The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service

The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service Inspection report for la adoption agency

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SC059610 Unique reference number 30 September 2008 Inspection date Rosemary Dancer Inspector Random Type of Inspection

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London Borough of Croydon: Department for Children

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Address

Young People & Families Taberner House Park Lane Croydon Surrey CR9 1TP 020 8686 4433 Telephone number

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Email

Croydon London Borough Council Registered person Helen Hay Registered manager Barbara Peacock Responsible individual 5 July 2007 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 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008

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Brief description of the service

The adoption agency of the London Borough of Croydon undertakes all statutory work associated with adoption services. This includes the recruitment, preparation, assessment and approval of adoptive families, both domestic and overseas. Matching children with suitable families and providing support to the placement. Post adoption support including support for adopted adults, including birth records counselling and support for birth relatives.

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Summary

This was an announced interim inspection that looked specifically at the progress made in meeting the actions and recommendations made at the last inspection. There is evidence of improvement in most areas, although the Child Permanence Reports (CPR), information held on children's adoption files and adopter's case files are not yet of a consistent quality. The Statement of purpose, children's guide and the safeguarding procedure for children placed for adoption do not yet fully comply with regulations. However, there is a new management team in place and a high level of commitment to improving services is expressed by the team. Although all three senior managers have only been appointed in the last 12 months considerable improvements have been achieved in this short timescale. The overall quality rating is satisfactory. This is an overview of what the inspector found during the inspection.

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Improvements since the last inspection

There were seven actions from the last inspection. Five of these have been fully addressed, the two remaining actions relate to the information held on children's and adopters files and have been restated. There were 24 recommendations from the last inspection. Of these 17 have been fully addressed, three have been partly addressed and four have not been addressed. The four reaming actions relate to consistency in the quality of the CPRs, the detail in the recording of the panel minutes, the detail of information in the staff recruitment procedures and the timeliness of the life story work for each child.

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

The provision is satisfactory. The approach to the recruitment of adopters who are likely to be able to meet the needs of the children requiring adoptive placements is now underpinned by a clear and detailed recruitment strategy. The stage at which the agency accepts applications from prospective adopters is before any assessment work is carried out. This provides for adopters to have access to the formal routes of appealing an adverse decision about their suitability from the point of the assessment commencing. The assessments of adopters viewed overall show an improved situation in respect to a more analytical approach being taken in assessment work and the detail relating to criminal records bureau (CRB) checks carried out on adopters are now being recorded. The quality assurance of reports is carried out in a more consistent way and practice in this area is now satisfactory. However, the home health and safety checklists do not include

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

an assessment of risks to young children from hanging cords on window blinds and there remains 4 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008 a lack of consistency in respect to obtaining the full employment histories of adopters. In addition it is the policy in Croydon that where applicants have lived overseas police checks are not normally carried out. The agency has developed clear written procedures for the use of the adoption register for adopters and children. Adopters, at a recent meeting with the agency, expressed a lack of clarity about the processes for referral so would benefit from being informed about these new procedures. Some work has been carried out in respect setting up a tracking system to children through the system and a new set of permanency planning procedures is in draft form. The focus of these are on track the individual child and his progress through the

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

permanency process. Delay in the processes is highlight ensuring that delays can be minimised. Good strides have also been made in the arrangements for matching. A matching procedure has been introduced which ensures that events like the placement planning meetings are being held in a timely way. Matching in Croydon takes place with due regard having been taken of the child's needs and the adopters capacity to meet those needs. The situation in respect to the permanence reports for children is that the quality remains variable. This could impact on the family finding and matching processes where, for example, a lack of up to date information means that adopters have not been provided with an up to date view of the child and his needs to base their decision on. There are clear written policies and procedures governing the functioning of the panel and panels are being convened at a frequency which meets the business

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

need. The panel minutes do not show the reasons for the panel recommendation, give any indication of the discussions of the panel, or show the role each attendee has on the panel. When the cases involving sibling groups are presented to panel individual minutes are now being made for each child. There is now an efficient decision making process in place, the decision maker has all information made available in a timely way, fully considers all information presented and makes the decision promptly. The staff recruitment procedures do not include the detail of what constitutes good practice in staff recruitment, for example there is no mention of verifying the content of references with the referee. The files viewed for the agency members of staff had no evidence to show that references provided had been subject to verification. The agency has an effective system in place in respect to ensuring CRB checks are carried out

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Protecting children from harm or neglect and helping them stay safe

on staff members before they commence work and there is a system in place to ensure that CRB checks are updated on a three yearly basis. The safeguarding procedures do not explicitly address the safeguarding needs of children in an adoptive placement or receiving an adoption support service.

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Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do

The provision is satisfactory. The agency has a clear plan in place in respect to the development and monitoring of the support services and there are now clear referral systems in place. There is a varied range of support services up and running with firm plans in place for further developments. There remain some difficulties in respect of ensuring the prompt completion of life story work, including the development of books and later life letters which are key in helping children to understand their situation.

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Helping children make a positive contribution

The provision is satisfactory. The agency has a clear plan in place in respect to the development and monitoring of the support services for birth parents. Some sensitive work was noted as having been carried out in respect to supporting birth parents. There are arrangements in place to for collecting birth 5 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008 parents views about the service they have received and using this information to inform future developments.

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Organisation

The organisation is satisfactory. There is a statement of purpose in place which contains some inaccuracies and does not include the arrangements for assessing support needs for people coming back to the service. The statement is not being updated and reviewed on at least an annual basis. There is a guide in place for younger children which explains the adoption process and is a useful tool for helping children to understand their situation. The guide does not contain the contact details for the Children's Rights Director for England and Wales. Applicants are provided with written information about the adoption processes but not all are told about the various routes for appeal when the agency makes an adverse decision about progressing their case once a formal application has been submitted. There are two reports sent to the executive annually. These are written by the panel chair and do not include information about all of the work of the

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Organisation

agency, such as the support services to adopters. There is a new management team in place. As can be seen from the detail in this report considerable progress has been made in improving the services provided to people affected by adoption. Children are being placed at the centre of the process, a more strategic approach is being taken in the development of services to children and their families and a stable adoption staff team is in place. There remain some shortfalls in respect to the staffing of the district teams but management have demonstrated a commitment to building stable teams in the districts. There is an induction process in place which now has more relevance to the work of the adoption team and further developments in improving the induction process are planned. Details of complaints made and the outcomes of these are now being kept by the manager for monitoring purposes. While adopters files are

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Organisation

well-ordered not all key information is being routinely filed. Likewise for children's files the contents are not comprehensive in every case. A disaster recovery plan is now in place and the options for backing up paper files are being explored.

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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 Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 and the National Minimum Standards. The Registered Provider must comply with the given timescales.

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Due date Action Standard

29 November 2008 develop the safeguarding procedures to include the safeguarding needs of children in adoptive placements and those who are receiving adoption support service and ensure that all staff are confident in the use of the procedures (The Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2005, as amended Regulation 9) 6 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008 29 November 2008 amend and develop the statement of purpose to include the arrangements for assessing adoption support needs for previously adopted children (The Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2005, as amended Regulation 2) 29 November 2008 include in the children's guides the contact details for the Children's Rights Director for England and Wales (The Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2005, as amended Regulation 3) 29 November 2008 arrange for all required information to be placed on adopter's

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Due date Action Standard

case files. (The Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2005, as amended Regulation 22) 29 November 2008 arrange for all required information to be placed on children's adoption files (The Local Authority Adoption Service Regulations 2005, as amended Regulation 12)

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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): • obtain applicants' months of employment (MNS 4.6) • ensure that any risks in prospective adopters' households in relation to the risks to children from hanging cords on window blinds are excluded (NMS 4.6) • review the practice in relation to obtaining police checks from abroad where adopters have lived in another country (NMS 4.6) • ensure the all of the assessment reports in respect to children are up to date and fit for purpose (NMS 5.2) • ensure the panel minutes consistently record the detail of the panel discussions, are clear about the reasons for the recommendations made and show the role each member has on the panel (NMS 12.3) • ensure the staff recruitment and selection procedures detail good practice in safeguarding children (NMS 19.2) • ensure that lifestory work is of a good quality and is carried out with children in a timely

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Recommendations

way (NMS 6.6) • ensure all applicants are informed of their rights to appeal decisions made by the agency (NMS 3.1) • ensure that the reports provided to the executive include details of the management and outcomes of all of the adoption agency work (NMS 17.3) • develop a back-up system for paper files (NMS 29.5) 7 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• Ofsted considers the key standard to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the agency matches children with adopters (NMS 2) • the agency assesses and prepares adopters (NMS 4) • adopters are given information about matching (NMS 5) • the functions of the adoption panel are as specified (NMS 10) • the constitution and membership of adoption panels are as specified (NMS 11) • adoption panels are timely (NMS 12) • adoption agency decision is made without delay and appropriately (NMS 13) • the manager is suitable to carry on or manage an adoption agency (NMS 15) • staff are suitable to work with children (NMS 19) • the agency has a robust complaints procedure (NMS 24 voluntary adoption agency only) • the agency safeguards and promotes the welfare of its service users (NMS 32)

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• the adoption agency provides support for adoptive parents (NMS 6) • the agency has access to specialist advisers as appropriate (NMS 18) • services are tailored to meet the needs of people affected by adoption (NMS 33) Ofsted considers 6 and 33 the key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

• birth parents and birth families are involved in adoption plans (NMS 7) • birth parents and birth families are involved in maintaining the child’s heritage (NMS 8) • the adoption agency supports birth parents and families (NMS 9) • Service users receive good quality services based on their needs (NMS 34) Ofsted considers 7, 8, 9 and 34 the key standards to be inspected.

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The intended outcomes for these standards are:

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 written statement of the aims and objectives of the adoption agency and the adoption agency ensures that it meets those aims and objectives (NMS 1) 8 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008

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Annex A

• the agency provides clear written information for prospective adopters (NMS 3) • the manager has skills to carry on or manage the adoption agency (NMS 14) • the adoption agency is managed effectively and efficiently (NMS 16) • the agency is monitored and controlled as specified (NMS 17) • the staff are organised and managed effectively (NMS 20) • the agency has sufficient staff with the right skills/experience (NMS 21) • the agency is a fair and competent employer (NMS 22) • the agency provides training for staff (NMS 23) • case records for children and prospective / approved adopters are comprehensive and accurate (NMS 25) • the agency provides access to records as appropriate (NMS 26) • the agency’s administrative records processes are appropriate (NMS 27) • the agency maintains personnel files for members of staff and members of adoption panels (NMS 28) • the premises used by the adoption agency are suitable for purpose (NMS 29)

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Annex A

• the adoption agency is financially viable (NMS 30 voluntary adoption agency only) • the adoption agency has robust financial processes (NMS 31) Ofsted considers 1, 3, 16, 21, 25 and 27 the key standards to be inspected. 9 of 9 Inspection Report: The London Borough of Croydon Adoption Service, 30 September 2008

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