At 1848 we have Children’s Homes across Somerset in varying locations (urban and rural). We offer bespoke, child centred and creative care to give young people the opportunity to deal with their past and aspire for the future.

Our homes are highly individual, decorated and furnished to the highest standards. We encourage the young people who live there to be involved in their home including the décor and furnishings. Our overarching ethos is that our homes should look and feel like any other family home. They should be warm and welcoming, full of life, fun and activities, but also space for just sometimes reflecting and chilling.

Activities that our young people participate in range from photography to horse riding, to dancing and surfing, walking the dogs to hiking over the moors, long walks by the sea and going to the cinema, meeting friends and cooking for the whole house. They have taken part in the Wave Project and have access to whatever resources they need to find out more about themselves and about life.

The homes are run by teams who have been trained to do their roles with effect and positivity. Our staff mantra is leadership, role modelling and teamwork.

We avoid institutional language wherever possible and this is important if we are to create homes. The homes are run by Registered Managers alongside their Home Teams which comprise of Trainee Registered Manager, Well-Being Leads and Positive Behaviour Workers.

Challenge is an important word for us both within the homes, with our staff, our and also towards societies thinking about children in care. Quite simply we want to challenge the way things are done now.

Within our homes, and in our practise, we want to create opportunities for young people to grow and to truly fulfil their potential. These are not empty words, and it is not wishful thinking.

We cannot do this simply by ‘babysitting’ or accepting the status quo, we must challenge the way they think – about themselves, what has happened to them their relationships, their place in the care system, and challenge them to change and in doing so change their life chances and ambitions.

And we must challenge also the way our staff think about their role within the home.

We want to positively and radically impact on their lives now, so that they can grab their future, and in doing so inspire others in the care system to do the same.

We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to do this, sometimes that extra effort yields results that make  the difference.

All homes have access to our Therapeutic Hub which is based in the centre of Taunton.

We follow a PACE model (Dan Hughes) but we often have to be flexible and adaptive to suit. We talk about our model being that of a good parent.

Into the PACE model we add love, and talk about the PLACE model.

Within the homes we also have adopted a Positive Behaviour Support approach. We want to understand where the behaviour comes from, and what the behaviour means. To this end we believe that all behaviour is communication.