Children's Home run by Hopscotch Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 1 SC432741 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 up to five young people who may have social, emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

There is currently no registered manager for this home.

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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 made subject to three compliance notices following the last inspection. A monitoring inspection was carried out on 25 November 2019, at which these notices were deemed to have been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/10/2019 Full Inadequate 08/01/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 01/08/2017 Full Outstanding 22/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 06/03/2020

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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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(2)(b)(ii)(c)) 06/03/2020

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own safety both inside and outside the home to the extent that any good parent would. Staff should help Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 4 children to understand how to protect themselves. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) Specifically, individual key-work sessions should focus on the needs and vulnerabilities of each young person as outlined in their care plan.  Any home using CCTV or other monitoring equipment should have a written policy

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Recommendations

describing how this will support the safeguarding and well-being of those living and working in the home in accordance with regulation 24. Homes must gain consent to any monitoring or surveillance by the placing authority in writing at the time of placement. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.16)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Following an unsettled period, young people are now living in a more stable and homely environment. As a result, they are making steady progress from their individual starting points. One young person told the inspector, ‘Of all the places to be, this is the best. I like the staff. They listen to me and give me lots of support.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s engagement in education has increased. One young person attends school regularly and has been awarded ‘student of the year’ by the school in recognition of his achievements. Another young person, who has not been in education for some time, is being supported by staff to gradually re-engage. When he is not in school, staff have introduced more structure and informal learning opportunities into his daily routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team demonstrates a good understanding of young people’s needs. However, placement plans do not always accurately detail the young people’s needs and the strategies that staff should implement to support them. This can lead to an inconsistent approach. For example, one plan did not contain information on the young person’s additional needs and the strategies that staff should use to support their communication with him.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are encouraged to become more independent. For example, there is an expectation that young people will tidy their rooms and help with laundry. Staff work with young people to develop their skills and give them experiences that will serve them well in the future. For example, young people are being supported to learn to shop and cook on a budget.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy a range of activities both at home and in the local community. These include meals out, playing snooker and baking. Staff have helped young people to create memory books which capture their experiences of living at the home. The staff support individual contact arrangements so that young people can stay in touch with people who Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 5 are important to them. One parent said, ‘It is a care home that cares, and they care about my relationship with my child.’

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

Young people are cared for by a consistent staff team. Young people know that staff care about them and this contributes to a feeling of safety and security. One young person said, ‘I am happy here. I know that staff put my safety as their number one priority.’

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

Staff have introduced boundaries and routines, and young people understand what is expected of them. This was confirmed by one professional who said, ‘It is evident that staff know [young person’s name] well and they support him to manage his anger better. He understands the rules. Staff are firm with him and he has responded well to this.’

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

Staff help young people to manage their behaviour, which is sometimes challenging. The number of incidents where staff have used physical interventions to manage young people’s behaviours have reduced. Positive behaviour support plans have been developed for each young person. These plans provide staff with strategies to use to defuse situations more effectively.

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

Staff undertake regular individual key-work sessions with young people. However, these do not adequately address the target areas identified in the young people’s care plans. Records of key-work sessions do not capture the young people’s engagement, and this makes it difficult to evidence the impact of this intervention and the progress the young people are making. A recommendation has been made to address this matter.

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

All young people have risk assessments in place that detail their individual vulnerabilities. However, these documents do not always contain sufficient detail about the control measures that are in place to manage risks safely. Furthermore, information in these documents is not always cross-referenced with information contained in young people’s care plans. This is confusing and hampers a consistent response from the staff team. A requirement has been raised to improve practice in this area.

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

This home has experienced a number of changes of manager in recent years and there has not been a manager registered with Ofsted since September 2018. This has contributed to the judgement in this area. However, the current manager has been in post since April 2019 and is in the process of making an application to Ofsted for registration.

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

The manager has led improvements to the quality of care provided to young people since the last inspection. The provider’s decision to temporarily limit the number of young people living at the home has enabled the manager to focus on changes and improvements to care practice. The manager has recently introduced more robust Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 6 systems to monitor the safety and quality of care provided. This is enabling her to identify any shortfalls and this will support longer term improvement.

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

The manager has a good understanding of the needs of the young people and the progress that they are making. She is a visible presence in the home and takes an active role in the day-to-day planning. She is accessible to young people and is on hand to guide and support young people and staff when needed.

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

Staff benefit from regular supervision and team meetings. The manager has recently used these forums to focus on improving staff knowledge about safeguarding practice. She has used a creative approach to this and developed scenarios and quizzes to build staff confidence and ensure a consistent response.

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

The staff team has developed good relationships with external professionals and parents. Those spoken to as part of the inspection said that the staff keep them updated with young people’s progress. One social worker said, ‘I have a good working relationship with the home. As far as I am concerned, they go over and above to meet [young person’s name] needs.’

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

There is a mandatory training programme in place for all staff. However, insufficient numbers of staff have received training in areas that are specific to the young people’s needs, for example supporting young people at risk of criminal and/or sexual exploitation. A recommendation has been made to address this.

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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: SC432741 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hopscotch Care Limited

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Inspector

Sophie Thomson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC432741 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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