Children's home run by Hopscotch Care Limited in Lancaster

Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 1 SC479632 Registered provider: Hopscotch Care Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run children’s home that provides care and accommodation for up to five children and irrespective of gender, who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There has been no registered manager in post since April 2018. A manager has been appointed but has yet to make an application for registration to the regulator.

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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: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home was served with two compliance notices following its previous inspection on 9 and 10 July 2019, when it was judged to be inadequate in all areas. The compliance notices were served under regulation 13 and regulation 14. The compliance notices expired on 2 September 2019. Compliance was monitored as part of this inspection and was found to have been met. Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/07/2019 Full Inadequate 22/01/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/03/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 3

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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 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. (Regulation 36 (1))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, this refers to schedule 3 (14), regarding records of the date and circumstances of all incidents where a child goes missing from the home, including any information relating to the child’s s whereabouts during the period of absence. 02/10/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should understand what they must do to prevent bullying of children by other children or adults. Staff should be able to recognise and address different types of abuse such as peer abuse, cyber-bullying and bullying in day to day relationships in the home. Registered persons must ensure that procedures for dealing with allegations of bullying are in place and staff have the skills required to intervene, protect and address bullying behaviours effectively. (‘Guide to the children’s s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.16)  Staff need the knowledge and skills to recognise and be alert for any signs that might indicate a child is in any way at risk of harm. The registered person should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded in the homes workforce plan. (‘Guide to the children’s s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

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Recommendations

Specifically, this relates to ensuring that all staff are trained in self-harm and suicide awareness.  When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 4 risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will

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Recommendations

be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff have put a great deal of effort into addressing the shortfalls in care identified at the previous inspection. The impact of this is that most children and young people at the home are now settled and making good progress. They have developed stronger relationships with the staff team members and trust them to care and support them. The improved environment in the home makes it homelier and more welcoming and contributes to a calmer, more settled atmosphere.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

With one exception, all children and young people at the home are now in full-time education. The young person who is not in education or employment has been given good support to find education and employment and is currently hoping to be recruited to the armed forces. Staff are supporting him to meet the entry requirements for this. Staff are also helping him to continue to develop his independence skills. Additionally, managers have advocated on his behalf for a review of his placement, which is in line with his desire to move on from the home. Children and young people are also helped to engage in educational activities and trips. The educational value of these visits and activities is now evidenced through records.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people reported that they like the staff who look after them and feel that they genuinely care about them. Social workers also reported that children and young people have positive relationships with staff. Observations of children, young people and staff together showed that staff were attentive and showed empathy, interest, patience and nurture. Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 5 Relationships between the children and young people themselves have also improved, and there are fewer concerns about them having a negative impact on each other. There are still some occasions where children are unkind and hurtful to each other, but they reported that staff manage this and intervene to stop any further hurtful behaviour. Further work could be undertaken to educate children and young people on the impact of bullying, to ensure that they fully understand the consequences of their actions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people are supported to achieve and maintain good health. A requirement made at the home’s last inspection relating to children and young people accessing appropriate health agencies has now been met.

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

Children and young people reported that they feel safe and that staff help them to be safe. Evidence from records shows that staff have the skills to manage situations where children and young people put themselves and others at risk, and the efforts staff make to de-escalate challenging situations. Although children and young people do continue to have episodes where they damage property and threaten and abuse staff, these occur far less often.

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

Children and young people do not go missing from the home. frequently. When they do go missing, it is not for long periods of time. Records of missing-from-home incidents do not show what staff did to try to locate and return the missing child. In addition, the records do not show whether the child has had an independent return interview, nor any information about where they went during the missing-from-home episode. A requirement is made to reflect these shortfalls in recording.

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

Risks for children and young people are understood and are clearly recorded in their risk assessments. Appropriate strategies are identified to control and manage risks. Risk assessments are updated if any new risks become apparent and these updates are clearly communicated to staff so that all staff are aware of any amendments to care practice.

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

Incident packs are collated for any significant safeguarding incidents. These clearly show what the home has done to manage the incident, communicate with other agencies, amend plans and risk assessments, and any follow-up direct work with children.

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

When children and young people misuse their access to the internet and social media, safeguards are implemented. While the practice ensures children’s safety, more could be done to educate children about the reasons some content available on the internet is not appropriate for them to view.

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

Sanctions are put in place on occasions when children and young people have shown poor behaviour. The manager reviews sanctions for effectiveness. Practice could be further improved by ensuring that sanctions are linked to the behaviour and are restorative in nature. Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 6 Some children make threats to self-harm, although there have been no recent incidents of actual serious self-harm. Some staff, but not all, are trained in self-harm and suicide awareness. It would be beneficial for all staff to be trained in this area so that they could respond appropriately should an incident occur.

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

Although a number of good practice recommendations are made at this inspection relating to helping and protecting children, the basic safeguarding practice in the home is now good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has not had a registered manager in post since April 2018. There have been three managers in post since this time, some of whom have not had a positive effect on the home. This lack of stability and continuity of managers has an impact on the judgement for leadership and management. Positively, although the new manager has not yet applied to register with the regulator, he is performing well. The manager and the operations manager have worked with the staff team to improve the quality of care provided to children in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager is keen, motivated and committed to raising standards and improving outcomes for children. He is a positive role model for staff and has succeeded in unifying the staff team. Morale among staff is much improved and they reported feeling supported and valued by managers. They also feel listened to and believe that the manager takes account of their views and is inclusive in respect of decision making. No staff have left the home since the last inspection, which means that continuity of care is improving.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff spoken with during this inspection said that they achieve consistency in care using the handover book, communication log, newly implemented daily-living logs and regular team meetings. They reported that communication between staff and managers has continued to improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers have worked hard to ensure that the two compliance notices made at the last inspection are met. The manager has challenged placing authorities to provide an appropriate level of education for one young person, and to review the placement of another. Managers’ c clear communication with the staff, children and young people means that they understand the progress the children and young people are making. Managers are now taking effective action to ensure that children make continuous progress, and they have put in place systems to evidence this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

A new process has been developed to ensure that full information is available and considered before a child is admitted to the home. The process also allows for any prospective admission to be matched to the children already in placement. Although this system has not yet been tested in this home, the process looks to be thorough and to ensure that a detailed analysis of matching considerations is undertaken before any new child is admitted. Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 7 The quality of record keeping has improved, although there is still some way to go in this area. Some records continue to use inappropriate language, and a recommendation is made to reflect the importance of ensuring the accuracy of records and of using non- stigmatising language.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children’s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

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Information about this inspection

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 children‟s home: SC479632 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hopscotch Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 19 Lancaster Road, Carnforth LA5 9LD

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Inspector

Charlie Bamber, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC479632 9 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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