Lancashire County Council Fostering Services

Lancashire County Council Fostering Services Inspection report for la fostering agency

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SC041383 Unique reference number 13 August 2007 Inspection date Helen Humphreys / Jeffrey Banham Inspector Key Type of Inspection

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Lancashire County Council Address PO Box 162 PRESTON PR1 3EA 01772 264429 Telephone number

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Email

Lancashire County Council Registered person David McHale Registered manager Sue Fadipe Responsible individual 7 July 2006 Date of last inspection .

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Email

This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Email

You can obtain copies of The Children Act 2004, Every Child Matters and The National Minimum Standards for Children's Services from: The Stationery Office (TSO) PO Box 29, St Cripins, Duke Street, Norwich, NR3 1GN. Tel: 0870 600 5522. Online ordering: www.tso.co.uk/bookshop

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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. This report details the main strengths and any areas for improvement identified during the inspection. The judgements included in the report are made in relation to the outcome for children set out in the Children Act 2004 and relevant National Minimum Standards for the establishment.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

this aspect of the provision is of exceptionally high quality Outstanding: this aspect of the provision is strong Good: this aspect of the provision is sound Satisfactory: this aspect of the provision is not good enough Inadequate: 3 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007

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Brief description of the service

Lancashire County Council's fostering agency is part of the Directorate for Children and Young People. There are five family placement teams across the County covering the areas of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, Northwest Lancashire, Morecambe Bay and South Lancashire. The fostering services are under local area line management arrangements. Area managers are the decision-makers for fostering in addition to managing the children's fieldwork services. A major re-design of children’s services is planned shortly. In addition to area management arrangements, fostering services across the County are led by the ‘Registered Manager’ who leads on quality assurance, review, performance and compliance and the portfolio holder who has the lead on fostering development, through the County Strategic Family placement meeting which meets monthly. The Head of Fieldwork services chairs the County Fostering Strategic Group which

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Brief description of the service

has an over view on fostering activity across the County. The service provides the following fostering resources: Fostering Focus (Specialist Fee Paid Fostering), which is not locally managed, Task Centred Fostering (undertaking work associated with short-term foster care), and the permanence team, undertaking work associated with long-term fostering and adoption. The fostering service works in partnership with various voluntary and independent agencies, and has corporate membership of the British agencies for Fostering and Adoption and Fostering network.

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Summary

This announced inspection was carried out by two inspectors and took place over eight days. The inspection was based in the South Lancashire team but also considered information from across the county. The inspection included interviews with the head of service, managers and staff, the registered manager, the portfolio holder, independent reviewing officers, for young people and carers, a Looked After Children's nurse, (LAC Nurse) the participation officer, safeguarding officer and complaints officer and a group of foster carers. The panel was observed in Lancaster and the panel chair was interviewed following the meeting. Six cases were case tracked which included visits to the foster carer's homes and interviews were held with children. One carer asked to see the inspectors and this case was also reviewed. Various files and records were inspected. Surveys were sent out to 50 carers and young people and a good number were

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Summary

returned with a range of comments. The registered manager completed a self assessment and data set prior to the inspection, which provided information about the service. The overall quality rating is inadequate. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

The arrangements for the management and development of the service were relatively new at the inspection held in 2006. The service needed to develop a range of actions in order to meet the Regulations and National Minimum standards (NMS) and a significant number of requirements and in particular recommendations were made at that inspection. The service has made some progress on this work but there still remains a considerable amount of work to do to ensure that the service is meeting the Regulations and NMS and current good practice. A number of county wide groups including the fostering development group are continuing to develop and implement work which impacts on the continued improvement of the service. The service now has access to a medical advisor who will give advice but does not routinely look at 4 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007 medical information as part of the assessment process. Medical personnel are available to each

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Improvements since the last inspection

panel for advice. The anti-bullying, missing from home, baby sitting and behaviour management policies have been revised, circulated and are known to carers. The foster carers handbook has also been revised and the inspectors were advised that this was almost ready for publication. The service has developed a recruitment strategy which has been agreed by senior mangers and was known to staff. In May the service appointed a new panel chair who chairs all the panels and the panel membership has been revised. The service has also appointed two independent reviewing officers to undertake foster care reviews and this work had recently commenced and staff were positive about the changes. The service has developed and implemented new monitoring arrangements across the county in aspects of the work including complaints, notifications and reporting arrangements. The monitoring of complaints was beginning to take affect on some practice. Carers have been notified of all training opportunities

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Improvements since the last inspection

via a newsletter and email and have had opportunities to access training not normally available to them. However the overall number of carers accessing training remains very low. A training officer in conjunction with the fostering manager in South Lancashire is developing a programme for the implementation of the new fostering induction and support standards. In South Lancashire the manager has created a welcome pack for carers which contains useful information and will assist carers during the assessment process and during the early days of their fostering career. The Fostering Focus scheme which provide placements for 'harder to place' young people, children with disabilities and sibling groups has continued to develop their service and has introduced new style support groups are developing work with birth children.

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Helping children to be healthy

The provision is satisfactory. The number of young people having a health care assessment has improved this year, however the overall number remains fairly low. The Looked After Children (LAC) Nurses are aware of this and are working to encourage more young people to attend their assessments via various strategies. Health care action plans are produced following the assessments and distributed to professionals and carers. Some of the plans are brief and do not include matters relating to emotional health and 'healthy life style' information. Some carers were aware of the health action plans and progress had been made on them. Consent for health care treatment for all young people on the files reviewed was not consistently clear. Access to the Community Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) varies across the County with some good examples seen of timely intervention in South Lancashire. Lancashire have created a cross county group

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Helping children to be healthy

to try and improve and monitor the service provided by CAMHS and in particular to Looked After Children. Training on health issues is offered to carers but the take up of places remains low. First aid training is provided but this training is not routinely updated so some carers knowledge will be 'out of date'. LAC nurses have visited local carer support groups to provide advice and information. Some young people who were interviewed or answered surveys said that their carers provide healthy food to eat and many are involved in active sports and activities.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is inadequate. A sample of staff personnel files, including the registered manager's file were inspected at the last inspection in 2006 and found to be satisfactory. A number of carers were met on this inspection and were found to be providing a satisfactory standard of care. However in at least 2 households there is over crowding and looked after children are sharing bedrooms with other 5 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007 children who are not their siblings and are older than them. Criminal Records Bureau Disclosures (CRB) forms had not been obtained for all young people aged over 18 who were living with looked after children. Health and safety checks are carried out and are on file, however they are not all up to date and signed. The matching process is not robust or safe. Children had been placed with carers, who had not been assessed, or approved to care for them. Some children

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

had been placed in an emergency (under Regulation 38) but the assessment had not been completed in appropriate timescales. Some carers are looking after children outside their approval range, both in number and age. Some foster carer agreements when in place, did not match the children in placement. Foster placement agreements did not meet the Regulations or reflect the specific placement requirements. In all cases managers, the panel and the agency decision makers had agreed the placements. The majority of placements in South Lancashire in the previous twelve months had been made in an emergency which brings additional pressure on matching. However matching with the fostering focus service, which was inspected in more detail at the last inspection was found to be satisfactory. The service uses 'exemptions to the normal fostering limit' (Schedule 8 Children Act 1989) frequently in order to place children

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

with carers who are not approved to care for them. This is an improper use of the legislation and masks the real shortage of carers within the service. Some children were placed prior to the exemption being requested or in at least one case no request had been made. Child protection training is offered to carers but the take up of places is low. New policies for behaviour management, missing home form and anti-bullying had been revised and were known to carers. No young person who was interviewed or returned a survey complained that they were being bullied. Children said that they felt safe in their placements. Risk assessments and self caring policies were in place on some files, however the format and standard varied some were not child specific and others gave no risk management strategies. The process for investigation of allegations against carers was known to staff and managers and was thorough

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

and clear. Systems are now in place to monitor allegations and complaints against the service and carers. The panel chair and members do not have a thorough and up to date knowledge of the Fostering Regulations, standards and current good practice. The quality of work presented to the panel was poor and their general decision making was flawed. Although the panel observed was quorate the membership did not meet the NMS. The panel chair acts as advisor and gate keeper. There are four agency decision makers as each area manager is the decision maker for another area. This means that no one person has over view of the decision making generally across the service. The service has created their own form to send to General Practitioners (GP) which does not ask for enough pertinent information about the health of the prospective carers. These forms are not routinely seen by the medical advisor although he

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is satisfactory. The service recognises that it needs to recruit more carers who can meet specific religious and cultural needs of an increasing number of children who require these placements. Information is provided to carers on equality and diversity in the foster carers' handbook and is explored in some of the carers' assessment seen. Training is provided to carers but take up is minimal. Some good practice was seen for carers looking after children with disabilities. Most children seen were accessing activities and holidays and were benefiting from the experiences in the development of social skills. However some carers complained again about the difficulty of obtaining permission from social workers for young people to go on school and community based activities and holidays. The revised information for carers is complex and difficult to 6 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

follow. The education of Looked After Children is generally promoted by carers. Few children across the county are excluded from school and a small number of children have obtained GCSEs. Children said that their carers help them with homework and school activities and some children had made real progress in their school placements. Most young people had a Personal Education Plan and there are arrangements in hand to develop a new plan which will be easier to complete. The specific team for supporting looked after children in education is still under developed. Work has started to try and promote better support to carers but this remains unclear. The service anticipates that following the latest restructuring that the support to Looked After Children and carers will improve.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. Contact arrangements were known to carers and young people and details could be found on most of the files read. Staff said that they take contact arrangements into account when placing children. Some carers supervise contact and all were aware of the importance of contact and the impact this has on children and young people. Lancashire employs eight reviewing officers to undertake the statutory reviews for young people. However the officers have large case loads and at times this affects the efficiency and effectiveness of the reviews. The new consultation documents which had been piloted last year have now been implemented across the county and were known to some young people. Minutes of the reviews were on file and some carers and young people had copies. The service recognises that it still needs to do more to encourage young people to attend and take part in their reviews. The officers are making

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Helping children make a positive contribution

use of their wider powers but due to their large case loads they are not always able to work in ways they would wish to and feel frustrated. Lancashire have recently employed a new participation officer who is continuing the work started by her predecessor and working towards developing a new participation strategy and work plan. There are a number of projects in hand and the officer works closely with the Children Rights Service which is managed by the Children's Society. Lancashire recently organised a celebration day for looked after children which was attended by children, carers, managers and elected members. All children who were interviewed or returned questionnaires knew how to make a complaint. Complaints are now monitored and Lancashire is working towards developing a more 'child friendly' complaints leaflet. The procedures allow for complaints to be dealt with at a local level initially before moving to a

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Helping children make a positive contribution

second stage. No fostered children had made a complaint in the previous twelve months.

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Achieving economic wellbeing

The provision is satisfactory. Fostering Focus carers receive an additional fee in addition to the fostering allowances to acknowledge their additional work and carers who were interviewed last year were satisfied with this payment. Other carers are paid on a lower scale and Lancashire state that they are working towards implementing the national minimum payments to carers. Some carers expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangements for the payments of additional allowances for clothes, activities birthdays etc and the inconsistencies identified at the last inspection have not been resolved.

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Organisation

The organisation is inadequate. 7 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007 There is no one overall manager of the fostering service. The management of the service is divided between five area managers who manage the fostering services in their own areas. In addition to this there is a registered manager who has no line management responsibility although he is responsible for the service and a portfolio holder who is responsible for the development of the service in addition to his other responsibilities as an area manager. As a result of this there is no one with overall responsibility or over view of the service. Managers at all levels lack of knowledge of the regulations and standards and current good practice. Lancashire is undergoing a restructuring over the next few months and they anticipate that these management issues will be resolved. The service does not have enough carers to meet

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Organisation

their needs. As a result of this staff are under pressure to find placements which leads to poor matches and disruptive placements. A significant number of children are placed in agency placements which has financial implications and can lead to a disruption of a school placement. Managers could not outline any effective monitoring system of the agency placements. The service has developed a recruitment strategy which has as yet to be implemented although it has been agreed by senior managers. The strategy was known to staff, however no additional monies have been allocated to support the strategy. The assessments seen on this occasion and at the last inspection were of a poor standard and contained little analysis. Pertinent issues had in some cases not been dealt with, there is no routine interviewing of adult children and previous partners. Assessments presented to the panel contained errors and in some cases

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Organisation

references and checks had not been completed. Managers and staff believe that their assessments are of a good standard and staff reported that recent training had not changed their practice. There is no routine re-assessment of carers who change their status or approval. Carers spoke highly of the staff in the South Lancashire office, who along with the Fostering Focus team presented as motivated and loyal workers. Supporting carers is clearly given high priority and carers were well known to the team. Staff reported that they felt well supported by their team leaders and received regular supervision and access to training. The training department offers a range of training to carers and have offered this training in various locations across the county, at different times and offer money to pay for crèche facilities. However the number of carers attending training is very low and some carers have not attended any training

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Organisation

for many years. This matter is reported in the foster carer reviews but on some occasions their non-attendance has been justified by staff. Carers do not have development plans which identified their training and developmental needs. The foster care agreements have been revised and re-issued to carers, however not all agreements matched the actual approval of the carers. The foster placement agreements do not meet the Regulations and it was a requirement of the last inspection that they be revised. The children's' files varied in style, quality and organisation, most files contained a range of documents. The record keeping by carers varied with some good practice noted, however there was some confusion amongst carers about what they should be recording and some carers files were in in disarray. The files maintained by the south Lancashire team on carers were in good order and most documents could be easily found.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions, which must be taken so that the registered person meets the Care Standards Act 2000, The Fostering Services Regulations 2005 and the National Minimum Standards. The Registered Provider must comply with the given timescales.

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Due date Action Standard

8 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007 30 November 2007 must ensure that all people aged over 18 who are living in fostering households have an up to date Criminal Records Bureau Disclosure. (Reg 27) 30 November 2007 ensure that all health and safety checklists, safe caring policies and risk assessments are robust, effective known to staff and are in place. (Reg 11) 30 September 2007 must not place any child with carers who have not been approved. (Reg 34) 30 November 2007 must ensure that all foster care agreements are in place and match the practice of the service. (Reg 34) 1 January 2008 must revise the foster placement agreements to meet the Regulations. (Reg 34 and Schedule 6) 30 September 2007 must ensure that 'exemptions' are used appropriately. (CA Schedule 6) 1 November 2007 ensure that the panel operates appropriately. (Reg 24) 30 1 December 2007 create appropriate arrangements for obtaining robust health

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Due date Action Standard

care information on prospective carers. (Reg 27) 1 January 2008 create an effective management system for the service. (Reg 10) 1 January 2008 ensure that all assessment of carers meet the regulations, and are of a sound quality. (Reg 27)

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s): • should develop the health care plans. NMS 12 • consider appointing one agency decision maker who has a senior role within the service. NMS 30 • revise the guidance for carers on obtaining permisison for children to go on trips and other activities. NMS 13 • implement the minimum payments to carers. NMS 29 • establish a consistent system for the payments of allowances for carers. NMS 29. • ensure that all managers and staff have a thorough and up to date knowledge of the regulations, standards and current good practice. NMS 2 • create an effective system so that carers attend training or developmental opportunities. NMS 23 9 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the fostering service promotes the health and development of children (NMS 12). Ofsted considers 12 the key standard to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• any persons carrying on or managing the service are suitable (NMS 3) • the fostering service provides suitable foster carers (NMS 6) • the service matches children to carers appropriately (NMS 8) • the fostering service protects each child or young person from abuse and neglect (NMS 9) • the people who work in or for the fostering service are suitable to work with children and young people (NMS 15) • fostering panels are organised efficiently and effectively (NMS 30) Ofsted considers 3, 6, 8, 9, 15 and 30 the key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the fostering service values diversity (NMS 7) • the fostering service promotes educational achievement (NMS 13) • when foster care is provided as a short-term break for a child, the arrangements recognise that the parents remain the main carers for the child (NMS 31) Ofsted considers 7, 13 and 31 the key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the fostering service promotes contact arrangements for the child or young person (NMS 10) • the fostering service promotes consultation (NMS 11) Ofsted considers 10 and 11 the key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the fostering service prepares young people for adulthood (NMS 14) • the fostering service pays carers an allowance and agreed expenses as specified (NMS 29) Ofsted considers none of the above to be key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• there is a clear statement of the aims and objectives of the fostering service and the fostering service ensures that they meet those aims and objectives (NMS 1) • the fostering service is managed by those with the appropriate skills and experience (NMS 2) • the fostering service is monitored and controlled as specified (NMS 4) 10 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007

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Annex A

• the fostering service is managed effectively and efficiently (NMS 5) • staff are organised and managed effectively (NMS 16) • the fostering service has an adequate number of sufficiently experienced and qualified staff (NMS 17) • the fostering service is a fair and competent employer (NMS 18) • there is a good quality training programme (NMS 19) • all staff are properly accountable and supported (NMS 20) • the fostering service has a clear strategy for working with and supporting carers (NMS 21) • foster carers are provided with supervision and support (NMS 22) • foster carers are appropriately trained (NMS 23) • case records for children are comprehensive (NMS 24) • the administrative records are maintained as required (NMS 25) • The premises used as offices by the fostering service are suitable for the purpose (NMS 26) • the fostering service is financially viable (NMS 27) • the fostering service has robust financial processes (NMS 28)

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Annex A

• local authority fostering services recognise the contribution made by family and friends as carers (NMS 32) Ofsted considers 1, 16, 17, 21, 24, 25 and 32 the key standards to be inspected. 11 of 11 Inspection Report: Lancashire County Council Fostering Services, 13 August 2007

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