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

Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 1 SC059635 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 local authority home is registered to provide care for up to four children who may have social or emotional difficulties. There were two children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager at this home. An acting manager is in post. However, they have not yet applied to register with Ofsted.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

At the interim inspection on 16 March 2022, Ofsted judged that it had declined in effectiveness. The inspectors found serious shortfalls in children’s risk assessments and the checks completed on agency workers.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Ofsted issued two compliance notices under section 22 of the Care Standards Act 2000. These were in relation to regulation 12, the protection of children standard, and regulation 32, the fitness of workers. At the monitoring visit on 11 May 2022, Ofsted found the provider had met the steps in both compliance notices. Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2022 Interim Declined in effectiveness 15/09/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 15/10/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have trusting relationships with staff and feel well cared for. They have lived at this home for a considerable time and identify it as a place of safety. The children feel listened to and they value the help they receive from staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote children’s physical and emotional well-being through their participation in sports and activities. Both children, who have a love for football, suffered setbacks from serious injuries whilst playing football that prevented them from playing. Staff offered emotional support to help the children to cope with the emotional impact of not being able to enjoy their favourite recreation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Access to specialist support, such as the substance misuse team and a child psychologist, ensures that children have the help they need to stay well and healthy and learn about the impact of unhealthy lifestyle choices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff motivate children to attend school and college through positive encouragement. This has helped one child to return to school full time for their final academic year. Staff work with education professionals and are strong advocates for children. This has helped another child stay focused on their learning objectives during an unsettled period of time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a variety of activities including going on holiday to the seaside. They enjoy individual time with staff on weekend breaks and visiting theme parks, watching their favourite team play football, visiting the capital city, and taking a relaxing break at a holiday park. This helps to build the children’s self-esteem, strengthens relationships and creates positive memories.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children can express their identity and explore their individuality in the safe environment of this home. Staff have helped children to join clubs and support groups that enable them to spend time with others who have similar interests and needs, as they develop their sense of self.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children learn independence skills in preparation for leaving the home. The self- contained bedroom allows children to develop their independence, including their cooking skills, before they move on from the home. The independence programme also provides an opportunity for children to learn how to budget and shop, pay bills and learn other practical living skills. Children also use an independence training flat in the community to experience living away from the home prior to moving out. However, the progress children make with their independence skills is not evaluated as part of the home’s independence programme. This may lead to gaps in the children’s development and prevents their learning continuing once they move on to other accommodation. Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 4 Staff create photo albums for the children about special events such as holidays and activities. However, the memories staff capture do not reflect the children’s broader

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

experiences from the children’s time living at the home.

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

Children feel safe living at this home. One child, whose risks in the community have reduced, said, ‘I have always felt safe here.’ Staff use their relationships to help children to recognise unsafe situations and steer them away from danger.

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

When the level of concern for a child’s safety continued to escalate, staff arranged a short break away, to distance the child from unsafe behaviours of their peers. This enabled staff and the child to reconnect and reflect on the concerns.

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

Staff work collaboratively with the police and other safeguarding agencies when there are concerns for the children’s safety. The police officers assigned to the home are identifiable to the children and have open conversations about risk, how to stay safe, and how to recognise the signs of child exploitation. The information provided to the children helps them make informed choices along with how to keep themselves safe.

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

Specialist help through a child psychologist has enabled one child to open up more and share their experiences with staff. This is helping staff to improve their safeguarding practice and better understand the behaviours of the child. Together with the psychologist, the child delivered a presentation to staff on some key areas of safeguarding. For example, this included how to identify concerns on mobile phones, how to ask safeguarding questions to children and their potential impact, and sharing knowledge about sexual identity to promote a greater awareness.

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

Children rarely go missing from home. When this has occurred, staff have followed the children’s protocols and taken the necessary action to help children return home safely.

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

The children’s risk assessments lack guidance for staff to follow when responding to individual behavioural incidents. The description of the children’s behaviour is generalised, and strategies lack insight about what children need to help them to cope with difficult emotions. This does not help staff understand the approaches that work best and may cause children unnecessary distress.

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

Recruitment checks do not consistently scrutinise and evaluate that newly recruited staff are suitable to work with children. For example, managers have not explored all information that would help them to determine the suitability of a staff member prior to them being appointed. Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 5

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good

The home’s manager was registered in October 2022 but left shortly afterwards. The registered manager provided the staff team with a period of stability prior to leaving. A new manager has recently been appointed, but has not yet applied to the regulator to become registered.

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good

Staff have regular practice-related supervision and attend team meetings. They are supported to cope with the demands of the role through monthly consultations with the child and adolescent mental health service. This helps to maintain the team’s focus on the children and enhances their ability to be responsive to their needs.

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good

Managers and staff are strong advocates for children and speak out when they feel the children’s needs are not supported by others. This helps to ensure that children receive the services they are entitled to.

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good

Managers do not have a system to monitor the training needs of staff. This means that managers do not know when statutory training should be renewed or if there are training gaps for individual staff members. This does not support staff development and is likely to impact on the quality of care that children receive.

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good

Managers use the ‘You said we did’ process to show how they respond to children’s requests, low-level complaints and ideas children share at their house meetings. However, records of these house meetings are disorganised. This makes it difficult to demonstrate how children have a say in the running of the home and it limits the manager’s oversight of how children influence the care they receive.

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good

Notification of serious incidents submitted to the regulator do not consistently have the required information to support the evaluation of the incident. This prevents the regulator from being assured that the actions taken are sufficient to keep children safe.

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good

The routine for the upkeep of the home has not identified some shortfalls in cleanliness. As a result, some areas of the home have not been consistently cleaned to a high standard.

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good

External doors have been locked during times when children have been at significant risk of harm. However, managers have not kept under review the securing of external doors as required by the Children’s Home Regulations. This means that such practice has not been assessed as being necessary and proportionate, and children cannot leave without seeking permission from staff.

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good

The home provides ample space for children to live and relax. There are a variety of games and resources available for children to have fun with staff, or take time out of their own accord. There are some photos of the children in the main communal areas of the home. However, the vast majority of photos are of children who have Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 6 lived at the home in years gone by, and of staff who no longer work at the home. This does not have any significance for the current children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 7

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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 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the children’s risk assessments provide the staff with guidance and direction with what action they should take to help children to cope with difficult emotions. 19 March 2023

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 19 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 8 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they have a system for monitoring training renewal dates, training gaps and the learning needs for individual staff.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that when information raises concerns about a staff member, they take the necessary steps to assess and evaluate the staff member’s suitability. 19 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— 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 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 (c)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the locking of external doors is necessary and proportionate, and children have the autonomy to leave the home of their own accord should there be no significant concerns for their safety. 19 March 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they review and develop the independence training programme to be reassured that it supports children to develop the necessary skills in preparation for their move on from the home. The programme should evaluate the progress children have made and identify their continued independence learning needs so these can be continued once children Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 9 move on from the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should ensure that they have a system that helps them to monitor that all areas of the home are sufficiently cleaned by the team. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should ensure that records for capturing the children’s views at group discussions and house meetings are kept in a way that enables

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Recommendations

children to see how their voice has been responded to, and what difference it has made. The registered person should ensure that records are well organised, child friendly and easy to understand. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that photos and memorabilia of the child’s experiences have the dates of the events to help the child understand at what point in their time at the home the events occurred. Photos and memorabilia should be kept in a way that helps the child and their family to reflect about their time living at this home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that when submitting a notification about a serious incident, they clearly describe the incident to help the regulator to evaluate that managers have taken appropriate action to keep children safe.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)

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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: SC059635 10

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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 Hall, Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1HY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Picklu Roychoudhury

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Inspector

Aaron Mcloughlin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC059635 11 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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