Children's home run by Hopscotch Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 1 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 home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person, who may have emotional or behavioural needs. The home is owned and operated by a private organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has a manager who registered with Ofsted in June 2019.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: Not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 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 leadership and management standard The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(h)) 20/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

Fitness of workers The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(3)(a)(d)) 20/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home (including stakeholder feedback) and make best use of internal monitoring Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 4 procedures to ensure continuous improvement. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person who lives in this home is making highly positive progress due to the care and support she receives. She has developed warm and trusting relationships with staff and said that she feels safe and well cared for. She commented, ‘They keep me safe and they listen to me because they care.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff show good insight into the young person’s previous experiences and understand her needs. They monitor the young person’s progress effectively to help ensure that her changing or emerging needs are met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work in partnership with a therapist, which helps them to support the young person’s emotional needs. The young person’s emotional well-being has improved over time. For example, she is now able to settle and sleep through the night, which was not possible for her at the point of her admission, due to high levels of anxiety.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person is engaging in education for the first time in several years. She is currently in receipt of reduced provision. However, there is a clear plan in place to integrate her into full-time mainstream education. Staff ensure that her current learning is supported by well-structured educational activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person is encouraged to share her thoughts, wishes and feelings about her care and the general running of the home. Where possible, staff endeavour to work in accordance with the young person’s wishes. A social worker said, ‘The staff always involve her in planning, and she has a sense of ownership of her environment.’

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improvement to be good

There were significant concerns about the young person’s safety and well-being prior to her admission to the home. However, due to her good progress and reduction in risk- taking behaviours, all the professionals involved in her care agree that risks are reducing. A social worker commented that the young person had responded well to her support and that staff had been particularly good at establishing boundaries and routines for her.

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improvement to be good

The young person confirmed that she feels safe and is able to share her worries with staff. She said, ‘They don’t push me. They wait until I am ready to talk. I know they are always there to listen.’ Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 5 Since her admission, the young person has not attempted to leave the home without staff and has not been missing. This is very positive progress and means that she is safer due to the care and support she receives.

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improvement to be good

Risk management plans are generally well detailed and include clear guidance for staff about how to support the young person’s safety and well-being. However, in some examples, recent changes are not clear. This needs to be addressed to help ensure that staff have up-to-date and relevant information.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the young person’s emotional responses and the reasons why she may behave in a certain way. A consistent and compassionate approach from staff has helped the young person develop safer and more appropriate behaviours over time. Staff are skilled in de-escalating challenging situations, which is demonstrated by the fact that there have been no incidents of physical intervention since the home began operating.

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improvement to be good

Processes for the safe recruitment of staff require improvement. There are failures in identifying concerns or exploring discrepancies in applicant’s documents. For example, there were significant differences between information given by one staff member and that given by one of their previous employers, which were not identified or explored. Failure to follow thorough recruitment procedures means that young people are not effectively safeguarded.

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

There is a manager in post who was registered with Ofsted in June 2019. Feedback about the registered manager from staff and external stakeholders is consistently positive. The young person also spoke very highly of the registered manager, describing him as ‘amazing’ and ‘funny’.

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

The manager ensures that the young person receives her care from a consistent staff team. Staff are well motivated and proud of the home. They confirmed that they receive good levels of support and have regular access to formal supervision.

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

There is a formal training programme in place which covers mandatory areas such as safeguarding and approved behaviour management techniques. However, it was not possible to ascertain whether all staff have completed their mandatory training, as individual staff training records were not available in the home. This also means that the registered manager cannot monitor training effectively.

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

Some shortfalls in internal monitoring were identified. Current processes do not enable the registered manager to routinely identify shortfalls or areas for development. However, the registered manager was able to demonstrate that he has identified the need for improvement in this area, and it was confirmed that new processes for quality assurance checks and audits are due to be implemented. Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 6

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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: 2528141 7

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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

Marie Cordingley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2528141 8 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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