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

Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 1 SC006921 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

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to five children. The provider cares for children between the ages of seven and 14 years old who may have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since 2013.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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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 November 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/11/2019 Full Good 18/09/2018 Full Good 16/08/2017 Full Good 24/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop trusting relationships with the staff, and they settle quickly in the home. Children thrive from their positive experiences in the home and make good progress in all aspects of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s notable achievements include improved sleep patterns and socialisation skills. Children learn to share, and, as a result, challenging behaviours decrease. A social worker described a child’s progress as ‘vast’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children participate in fun day-to-day experiences. For example, during the pandemic, staff organised a cultural celebration fun day. Staff prepared international and regional food. Displays of national flags and traditional costumes added to the festival. The children enjoyed the food and dancing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children engage in age-appropriate independence skills. Staff encourage children to help set the table for dinner and clear up afterwards. Children learn to pay for items at the local shop, and they gain basic cooking skills. Children are proud to wear their cooking aprons, personalised with their favourite cartoon characters.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have a voice in the home and take part in their weekly ‘community’ meeting. Children help plan the nutritious food menu and choose their activities such as horse-riding, walks in the park and playing board games. Staff and children eat together at mealtimes and engage together as a family. At bedtime, staff read favourite stories to the children. All these activities add to the family-orientated environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are rewarded for their positive behaviour. They choose their rewards, such as a favourite dressing-up outfit or extra time on the games console. This encourages children’s co-operation and participation in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are very good at identifying creative alternatives to help to ensure that children’s needs are consistently met. Swapping plain water with a flavoured water encourages a child to drink sufficient daily liquids. A unicorn-embossed diary helps a child to write down their daily thoughts. Staff buy specialised books to help children’s reading skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children attend school. They do well and receive pupil of the week certificates. Staff plan thoughtful and effective transitions for children when moving from the home. This helps reduce children’s anxiety when it is time to leave the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home’s premises are well maintained and comfortable. The building is safe and secure. However, during the inspection, the inspector found a food item in the fridge Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 4 that was out of date. Although this particular item did not present a health hazard to the children, staff should ensure that daily health and safety checks are carried out.

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

Children spoken with said that they feel safe living in the home. Staff protect children from harm and abuse. Children do not go missing from the home. There have been no reported missing episodes since the last inspection.

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

The home employs a psychologist. The psychologist helps children during their weekly therapy sessions. He contributes to the weekly staff team meeting to help embed the home’s ethos of attachment and trauma-informed care. Children benefit from and receive care from staff who understand loss, attachment and trauma and the impact this can have on children’s behaviours and well-being. As a result, staff are able create a caring environment which enables children to thrive.

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

Children’s health needs are managed appropriately. Any change in children’s personal health or hygiene challenges are accurately recorded and monitored. All medical appointments are made promptly if required. The staff’s administration of children’s prescribed medication is safe.

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

Staff understand the children’s personalised behaviour management support and strategies. This helps staff to understand children’s challenging behaviours and how to de-escalate them. Children are successfully encouraged to contribute to their behaviour support plans. As a result, children respond well to staff’s behaviour support strategies, and challenging behaviour reduces.

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

Children’s risk assessments are clearly detailed and alert staff to children’s known and anticipated risks. These are kept up to date. This helps increase children’s safety both inside and outside the home.

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

Staff rarely use physical restraint to manage challenging behaviour. If it is used, the action has been necessary to prevent harm or injury to children or others. However, one physical intervention record did not meet the regulatory recording requirements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed effectively by a strong leadership team. The home is run by an experienced registered manager. She is supported by two deputy managers. Staff said that the registered manager ‘leads with passion’ and described the staff team spirit as positive. A member of staff said, ‘We want the children to shine as who they are.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders’ and managers’ overview of the home is effective. This helps prompt improvements in the home. The independent visitor’s reports and recommendations support this effort. However, the independent visitor has not recently visited the home on site. This limits the independent visitor’s complete overview of the home and the day-to-day experiences of children living there. Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 5 The home employs a sufficient number of staff to meet the children’s needs. During the last year, leaders and managers conducted a recruitment drive to increase the overall staffing numbers. This forward planning means that the new staff are fully trained and understand the home’s care ethos, in readiness for when new children may be admitted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff training has continued throughout the pandemic. However, the staff training matrix and workforce development plan do not reflect all the training that staff have undertaken. This may limit leaders’ and managers’ understanding and planning for future training needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers understand the children’s need for staff stability and routine in the home. The staff are grouped into three teams. This means that children experience a consistent and dependable group of staff over several weeks before a staff group change.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that the home’s care planning processes are effective. They make child-centred decisions when exploring possible new placements. New children’s referrals are considered by the whole staff team. This encourages staff’s feelings of ownership of and commitment to their work in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 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, 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 registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

A visit by the independent person to the home may be unannounced.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (‘the independent person’s report’) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3) (4)(a)(b) (5)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the independent person must conduct on-site visits to the home. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— 30 September Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 7 within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii) (b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that records are accurately dated. Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure they comply with the relevant health and safety legislations. This is particularly in relation to food ‘sell-by’ dates. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure they have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of the regulation 16, schedule 1. In particular, the plan should be updated to include any new training completed by staff while working at the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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 children’s home: SC006921 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: 47 Bedwin Street, Salisbury SP1 3UT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Newman

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC006921 10 to 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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