The Children's Society

Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society The Children’s Society The Children’s Society (Services) Limited Edward Rudolph House, 69–85 Margery Street, London WC1X 0JL Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this adoption support agency

The Children’s Society runs this post adoption and care service, providing access to adoption and birth records to adults adopted from public care and adults placed by the society for adoption between 1936 and 2005. Since April 2017, the agency has provided a service to 78 adopted adults either directly or via local authorities or other registered adoption agencies working with adopted adults.

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Overall experience and progress of

service users, taking into account: good

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Overall experience and progress of

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected good

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Overall experience and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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Overall experience and progress of

The adoption support agency provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Overall experience and progress of

Date of last inspection: 10 November 2015

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Overall experience and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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Overall experience and progress of

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society

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Key findings from this inspection

This adoption support agency is good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Adults using this service feel welcomed and supported.  The team providing access to records is professional and knowledgeable.  The team understands the significance for adult service users who are accessing their records and the impact this can have on them and their families.  The agency has good strategic safeguarding practice in place.  The records are being digitalised to make them more accessible. Older or damaged records take priority in this process to ensure that no records are lost.  The agency is becoming more efficient as records are transferring to an electronic recording system.  Adult service users are supported to understand their birth records and their history. They experience positive outcomes even when the information shared is difficult.

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Key findings from this inspection

The adoption support agency’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The agency’s statement of purpose requires updating to reflect staff changes.  Monitoring information on the specific work of the agency, the management, outcomes and financial state is not being reported to the trustees every six months. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the adoption agency/registered person of the adoption support agency formally approves the statement of purpose and reviews it at least annually. (Adoption: national minimum standards, page 53, paragraph 18.3)  Ensure that the executive side of the adoption support agency’s provider/trustees, board members or management committee member: – receive written reports on the management, outcomes and financial state of the agency every six months, – monitor the management and outcomes of the services in order to satisfy themselves that the agency is effective and is achieving good outcomes for service users, – satisfy themselves that the agency is complying with the conditions of registration. (Adoption: national minimum standards, page 73, paragraph 25.6) Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The team thinks carefully about service users and how best to share records and reduce the potential effect of difficult information on them. An agreed template for summary reports explains the content of records and how they were written in the context of their time. The summary report helps service users focus on the areas they wish to understand during the process. The staff are very supportive, considering the impact on families, confidentiality and data protection issues. The team carefully manages service users’ expectations to prepare them for receiving difficult information.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

Adult service users feel able to build trusted and positive relationships with the staff at this agency. Several users spoken to as part of this inspection said that they feel welcomed and valued. ‘Brilliant’, ‘friendly’ and ‘easy to talk to’ are some of the descriptions received in telephone feedback about the staff. Service users value the summary reports provided about their birth records. They said that the summary helped them to make sense of their records after the sharing meeting was over and helped guide them through what could have been an overwhelming process.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The agency works well in partnership with local authorities and other adoption agencies, providing redacted records in a timely way. Consideration is given to well- being, such as allowing service users to bring a support person to meetings, ensuring that they understand, and, if necessary, contacting health or adult services if concerns are present. Feedback is sought from service users and professionals after each piece of work. This feedback is analysed by the team and helps them to change and improve practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The agency no longer provides an intermediary service. However, staff direct service users to appropriate agencies that can support them with tracing birth relatives.

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good

The systems in place ensure that the work with adult service users is carefully planned and considered, so that it causes the least disruption to them and their families. When working on behalf of another authority or agency, sensitive information is highlighted to the worker who will share the record. If a service user decides they do not wish to have a social worker sharing information, then a waiver is signed and returned before sharing. This gives service users clear information about what to expect and an opportunity to change their minds about having support.

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good

Where records are shared in service users’ homes, a risk assessment takes place to ensure the safety of both service user and staff member. The agency has a lone Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society working policy in place and ensures that procedures are followed to keep everyone as safe as possible.

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good

The agency has robust safeguarding arrangements in place. There is an appointed strategic safeguarding lead across the whole organisation. The responsible individual attends all meetings of the risk audit and compliance committee. This committee maintains oversight of all safeguarding issues within the organisation on behalf of the board of trustees. In addition, there is also a historical abuse group, which is chaired by the responsible individual and has oversight of historical disclosures across the organisation. Practice has changed in response to complaints about how historical abuse allegations were handled. The Chief Executive of The Children’s Society has made a public apology on behalf of the agency to victims and survivors of historical abuse.

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good

The safeguarding policies, including the vulnerable adult policy, are good and informative. Staff spoken with were aware of their own responsibilities, how, when and to whom to report their concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been some changes to the management of the agency since the last full inspection in November 2015. The previous registered manager has moved to take on the strategic safeguarding role across the whole organisation. A new manager is in post and her application is in progress with the regulator. The responsible individual has also changed. Both the new responsible individual and the proposed registered manager are suitably qualified and experienced in their roles. All the management team members are committed, passionate and forward thinking.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team has changed as the agency has gone through a process of streamlining services. The agency no longer employs social workers, but commissions independent social workers who are home based and can work nationwide. An excellent administrative and support team coordinates the work to ensure that a good service is provided. The agency is in the process of transferring all its recording to an electronic database, which will make the overall work of the agency more efficient. During the transitional period, the registered manager is overseeing a case tracking tool to ensure that nothing is missed. The new systems will make the redaction and sharing of records easier and quicker.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Service users gave extremely positive feedback about the process, how it had helped them understand their personal stories and given them more information than they anticipated. Comments such as ‘very professional’, ‘reports really helpful’ and ‘very impressed with whole service’ were received from service users about the services provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are similarly passionate about their work and are committed to improving the lives of adult service users and their families. Staff are well supported by regular supervision and access to relevant training. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society The agency is achieving its stated aims and objectives; however, its statement of purpose needs to be updated to reflect the staffing changes and to ensure that it can be made available to service users on request.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers demonstrated a good overview of the service during the inspection and have systems in place which show that monitoring is regular. This information is reported across the whole organisation, although it is not service specific for the trustees, as it should be.

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Information about this inspection

During this inspection, inspectors looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, young people and adults. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children, young people and adults. They watched how professional staff work with children, young people, adults and each other and discussed the effectiveness of the help provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people, adults and their families. In addition, inspectors have tried to understand what the adoption support agency knows about how well it is performing and what difference it is making for the children, young people and adults whom it is trying to help.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000, using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, to assess the effectiveness of the adoption support agency, how it meets the core functions as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Adoption Support Agencies (England) and Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2005 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society

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Adoption support agency details

Registered provider: The Children’s Society (Services) Limited

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Adoption support agency details

Registered provider address: Edward Rudolph House, 69–85 Margery Street, London WC1X 0JL

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Adoption support agency details

Responsible individual: Ms Dara De Burca

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Adoption support agency details

Email address: Victoria.buchanan@childrenssociety.org.uk

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Children’s Society to 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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