St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency St Cuthbert’s Care St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE15 7PY Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this adoption support agency

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 agency’s responsible individual and the organisation’s director of care, and two part-time social workers, one of whom only provides input as required. 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 only works with adults. It provides around seven hours per week of adoption support work and has worked on 10 cases in the 12 months preceding the inspection.

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good

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

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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Key findings from this inspection

This adoption support agency is good because:  It provides a prompt and highly individualised service to the people who approach it.  The manager and social worker understand the significance of the work they do and are focused on helping people to explore and come to terms with their past.  The agency demonstrates a genuine commitment to helping those people whose lives were affected by adoptions carried out by one of its predecessor agencies.  The agency takes care to provide information that is as complete as possible in a way that is accessible and easy to understand.  Birth records counselling and support are of very good quality and are highly appreciated by service users.  The agency works in such a way as to maintain the emotional and physical safety of its users and protect the confidentiality of all people involved.  Work is undertaken in a timely manner without undue delay.

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Key findings from this inspection

The adoption support agency’s areas for development:  The agency should make arrangements for the manager to receive professional supervision from a suitably qualified and experienced person. Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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Recommendations

 Ensure that suitable arrangements exist for the professional supervision of managers and the registered person of the agency. (National Minimum Standards 24.3) Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The agency is operated in an efficient and highly personalised manner. It recognises that people may have taken many years to feel ready to seek help in finding out about their past so it responds quickly to requests for help. In every case that the agency has handled in the last 12 months, it has responded and begun to provide a service within two weeks. The agency works at service users’ own pace but makes sure that its own work does not create additional delay. Where people’s requests of the service change over time, the agency responds to this flexibly and ensures that people fully understand the process at all times. It is reliable and carries out its work when and how it says it will. This is appreciated by those people who are seeking to learn about their adoption or that of their birth relative.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The service is sensitive in its work. It ensures that service users have control over the process and what is happening. It works very effectively with other agencies while sharing records or supporting their enquiries. The agency’s service is highly individualised and based on each person’s situation and desired outcomes. It listens carefully to service users to establish their needs and desired outcomes. At the closure of cases, it seeks the views of the service users and learns from these about how it provides its service.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

People receive very good support to read and understand their records. The agency places a high priority on providing people with good written information and with records that are well prepared and laid out. Adoption records and case files are often old and incomplete, but the agency’s social worker ensures that information is collated and presented in such a way as to make it accessible. This helps people to understand the significant events that happened to them. For example, one professional from another agency working with a person learning about their past said that the agency provided information that was ‘excellent’ and ‘beautifully presented and curated to make sense’. She said that the quality of the information led the service user to say that it ‘helped her enormously in putting the pieces of her life together’. The agency ensures that information provided is as complete as possible but, at the same time, it ensures that only appropriate information is

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

supplied and that the confidentiality of other people is not breached.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

The agency recognises the significance of the work it does in changing people’s lives and helping their understanding of the past. In cases where the agency’s social worker provides birth records counselling, this is done in a highly sensitive manner and in a way that makes people feel they are the agency’s main priority. There are no time limits to this service and everything takes place at the service users’ pace. This focus on people’s individual needs extends to work done and support provided in helping people trace family members separated by adoption. One person said of the agency’s work to help her find out about a birth relative separated by adoption, ‘I have wondered about his well-being for many years and it has really settled me to Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency know he is doing well. I felt important, listened to and well supported through the

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

whole process. It has made a real difference in my life.’

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: good

When separated birth relatives decide 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. In cases where outcomes are disappointing for service users, for example where contact requests are rejected or information is not as hoped, the agency provides high levels of support and guidance.

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good

The manager and staff ensure that all the agency’s practice provides suitable safeguards for people using the service and those they may be seeking contact with. The agency checks service users’ identity carefully before sharing any information and secures consent from all parties before contact details are passed on.

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good

Meetings with service users are held at the office or a safe public place. All work is carried out in line with the latest adoption legislation and guidance, and the manager and staff members have an in-depth understanding of adoption and its lifelong impact. The agency takes great care to safeguard its service users emotionally as well as physically. It also ensures that all confidential information is managed in a safe way to protect service users from risk.

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good

In cases where adopted adults and their birth relatives are supported to make contact with each other and progress towards a reunion, the agency’s staff ensure that this happens in a safe manner. They provide very good support to ensure that the well-being of all parties is protected. In situations in which direct contact is planned, agency staff will arrange and support this. For example, in one case the agency’s social worker accompanied an adopted adult to a reunion with her birth family and remained until both parties felt safe and sufficiently comfortable to continue by themselves.

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good

The agency has an appropriate safeguarding policy and procedure in place which underpins its practice. The agency rarely interacts with children or vulnerable adults in the course of its work, and when it does so this is coincidental rather than a feature of the service provided. Clear procedural guidelines exist regarding any safeguarding concerns which may come to light in the course of the agency’s work. Staff working for the agency understand their responsibilities within these policies.

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good

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

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good

Since the last inspection, the only change to the agency’s staff team has been the appointment of the responsible individual to the manager role as well as that of responsible individual. The manager is currently in the process of registering with Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency Ofsted. 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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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This is a well-managed agency. The agency is appropriately resourced and financially viable. It has no plans to grow or develop its service further. Its statement of purpose makes clear its intention to provide its service only to those people whose records it holds who were adopted by its predecessor agencies. The agency operates without a waiting list or a delay in being able to offer a service. This means that, if the agency holds their records, prospective service users are responded to promptly and a service offered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff are focused on providing a high quality service to those people who approach it for support. The staff team recognises the lifelong implication of adoption. It is committed to meeting the needs of the people who were separated by adoption through its predecessor agencies. This commitment is demonstrated by the view expressed by the agency’s social worker who said that the agency ‘owes it’ to these people to help them access their records, understand their history or make contact with family members separated by adoption.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Work done is individually relevant and carried out efficiently. The agency keeps service users well informed of its progress and the next steps, so that they are aware of what is happening at all times. When a service user needs to give themselves time or take a step back, the agency is content to put work on hold and pick it up again whenever the person is ready. The agency operates within an appropriate range of policies and procedures and provides service users with information about how the agency works and what they can expect from it.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is well qualified, experienced and trained. Good arrangements exist for the supervision and appraisal of the agency social worker. However, the manager does not have access to suitable professional supervision. This situation has arisen since the agency’s responsible individual took on the role of manager, and means that support and oversight of any practice issues and decision-making are not as good as they should be.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency’s premises are accessible to its service users. There are suitable facilities for the operation of the service the agency provides, including office space and meeting rooms. Records of the work done by the agency are suitable, clear and securely maintained. The agency retains archived records of adoptions taking place between the 1940s and early 1990s. These are catalogued and securely and safely stored.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager maintains a close overview of the work undertaken. Monitoring by the organisation’s senior management team and board is also thorough. This means that the organisation can be assured that the quality of the agency’s work and the outcomes being achieved are good. Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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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: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency

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Adoption support agency details

Registered provider address: St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE15 7PY

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Adoption support agency details

Responsible individual: Mrs Sheila Errington

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Adoption support agency details

Email address: sheila.errington@stcuthbertscare.org.uk

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Inspector

Stephen Smith, social care inspector Inspection report for adoption support agency: St Cuthbert’s Care Post Adoption Support Agency 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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