Five Rivers Child Care is active in running a comprehensive network of crisis placements for children who are in need of a short-term intensive placement.
We see a crisis as an opportunity for change, so our crisis placements have been developed to ensure each young person can be fully assessed as part of a suitable placement being found.
By focusing on the individual difficulties affecting the development of each child and young person, our therapeutic teams use multiple resources to prescribe the best programme possible for personal assessment and treatment.
Our Crisis service is frequently used for young people who simply cannot cope with the environment around them. Our Residential service offers a 2:1 care ratio of highly experienced professionals, providing children and young people where possible with a much-needed respite break.
The programme is designed for them to extend themselves in ways they never thought possible. We also perform in-depth assessments of each child and young person, using fun activities incorporated into their individual care programme. This has been particularly successful with children and young people who are usually seen as a ‘problem’, or are at risk of a placement breaking down.
Children and young people who are stepping down from secure care, or at risk of going into secure accommodation, have found our residential service highly beneficial as a short-term solution. It brings a sense of stability and is geared towards moving forward and making progress.
Recognising the need for rapid admission decisions for children and young people at risk, Five Rivers offers an emergency referral service (vacancy permitting). Our placement team respond to calls within one hour and we consider all kinds of cases regardless of the young person’s current behaviour or needs.
Placement programme
Our placement programmes include:
- The safe and stabilising environment of a residential children’s home
- The skills of a highly trained carer in family placement schemes
- Educational services (such as supported school placements or one-to-one tuition)
- A specialist short-term children’s home for children finding it difficult to adapt to a normal environment.
We aim to develop more schemes throughout the UK to aid as many children and young people as we can.
Working with local authorities
We work with local authorities to develop clear, realistic expectations of progress, based on the assessment of need, for children and young people who may have been in a cycle of disruption for many years.
This integrated assessment, comprising educational, social and clinical components, is completed within the first three months of placement).
These services have access to both our Assessment & Therapy and Education services, to enable Five Rivers to provide a bespoke package of support for each child.
“Thank you for your input with our young person at this critical time … and for your flexibility and support which has been invaluable.” – A London Borough.
Maximising children’s potential
At Five Rivers, our aim is not simply to ‘solve’ an immediate crisis, but to focus our range of residential and educational services and their possible transitions on maximising each child’s potential, and achieving the best possible outcome.
Find out more about making a referral or contact the Crisis Intervention team.