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

Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 1 Registered provider: Five Rivers Child Care Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a national private provider. It offers care for up to 3 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, 3 children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

Staff in the home are referred to as ‘adults’. This is reflected in the report.

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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: 2642842 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/06/2025 Full Good 17/07/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/06/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/03/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 3

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Summary of findings

Children are cared for by a skilled and nurturing team who are invested in them. Adults have strong relationships with children, and they know the children well. Leaders and managers have good oversight of the care provided and they have a strong presence in the home. Risks to children are understood well and assessed on an individual basis. Clear and robust responses are provided so that children are kept safe.

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Summary of findings

Adults take the necessary action to help children stay safe online. The home, and the adults working in it, provide a nurturing and safe environment for children to enjoy and develop. The focus in the home is on building close relationships with the children to help them feel and secure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults are invested in the children and speak about them with great pride. Two of the children have strong relationships with the team. The other child has recently moved in and so is still establishing these connections. Kindness and nurture are evident in the interactions between adults and children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are engaged in education. Great progress has been made for one child who has been enabled to return to their previous school. Adults support this by staying near to the child’s school to be on hand to support them. Another child has recently taken GCSEs, despite considerable gaps in their education. Adults further support education using outside cabin buildings to deliver learning opportunities. This provides children with a learning space separate from the home for tutoring sessions and educational activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults understand children’s health needs and how to meet them. Adults monitor and track children’s sleep patterns and self-care habits to help identify any required support and to track progress. For example, one child is brushing their teeth and washing more regularly. Adults have struggled to support one child to keep their bedroom in a welcoming state. Progress with this has been slow. However, from the child’s starting point, significant progress has been made. There is a plan in place to help maintain the positive momentum.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to manage relationships with one another well. When there have been difficulties between children, adults have taken swift action to address this. Nurturing conversations take place with children regularly. This helps them to better understand risks and unhealthy behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s relationships with family members are generally supported well by adults. There have been difficulties for one child. The lack of a structured approach has meant that phone calls and visits have not taken place routinely. Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 4 Children are encouraged to lead healthy lifestyles. There has been good progress for one child in trying new foods and reducing their consumption of fizzy drinks. Adults model healthy relationships and children see adults coming together to eat family-style meals. There is a clear focus from adults on healthy eating and being active.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have fun in beautiful surroundings. Using the trampoline and swimming pool and playing games like pickleball together help to foster close relationships between the adults and children. Children also experience trips further afield, to theme parks, for example. These experiences are captured well in children’s memory books.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides a beautiful space for children to just be and relax. There is a calm feeling to the home. Photos throughout the home celebrate the children. The separate areas for education and therapy have been carefully thought out. This ensures that the main living space remains homely.

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

Adults know the risks to children and their vulnerabilities and history. Two of the children were able to identify adults that they could talk to if they are worried. Adults have robust responses to risk. The foundation to this is the close relationships that adults forge with the children. Children talk to adults and tell them what is happening for them.

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

Children’s concerns are taken seriously, and effective action is taken to support them. When concerns have been raised about adults’ practice, these are reported quickly and investigated thoroughly. Action is taken to ensure that children are safe. Information is shared quickly with appropriate agencies. Leaders and managers have a strong presence in the home. They have attended the home out of hours to ensure children are safe or are spoken to about incidents that have happened.

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

Senior leaders have a strong approach to avoiding criminalisation of children. Valuable learning took place from the one occasion when police were called to the home.

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

Adults understand the risks of the online world that children face. Important learning has taken place following serious incidents for one child. The action taken kept the child safe. Close working with other professionals helped to manage the risks for one child. However, planning on how to manage this going forward is not proactive. Adults speak with children to help them understand risks on a regular basis.

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

Children have received consistent and nurturing responses from adults when they have been missing from home. Adults search for children; they know the areas where children are likely to be. Adults attempt to remain in contact with children when possible. Children’s plans give guidance to adults on the steps to take. Incidents when children have been missing from home have significantly reduced in recent months.

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

Physical interventions have also reduced significantly since the last inspection. There have been periods of difficulty when 2 or 3 interventions have been used during an Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 5 incident. There is a good level of reflection on these incidents. Managers consider what could be done differently and learning is shared with the team. The responsible individual oversees significant incidents and further reflection and learning has taken place.

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

Any restrictive practice is individual to each situation. Cleaning products and sharp items are not routinely locked away. Restrictions are carefully thought through, without using blanket approaches for all children. This equally applies to restrictions around online safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is run by an aspirational and committed manager. The manager is a strong advocate for children. This is evident from the views of other professionals working with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team is settled and there has been a significant increase in staff retention over the last year. Senior leaders ensure that there is investment in the adults who work in the home; managers recognise what the adults do well. No agency staff have been used. Adults say they are happy, work well as a team and support and cover for one another.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have good oversight of the care in the home. They monitor the care provided by recording sleep, food and self-care concerns for the children. This leads them to have a good overall picture of what each child needs and enables the progress that children are making to be seen.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children have been strongly advocated for. Challenge to education professionals led to one child’s period of suspension from school being significantly reduced. The manager has given clear responses to children when they have raised concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Specific training has been arranged or has taken place to meet children’s particular needs. Leaders and managers ensure that adults enrol on appropriate qualifications in a timely way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team has a consistent approach to care. All the adults spoken to understood the plans for the children well. Written guidance is generally clear; however, adults know the children well and are responsive to them. Monthly audits completed by the manager provide a comprehensive overview of what is going on in the home. This helps the manager to ensure which matters to prioritise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Systems are in place to ensure supervision and training take place in a timely way. Adults say they feel supported and enabled to fulfil their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback from family members and professionals is largely positive, particularly in relation to children being kept safe. There has been some miscommunication, which has usually been resolved quickly. Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff have the skills to support children in strategies to manage and reduce any risks. This is particularly in relation to online safety and ensuring that clear plans and strategies are in place for children to understand and safely manage the risks. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.10)

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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: 2642842 7

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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, Wiltshire SP1 3UT

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Inspector

Nickie Doney, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2642842 8 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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