A local centre offering services to disabled children and their families has been classed as outstanding in every category in a report published by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) for the ninth time in a row.
Bridges Resource Centre is a short breaks facility for disabled children in the Wokingham Borough, providing a range of high quality short breaks services. Bridges was inspected by OFSTED in October under a new set of National Minimum Standards for Children’s Homes.
As well as continued praise about communication and giving young people real choice and opportunity to express their views, it was also noted that outcomes for young people are outstanding. The inspector’s said: 'Young people are enthusiastic about the home, get excited when they are due to come and enjoy excellent relationships with the staff. One young person said that she likes everything about the home and enjoys coming there. Parents comment on the tremendous progress that the young people make whilst at the home.’
One parent said: "My daughter initially went in on a crisis placement and now her behaviour has really improved, staff were instrumental in turning it around."
Bridges was judged to be equally outstanding in the areas of quality of care, safeguarding children and young people, leadership and management and was judged to be good in equality and diversity.
The inspector also praised the centre for the close working relationships with parents, and other professionals involved in the child’s life such as health colleagues, school staff, social workers and occupational therapists and the contribution this makes to achieving excellent outcomes for young people.
David Green, manager of Bridges Resource Centre, said: "This is a fantastic achievement that recognises the commitment and effort of both staff at the centre and colleagues within the learning difficulties and disabilities service at the council and Friends of Bridges - a charitable organisation that raises funds for activities and equipment.
"It is also testament to the positive relationships we have built with children and their families and wonderful to know that this combined effort is continuing to achieve amazing outcomes for the children who use the service. We are really proud of the service that we provide and that despite a change in the standards we are inspected to, that we remain an outstanding centre."
Cllr Rob Stanton, executive member for education services and chairman of the corporate parenting board, said: "This latest report is very impressive and David Green and his team should be very proud of it. Every single area was classed as outstanding which is a huge credit to the whole team at Bridges. I would like to congratulate everyone involved for their hard work and commitment which has resulted in yet another outstanding inspection. The centre offers high quality service and the inspectors made some extremely positive findings."
A previous report, ‘Outstanding Children’s Homes’, published by Ofsted in March 2011, saw Bridges named as one of 35 homes (out of 1,439) to consistently achieve over six consecutive outstanding inspections
Bridges also features on the good practice section of the OFSTED website regarding good practice in communication with disabled children.
