Children's Home run by 1848 Ltd in Somerset

Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 1 Registered provider: 1848 Ltd

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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 owned by a private provider and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 3 children. At the time of the inspection, 3 children were living in the home. The inspector spent time talking with 2 children.

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Information about this children's home

The manager has been in post since January 2025 and registered with Ofsted in May 2025.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 2491059 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/08/2025 Full Good 03/09/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/08/2023 Full Good 13/07/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 3

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Summary of findings

Staff have built warm and nurturing relationships with children so they feel settled and secure. Staff understand children's needs and listen to their views, wishes and feelings. There is a strong leadership team who provide a high level of support to the staff team, helping them to deliver good-quality care that supports children to reach their potential.

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Summary of findings

Some areas of practice require strengthening and improvement. Leaders and managers accept this and are taking steps to address the shortfalls.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy living at the home and enjoy spending time with staff. Children have developed trusting relationships with staff and feel comfortable in their presence. They have positive interactions. Children openly express themselves and readily seek support from staff. Staff have a good understanding of children's interests and plan activities and trips that relate to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made varying degrees of progress from their starting points, but they are all making positive strides. Staff support children using an individualised approach, so they can focus on specific areas to help each child develop. This includes promoting independence skills, helping children to learn new skills in preparation for young adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have supported some children to overcome barriers to education, and they have been able to re-engage with learning. In contrast, other children have significant gaps in their education, and staff are not regularly supporting them to participate in daily educational activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's health needs are met because staff support them to attend appointments and speak with professionals. Additionally, specialist support workers visit the children and are building positive relationships with them. Children have a varied diet and they all enjoy cooking. During the inspection, one child baked cakes each morning for everyone to share. The home smelt of banana bread and chocolate brownies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to maintain important relationships with people they love and enjoy spending time with. These efforts help children to sustain and strengthen connections with significant people in their lives. Parents are happy with the care that their children receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Professionals speak highly of staff's approach to helping children prepare for transitions into and out of the home. They understand the importance of helping children to develop an early sense of belonging, as well as helping them to prepare for independence and successful integration with the local community. Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 4

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improvement to be good

Staff know children well and can recognise when something is bothering them. Staff talk with children and offer them emotional support and comfort. As a result, children are assured that they are cared for and are supported to share their worries, meaning that staff can offer advice and guidance.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not resorted to using physical interventions since the last inspection. They rely on their positive relationships with children and therapeutic approach to de-escalate incidents. When children go missing from home, staff respond appropriately by taking immediate action to find them. However, there was an isolated incident where children went missing together because of poor supervision. Staff help children to develop increasingly safe behaviours by talking to them about different risks, such as dangers associated with technology.

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improvement to be good

There have been a high number of safeguarding concerns relating to emotional wellbeing, but these have reduced recently. Some issues have been complex. Staff take appropriate action to ensure that children are safe and receive specialist support. Leaders and managers implement safety plans to give guidance to staff, helping them to understand how to mitigate risk and keep children safe. Children occasionally replicate each other's behaviours, which negatively impact their wellbeing and ability to practice healthy coping strategies. Staff are working collaboratively with multi-agency professionals to minimise incidents.

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improvement to be good

There have been several medication errors in the home. These vary in nature but there has been no harm to children. The registered manager has undertaken an in-depth review and implemented numerous actions to address shortfalls. However, leaders and managers have not arranged for staff to complete any formal medication refresher training. During the inspection, medication was observed to be without a label, which could lead to further errors. Managers took action to address this.

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improvement to be good

Children have not raised any concerns or complaints about staff. Staff ensure that children know how to share their worries and make complaints. On one occasion, there was a potential concern regarding the practice of an agency staff member. Leaders and managers informed the agency, but they did not directly consult with safeguarding agencies. This could place children at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager work well together and are motivated to provide good-quality care to children. Staff feel supported by managers because they are approachable. They enjoy working in the home. Team meetings and supervisions are held regularly, and staff find these beneficial because they provide opportunities to share their views, review practice and consider areas for improvement. Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 5 Leaders and managers consider the needs of the children when identifying relevant training opportunities for staff. This broadens staff's skillset so that they can effectively support children. When children's needs change, leaders and managers provide additional training opportunities for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have good oversight of staff practice and understand the home's strengths and areas for development. They take steps to improve staff practice by reflecting on incidents, drawing out learning and sharing it with the team. They use professional curiosity to explore any shortfalls in practice. Leaders and managers also formulate child-focused plans to target specific areas of improvement, such as children's engagement in education. However, there has been some drift for some children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been a period of instability in the home because of a lot of staff changes. This has resulted in high use of agency workers. Where possible, regular agency staff are used, enabling them to build relationships with the children. Additionally, long-standing, permanent staff work alongside agency staff, which provides children with consistency, helping them to feel settled and secure. Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 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, The 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 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

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

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children are appropriately supervised by waking night staff, reducing the likelihood of missing incidents.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that they consult with the local authority designated officer when there are concerns about staff practice. 13 September 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children's home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them;

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. 13 September 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 7 (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that when there are ongoing medication errors, or significant errors, that staff undertake appropriate medication refresher training.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered person must ensure that all medication is labelled with the relevant child's details, with the aim of avoiding future errors.

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Recommendation

 Where children are not attending education settings, the registered person should ensure that staff engage them in educational activities and informal learning to help them rebuild their confidence, so that they are prepared to reintegrate back into education settings ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 28, paragraph 5.15)

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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: 2491059 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Old Bank Building, East Street, Ilminster, England TA19 0AJ

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Inspector

Emma Fryer, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2491059 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 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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