Children's Home run by Hapin Care Limited in Wirral

Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 1 Registered provider: Hapin 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 owned and managed by a private organisation. It provides care for up to 2 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties and/or learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

One child was living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2026.

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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: 2527654 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/05/2025 Full Good 21/05/2024 Full Good 03/07/2023 Full Good 19/04/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 3

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Summary of findings

The child living in the home says that they are happy and that it is the best home they have lived in. Positive relationships between children, staff and managers are evident. Children make progress in their education from their individual starting points.

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Summary of findings

There is a committed and child-focused manager in place, who has worked hard to ensure that the staff team members who work with the children share the same approach. Leaders, the manager and the staff team demonstrated they knew all the children who have lived at the home during this inspection period.

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Summary of findings

Staff understand risks for individual children well and generally respond appropriately when children are in need of support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a comfortable home. There are pictures of children and staff having fun placed on the walls, and there is a warm and homely atmosphere. Children’s bedrooms are personalised in line with their interests and personalities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children arrive at the home, they are appropriately welcomed. Children’s endings at the home are appropriately planned and supported. Their time in the home is marked with a celebration, gifts and memory books to remember their time at the home positively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff advocate for the children to engage in education. The manager works closely with the local authority to ensure that relevant assessments are completed to support children to access appropriate provision. When children are not attending a formal educational provision, staff support children to develop their knowledge of literacy, numeracy and life skills. This means that children are supported not to fall behind in their academic learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to share their aspirations for the future and are prepared for independence. As such, children have acquired skills in cooking, cleaning, budgeting and using public transport.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to access a range of activities in the community. This includes fishing, horse riding, open water swimming and indoor skydiving.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to spend time with their families, and where there are barriers to this, the manager works to overcome these. As a result, children are able to maintain a sense of their identity and maintain close family networks. Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 4 Children’s health needs are met. When children decline to attend appointments, these are promptly rescheduled. Staff remind and educate children about the importance of positive health and attending appointments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to develop trusting relationships with children. Children’s views are gathered through both formal and informal methods. This ensures that children’s thoughts and feelings are understood and that staff can respond to their needs effectively.

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

Staff have a good understanding of children’s individual needs, risks and vulnerabilities. Risk assessments are updated regularly and in line with any emerging risks. These inform behaviour support plans and how staff are to support children during times of need and to keep them safe.

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

There has been an inconsistent approach when children are missing from home. On some occasions, staff have not looked for children in line with the timescales as identified in their plans. However, on other occasions, staff are proactive in looking for the child, including following them on public transport and disrupting them being with inappropriate adults.

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

Complaints and allegations are managed promptly and effectively. Leaders and managers ensure that children are listened to about their experiences and consider all relevant views when considering further mediation and action.

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

Staff implement boundaries and consequences to support children with their individual risks and needs. Despite the complexities of the children’s legal status, staff ensure that children understand their care plans and work with them to ensure that they understand the restrictions in place to support keeping them safe. This approach has supported restrictions for 2 of the 3 children to be relaxed due to the progress made.

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

Recruitment of staff is safe. Leaders and managers ensure that when there are staff members who have previous criminal convictions, this is explored and risk managed to consider the impact of them working with children in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager demonstrates a strong child-centred approach. She speaks about children with enthusiasm, pride and in a trauma-informed way. She holds high expectations for children’s progress and outcomes, and she ensures these are clearly communicated and modelled to staff and professionals supporting the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is working towards building a stable and committed team following a period of instability for staff and children. She is involved in the recruitment of staff to ensure that the right people with the right skills are working with the children. When Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 5 there have been staff shortages, the manager has completed shifts in the home, which has allowed her to spend time with children and build positive relationships. In addition, the use of regular agency staff has been used to support consistency of care for children during a challenging period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most of the staff team are not qualified in residential care. However, the staff have previous experience of working with children in different settings. They have received training that supports them in their role to keep the children safe. The staff have undertaken further training to ensure they understand the children’s specific needs and behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have not consistently recognised where there is a lack of oversight of children’s documents, which affects the quality of care children receive. For example, when children have not been looked for by staff when missing from home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision by those appropriately trained to do so. Supervision is reflective and considers staff’s responses to children’s care and any developmental areas. Staff report high morale and an open-door policy with leaders and managers. As a result, staff feel supported to do their roles well. Staff receive appraisals on an annual basis. However, they do not feature the voices of children or key stakeholders, which is a missed opportunity to triangulate staff performance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff access regular and meaningful team meetings where they can discuss and reflect on the progress made by children, how incidents have been managed and any areas for staff learning and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partner agencies speak positively of the care offered to children in the home and the communication and professionalism of the staff team. This includes the manager’s appropriate challenge when children’s needs are not being fully met. Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 6

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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

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

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

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that staff follow children’s plans and protocols when children are missing from home. 13 August 2026

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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— 13 August 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 7 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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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)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that managers’ oversight of incidents considers all aspects of care provided to children. In addition, ensure that staff have the relevant skills and experience to know how to respond to risks for children.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should consider, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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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: 2527654 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 25 Foundry House, Widnes, Cheshire WA8 8UD

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Inspectors

Nicola Rutherford, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Jon Dutton, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2527654 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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