St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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Unique reference number SC067796 Inspection date 24 May 2016 Inspector Stephen Smith Type of inspection Full

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Setting address St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE15 7PY

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Telephone number 0191 228 0111 Email sheila.errington@stcuthbertscare.org.uk Registered person St Cuthbert’s Care Registered manager Sarah Croft Responsible individual Sheila Errington Date of last inspection 7 February 2013

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Brief description of the service

St Cuthbert’s Care Post-Adoption Support Agency is part of a larger charitable organisation. The charity also operates an independent fostering agency and children’s homes, as well as adult care provision. The agency is small. It employs the manager, who is also the registered manager of the organisation’s fostering service, and two part-time social workers. The agency provides birth records counselling and intermediary services for people affected by adoptions carried out under predecessor Catholic adoption agencies, whose adoption records it now holds. The agency works only with adults. It provides around seven hours per week of adoption support work, and worked on 24 cases in the 12 months preceding the inspection.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Requires improvement : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good

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Overall effectiveness

This agency provides a good service to the people who use its services. The manager and social workers are experienced practitioners who understand the issues faced by people who have experienced adoption. They are skilled and sensitive in helping people to understand the events that happened to them and past decisions about their lives. The agency also undertakes skilled and sensitive work to trace and to help people to make contact with separated birth family members, where this is appropriate and required.

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Overall effectiveness

Work is undertaken to help to reunite people in a safe manner, with high levels of support for the feelings and emotions experienced by people who are learning about their past and making contact with people they may have been separated from for many years.

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Overall effectiveness

The agency works well with other agencies to help to ensure that people receive prompt responses to their requests for support. Where information is difficult to locate, the agency works tenaciously to locate and provide this for people.

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Overall effectiveness

Some elements of the agency’s operation are not as developed as they should be. The agency’s statement of purpose does not contain all the required information about its nature, and information for prospective service users does not make clear what they can and cannot expect from the service. Additionally, case records are not very well structured, which makes the work done and its quality more difficult to monitor than it should be. More significantly, the agency’s archived adoption records are not sufficiently well protected from the risk of fire, although the agency was, at the time of the inspection, already working to develop a more suitable storage location for them.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meets the Care Standards Act 2000, the Adoption Support Agencies (England) and Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2005, and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the statement of purpose consists of a statement as to the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that it states any conditions for the time being in force in relation to the registration (Regulation 5(1)). 8 July 2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the service users know and receive written information about the service that they are to receive. Specifically, that information is provided to prospective service users about the support and services that the agency can and cannot provide (National minimum standards, 15.3).  Ensure that entries in records are legible and clearly expressed. Specifically, that records are structured in such a way to ensure that needs, progress of work and outcomes are clearly recorded and structured so the information is readily accessible (National minimum standards, 27.4).  Ensure that there are facilities for the secure retention of records.  Specifically, that archived adoption records are adequately safeguarded from the risk of damage by fire (National minimum standards, 28.1).

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service users

People who use the agency for support receive a service that they appreciate highly. The service is sensitive in its work and provides support where needed, yet ensures that service users are fully in control of the process and what is happening. People receive very good support to read and understand their file. Skilled and sensitive guidance and support from workers helps people to make sense of old, and sometimes incomplete, records. The agency produces well- prepared summaries of complex case records. These help people to understand events that happened to them and are highly valued by the people concerned. For example, one professional from another agency, working with a person learning about their past, said that the agency provided information that was ‘beautifully presented and prepared’, and that the information was ‘clearly explained, and flowed in a way that made talking to the young person about it

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service users

easy’. Another person, who said they had started out not knowing what they really wanted, said that the agency clarified their thoughts and that the process was ‘made so easy for me’.

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service users

The agency works diligently and tenaciously to locate birth relatives, where this is required, often over a long period and thus difficult. If separated birth relatives decide that they want to make contact, the agency provides safe and sensitive support to make this a positive experience for them, in line with their wishes.

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service users

In situations where the outcomes are disappointing for service users, workers provide very sensitive support and guidance to help them to come to terms with this. The agency seeks the views of people who use the service and responds as required. This means that users have some influence over how the agency operates.

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Quality of service provision

The agency provides a very prompt and timely response to adults who were adopted as children, and birth relatives who approach it for support. For example, one person said that they received a response from the agency within five days, despite their request coming just before a bank holiday weekend. Another person said that ‘information and help were readily available, even 56 years after adoption’.

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Quality of service provision

Information about the agency, its services and charges is clear. However, it does not provide enough information about what the agency can and cannot do. This means that it does not help to manage the expectations of people who contact it to prepare them for possible disappointment at this early stage as well as it might.

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Quality of service provision

The agency’s service is highly individualised, and is based on each person’s situation and desired outcomes. It listens carefully to service users to establish their needs and desired outcomes. The agency is sensitive and empowering in its work, striking an effective balance between helping and supporting, and allowing its service users to remain in control. One person said, ‘I felt very valued as a person. They were very supportive.’ When pieces of work are complete, cases are closed. However, service users benefit from continued access to the agency should they need further support or services in the future. For example, in one situation the agency has continued to provide support, information and guidance at different times over a number of years, as the recipient required it.

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Quality of service provision

The agency works well with its services users and also with professionals in other agencies that it has links with. The agency often liaises with other adoption or adoption support agencies to find information or to trace other family members. It works effectively in these situations to ensure that people receive a good service.

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Quality of service provision

The agency monitors the quality of work by seeking the views of people who have used it. Feedback is positive, and they are very satisfied with the service that they have received. For example, one person said, ‘Nothing needs improving! Thank you for everything that you’re doing.’

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families

The agency has an appropriate safeguarding policy and procedure in place. These underpin its practice. There are clear procedural guidelines regarding any allegation of historic abuse which may come to light in the course of the agency’s work. Staff working for the agency understand their responsibilities under these policies.

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families

The manager and staff members have an in-depth understanding of adoption and its lifelong impact. This means that the physical and emotional safety and well-being of the people who they work with are given a high priority. Careful checks on identity are undertaken before information is shared, and the agency gains consent from all parties before disclosing any contact details. All work is done carefully under adoption guidance and legislation. When contact is made between adopted adults and their birth relatives, the agency’s staff provide very good practical and emotional support to ensure the safety and well-being of all parties. Initial contact is made by the worker and, in situations in which direct contact is planned, the agency staff will arrange and support this. Meetings take place initially at a neutral and safe venue, such as the office or, if appropriate, a public place.

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families

The agency has appropriate policies for managing and responding to complaints and allegations. There have been no complaints or allegations regarding the agency or its staff since the last inspection.

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families

Since the last inspection, the only appointment to the adoption support agency has been the manager, who was already employed by the organisation. Suitable recruitment processes are in place which help to safeguard service users by ensuring the suitability of the agency’s staff.

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Leadership and management

This is a well-managed agency. It understands its role and its strengths, and works effectively to meet its objectives. The agency’s staff team is well qualified, experienced and trained. Staff understand the lifelong implications of adoption, and work with enthusiasm and commitment to meet the needs of the people who approach the agency for help to access their records, understand their history or make contact with family members separated by adoption. There are good arrangements for the supervision and appraisal of staff and the agency manager. These help to ensure the high quality of the work undertaken.

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Leadership and management

The agency has the resources necessary to undertake its work. It is financially viable, as part of a larger organisation. The organisation is committed to the important work that the agency carries out for people who were affected by adoption in the past through the agency’s predecessor organisations. The agency is flexible in its response, so operates without a waiting list or a delay in offering a service. This means prospective service users are responded to promptly, and a service is offered if the agency holds their records.

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Leadership and management

The agency has a statement of purpose in place which is generally informative and appropriate. However, this document does not set out the conditions of registration that the agency works under, as is required by the regulations it operates under. This means that there is less initial clarity than there should be about the nature of the service that the agency provides. The agency operates within an appropriate range of policies and procedures.

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Leadership and management

Case records contain full information about the work undertaken. However, their structure, layout and content are not consistent, and most files lack an overview, chronology or case summary. This means that monitoring the quality of work and records from the file contents is more difficult than it should be.

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Leadership and management

Overall, the monitoring of the agency’s operation, number of cases, timescales and outcomes achieved is good. The manager maintains a close overview of the work undertaken, aided by the agency’s small size The monitoring by the organisation’s senior management team and board is also thorough.

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Leadership and management

The agency operates from a modern building which is accessible to people using the service. The building provides suitable office premises and provides rooms for reunification meetings, when necessary. Facilities to maintain the security and confidentiality of records of the sensitive work done by the agency are good. However, the agency’s archived historic adoption records are currently stored in a top-floor room of a nearby building. This room is not equipped with suitable fire detection or fire-fighting equipment, so the safety of these important and irreplaceable records is not fully assured. The agency was, at the time of the inspection, preparing an alternative storage facility for these records.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the inspection framework and the evaluation schedule for the inspection of adoption support agencies.

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