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

Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 1 SC033492 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 home is owned and run by a local authority. It provides care for up to seven children and young people who have emotional, social and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered since 12 November 2020.

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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 January 2020

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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

20/01/2020 Full Outstanding 06/11/2018 Full Good 20/02/2018 Full Outstanding 15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children build trusting relationships with staff who know them well. Staff are sensitive to children’s individual needs and support children to express themselves. This enables children to form secure relationships and feel happy and settled at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported with their learning and school attendance. They have clear plans and staff work with education professionals to find the right school placements. This ensures that children can make progress in their education. One child has been supported by staff to learn to read. This is exceptional progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to take part in new experiences and activities. Staff help them to learn to ride bicycles, and children attend swimming lessons and local community groups and go horse riding. This helps children to develop a sense of adventure and learn new skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff cultivate positive relationships with other professionals to progress children’s plans. Children with additional needs have access to in-house professionals as well as external support. This helps the children to process trauma and communicate their wishes and feelings more effectively. Family members speak positively about the progress their children are making and the efforts of staff in supporting this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children moving on from the home benefit from careful planning and support. This enables a successful transition to their longer-term placement or return to their families. Staff provide each child with a DVD compilation of photos of their time at the home. Children can take this record of their achievements, experiences and enjoyable times they have had to their new homes. This helps them feel valued by staff and the other children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are able to stay in touch with important people in their lives. However, children are not always supported by staff to have time with their families, but by adults who may be unfamiliar to them. This can be a source of stress or concern for some children. This does not promote appropriate relationships with their family members or support their feelings of safety and security.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There have been some improvements to the home, which now presents as a warm and inviting environment for children to live in. Children can choose new decor for their bedrooms and they have had input into the redecoration of the lounge area. However, there remain areas which are institutional in their appearance and in need of repairs and maintenance. Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 4

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

Children are of a young age and therefore have constant supervision from the staff. Risk assessments are easy to understand and clearly set out the expectations for keeping children safe. Staff promote regular routines and consistent rules and boundaries for the children. This helps children to feel safe and secure.

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

Children are helped to understand their feelings and behaviour. Staff use their understanding of the children’s needs to support them when they are upset. They use their training effectively to distract and redirect children on to positive activities.

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

Staff are carefully recruited and the procedures around their employment are followed to ensure that all necessary checks are carried out. Staff undertake an induction and probationary period which the manager oversees to assess their suitability for working with children. This ensures that only skilled and appropriate staff are working directly with the children, keeping them safer.

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

Staff are trained to use physical restraint to hold children in response to crisis behaviour. Staff record these instances, and the manager completes a review and holds reflective discussions to learn lessons for the future. The children’s voice is reflected in the records, and those discussions help them to understand events and feel safe and supported by staff. However, records are not always written in a way that will be helpful to the child and sometimes inappropriate language is used. This may have an impact on how the child is understood or how they might view themselves in the future.

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

There are procedures in place to ensure that any allegations or complaints are addressed. Staff are aware of these procedures and understand the need to raise any concerns through their management structure. On one occasion, the manager did not follow these procedures. This means that there is not a formal record of the incident, which could have left a child at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed and staffed by a team that is enthusiastic and passionate about achieving good outcomes for children. There is a clear ambition to nurture and care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision sessions with the manager or a senior member of staff. Both individual and group reflective discussions help staff to better understand and meet the needs of children. This drives improvement in practice and supports the learning and development of the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to a range of training opportunities which provide them with the skills and knowledge to meet the diverse needs of the children. There is a therapeutic multi-agency approach to caring for the children which includes regular input from in-house professionals including a psychologist and a speech and Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 5 language therapist. This ensures that the staff continue to learn and develop their approach to caring for the children. As a result, the plans for children are constantly evolving to meet their physical, emotional and developmental needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager's oversight is restricted by a lack of monitoring systems. Therefore, the manager does not have a firm grip on the performance of her staff or the home. For example, she does not have a tool to monitor staff training outcomes. The manager’s six-monthly review does not focus on the quality of care provided to children and how this affects their outcomes. This inhibits plans for the improvement of services offered to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The culture of the home is one of high aspirations for children. Staff work well with outside agency partners to help progress children’s plans. However, when the manager identifies that professionals are not prioritising the needs of children, she is not always proactive in escalating her concerns. This can delay important decisions for children and result in them remaining uncertain about their future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager does not always notify Ofsted when there has been a serious incident concerning a child. This has been in relation to matters such as a child testing positive for COVID-19. This prevents independent scrutiny of serious events and restricts oversight of the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c)) 26 November 2021

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that the manager consistently follows the correct procedures whenever there is an allegation made against a member of staff. 26 November 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the regis- tered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 26 November 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 7

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Recommendations

 The registered provider must ensure that children’s homes are nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children. They will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.). However, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered provider must ensure appropriate forms of contact are promoted and facilitated for each child, including, where appropriate, visits to the child in the home; visits by the child to relatives and/or friends; letters, emails and texts; use of social media and other forms of contact via the internet. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph

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Recommendations

11.18)  The registered provider must ensure that staff are 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 home regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered provider must ensure a system is in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in regulation 45 at least once every six months; also see regulation 13 (2)(h) (the leadership and management standard). The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact

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Recommendations

the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the Quality Standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC033492 8

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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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Inspector

Deb Duffy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033492 9 to 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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