Children's home run by Five Rivers Child Care Limited in Wiltshire

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Children receive care that reflects their individual needs and this helps them to make progress in all aspects of their development.  Children who have experienced a disrupted educational experience quickly make good progress in school. This is achieved through careful planning and support in the home and school that recognises their strengths, abilities and needs.  The emotional and mental health needs of children are met through children receiving psychotherapy.  Children are supported to maintain their relationships with their families and those important to them. The children are kept safe in this home.  Risks to children are understood by the manager and staff team who implement effective plans to ensure their safety.  New children coming to live at the home are supported by plans that are overseen by the manager. This helps them to thrive physically, emotionally and educationally.  Staff benefit from regular professional supervision that supports their care

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The children's home provision is good because:

practice with children.  The manager understands the strengths and areas for development in the home. She implements a range of systems that provides her with information on the functioning of the service. This assists with delivering improvement.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person meets 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child, which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(a) Schedule (3))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to the date and circumstances of any measures of control, discipline or restraint in relation to the child. 21/01/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Homes are required to develop and keep under review a ‘Statement of Purpose’ (Regulation 16 and schedule 1). The home’s statement of purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in their care. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.5)

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s home. The home is currently registered to provide care and accommodation for up to eight children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 22/10/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/05/2015 Full Good 23/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/12/2014 Full Good

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Good

Children living in this home make excellent educational progress resulting from staff maintaining high expectations on what children can achieve. All the children have experienced disruption to their education. This has rendered them unable to access mainstream educational placements. However, they all attend the school attached to the provision and have made significant improvement with attendance and attainment.

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Good

This is achieved through effective communication and coordination between the care and education staff in a number of ways, such as direct support for children in the classroom and regular multi-agency meetings. This approach enables children to become more confident in class and make good educational progress.

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Good

Children’s physical health and emotional well-being are priorities for the manager and staff. Children’s primary healthcare needs are suitably met through routine check-ups with dentists and opticians.

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Good

Children receive excellent support with their emotional and mental health needs, participating in therapeutic sessions when required. This leads to children becoming more aware of their feelings and emotions and helps them to better regulate their emotions and behaviour. Additionally, the in-house psychotherapist provides consultation to the staff team and individual work with staff members if needed. This helps staff to give children the support that they need.

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Good

Children see their families regularly and get the emotional support that they need to improve the quality of these visits. For example, the psychotherapist worked with a child and his father to improve interactions during the child’s visits. This affected the communication between the father and his son positively, and now visits are far more enjoyable.

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Good

Staff members have a good understanding of children’s needs and maintain caring and nurturing relationships with them. Children are offered carefully planned ‘key worker’ sessions, which help them to discuss matters important to them. One child said, ‘Sometimes I struggle with emotions and can be in crisis. At these times, I know I can speak to staff.’

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Good

Children understand their rights and know how to make a complaint should they feel it necessary. They also have the services of an independent advocacy service at their disposal, and professionals, independent of the home, to turn to. Regular children’s meetings ensure that their voice is heard on matters important to them. Children enjoy participating in a wide range of activities, such as swimming, garden games and trips to theme parks. They are encouraged to participate in activities that interest them, for example one child plays football for a local team. This helps to increase the children’s sense of achievement and improves their confidence and self-esteem.

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Good

Children enjoy a comfortable and relaxed home environment. The home is well maintained, clean and comfortable. There is evidence throughout of the children taking the lead on decoration, particularly their bedrooms. Children have a wide variety of toys and games to play with, including a well-stocked playroom. The house is currently undergoing some improvements with the addition of a soft-play and sensory area. Children enjoy living in this home and are proud to live here.

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Good

The manager and staff understand the risks faced by children living at this home and work effectively to keep them safe. One child stated, ‘I feel staff keep us safe.’ Risk management plans are kept under constant review. Staff understand and implement these plans consistently. This helps to reduce children’s exposure to harm.

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Good

Children are helped to improve their behaviour through incentives, encouragement and support from staff, and praise when they do well. Sanctions are used when necessary, and occasionally physical restraint is required to ensure that children do not harm themselves or others. The manager monitors such events to ensure that they are kept to a minimum, but records are not always fully completed as the regulations require. This has no impact on children, but prevents the manager from having a complete overview of physical interventions.

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Good

Children are protected because the home’s robust vetting procedures prevent unsuitable adults working with children. Appropriate checks are completed in relation to all prospective employees. These checks include employment and personal references taken and verified. Gaps in the prospective employee’s employment history accounted for together with a criminal records check completed. This helps to keep children safe.

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Good

Children make a good start in this home because the manager and staff obtain the information that they need to establish the needs of the child and how they can meet these needs. The manager escalates her concerns when information is delayed. This ensures that the service only accepts those children whose needs they can meet and who will be a good match for children already living at the home. Children’s welfare is safeguarded because staff understand what action to take should they make allegations of harm or poor treatment. The registered manager works in partnership with external safeguarding agencies such as the local authority, the local designated officer and police to help keep children safe. This promotes children’s welfare and safety.

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Good

Registered since 2013, the manager is suitably qualified and provides effective leadership and management.

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Good

The manager has met the statutory requirements made at the last inspection. The independent visitor now provides their views regarding the safety of the children living in the home. Additionally, the manager has implemented a system to ensure that the views and opinions of children are obtained when completing the quality of care review.

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Good

Children receive good-quality care from a stable and sufficiently resourced staff team. The staff receive regular supervisions and appraisals, where they can talk about their own training and developmental needs in addition to the care provided to the children.

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Good

Staff confirm that they feel supported by the managers, particularly through regular supervision and training. They receive regular mandatory training and they are either enrolled or have completed the requisite qualification for care staff. The staff are highly motivated, enthusiastic and committed to improving the care provided to children. Consequently, children have responded by developing close relationships with staff with whom they feel safe.

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Good

The manager has completed a comprehensive statement of purpose. The document sets out what services the home provides and gives key stakeholders a clear understanding of the service that children will receive. However, the manager has not provided sufficient information regarding how the service will meet the needs of those children with complex needs, such as autism. This level of information is essential to help statutory agencies be confident that the home can meet the needs of children for whom they may consider placing at the home.

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Good

The manager ensures that monitoring visits from the independent visitor take place monthly. These visits provide a good level of scrutiny and analysis, including the identification of patterns and trends in the care provided to children. Additionally, the manager uses, to good effect, a number of monitoring systems including analysis of significant incidents and the use of physical intervention, complaints and feedback from children and professionals working with the service. These systems help to effectively plan for improvement.

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Good

Relationships with other services are strong and effective. The manager understands the importance of working in partnerships with other agencies. There are regular multi-agency meetings that help to maintain effective communication and the coordination of services. The manager recognises and understands that children make progress through agencies working collaboratively and effectively. When the practice of professionals falls short of acceptable standards, the manager challenges these agencies to ensure that the children have the help and support that they need to progress.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against ‘Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection’.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, 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 who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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