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X10029.doc Version 1.40 Page 1 LOCAL COUNCIL PRIVATE FOSTERING ARRANGEMENTS

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Lead Inspector Helen Humphreys Unannounced Inspection 10 th May 2006 10:00 Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 2 The Commission for Social Care Inspection aims to:

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• Put the people who use social care first • Improve services and stamp out bad practice • Be an expert voice on social care • Practise what we preach in our own organisation

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Reader Information Document Purpose Inspection Report Author CSCI Audience General Public Further copies from 0870 240 7535 (telephone order line) Copyright This report is copyright Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and may only be used in its entirety. Extracts may not be used or reproduced without the express permission of CSCI Internet address www.csci.org.uk Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 3 This is a report of an inspection to assess local authority private fostering arrangements against the National Minimum Standards for Private Fostering. These standards can be found at www.dfes.gov.uk. The NMS specify a minimum standard for local authority practice in the fulfilment of their duties and functions in relation to private fostering under the Children Act 1989. Along with the new measures in section 44 of the Children Act 2004 and the 2005 regulations, they are intended to better focus local authorities’ attention

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on private fostering, in part by requiring them to take a more proactive approach to identifying arrangements in their area.

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Every Child Matters, outlined the government’s vision for children’s services and formed the basis of the Children Act 2004. It provides a framework for inspection so that children’s services should be judged on their contribution to the outcomes considered essential to wellbeing in childhood and later life. Those outcomes are: • Being healthy • Staying safe • Enjoying and achieving • Making a contribution; and • Achieving economic wellbeing.

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In response, the Commission for Social Care Inspection has re-ordered the national minimum standards for children’s services under the five outcomes, for reporting purposes. A further section has been created under ‘Management’ to cover those issues that will potentially impact on all the outcomes above. The Private Fostering National Minimum Standards are mapped to just two of these outcomes, Staying Safe and Management.

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Copies of Every Child Matters and The Children Act 2004 are available from The Stationery Office as above This report is a public document. Extracts may not be used or reproduced without the prior permission of the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 4

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Name of Local Authority

Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements

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Name of Local Authority

Address Social Services Department Somerset House, Duke Street Whitehaven Cumbria CA28 7SQ

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Name of Local Authority

Email address janice.reynolds@cumbriacc.gov.uk

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address

Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 5

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Cumbria County Council

This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Cumbria County Council

From April 2006 Local Authority Private Fostering Arrangements are to be inspected by CSCI, as part of the joint inspection of the Adoption and Fostering Services. Cumbria SSD was one of the first local authorities to be inspected.

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Cumbria County Council

The private Fostering arrangements for Cumbria Social services were inspected as part of the Joint Fostering and Adoption Inspection which took place between May 2 nd and May 10 th 2006.

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Cumbria County Council

At the time of the inspection Cumbria did not have a nominated person, although the Acting Divisional Manager for South Lakes met with the inspectors. This person has subsequently been appointed as the Nominated Person.

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Cumbria County Council

Following this appointment Cumbria SSD were asked if they wished to complete the Annual Quality Assurance Assessment (Aqaa) and Data Set to provide additional supporting information to the inspectors. Cumbria SSD agreed to complete these documents and they were sent in July 2006. However they have not been returned to CSCI, despite additional requests.

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Cumbria County Council

This has meant that CSCI were unable to contact staff, young people or families involved in private fostering.

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Cumbria County Council

During the inspection of the fostering service, staff in many settings including health and education were asked about their knowledge of private fostering.

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Cumbria County Council

One file, selected by the Divisional manager, was inspected. Staff in the Kendal office who would deal with any referrals were asked generally if they were aware of procedures for private fostering.

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What the local authority does well:

The arrangements for private fostering were not implemented and therefore no examination of practice could take place.

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What they could do better:

Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 6 Cumbria SSD need to create and implement a Statement on Private Fostering which complies with the Regulations and NMS which sets out how they intend to carry out their responsibilities for private fostering arrangements.

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What they could do better:

Cumbria SSD need to create and implement a notification system so that staff are aware of the need to notify social services if they come across a private fostering arrangement and so that families who are involved in private fostering know that they have to notify social services.

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What they could do better:

Cumbria SSD need to create a set of policies and procedures which staff can use when dealing with private fostering arrangements.

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What they could do better:

Cumbria SSD need to create a system so that children, their carers and families can access appropriate information, advice and support.

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What they could do better:

Cumbria SSD need to create and implement a monitoring system so that it can check the way it has, once implemented carried out its duties under the Regulations and NMS.

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What they could do better:

Please contact the provider for advice of actions taken in response to this inspection. The report of this inspection is available from enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk or by contacting your local CSCI office. The summary of this inspection report can be made available in other formats on request. Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 7

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CONTENTS

Management Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 8

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Staying Safe

The intended outcome for these Standards are: (NMS 2) The local authority is notified about privately fostered children living in its area.

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Staying Safe

(NMS 3 ) The welfare of privately fostered children is safeguarded and promoted

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Staying Safe

(NMS 4) Private foster carers and parents of privately fostered children receive advice and support to assist them to meet the needs of privately fostered children; privately fostered children are able to access information and support when required so that their welfare is safeguarded and promoted .

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Staying Safe

(NMS 5) The local authority provides advice and support to the parents of children who are privately fostered within their area as appears to the authority to be needed .

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Staying Safe

(NMS 6) Children who are privately fostered are able to access information and support when required so that their welfare is safeguarded and promoted. Privately fostered children are enabled to participate in decisions about their lives.

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JUDGEMENT – we looked at the outcome for the following Standard(s):

Quality in this outcome area is poor as there was no effective system in place to keep children who are being privately fostered safe.

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JUDGEMENT – we looked at the outcome for the following Standard(s):

This judgement has been made using available evidence including a visit to the service.

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EVIDENCE:

Cumbria SSD does not have a notification system in place.

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EVIDENCE:

The file inspected, which had been selected by the Divisional manager, indicated that appropriate practice had been followed and that checks had been made through the family concerned.

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EVIDENCE:

Inspectors were assured that any privately fostered child and their family would be visited every 6 weeks. Given that family and friend carers are not Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 9 allocated or visited regularly by social services staff and that many foster carers do not receive regular visits and some are not allocated to specific workers, Inspectors question, therefore this level of visiting to private foster carers.

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EVIDENCE:

No specific information, advice and support is available to carers or young people and inspectors were not advised of systems in place to provide this.

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EVIDENCE:

Inspectors were advised that a set of policies and procedures have been created. However these were not available for inspection as they were stored in a room being used on the day of the inspection. No policies and procedures have been forwarded to the Inspectors, despite requests. Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 10

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The intended outcomes for these Standards are:

• (NMS 1) Relevant staff are aware of local authority duties and functions in relation to private fostering .

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The intended outcomes for these Standards are:

• (NMS 7) The local authority monitors the way in which it discharges its duties and functions inrelation to private fostering.

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JUDGEMENT – we looked at outcomes for the following Standard(s):

Quality in this outcome area is poor, there were no effective management systems in place.

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JUDGEMENT – we looked at outcomes for the following Standard(s):

This judgement has been made using available evidence including a visit to the home

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EVIDENCE:

With the exception of the staff in the initial assessment team based in Kendal, all staff interviewed as part of the inspection were not aware of the procedures for private fostering arrangements. Some staff did not know what private fostering was. There was a lack of knowledge of where in Cumbria private fostering might take place, for example boarding schools, language schools and diverse communities. Many staff including managers used stereotypical views of private fostering to justify why the knowledge and practice was so poor amongst staff and other professionals.

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EVIDENCE:

There are no monitoring systems in place. Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.2 Page 11 Optional

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EVIDENCE:

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EVIDENCE:

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EVIDENCE:

Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.1 Page 14

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EVIDENCE:

Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.1 Page 15

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SCORING OF OUTCOMES

This page summarises the assessment of the extent to which the National Minimum Standards for Private Fostering have been met and uses the following scale.

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SCORING OF OUTCOMES

4 Standard Exceeded (Commendable) 3 Standard Met (No Shortfalls) 2 Standard Almost Met (Minor Shortfalls) 1 Standard Not Met (Major Shortfalls) “X” in the standard met box denotes standard not assessed on this occasion “N/A” in the standard met box denotes standard not applicable STAYING SAFE MANAGEMENT Standard No Score Standard No Score 2 1 1 1 3 1 7 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.1 Page 16 Are there any outstanding recommendations from the last inspection? N/A

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RECOMMENDATIONS

These recommendations relate to National Minimum Standards and are seen as good practice for the Local Authority to consider carrying out.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

No. Refer to Standard Good Practice Recommendations

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RECOMMENDATIONS

1 FS1 Cumbria SSD should create and implement a Statement on Private Fostering. 2 FS2 Cumbria SSD should create and implement an effective Notification system. 3 FS3 Cumbria SSD should create an effective set of policies and procedures, which are known to staff to ensure that privately fostered children are safeguarded and that their welfare is promoted. 4 FS4 FS5 FS6 Cumbria SSD should create and implement a system so that children, their carers and their families can obtain information, support and advice. 5 FS7 Cumbria SSD should create and implement a system for monitoring their activity in relation to private fostering. Cumbria County Council Private Fostering Arrangements Version 5.1 Page 17

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Commission for Social Care Inspection

Eamont House Penrith 40 Business Park Gillan Way Penrith Cumbria CA11 9BP

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Commission for Social Care Inspection

National Enquiry Line: Telephone: 0845 015 0120 or 0191 233 3323 Textphone: 0845 015 2255 or 0191 233 3588 National Enquiry Line: 0845 015 0120 Email: enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk Web: www.csci.org.uk © This report is copyright Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and may only be used in its entirety. Extracts may not be used or reproduced without the express permission of CSCI

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