Children's Home run by Hopedale Children and Family Services Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 1 SC444869 Registered provider: HOPEDALE CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES 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

The home is owned by a private company. The home is registered to provide care for seven children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At time of the inspection, seven children were living in the home. All children were spoken to during the inspection.

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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 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/06/2023 Full Good 28/06/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 21/03/2022 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/11/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have strong relationships with staff, who know their needs well. Children and family members speak positively about the nurturing home environment, which is created by staff. Staff support children to share their views, wishes and feelings. This helps children to explore and understand their equality, diversity and inclusion. Staff have supported one child to explore their sexual orientation and another child to learn about different faiths.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to choose their hobbies and to take part in sporting activities. Children enjoy playing football, trampolining, horse riding and going on daytrips with staff. This helps to develop children’s confidence and support their physical activity. Children enjoy playing electronic games and learning about technology. Staff support children to learn about internet safety. When children have a new or updated electronic device, their support plans are updated. This ensures that staff have the relevant guidance to keep children safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress in all areas of their education. Education professionals speak positively about the support that children receive from staff. When children experience difficulties with education, staff understand the support that children need to rebuild their confidence. One child is attending college, which they enjoy, and another child has been supported to return to full-time education. This helps children to develop aspirations for their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to obtain part-time employment as part of developing their independence. One child is currently working as a kitchen assistant after school, which they enjoy. Staff encourage children to learn about their wider community. One child collected money to purchase food for an animal charity. This helps children to learn how to work safely in their community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported well by staff to move into and out of their home. This helps children to understand their plans and to feel safe. Since the last inspection, there has been one child move into the home and three children have moved out to live in supported and independent living. Staff remain interested in children’s achievements when they move out. For example, staff went to watch one child perform in a Christmas play.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has a spacious lounge and dining area where children and staff come together to eat and enjoy group activities. Children enjoy relaxing in the smaller lounges situated throughout the home. The children’s bedrooms are designed to reflect their personal interests, including superheroes, cartoon characters and football. Children enjoy using the play area, which has a trampoline, football goals and basketball hoops. Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 4

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

Staff participate in reflective clinical supervisions with the psychologist. This helps staff to understand children’s needs and how to help children to build trusting relationships. Children are able to visit their family members regularly. This helps children to feel confident and safe with the visiting arrangements. Family members spoke positively about how well staff communicate with them regarding their children’s needs.

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

Children are supported by staff to develop positive relationships with each other. Children reflect on any unkind words or actions through mediation. This helps children to understand each other’s feelings and to feel safer. Children are involved in making decisions about their home together. As a result, children understand each other’s views and it creates an inclusive living environment.

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

Staff understand when children require independent advocacy. Staff arrange this for children, which helps children to feel listened to and valued. For example, one child was supported to challenge the local authority’s plan for their independence. Another child was supported to maintain their contact with their foster carers. The manager and staff team are currently advocating for one child to move to live with foster carers.

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

Allegations and complaints are taken seriously and promptly investigated by managers. This helps children’s views to be heard and treated with sincerity. The management team works closely with local authorities and designated officers to ensure that safety plans are effective and current. This helps to keep children safe.

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

Physical interventions are only used if children’s safety requires this type of support. There are effective management reviews and reflections with staff regarding the use of physical interventions. This helps to keep children safe and ensures that staff are up to date with their training. Staff support children to learn about their actions by using restorative consequences. These were not always focused on the action and did not reflect the guidance of the psychologist. This is an area for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team and staff are committed to creating a safe and nurturing home environment. There is a shared vision for children to be cared for by a skilled staff team with the expertise to understand their needs. Professional feedback highlights that the management team and staff are strong advocates for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have effective monitoring and review systems in place. This helps them to understand the experiences and progress of children and staff practice. There is safe recruitment to complement a detailed training plan for staff. When additional training is required for staff to support children’s needs, this is arranged by the manager. This ensures that children are being cared for by safe adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel listened to by leaders and managers. Managers provide staff with regular supervision. Team meetings provide an opportunity for staff to discuss and review the Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 5 children’s needs, staff practice and maintenance of the home. The clinical supervision with the psychologist helps staff to reflect on the children’s needs and provides guidance for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The recording of children’s records is generic and is an area for development. Inspectors required explanations to understand the recording of incidents in the children’s files. This means that records are not clear for children to read or if they were to seek access to their records as adults. Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are 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. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that staff are 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 Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4).

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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 for children’s home: SC444869 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hopedale children and family services limited

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Olubunmi Fabusuyi

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Inspectors

Siân Heffey, Social Care Inspector Kev Brammer, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC444869 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 looked after children, safeguarding, and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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