Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC) 0-19 Children’s Service in South Yorkshire has been rated outstanding, following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Following their first inspection in October, the service was rated outstanding overall and for being effective and responsive to people’s needs. It was rated good for being safe, caring and well-led.
The inspection found that people using the service benefited from outstanding specialist support and tailored services relevant to their needs within a diverse community.
The provider delivers health visiting and school nursing services to children, young people and families up to age 19, and young people with special educational needs and disabilities up to age 25.
Brian Cranna, CQC’s head of hospital inspection (mental health and community health services), said:
“We were extremely impressed how much staff treated children, young people and their families with compassion and kindness. The feedback was consistently positive, and people felt the support they received exceeded their expectations. The team recognised that the social and emotional needs of people were just as important as their physical needs which resulted in them receiving outstanding care.
“The service constantly looked for ways to improve how they deliver care such as supporting the traveller and migrant communities. The service appointed a full-time member of staff to work exclusively with travellers, refugees and asylum seekers. Also, they created a safeguarding team to deal with complex child protection issues to help protect vulnerable people.
“Additionally, despite the challenges of the pandemic, the service continued to carry out face-to-face visits to vulnerable families. Also, for those children not attending school, the service introduced walk and talk sessions to help reduce social isolation and anxiety during the pandemic.
“I encourage other providers to read this and other CQC inspection reports for services we have rated outstanding, to see what they can learn.”
CQC found the following outstanding practice:
- The service provided joined up care, especially during the pandemic. They worked with the local authority safeguarding team to provide targeted intervention for families identified as needing support around domestic abuse
- Every child had a personal health record that had been specially adapted to meet their specific needs
- Service users could use an accessible instant messaging service to contact the service, even out of hours. Staff ensured these were responded to the next working day
- Services were tailored to meet the needs of individuals. Staff had access to interpretation and sign language services.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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