Fostering Options

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 1 Fostering Options Fostering Options Limited Hayfield Farm, Berry Lane, Aspley Guise, Milton Keynes MK17 8HS Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

Fostering Options is a branch of an independent fostering agency and is situated in Milton Keynes. It is part of a group of companies owned by Futures for Children.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

Fostering Options offers a range of fostering placements, including long-term, permanent, short-term, emergency, respite care, remand, and parent and child placements. At the time of this inspection, Fostering Options was supporting 27 households that were looking after a total of 43 children and young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The independent fostering 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 independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This independent fostering agency is good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children are happy and very well settled in their foster homes.  Many children have long and stable placements in which they thrive.  Foster carers help children to do well in school and further education.  Foster carers make sure that the children’s health needs, including emotional needs, are met.  Foster carers help the children to develop independence skills and to prepare for their future lives.  The agency listens to children’s views and takes them seriously.  The carers help the children to stay safe.  Carers help the children to take age-appropriate risks safely.  The carers have training to help them keep children safe. This includes areas such as safeguarding, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation.  The agency is well managed and led.  The registered manager has a good knowledge of the children placed with the agency and their plans and progress.  The agency listens to the views of its foster carers.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The agency has a stable and experienced group of supervising social workers who receive good training and development opportunities.  The agency places a very high value on the importance of good matching of children with foster placements.

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Key findings from this inspection

The independent fostering agency’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 While the annual reviews of foster carers are generally thorough, some significant areas had not been picked up in some cases.  Some records, such as a few of those of carer supervisions and panel minutes are not sufficiently detailed. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that reviews of foster carers’ approval are sufficiently thorough to allow the fostering service to properly satisfy itself about their carers’ ongoing suitability to foster. (National Minimum Standards 13.8)  Ensure that there is a system in place to monitor the quality and adequacy of record keeping and take action when needed. (National Minimum Standards 26.2) In particular, ensure that records of foster carer supervision and records of foster panels are sufficiently detailed. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy and very well settled in their foster homes. Many children experience long and stable placements in which they thrive. Some children are able to stay with their brothers and sisters. In some cases, very high levels of support by the agency have meant that large groups of brothers and sisters have been able to stay together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have very good relationships with their foster carers. The carers treat them as part of their own families, taking them on holiday and only using respite care when it is necessary and, in the children’s, best interests. One child said that being with his carers is ‘just like having an extra family’. Carers support the children’s relationships with their birth families, which helps the children to develop and maintain their sense of identity. Children’s cultural needs are well met. In some cases, this includes the children learning languages and dressing to reflect their cultural identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality and stability of the foster placements help the children to make progress in many areas of their lives. Some of them make exceptionally good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers help children to do well in school and further education. They advocate for the children and sort out any problems that they have at school. Some older children are taking part in further education and plan to go to university. The support for education and help that children receive in planning their careers will increase the children’s future life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The carers make sure that the children’s basic health needs are met. They help to arrange specialist healthcare when this is needed. A placing social worker spoke about a child who went into foster care with a significant speech impairment. The child’s education, health and care plan is about to be ended due to the progress that he has made. The children receive support which meets their emotional needs. This includes helping them understand why they are in foster care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in a range of activities in the community, with their carers and by taking part in exciting school trips. This means that they can have the same, or similar, enjoyable experiences as children in the wider community do. It helps the children to have fun, build good memories and increase their confidence and self- esteem. One child said that what he likes about being in foster care is ‘having a laugh’ with his carers and spending time with his brothers and sisters [who live with him].

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers help the children to develop independence skills and to prepare for their future lives. In some cases, children are able to stay with their carers into adulthood. Others keep in touch with the carers and the carers’ wider families. This gives the children a sense of belonging that lasts beyond their childhoods and supports them during further education and their developing adulthood. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 5 The agency listens to children’s views and takes them seriously. It is consulted as part of the carers’ annual reviews, spoken to by supervising social workers and takes part in specific consultation events. These have included revising the information about carers, their families and homes, which children are given before moving in, and developing the children’s charter. Listening to children in these ways and actively seeking their views help the agency to make sure that it is meeting the

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The carers help the children to stay safe. They use risk assessments which cover different areas of risk and help to identify ways of reducing the risk. They are updated when circumstances change.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Carers help the children to take age-appropriate risks safely and are there to help them if they need it. Examples of help include supporting children to use public transport and to use the internet safely. This has involved advocating for a child to have a smart phone and to learn to use it safely. By doing this, rather than accepting that he should only have a very basic mobile phone, the carers are helping the child to learn how to use a smart phone and the internet safely and to enjoy social media in a way that does not set him apart from his friends.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The children’s risk assessments include any risks associated with using the internet and ways to manage these. Carers identify inappropriate use of social media and help the children to learn from this and to keep themselves safer in the future.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Carers work with the children to help them understand appropriate relationships. This has included dealing with one child’s bullying of a younger brother and helping him to understand how to have appropriate relationships with females. This has helped this child to develop a better relationship with his brother, and it will make a big difference to the success of his future relationships.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

There is an extremely low number of children going missing from their foster homes. When this has happened, it has involved children not being home on time rather than running away. Carers have responded to these incidents appropriately. The carers have training to help them keep children safe. This includes issues such as safeguarding, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. They said that this training is good and helps them to understand the risks to children. The agency responds appropriately to identified safeguarding concerns.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The agency undertakes annual reviews of the carers’ suitability. These include feedback from children and a range of other professionals such as schools and social workers. For the most part, these reviews are thorough and help to make sure that children are only placed with foster carers who can meet their needs safely. However, there were some isolated cases of issues not being fully addressed. Some annual health and safety checks of carers’ homes stated that, as the chimneys were lined, they did not need to be swept. This is incorrect and could lead to an increased fire risk. In one case, a carer who had closed circuit television (CCTV), due to the Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 6 risks previously associated with a particular child, had transferred to the agency. This child has moved on, but the latest annual review has not picked up the continued presence of the camera, which can reduce children’s privacy and the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency is well managed. The registered manager has a good knowledge of the children placed with the agency and their plans and progress. The carers know the responsible individual. They spoke positively about the registered manager and responsible individual’s willingness to listen to them and deal with any issues they may have. The registered manager uses feedback from carers to learn and improve the way in which they operate. This helps to make sure that the outcomes for children are good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency has a stable and experienced group of supervising social workers who are pleased to work for them and proud of the work they do. They have regular supervision, training and appraisals, which help them to develop their practice and work effectively. The registered manager works well with other agencies involved in the children’s lives and is willing to chase or challenge them to get the best outcomes for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and supervising social workers place a very high value on the importance of good matching of children with foster placements. This significantly increases the chances of placements working and children doing well in them. Several carers said that the agency will not place children for the sake of it. Getting a good match is more important than increasing the agency’s numbers. When placements do not work, the registered manager makes sure that there is a review to examine the reasons for this and to learn lessons from it.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency makes decisions about the terms of carers’ approval based on their experience and abilities. Rather than saying that all carers can look after children of all ages, they make decisions that are individual to each carer. Along with the good matching, this increases the chances of placements being successful.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

For the most part, records of the supervision of foster carers are sufficiently detailed, but a few are not. The carers are clear that they are well supervised and that the supervising social workers use the supervisions to provide support and, when necessary, to discuss the carers’ practice. However, the lack of clear records of this makes it difficult to ensure that issues are thoroughly followed up and to identify patterns of concerns. Foster panel minutes clearly identify the areas that need to be discussed with carers when assessing their suitability to be approved, or when reviewing their continued suitability. However, some of the records do not always include details of all areas being discussed. This makes it difficult to be sure that all the necessary areas have been covered. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 7

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Information about this inspection

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

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: Fostering Options Limited

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Futures for Children, The Masters House, College Road, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6YQ

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Independent fostering agency details

Responsible individual: Nicholas Barnsby

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: j.mountney@fostering-options.org

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Inspectors

Clive Lucas, social care inspector Trish Palmer, social care inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering Options 9 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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