Benecare Fostering

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Unique reference number SC376207 Inspection date 08/08/16 Inspector Melissa McMillan and Sophie Wood Type of inspection Full Provision subtype

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Setting address 113a St. Johns Hill, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3PE

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Telephone number 01732 740088 Email info@benecare.co.uk Registered person Benecare Fostering Limited Registered manager Sally Henson Responsible individual Stephen Richmond Date of last inspection 14/09/2015

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Brief description of the service

Benecare Fostering is an independent fostering agency, registered in April 2008 and privately owned by Benecare Fostering Ltd. The service offers a range of placements covering an age range from birth to 18 years. These include single placements and sibling groups; parent and child placements; planned and emergency placements; short-term and long-term placements; and respite care. At the time of this inspection, there were two approved fostering households. Three young people were in placement.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : An agency demonstrating and exceeding the characteristics of a good judgement where children and young people are making significantly better progress and achieving more than was expected in all areas of their lives. Good : An agency where children and young people, including those with the most complex needs, have their individual needs met and their welfare safeguarded and promoted. They make good progress and receive effective services so they achieve as well as they can in all areas of their lives. Requires improvement : An agency that may be compliant with regulations and observing the national minimum standards but is not yet demonstrating the characteristics of a good judgement. It therefore requires improvement to be good. There may be failures to meet all regulations or national minimum standards (NMS) but these are not widespread or serious; all children's and young people's welfare is

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

safeguarded and promoted. Inadequate : An agency where there are widespread or serious failures, which result in children and young people not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Overall effectiveness

Agency staff do not adequately challenge and advocate on behalf of young people. This has resulted in the staff’s passive acceptance of decisions made by other professionals even when these have been detrimental to the well-being of young people. Safeguarding policies, risk assessments and safer care plans are simplistic and do not contain sufficient information to enable foster carers to recognise risk and take action to protect children. Neither do these documents advise foster carers of all necessary preventative strategies to keep young people safe. The agency is not able to offer a range of placements to meet the diverse needs of young people who require a placement. The number of fostering families that the agency employs has reduced from three to two since the previous inspection, and no more foster carers have been recruited. Second carers have not completed all of the agency’s core training or the training,

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Overall effectiveness

support and development standards for foster carers. This compromises their ability to successfully care for young people and to promote their well-being. There are too few suitably experienced panel members, so the panel is not able to fulfil its quality assurance and safeguarding roles for the agency. Some existing members have not undertaken safeguarding training, compromising their ability to make safe recommendations. Consequently, there is no functional fostering panel in place. The agency’s recruitment policy and procedures are poor, resulting in unsafe recruitment practices by the agency. Insufficient staffing levels mean that the registered manager carries out all management and supervising social work functions for the agency. This has not allowed for effective quality assurance and has resulted in conflicts of interest. Inadequate monitoring systems fail to identify the agency’s shortfalls, and leaders

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Overall effectiveness

and managers have not improved the quality of service. There are significant failures in the leadership and management of the agency, resulting in insufficient progress made against the recommendations, requirements and compliance notices made at the previous inspection.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 and the national minimum standards. The registered persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to all persons employed to work for the purposes of the fostering service in respect of each of the matters specified in Schedule 1. (Regulation 20(3)(c) Schedule 1) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that there are a sufficient number of suitably qualified, competent and experienced persons working for the purposes of the fostering service. (Regulation 19) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the welfare of children placed with foster parents is 02/11/16 safeguarded and promoted at all times. (Regulation 11(a)) Provide foster parents with such training, advice, information and support as appears necessary in the interests of children placed with them. (Regulation 17(1)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Keep under review and, where appropriate, revise the statement of purpose and children's guide. (Regulation 4(a)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the fostering panel has sufficient members, and that individual members have between them the experience and expertise necessary, to effectively discharge the functions of the panel. (Regulation 23 (7)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Review and update the policies and procedures in place, which are intended to safeguard children placed with foster parents from abuse or neglect. (Regulation 12 (1)(a)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Maintain a system for improving the quality of foster care provided by the fostering agency. (Regulation 35(1)(b)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Ensure a system is maintained for monitoring the matters set out in Schedule 6 at appropriate intervals and improve the quality of foster care provided by the fostering agency. (Regulation 35(1)(a) and (b) Schedule 6) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Carry on the fostering agency in such manner as is likely to ensure that it will be financially viable for the purpose of achieving the aims and objectives set out in its statement of purpose. (Regulation 37(1)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that all persons employed by them receive appropriate training, supervision and appraisal. (Regulation 21(4)(a)) 02/11/16

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Requirement Due date

Promote the educational achievement of children placed with foster parents and implement a procedure for monitoring the educational achievement, progress and school attendance of children placed with foster parent. (Regulation 16(1) and (2)(a)) 02/11/16

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that reviews of foster carers' approval are sufficiently thorough to allow the fostering service to properly satisfy itself about their carers' ongoing suitability to foster. (NMS 13.8)  Ensure that the children’s guide includes a summary of what the fostering service sets out to do for children, how they can find out their rights, how a child can contact their independent reviewing officer, the children’s rights director, or Ofsted if they wish to raise a concern with inspectors, and how they can secure access to an independent advocate. (NMS 16.4)  Ensure that when a child requires it, the guide is available, when appropriate, through suitable alternative methods of communication, for example Makaton, pictures, tape recording or translation into another language. (NMS 16.6)  Ensure that reviews of foster carers' approval are sufficiently thorough to allow the fostering service to properly satisfy itself about their carers' ongoing

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Recommendations

suitability to foster. (NMS 13.8)  Ensure that there are comprehensive arrangements for preparing and supporting young people to make the transition to independence. (NMS 12.3)

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Requires improvement

Inconsistent risk management strategies fail to set out clear supervision arrangements for one young person. Mixed messages confuse the carers and the young person and fail to promote his ability to develop his independence in a safe way. He is closely supervised in the home but is given regular unsupervised time to play out with friends. This is adversely affecting the young person’s self-esteem and relationships with his peers. Agency staff cannot successfully advocate on young people’s behalf to ensure that they have the right support to promote their educational needs. This is because the agency does not attend personal education plan meetings or challenge its exclusion from them. Agency staff are not aware of young people’s current targets and cannot monitor whether foster carers are supporting young people to reach their educational potential. This is because they have not obtained copies of two of the

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Requires improvement

young people’s personal education plans. The agency does not provide young people with all the necessary information to promote a successful placement. The agency has two children’s guides: one aimed at younger children and the other at young people. Foster carers have devised ‘all about us’ leaflets, which inform young people about the foster carer’s home and family, aiding them to settle into their foster home. However, the agency does not support unaccompanied children to understand the literature it provides. This is because it does not translate children’s guides or ‘all about us’ leaflets into the children’s native languages. The guides do not contain all the information required by the national minimum standards, such as how to contact the Children’s Commissioner. Young people have successfully reduced their missing incidents, use of illicit substances and offending behaviour. This is a great achievement and is due to the

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Requires improvement

consistent support and boundaries provided by foster carers. However, limited risk assessments and guidance concerning risk management strategies fail to support the foster carers to effectively safeguard young people or promote their well-being. For example, missing person’s plans advise foster carers to report a missing young person immediately to police, social worker and Benecare Fostering Ltd. However, plans do not detail actions that foster carers should take to reduce the likelihood of the young person going missing or the proactive steps they should take to find the young person. In one case, a young person’s risk assessment fails to explore a risk of child sexual exploitation. Risk-reduction strategies for incidents of self-harm focus on the young person talking to the foster carer and do not include practical measures, such as their not having access to sharp objects in times of distress.

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Requires improvement

Young people are able to develop strong relationships with their foster carers and they experience positive family life. Young people feel settled and safe, leading to improved confidence and self-esteem. One child has obtained permanency with his foster carers. A placing authority is also considering this for another child. This achievement stands to provide those young people with consistency and stability into their early adult life. Young people are able to develop friendships and to pursue their hobbies and interests. Foster carers support young people to attend clubs and classes, to try new things and to extend their social networks, supporting them to develop their social skills and confidence. Foster carers support young people to celebrate their identities and cultures and to develop a sense of belonging. Young people have opportunities to socialise with other young people from similar backgrounds and cultures and are able to regularly

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Requires improvement

attend their preferred religious institutions. All young people are in full-time education and make good progress. They all have excellent attendance, which represents a significant improvement from their starting points. Young people are able to develop their independence skills through completing household tasks and budgeting in preparation for adult life. One young person has worked towards being able to access free time in the community, supporting his independence. However, there is no formalised process for supporting young people to develop their skills. Such progress relies solely on the foster carers’ willingness to promote this. Foster carers promote young people’s health needs to a good standard. They take action to register young people with appropriate health professionals and support young people to attend their appointments. Foster carers monitor young people’s mental health. When necessary, they have advocated for a referral to the children

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Requires improvement

and young people’s mental health team to support the young person’s emotional well-being. Young people are able to have a sense of belonging in their family and to remain in contact with those whom they consider important to them. When appropriate, foster carers support young people to have contact with their families. A chance encounter for one unaccompanied child meant that they were able to establish contact with their sibling. The foster carer has since been in regular contact with the sibling’s carer to ensure that the siblings have regular contact to maintain their relationship with each other, promoting their identities and self-esteem.

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Inadequate

An insufficient response to the previous shortfalls identified in relation to the fostering panel means that there has been no progress made and there is no functional panel in place. There is confusion in relation to the panel members’ list, which has meant that there are not enough members with the necessary experience and knowledge to make safe, sound recommendations or to hold a panel that would be quorate. The agency has not used the panel chair and its existing members to assess the quality of foster care provided to young people during foster carers’ reviews. This is a missed opportunity to evaluate the panel’s ability to carry out its duties effectively and responsibly, and to provide further quality assurance of the reviewing officer’s recommendations. The agency is unable to fulfil it aims of offering a range of placements as set out in its statement of purpose. The number of fostering families that the agency employs

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Inadequate

has reduced from three to two since the previous inspection, and no new foster carers have been recruited. Foster carers and young people receive unhelpful and confusing messages as a result of the agency not effectively challenging and taking action when placing authorities give conflicting guidance. However, agency staff attend young people’s reviews and communicate regularly with placing social workers. The agency’s matching tool does not identify how the agency will address deficits in the skills of foster carers to successfully support new placements. The previous inspection identified this, but the agency has not taken action to rectify these concerns. As a result, the agency may place young people with foster carers who do not have the knowledge or understanding to successfully support and keep young people safe. The tool does evidence positive matches between foster carers and young people. One professional stated, ‘I think the foster carers and [young

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Inadequate

person] have been very well matched.’ The previous inspection identified shortfalls concerning second carers’ training and a compliance notice was issued. The action taken has not been sufficient to ensure that second foster carers have received adequate training. Second carers have not yet completed all the core training as outlined in the statement of purpose, including the training, support and development standards for foster carers. There have been some improvements made in the range of training on offer, which ensures that foster carers have the knowledge to meet the specific needs of individual young people. Foster carers have regular opportunities to discuss their training and development needs in supervision, and these are actioned when needed. For example, foster carers have successfully obtained training on supporting unaccompanied children and children who may lie or steal, to meet the specific needs of the young people whom they care for.

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Inadequate

There is no clear independent quality assurance mechanism or oversight of the review process. The registered manager conducts, reviews and presents foster carer annual reviews to the decision maker. This is because she is the only qualified social worker in the agency. Consequently, the quality assurance of reviews is compromised. The registered manager is committed to ensuring that the agency only employs foster carers who are able to meet the needs of young people. She did not recommend two applicants for approval due to concerns about their ability to foster. The agency has two other ongoing assessments of potential foster carers. Foster carers said that they feel that their relationships with the registered manager have improved and that they feel supported and listened to. Due to the low number of foster carers in the agency, the registered manager has been able to provide significant time and support to ensure that carers feel valued and able to cope with

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Inadequate

the additional demands of fostering. This has enabled young people to benefit from the care offered by well-supported foster carers. However, the registered manager is the only qualified supervising social worker in the agency. This level of support would not be sustainable if the agency were to recruit more fostering families.

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Inadequate

The agency provides inconsistent and insufficient guidance to foster carers, adversely affecting their ability to manage risks to young people. Generalised safer care plans provide limited detail and lack clarity. Agency staff do not regularly review these documents, and they often contain basic mistakes, such as referring to a young person as both ‘he’ and ‘she’. There is a poor regard to the quality and detail of such significant documents. Risk assessments do not cover all known risks. For example, although children have experienced incidents of bullying, these are not identified in the assessments. Risk management plans are not proactive and do not contain detailed preventative strategies. For example, guidance about e-safety is simplistic and does not include the actions that foster carers must take to reduce risks to individuals. Young people’s missing persons’ protocols do not contain preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of a young person going missing or

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Inadequate

the proactive steps that foster carers should take to ensure the young person’s safe return. The agency has several risk management documents in place that are unwieldly and burdensome. The foster carers complete many of the documents themselves, including risk management strategies. The limited detail in these strategies evidences that foster carers do not have full insight into the actions that they must take to manage risks to effectively safeguard young people. It is not clear whether the agency has provided support to develop foster carers’ ability to complete risk management plans. The lack of oversight by the registered manager of these documents exacerbates these concerns. She has not evaluated risk assessments for their effectiveness or quality. This may result in carers not taking the necessary action to keep young people safe. There has been an attempt by the registered manager to review some policies and

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Inadequate

procedures since the previous inspection, but this has been insufficient. This is due to the limited time and resources given to this necessary piece of work, and has resulted in a lack of clarity about which policies are current. The agency has various sources of guidance and information, covering a range of safeguarding topics, such as e-safety and radicalisation. However, this is unwieldy and carers’ understanding of translating it into their day-to-day care of young people is not clearly monitored or evidenced. The safeguarding policy on who is the designated safeguarding lead for the agency is unclear. The registered manager advises that it has been covered in training. However, agency staff have not evidenced that foster carers are clear on whom they should report concerns to. This may mean that foster carers may not report concerns, leaving young people at risk of harm. The agency cannot be confident that its foster carers have the necessary

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Inadequate

knowledge and understanding to keep children and young people safe. It is not clear how the agency assures itself that foster carers understand new policies and procedures and are competent at implementing them. The agency’s recruitment policy is poor and fails to guide safe recruitment practice. As a result, there is a direct correlation between very poor recruitment procedures and the quality of recruitment checks found during this inspection. The registered manager has not sufficiently reviewed recruitment files to satisfy herself that current staff have the necessary skills and experience to carry out their roles and that the essential checks are in place to ensure that they are safe to work with young people. A compliance notice made at the previous inspection has not been sufficiently addressed, and the agency’s recruitment practices continue in their failure to provide adequate protection for young people accommodated by the

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Inadequate

agency. The current arrangements of the foster panel mean that it cannot function as a safeguarding mechanism to approve or reapprove foster carers with the skills necessary to keep young people safe. Not all panel members have undertaken safeguarding training and, therefore, may not have the knowledge or understanding necessary to make sound recommendations that promote the welfare and protection of young people. Young people feel that they can raise concerns directly to their foster carers and they feel confident that their foster carers will act on them. There have been no incidents of young people going missing since the previous inspection. For one young person, this is a significant achievement. There has been one safeguarding concern raised since the previous inspection. The manager dealt with this appropriately and notified the relevant authorities. There have been no complaints to the agency or allegations made against foster

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Inadequate

Ofsted registered the current manager in June 2015. She is a committed social work practitioner who provides sound advice and support to foster carers. However, she has not completed a suitable management qualification and, since being in post, has not fulfilled the full range of her registered manager’s role, resulting in significant failures. A compliance notice regarding insufficient staffing was raised at the previous inspection and this has not been satisfactorily addressed. The registered manager is still the only qualified social worker in the agency. The agency has failed to recruit another qualified social worker. This means that the registered manager continues to carry out two roles: one as supervisor to all the agency’s approved foster carers and the other as agency manager. This has not allowed for effective quality assurance and has resulted in conflicts of interest. This adversely affects the

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Inadequate

manager’s ability to objectively review the quality of support offered to foster carers and her ability to have oversight of the quality of service offered by the agency to young people. Inadequate monitoring and quality assurance systems have failed to identify the agency’s shortfalls and to improve its practice. The agency has not produced any quality assurance reports since March 2016. Those produced prior to March 2016 are of poor quality and only display the data that the agency has obtained. There is no evaluation or analysis of this data or evidence of how the agency uses this information to improve the quality of service. There is no formal development plan in place to detail how leaders and managers intend to move the agency forward. Managers and leaders produced an action plan in response to the previous inspection. However, this has been ineffective in addressing the concerns identified. As a result, there has been insufficient progress made against the

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Inadequate

recommendations, requirements and compliance notices made at the previous inspection. The agency is unable to meet the needs of placing authorities and the children looked after in their target communities. There is no business plan in place to demonstrate the action that the agency is taking to rectify this. The registered manager does not have an understanding of the financial arrangements for the agency and is not aware of its business plan. This means that she does not have the information she needs to be responsible in an effective way for the day-to-day running of the fostering service. A business plan was not provided during the inspection, despite this being requested by inspectors. Therefore, inspectors were unable to fully explore the financial viability of this agency and to be assured that it will be able to achieve its aims and objectives as set out in its statement of purpose. Leaders have not recognised or provided for the registered manager’s development

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Inadequate

needs. For example, there is no structured approach to her appraisal. Nor is there a development plan to enable or enhance her own development as a manager. Thus, leaders missed opportunities to improve the manager’s skills and competence, which had an adverse effect on the agency. Insufficient staffing has meant that the registered manager has not been able to supervise agency staff appropriately and the proper use of human resources processes has not occurred. This includes risk assessments, to ensure that staff are safe in carrying out their roles and responsibilities, not being carried out. The agency’s statement of purpose is not representative of a child-focused agency and does not inform young people, placing authorities and other stakeholders of the service that it intends to provide. The statement of purpose only outlines its aims and objectives for foster carers and multi-agency working. It does not mention

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Inadequate

its aims and objectives for young people or the outcomes that it would like to achieve for them.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to inform 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, and to support services to improve.

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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 independent fostering agencies.

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