Children's Home run by Building Bridges Care Homes Ltd in St Helens

Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 1 SC063284 Registered provider: Building Bridges Care Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a private company. The home provides care for up to five children. The provider specialises in caring for children who may have social, emotional and mental health needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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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: 15 January 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2020 Full Good 12/12/2018 Full Outstanding 20/09/2017 Full Good 16/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are loved, cared for and nurtured by their team of carers. Children have strong relationships with the adults who care for them. One child said, ‘They understand me, and this helps my confidence.’ The strong relationships children have developed with team members support them to develop their self-esteem and resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The team does not complete work with children to enable them to understand their life story. Children who have experienced trauma in their lives need support from those who they trust to help them understand their past experiences. This would enable children to overcome hurdles about their past and focus on their future. Children do not always want to engage with external services to support them with their emotional well-being. The provider has not been creative about how children could access this support internally to support them to overcome any emotional hurdles.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are thriving with their education plans. Children who are experiencing difficulties with their education are supported to overcome any struggles to achieve. There is a focus on children’s longer-term aspirations and children are supported to engage in employment to develop their life skills. This approach enables children to develop good foundations for their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s plans are detailed and it is clear that their team know a lot about their lives. However, the plans do not contain specific and measurable goals for the children to focus on. The plans also do not contain a programme of work to help children develop their life skills. These shortfalls do not empower children to take ownership of their goals and leave both the children and their team confused about what they are working to achieve.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The team has a detailed understanding of children’s health needs and they take significant health conditions very seriously to ensure that children are safe. At times children have needed support with leading a healthy lifestyle in relation to their diet. The team has not explored external services to help them or the children develop their knowledge base, which has resulted in some children’s diets not always being balanced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is personalised and children have designed how they want their home to look. However, there are some areas that make the home look institutional and require some further maintenance. Also, locks on internal doors mean that children do not have access to all areas of their home. Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 4

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

Risks in children’s lives are clearly assessed and there are detailed, personalised plans in place to reduce risks. When a risk arises in a child’s life the team recognises the need for further education. There have been some outstanding pieces of work with children to help them to understand risks and put safeguarding measures in place. The ability to complete this work stems from children feeling safe with the adults who care for them.

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

Children rarely go missing from their home. However, on occasions when they go missing, the team is creative in their thinking about how to get children home safely. The team involves family members, friends, friends’ parents/carers and social media to locate their children and get them home safely. This approach is one that good parents would take.

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

The team follows safeguarding protocols when there is a risk to children. They work with other agencies to ensure that statutory procedures are followed and that a multi-agency plan is put in place to keep children safe. As a result, children benefit from a safety plan that has been rigorously put together by all agencies. Risk reduces as a result of this plan.

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

When children are struggling with their emotions and harm themselves to regulate how they are feeling, the team offers sensitive, empathetic responses to help children through this difficult time. The team supports children to develop positive coping strategies and seek health advice when it is required. This has resulted in children coping with difficult times in a more positive way.

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

The team keeps children safe through good medication practice. The team has information sheets that highlight any possible symptoms that children may suffer as a result of taking their prescribed medication. The team has a very good understanding of the children’s complex health conditions and children’s medication is safely administered. Any external issues with medication are addressed by the managers and clear direction is given to the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team feels well supported. This is underpinned by open communication between managers and the team through supervision, day-to-day oversight and team meetings. This has created a stable team who understand their children very well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team has completed some training courses that will help them to develop their understanding of the children’s needs, however, this is not the case for all team members. Also, the training programme does not cover all topics relevant to the children’s current needs. This fails to develop the knowledge base of the team and the opportunity for the team to develop personalised care for the children. Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 5 The managers confidently challenge and advocate on behalf of their children. If a specific service is not meeting a child’s needs or is not good enough, managers highlight the issue. They remain persistent with their challenge until there is a positive outcome for their child. The children have adults in their lives who fight for them and act as their champions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team members have not all received their annual appraisals. This process enables team members to reflect on their practice and plan for their future development. Not all appraisals include external feedback. The lack of external feedback is also a theme within the manager’s quality of care review. This minimises the opportunity for the team to take on board significant people’s feedback to inform growth, development and the future vision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team speaks about their children with warmth, passion and love. However, the children’s records contain language that is not accessible to them and is at times institutional. This creates barriers for children to engage with their care and plans, as they may not understand the content.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers have a comprehensive oversight of what is happening in the children’s lives. The managers evaluate situations and provide good direction to the team. This creates a culture of development, reflection and high aspirations for children. Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 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, the 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

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children being able to access rooms in their home. Any rooms that children cannot access must be risk assessed and reviewed regularly. 31 December

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing, homely and supportive environment that meet the needs of the children.. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should take account, where reasonable and practical, the views of children, and of other professionals who have worked with the team member. Also, ensure that the team member has a clear action plan for the professional development agreed at their performance review meetings. (‘Guide to the Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 7 children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)  The registered person should ensure that the team records information about the

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Recommendations

child 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)  The registered person should ensure that the team can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. This specifically relates to the team receiving training to meet all of the children’s individual needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that staff help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such

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Recommendations

as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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 for children's home: SC063284 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Building Bridges Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Mill Farm, Bull Bridge Lane, Liverpool L10 6LZ

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Inspector

Carly Quinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC063284 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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