Shine Fostering

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 1 Shine Fostering Shine Fostering Suite 2, 109 George Lane, South Woodford, London E18 1AN Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this independent fostering agency

Shine Fostering is an independent fostering agency that has been operating since 2013. The manager registered with Ofsted on 26 September 2016.

p.1

Information about this independent fostering agency

The agency provides short-term, long-term, emergency, and parent and child placements.

p.1

Information about this independent fostering agency

At the time of this inspection, the agency had eight fostering households. The agency provided placements for five children, four of whom were in a parent and child placement. This included one fostering household where both parents lived with their baby. Two children were able to understand the inspection and talk with the inspector. Other children were too young and contributed to the inspection in different ways.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The independent fostering agency provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 2

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency takes great care in all its aspects of functioning to ensure that children have positive experiences and make progress. Children talked positively about the agency. All four external professionals spoken to were happy about the progress that the babies and children were making in their development and welfare.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The voice of the child is strong in this agency. The agency employs a dedicated mentor/advocate for children to help them to find their voice and build confidence in expressing their views and feelings. Children are very appreciative of this and have made great strides in their communication and social skills.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency’s practices and record-keeping are child-centred. Foster carers write daily logs in the form of a letter to the child. This approach helps foster carers to develop more empathy, sensitivity and awareness of how these logs contribute to the child’s identity and help children to make sense of their life journeys.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers know how to promote children’s good health. The agency’s consultant nurse advises on well-being and health matters. The nurse also brings her expertise to liaising with health professionals and ensures that children receive the physical and mental health support that they need.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency has a suitable procedure for dealing with children’s medication. However, the implementation of this procedure is an area for improvement. For example, it was not clear from the records for one child when and why their medication was stopped and who authorised this. This was clarified during the inspection and arrangements were swiftly made for tighter monitoring of medication.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers receive training in a trauma-informed approach to caring for children and supporting their parents. One child said that the mental health support is the best thing about the agency. This child also talked about how having ‘happy times’ with their mentor/advocate helped them to leave behind things that troubled them. Children benefit from having developed close and meaningful relationships with the agency’s staff.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is highly valued in the agency. The agency’s education support worker provides additional support to children to make sure that any barriers to their progress are addressed straight away and removed. Children’s educational attendance, engagement and attainment are a strength.

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency provides a wide range of leisure activities to children. This gives them the opportunities to develop their interests and confidence in new situations. The mentor/advocate and the education support worker work together to ensure that the activities are enjoyable and contribute towards the children’s learning and development. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 3

p.2

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

The agency ensures that all its processes, procedures and practices focus on keeping children safe and promoting their welfare. Reflective discussions about safeguarding are regular features of team briefings, team meetings and staff supervision meetings. How children are safeguarded is a core consideration when supervising social workers visit foster families, which can be announced or unannounced.

p.3

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

The agency ensures that all foster carers are carefully approved and prepared for fostering. Once approved, their suitability is reviewed at least annually. The assessments of the carers’ suitability to foster extend to having a detailed specific assessment of their suitability to provide parent and child placements.

p.3

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

The agency’s matching decisions are based on thorough considerations of risks and protective factors that the potential placement can offer. The agency works closely with the placing authorities to ensure that foster carers know how to protect children in complex parent and child placements while at the same time enabling parents to build on their own parenting skills and confidence.

p.3

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

The agency ensures that each fostering household has a safe care plan and that this is reviewed with each new placement. The safe care plans are detailed and co- created by all relevant parties, including children, where possible. However, the sleeping arrangements for babies are not clearly specified. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that parents are clear from the start of their placement that their baby must not sleep in the same bed with them and the reasons for this. Having this clarity minimises the risks to babies and facilitates positive relationships between the foster carers and parents.

p.3

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

Each child has an individual risk assessment that is regularly reviewed. The foster carers and supervising social workers monitor the progress that children are making in becoming safer and developing resilience. However, the emerging risks to babies when they begin to crawl are not always captured early enough in the agency’s records. This could potentially place babies at risk of injury or harm.

p.3

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

Foster carers contribute well to the team around the child. They report honestly and objectively, and this transparency safeguards children. The placing authorities are satisfied with the quality of care provided and information-sharing. One child’s social worker said, ‘The records from this agency arrived like clockwork.’

p.3

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

The agency has a suitable procedure for dealing with concerns about the care that children receive. Leaders and managers work closely with the local authority’s designated safeguarding leads and placing authorities when allegations are made. However, the standard of care investigations are not always completed in a timely manner. This potentially increases the risks to children and prolongs the anxiety for the foster carers being investigated.

p.3

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

The agency ensures that all staff are rigorously vetted for their roles. The stringent recruitment procedures safeguard children. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 4

p.3

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Following the inadequate judgement at the last inspection, leaders and managers have taken decisive action to improve this fostering service. They galvanised all their efforts to secure compliance with fostering regulations and provide a high standard of care to children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have carried out a full and detailed review of all their practices and decision-making processes. They have made significant improvements in all the required areas. As a result, the agency now meets the criteria for a good fostering service.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have taken all their staff and foster carers on an improvement journey. The enhanced reflective and training opportunities for staff and foster carers have laid foundations for embedding a strong learning and improvement culture.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency is resourced very well to meet the needs of children. Specialists in education, health and well-being, and mentoring/advocacy provide enhanced support to children. This extra support adds value to the agency and helps children to thrive.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

In agreement with the placing authorities, the agency also provides enhanced support for parents in parent and child placements. This has included providing lessons in English as an additional language, training in paediatric first aid and well- being support.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Additionally, leaders’ and managers’ strong partnership working with external professionals from different disciplines is ensuring that children receive the range of support that they need. When necessary, leaders and managers constructively challenge other professionals to make sure that they are always acting in the children’s best interest.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency’s panel and the independent decision maker are rigorous gatekeepers for the agency. There is a cohesion and synergy about being ambitious for children and making child-focused decisions among everyone who works for the agency.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency has introduced a new recording system. The transfer of information is in progress, and staff and foster carers are familiarising themselves with the new system. Overall, the records are of a high quality and evidence good fostering practices and positive outcomes for children. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 5

p.4

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

p.5

Requirement Due date

The registered person in respect of an independent fostering agency must ensure that—

p.5

Requirement Due date

the welfare of children placed or to be placed with foster parents is safeguarded and promoted at all times. (Regulation 11 (a))

p.5

Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must make sure that the safe care agreements for parent and baby placements explicitly cover sleeping arrangements. Additionally, risk management plans for babies and young children must be more specific about how to make the environment physically safe. 1 September 2022

p.5

Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must prepare and implement a written policy which—

p.5

Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard children placed with foster parents from abuse or neglect, and

p.5

Requirement Due date

sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of any allegation of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 12 (1)(a)(b))

p.5

Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must make sure that any concerns about the standard of care are addressed in a timely manner, in particular when the carer continues to have placements. 1 September 2022

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all medication records are clear and consistently demonstrate that the child is receiving their medication as prescribed. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 6.10) Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 6  The registered person should ensure that the agency’s records are efficiently kept and that all staff and foster carers are confident users of the systems in place. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 26.1)

p.5

Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people 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: Shine Fostering 7

p.6

Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Suite 2, 109 George Lane, South Woodford London E18 1AN

p.7

Independent fostering agency details

Email address: khush@shinefostering.co.uk

p.7

Inspector

Seka Graovac, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Shine Fostering 8 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.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8