Children's home run by Bradford Children’s and Families Trust

Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 1 Registered provider: Bradford Children’s and Families Trust

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by Bradford Children and Families Trust on behalf of a local authority. Currently, the home is registered to provide care for up to 10 children with sensory impairments, physical disabilities, and who may have learning disabilities. Children can stay at the home on a short-break arrangement, or live permanently at the home. The Trust is seeking to vary its registration to provide care for up to five children only.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager at the home since September 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, four children were living at the home. The inspectors spent time with all the children during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 2

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Ofsted completed a full inspection on 11 and 12 June 2024. There were significant shortfalls found relating to the leadership and management of the home. Ofsted issued a compliance notice under Regulation 13 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. A monitoring visit was undertaken on 17 July 2024 and the Trust had met the steps within the compliance notice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/06/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/08/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The ongoing poor leadership and management arrangements significantly hinder staff’s ability to sufficiently support children. Of note, staff are committed to their role and care deeply for the children. However, leaders undermine staff’s efforts, as they have failed to address the issues noted in their own action plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the interim manager making reasonable efforts to make the environment feel and look more homely, creative ideas to further develop the home have not been progressed. Additionally, one child still had their old bed stored in their bedroom. These examples undermine the children’s ability to have a sense of living in a comfortable and orderly home environment. Encouragingly, leaders have since assured that sufficient funds will be made available to address these issues.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff are competent and confident in managing the children’s medical needs associated with their disability. However, staff overlook other important aspects of the children’s care. For example, staff do not consider the children’s heritage as a topic of significance. This means that staff do not filter this important and interesting aspect of the child’s being when planning the children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There is a lack of training, guidance and, therefore confidence in supporting children through puberty and their developmental stages. This restricts staff being able to offer good enough care in this aspect of the children’s life. Additionally, this lack of awareness severely limits care planning around these sensitive but necessary features of the children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One child has not had access to a school environment for three years. This has denied a child the opportunity to thrive and develop in an alternative structured learning environment. This situation has been borne out of systemic failures, resulting in the child’s support network becoming ineffective in seeking a viable solution.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The organisation has commissioned a children’s advocacy service to independently obtain the children’s wishes and feelings. However, this has not been accessed or used effectively. This means that children are being denied the opportunity for an independent person to advocate on the children’s behalf and champion the children’s cause.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Encouragingly, staff have built meaningful and loving relationships with the children. A child’s family member said that they feel reassured by this when they visit their loved one at the home.

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

The on-call system for staff undermines staff’s ability to consistently provide safe care for the children. An example being that leaders have overburdened staff with covering Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 5 sickness at short notice, typically on a weekend or out of office hours. Worryingly, this has distracted staff from their fundamental role of primarily focusing on the children’s care. Furthermore, this system has occasionally resulted in there being unsafe staffing ratios. Leaders have taken immediate action to address this.

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

Structures to review care planning and better evaluate how risks should be managed are ineffective. Ultimately, learning from incidents is not influencing changes in care practices. This has resulted in one child being subjected to two assaults from another child as care strategies have been ineffective to better manage this.

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

Staff are unclear in respect of their responsibilities in terms of care planning when considering the children’s legal status. This curtails staff’s ability to better contribute to social work or occupational therapy assessments. In one instance, this has resulted in a child’s liberty being disproportionately impeded in the absence of a thorough assessment.

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

The interim manager has responded effectively to the home being occasionally targeted by a minority of individuals from the local community. There has been a collaborative approach with the local safer neighbourhood team to educate the individuals who have targeted the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been no registered manager for a significant period. Despite this, there is an absence of an induction plan that would give a new manager the best chance of succeeding in their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The action plan that leaders drafted in December 2024 continues to have significant gaps that need to be acted on and resolved. This has impacted on the children’s care and staff’s ability to effectively function fluidly as a team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is a breakdown in communication between leaders and staff. This has had a negative impact on staff morale and has left staff floundering on several issues that are important to them. On a positive note, staff sense that life in the home is becoming more structured due to the positive impact made by the interim manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Several staff do not have the necessary qualification for their role. Furthermore, several of these staff have been employed by the organisation for several years. Although there is a plan to address this, it has not generated enough progress. Additionally, staff say that their training offer does not properly give them the skills to meet all the children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In addition to the above, an external professional has noted that they are of the view that staff are not effective in meetings, as there is a lack of expertise concerning children who have profound disabilities. This professional is of the view that this has inhibited children to maximise their ability to be as independent as they could be if their care was accordingly informed. Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 6 The children’s written records are not stored or written in a manner that reflects the regulations or associated statutory guidance. Consequently, some records are not accessible. Furthermore, the written records do not consistently bring the child’s day-to- day experience of care to life. As a result, this diminishes the ability of others to gain a meaningful understanding of what the child’s care looks like. Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 7

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

*The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children's home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider appoints a person to manage the home, the registered provider must, without delay, give HMCI notice of—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person so appointed; and

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Requirement Due date

the date on which the appointment takes effect.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 27 (1)(a)(b)(i) (2)(a)(b)) 1 August 2025

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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—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; 1 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 8 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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Requirement Due date

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

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home

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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

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iii)) 1 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained— 1 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 9 the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014,1st April 2016.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; and

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date (Regulation 36 (1)(b)) 1 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: 2729749 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bradford Children’s and Families Trust

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sir Henry Mitchell House (5th Floor), 4 Manchester Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD5 0QL

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Inspectors

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Joanna Beal, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2729749 11 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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