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

Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 1 SC059717 Registered provider: Five Rivers Child 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 children’s home is operated by a national private organisation. Care and accommodation are provided for up to six children. The manager has been registered since November 2018.

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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

Date of last inspection: 27 September 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/09/2017 Full Outstanding 07/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/09/2016 Full Outstanding 02/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 3

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Recommendations

 Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

In particular, review the continual use of the alarm on the front door and review the use of bedroom door alarms for each child.  Staff should be 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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Recommendations

In particular, review the use of language used in incident reports and ensure that records are stored in a manner that they can be retrieved easily on request.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in this home receive unconditional love and warmth from the manager and staff team. Children understand that they can express themselves, knowing that the adults will care for them and keep them safe, regardless of any difficulties presented.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress in their personal development. They are attending education and learning, developing interests outside of the home, maintaining good health and becoming increasingly more settled in this home. Children are actively involved with decision-making about the home and their care. Children choose colour schemes and items for the home. In addition, after successfully presenting a care plan to managers, they now have rabbits, guinea pigs and a hamster.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have formed some positive relationships with staff, where verbal and physical affection is appropriately displayed. Children are valued through regular praise and celebration of their achievements. Consequently, children are growing in confidence and increasing their self-esteem as they continue to achieve success; for example, attendance at college, part-time employment, qualifications in drumming, membership of clubs and participation in the local carnival. Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 4 Children have experienced some disruption in their education due to the mid-term closure of one of the provider’s schools. The manager and staff work extremely well in partnership with school staff, the placing authorities, virtual school officers and tutors. As a result, children continued their learning through a mixture of private tuition and educational activities to complete the term. All children successfully started the autumn

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

term either at college, mainstream school or with temporary alternative education. Staff report how well the children have re-engaged with their learning and the routine. A new school, managed by the provider, is awaiting registration before the children can attend. This will involve another move before there is some stability in their access to education. To support children’s educational attainment, staff encourage reading and games to promote their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff advocate strongly for children and challenge any discrimination they may experience through being a child in care. Children feel comfortable with inviting their friends for tea, knowing they will be made welcome. In return, children visit their friends’ homes after staff make introductions, in line with good parenting and negating the need for lengthy, formal processes. Staff strive to give children many positive experiences and these are captured in decorative memory books full of messages and photographs of shared time together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Over the past year, the high number of staff leaving and new staff arriving has caused anxieties and unsettled some children. However, a core group of staff, with the manager, ensures that there is some consistency of care. The human resources manager met with children to seek their views about the type of person the home should be recruiting. This level of engagement is important in gathering the children’s wishes and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say that they like this home and confirmed this in surveys, with comments such as ‘it is like a family’, ‘the adults care for me very much’ and ‘all the staff are lovely and care about us a lot, it is a lovely place to live’. Children are supported to maintain contact with people and places that are important to them. Photographs, therapy and discussions help children to understand their early childhood experiences and why they live in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is decorated to a very good standard with lots of pictures, photographs and decorative hearts and plaques. Visually, this is a welcoming family-style home. However, the persistent bleep of a front door alarm is not in keeping with a family home and an unnecessary restriction to be in permanent use.

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

Children receive good help and protection from the staff. Training on safeguarding matters, and clear procedures to follow, underpin the staff team’s practice. Incidents of children displaying behaviour that may put themselves, or others, at risk of harm are reviewed thoroughly. Leaders and managers tackle any presenting issues to consider any lessons to learn and any changes required in staff practice, training or the Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 5 environment.

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

Since the previous inspection, some serious incidents have occurred involving physical assaults by children, damage to property and allegations against staff. Leaders and managers swiftly follow procedures to ensure that social care agencies are notified of such events. Police involvement has not led to the criminalisation of children.

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

A high number of incidents occurred where children were restrained. A subsequent review of the use of physical intervention led to a change in the techniques used to restrain children. Now there is a reduction in the level of restriction used and stipulation that only one member of staff can implement the physical intervention. The review led to all staff refreshing their training in behaviour management. Improvement is evident, because over the last three months, these incidents have reduced significantly; children feel more settled, and safe, in this home.

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

Incidents of children going missing involve short periods away from the home, usually to have space to calm down. Because of the success of children in developing coping strategies to manage their behaviour, the last episode of going missing was six months ago.

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

Children are supported well to take measured risks through staff guidance and information. For example, children know how to use technology safely, walk to school alone, use public transport, and most importantly, how to share any concerns or worries they may have. Overall, the staff have a good understanding of risk management. However, the practice of activating door alarms routinely on bedrooms, and external doors, requires review. This restrictive practice stands in contrast to the ethos of the home where the positive relationships between children and staff are built on trust and understanding.

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

Children live in a safe environment due to the attention given to the prompt repair of any damage, regular maintenance of the home and routine fire safety checks. Safeguarding practices underpin the recruitment of staff, ensuring that all the necessary checks are completed before they are considered suitable to care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager knows the children, the staff and this home very well, having been the deputy prior to this management role. The manager is working towards the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. Staff speak very highly of the manager; they value her support and leadership. She is ambitious and has high expectations of her team and for the children. Membership of ‘Community of Communities’ introduces additional standards that the manager strives to meet with regards to the therapeutic practice used in the home. A peer review in November 2017 validated that such standards are met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are very positive about their work; they are passionate about their care and support for the children. Many report their enjoyment of working at this home, with Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 6 comments such as ‘it does not feel like being at work’, ‘it feels like a second home to me’ and ‘work is like being part of a big family’. Eight out of 12 staff who completed a survey reported on a shortage of staff in the summer months. The staff response to such a shortfall is to work additional hours to ensure that the children have continuity of care and avoid the use of agency staff. Three new staff started in September 2018 and they are being supported through their induction period to increase the size of the staff team. The manager is clear that there will be no more children living at this home until the staff team is sufficient in number and skills.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular training opportunities and supervision support staff with their professional development. Leaders and managers invest in their staff, supporting individual career progression and promoting succession planning within the organisation. For example, in addition to the manager, two senior staff are working towards the level 5 diploma in leadership and management. Within the organisation, a clinical team provides support, either through staff consultation or direct work with children. This ready availability of therapists contributes well to meeting the emotional and behavioural needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers learn from feedback, compliments, complaints and any serious events; they take their responsibilities seriously. A complaint from neighbours was successfully dealt with by the manager, who held several meetings to repair the relationship. This led to invitations to tea where the children made cakes and entertained the neighbours with a trampoline display. This resolution enables the children to feel welcomed and part of the local community where they live.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is a reflective practitioner and takes decisive action to address any shortfalls or concerns. Her observations and interactions with the children and staff ensure that she has a sound grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of this home. Formal monitoring of the quality of care by the manager is further supported by comprehensive reporting by an independent visitor.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Records made for children and the home are generally of good quality and all are maintained on an electronic information management system. The language used in incident reports is sometimes clinical, with reference to children being ‘heightened’ and returning to ‘baseline’. During the manager’s absence, senior managers outside of the home take some responsibility for records relating to significant events. This means that records are not always collated together and hinders their retrieval when requested by a social care professional or the regulator, Ofsted.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 7 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: SC059717 8

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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 Childcare, 47 Bedwin Street, Salisbury SP1 3UT

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Inspector

Clare Davies, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC059717 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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