the incidents.

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improvement to be good

Children and young people do not go out alone and therefore do not go missing from home. One young person is at risk of exploitation, particularly through their internet and social media access. Staff do not complete regular, structured key-work sessions to educate children and young people about the associated risks and dangers. This does not provide children and young people with information to keep themselves safe, particularly given the young people will shortly be moving to their adult homes where they will be subject to lower levels of supervision.

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improvement to be good

The BEST staff provide an effective behavioural assessment service for children and young people with high-level complex needs. Staff’s interventions help children and young people to manage their anxieties, which can affect their presenting behaviours. Staff now receive advice from a consultant psychologist and psychiatrist to help evaluate the meaning of children’s and young people’s behaviours. Staff work with parents but are still not consistently recording their assessment analysis and communicating it clearly to parents and carers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has two registered managers together with a manager of the BEST service. These managers have many years of residential childcare experience. They work closely together and make an effective management team that has a visible presence in the home. This includes the managers helping staff to care for the children and young Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 5 people when there are shortages.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, there have been many staff vacancies at the home and staff morale is low. Although efforts are being made to recruit staff, it is too early to see the impact of this on staff recruitment and retention.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The managers’ and staff team’s commitment to the children and young people is laudable. It is a close-knit staff team. The staff enjoy spending time with the children and young people, but the use of temporary staff creates additional work for the team as this has resulted in gaps in recording.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The managers have continued to provide staff with regular supervision and team meetings. During these sessions, staff often express their concerns about the lack of funding available for children and young people. They talk of the impact that this has on resources at the home, such as low budget food and a lack of toys or sensory items. However, no action is taken to address these shortfalls and to improve the quality of care for children and young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 6

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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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(vi)) Specifically, for staff to undertake regular, structured key- working sessions or direct work to prepare a young person for leaving the home. 30/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to— meet the needs of each child; and enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)(ii)) In particular, to remove all broken and unused furniture from the home and garden and to repair and replenish the home’s 30/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 7 sensory room so that children and young people can make use of this room. One young person’s bedroom smells of urine and the flooring needs replacing to something more suitable to deal

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Requirement Due date

with his enuresis problem. The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(ii)) 30/11/2019

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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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (2)(e)) 30/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)) Specifically, to ensure that there is a stable staff team before accepting any new admissions to the home as well as ensuring that transition planning gives enough time to prepare young people for moving on from the home. 30/11/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 8 paragraph 14.5)  Registered persons have a key role in seeking to develop the home’s effective working relationships with each child’s placing authority and with other relevant persons which may include services, individuals (including parents), agencies, organisations and establishments that work with children in the local community. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.3) In particular, ensure that there is better communication with parents when

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Recommendations

interventions have ended.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, to make sure that staff consistently record children’s and young people’s progress against their targets and for BEST staff to evaluate their findings and consistently relay the outcome of their work to parents and carers.

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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: SC472977 9

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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: City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, City Hall, Centenary Square, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1HY

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Children’s home details

Registered managers: Balvinder Gill and Victoria Bolton

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Inspectors

Tina Ruffles: social care inspector Jan Edwards: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472977 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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