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

Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 1 SC362965 Registered provider: Five Rivers Child Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private national company of care and education services. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child or young person. The current manager was registered with Ofsted on 19 February 2014.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/06/2017 Full Good 16/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 12/10/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii) and (iv)) 23/08/2018

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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— 26/07/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 4 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

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

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v) and (vi))

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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

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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b) and (d)) 26/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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—

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the 23/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 5 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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, use team meetings and supervision sessions to review young people’s changing needs and develop effective strategies in response.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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—

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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) and (2)(h)) 23/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and 23/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 6 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to the recruitment checks to be completed for agency staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the child living here for three years and overall making progress during this time, the staff team has not responded effectively to his rapidly changing needs. Currently, the child’s experiences are poor and his progress is inadequate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Supervision arrangements to monitor the child are inadequate. Although the child is cared for by two staff in the home and checked frequently, this does not result in a reduction of risk. Staff also allow the child to have regular, unsupervised time outside of the home in areas where he is currently at serious risk of harm. These arrangements place him at risk and do not meet his current safety needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not always provide the child with clear and consistently applied boundaries. Too many responses to the child’s current behaviours do not mitigate risk and are potentially harmful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Usually, relationships between the staff team and the child are good. They typically enjoy spending time together and have lots of fun. However, recently, the child’s engagement with staff has started to decline. He has started to go missing and is currently telling staff that he feels that they are unable to keep him safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The child’s progress at school is mixed. He has experienced a number of changes of school, making it difficult to sustain good progress. The manager has worked well with the local authority and the virtual school to secure appropriate school provisions for the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The manager has secured the involvement of the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) to support the child’s emotional health needs. The manager keeps the CAMHS team apprised of the child’s needs to inform assessments to determine the support that he needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 7

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

Staff are not currently safeguarding the child who lives in this home. Staff who directly care for the child do not sufficiently recognise the risks to him and have allowed him to take part in unsuitable activities and behaviours. The lack of appropriate boundaries is leaving the child at risk.

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

Leaders and managers understand the risks to the child but have not provided staff with the strategies that they need to reduce the risks. Strategies that are in place are insufficient to protect the child and are not being followed by the staff caring for him. As a result, this child has been left at serious risk of harm inside and outside of the home. The child has started to go missing from this home. The control measures to mitigate the risk of him running away are ineffective.

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

While the home is furnished to a high standard and has a homely feel, staff have not made it safe from avoidable dangers after serious incidents have happened. This is despite staff having had recent training in understanding how to respond to self-harm risks.

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

Safer recruitment processes in relation to agency staff are not followed well. The manager has not satisfied herself that the required vetting checks have been conducted before agency staff commence work at the home.

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

Restraints used are proportionate and have reduced over time in line with the child’s individual crisis management plan.

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

The manager communicates well with safeguarding agencies. Appropriate referrals are made and clear records are kept. However, subsequent actions to help the child and to keep him safe are insufficient.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers did not fully understand the weaknesses of this home prior to this inspection. Monitoring of the quality of care and how well the child is helped and protected has not been effective. Leaders and managers immediately took urgent action to address the identified shortfalls at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not provided staff with effective support and guidance about how to mitigate the risks to the child. Care plans and risk assessments are not useful documents to guide staff to meet the child’s current needs. These documents are not detailed enough or up to date, and include contradictory information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager responds to complaints effectively and had addressed satisfactorily two of the requirements from the previous inspection. One requirement from the previous inspection has not been given sufficient attention. As such, there are still omissions in the employment checks for individuals who work at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 8 Professional supervision of staff takes place regularly. It is not always used effectively to discuss staff’s practice or to reflect on serious incidents. Likewise, team meetings do not always provide opportunities for the team to agree strategies to help staff to support the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The child’s placing authority recognises the progress that the child has made over the course of his time living at this home. However, events in recent months have resulted in a decline in the child’s experiences.

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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: SC362965 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Five Rivers Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Five Rivers Child Care, 47 Bedwin Street, Salisbury SP1 3UT

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Inspector

Guy Mammatt: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC362965 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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