Children's Home run by Hopscotch Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 1

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a private provider. It is registered to provide care for up to two children.

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This monitoring visit

A full inspection took place on 28 June 2022. The inspectors identified several significant shortfalls in safeguarding practice and procedures in the home that left children at risk of harm. Furthermore, the leadership and management of the home were inadequate.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted made a decision to issue a notice of suspension, as it had reasonable cause to believe that a person would or may be exposed to a risk of harm if immediate action was not taken.

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This monitoring visit

The focus of this visit was to monitor and review the actions taken by the provider following the last inspection. There is a manager in post who has applied to register with Ofsted.

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This monitoring visit

The inspector found that the provider had continued to comply with the notice to suspend its registration. There were no children living in the home.

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This monitoring visit

The management team has taken steps to address the serious shortfalls in the quality of care and protection that children were receiving at the last inspection. The refurbishment and decoration of the house have been completed. The home now provides a pleasant, homely and comfortable environment for children to live in.

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This monitoring visit

The manager and leaders have recruited new staff who have the relevant experience and qualifications to care for vulnerable children. Safer recruitment procedures have Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 2 been followed to make sure that the risks to children from unsuitable adults are minimised.

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This monitoring visit

There are sufficient staff working at the home to meet children’s needs and to protect them from harm. The proposed staffing arrangements make sure that children will receive continuity of care. This will help children to develop relationships with the adults caring for them over time.

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This monitoring visit

All staff have attended training since the last inspection. The training provided includes safeguarding, bullying, report writing, managing behaviour, and bereavement. Staff have access to a programme of training that is relevant to their roles and the needs of children.

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This monitoring visit

Staff demonstrate a clear understanding of the home’s safeguarding procedures and what they must do to protect children from harm.

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This monitoring visit

Systems are in place to provide staff with advice, guidance and supervision to evaluate their performance. The manager and leaders meet weekly to reflect on and evaluate practice to ensure that their oversight is robust.

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This monitoring visit

Given the progress and the improvements that have been made, Ofsted has lifted the suspension notice and the home is now able to care for children.

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This monitoring visit

The effectiveness of how the improvements affect children’s experiences and safety could not be evidenced during the monitoring visit. This is because children are not living at the home. Therefore, requirements made at the last inspection remain in place. The home’s progress in meeting these requirements will be reviewed through Ofsted’s inspection activities after children start to live in the home.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 28/06/2022 Full Inadequate 22/03/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 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, the 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due Date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due Date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due Date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due Date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must effectively challenge other agencies in a timely manner to ensure that children’s needs are met. Further to this, the registered person must ensure that relevant information is shared to ensure good- quality care planning for children. 12 October 2022

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Requirement Due Date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due Date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due Date

engage with them; and 12 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 4 take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due Date

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

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Requirement Due Date

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due Date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care;

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Requirement Due Date

is given appropriate advocacy support. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(iii))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that children are listened to when they express their views or feelings and that action is taken to address any concerns. Further to this, ensure that children know that they have been listened to and know what actions will be taken.

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Requirement Due Date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due Date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due Date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

that staff— 12 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 5 meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due Date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due Date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due Date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due Date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due Date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due Date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due Date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due Date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(viii)(ix)(xi)(xii)(xiii)(b))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that staff have received training about bullying and understand the impact of bullying on children. Further to this, ensure that staff understand the impact of past trauma on children’s Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 6 emotional and behavioural development and understand how to support children who have experienced this.

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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—

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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;

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Requirement Due Date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due Date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due Date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due Date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due Date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due Date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that staff are guided by robust risk assessments so that they can effectively manage risks to children. Further to this, the registered person must ensure that staff have the skills, knowledge and training to ensure effective safeguarding practice. 12 October 2022

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Requirement Due Date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— 12 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 7 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due Date

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

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Requirement Due Date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due Date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due Date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due Date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due Date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due Date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that they have oversight of all significant events and ensure that appropriate action is taken in following these.

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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; and

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Requirement Due Date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the 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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; 12 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 8 manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due Date

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due Date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)(ii)(e)(i))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that all known risks for children are carefully considered prior to the child moving in to the home. The registered person must ensure that the impact of these risks on children already living in the home is considered and that a plan is implemented to mitigate any risks.

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Requirement Due Date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected;

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Requirement Due Date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due Date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due Date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due Date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due Date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due Date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that locks are removed from communal areas and that children have free access to all areas of their home. Further to this, the registered person must ensure that children can access all food items and that these are not placed in locked cupboards. 12 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 9

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Recommendations

 The registered person 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 Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 10

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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

Jessica Higginson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2617303 11 to 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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