Fostering North East

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 1 Fostering North East St Cuthbert’s Care St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 7PY Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This agency registered in 2003 and is owned and managed by a charitable organisation. The agency provides long-term, short-term, emergency and respite placements.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

At the time of the inspection, the agency provided care for 23 children in 13 fostering families. One child was being cared for under ‘staying put’ arrangements. These are arrangements that enable young people over the age of 18 years to remain living with their foster carers.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2019.

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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 North East 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This agency works well to support the children and their foster carers. It often responds out of hours when foster carers require additional support. For example, this could be just to engage children in an activity, an appointment, a school run or even just taking the child out for a snack. This personal touch not only strengthens the relationship between the foster carer and the staff, but also the children and the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency works hard to match and place children with foster carers who can meet the children’s needs. When required, foster carers can be sourced immediately and provided with specialist health training to meet the needs of children. This proactive response ensures that the children are cared for appropriately so that they can make progress and helps them to begin to develop trusting relationships with their foster carers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to attend education and their attainment is encouraged. Children who are new to the agency have improved their attendance significantly due to positive, nurturing care that they receive from their foster carers. After-school clubs and personal interests for the children are encouraged and play a significant part in the children’s lives. For example, children enjoy playing and socialising with their friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are sought regularly by the agency and form a significant part of the foster carer reviews. This helps to ensure that the child’s voice is heard on the standards of care provided to them. The agency has introduced, and is developing, a safe space on its website to capture the children’s views on all aspects of their care. Senior leaders hope that this will improve the voice of the child and the development of the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the manager and the staff introduced quiz nights for the children. There is also a bimonthly newsletter for the children and their foster carers which includes games, event dates, training and a range of other topics. This enables and promotes the cohesiveness of belonging to the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy being part of a stable family environment. They have fun together and enjoy holidays both at home and abroad with their fostering families. Regular foster care support groups enable the foster carers to come together for training as well as informal chats. Additionally, foster carers and the children have regular opportunities to meet up with other fostering families. The Christmas panto had been enthusiastically attended just prior to this visit. This enables the supportive environment to grow beyond the agency, with foster carers making secure relationships with one another, and the children developing friendships with their peers. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 3 Many of the children have additional physical and emotional needs which are met by their carers and associated health professionals. However, not all children who have been identified as requiring additional specialist help receive the services that they

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

need in a timely manner. Additionally, the agency has not escalated its concerns regarding this shortfall on behalf of the child and their foster carers. This oversight hinders the children from benefiting from improved health outcomes.

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

Safer care policies provide the children and their foster carers with guidance, expectations and simple strategies on how to keep safe in the home and the community. They are individualised to the specific vulnerabilities of each child and support their right to privacy and respect. These, alongside the children’s excellent risk management plans, support the foster carers and the agency to provide safe care to the children.

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

During the pandemic, the supervision provided to the children and their foster carers was mostly carried out through virtual visits. Once the COVID restrictions were lifted, and where safe, face-to-face supervision resumed. These visits ensured that the children were seen. The agency also carries out unannounced visits, but they are only recorded as such if the children are present. These visits, which include seeing the child’s bedroom and carrying out health and safety checks, ensure that the home environment is safe for children to make progress.

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

Children’s safety is prioritised. When children make allegations, the manager responds appropriately and quickly. She follows the agreed protocols and investigates the allegations fully. Any learning that is identified is shared, and any additional training is sourced. This ensures that the foster families are supported and trained effectively, which promotes the children’s safety.

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

The assessment process for prospective foster carers is thorough. This process enables the applicants to reflect on all aspects of their lives and allows the assessor to use their knowledge and skills to evaluate and analyse the applicant’s ability to parent.

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

The emphasis on safeguarding children is central for this agency. Only those who have been deemed as safe, caring individuals, following safe recruitment checks, can proceed to the approval process where further scrutiny is given and recommendations for the agency decision-maker are made.

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

The foster carers are nurturing and supportive towards the children when they return from being absent or have been missing from home. The foster carers follow the agreed agency/police individual protocols, which involves checking known locations, family and friends. The foster carers try and maintain regular telephone contact with the children when they are missing, and they share any intelligence that they gather with all relevant parties. This helps to keep the children safe from any potential harm. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 4 The agency provides its foster carers with good support and training in understanding and managing the children’s challenging behaviour. Individual support and encouragement help the foster carers to reflect and share their concerns with the supervising social worker. Essentially, a debrief that helps them to improve their safe care of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been some management and leadership changes since the last inspection. The responsible individual is now the registered manager, and the agency has recruited a deputy manager. These steps have improved the small but effective team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Communication is key in this agency. Daily morning briefings keep everyone up to speed with each fostering family and the children placed. This helps the staff to be responsive at any time with an informed awareness of the children and their needs. This helps the children and the carers to develop positive relationships with the agency, which is reflected in the stable high numbers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency is small in the number of fostering families it has. However, this is seen as a positive by the foster carers and the staff in terms of the support and individual care that the children receive. A foster carer said:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

‘There have been some very demanding times in the placement and the small and stable team has enabled us to have the confidence to continue to become permanent carers. They gave us great support through the pandemic and following that, they have built a stronger team and the support and training that they provide has been outstanding.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is proactive and wants to develop the services that they provide to the children and their fostering families. Alongside the fostering charter, the manager and her team worked with a small group of children in developing ‘The Promise’, a children’s charter. Every child receives a framed promise. This captures what fostering will endeavour to provide to the children during their time with their fostering families. This promotes trust and respect among the children and the agency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has ensured that the statement of purpose and the children’s revised guides have been sent to Ofsted. This enables the regulator to have oversight of the agency and its compliance with regulatory requirements between inspections.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

In some cases, the most recent care planning documentation relating to some children has not been received by the agency. The manager has a procedure in place to challenge the children’s respective local authorities when this occurs. However, this procedure is not followed consistently by the staff. Consequently, the manager cannot be assured that all the children are receiving care in line with their most up- to-date care plans. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 5 The agency’s central list of fostering panel members does not provide a gender balance or benefit from a care experienced individual in its representation. This limits its diversity and ability to be representative of the general population.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that the staff receive regular supervision and an annual appraisal of their practice. This enables the staff to reflect on their practice and their support to the children in fostering families. However, the panel members, the chair and vice chair have not received an appraisal since 2020. This has the potential to leave them at a disadvantage as they are not able to reflect on their performance and development as an effective panel member.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Mostly, the minutes taken at the fostering panel are thorough and well documented. However, on one occasion, the minutes did not clarify the reason for the discussion and the questions raised. This prevents the reader from having a full understanding of the discussions held and may hinder the agency decision-maker from making an informed decision. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 6

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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.

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must ensure that, in relation to any child placed or to be placed with a foster parent, the foster parent is given such information, which is kept up to date, as to enable him to provide appropriate care for the child, and in particular that each foster parent is provided with a copy of the most recent version of the child’s care plan provided to the fostering service provider under regulation 6(3)(d) of the Care Planning Regulations. (Regulation 17 (3))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered provider must ensure that the most up-to-date care planning documentation is received and placed on the child’s file.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last full inspection and has been restated. 31 January 2023

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must promote the health and development of children placed with foster carers.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the fostering service provider must ensure that each child—

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Requirement Due date

has access to such medical, dental, nursing, psychological and psychiatric advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 15 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered provider must ensure that when a service has been identified for a child, effective steps are taken in a timely manner to enable the child to receive such support. 31 January 2023 Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the fostering panel is gender balanced and that consideration is given to having people with experience of being in foster care themselves on the panel. (‘The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations Volume 4: Fostering Services’, page 39, paragraph 5.8)  The registered person should ensure that each panel member’s performance, including that of the chair, should be reviewed annually against agreed performance objectives. The service’s decision-maker should review the performance of the panel chair, and for this purpose may attend a proportion of panel meetings but only as an observer. Views about the chair’s performance should be sought from other panel members and from those who attend panel meetings, such as prospective foster carers and social workers who present reports to the panel. For all other panel members, the panel chair should carry out the performance review. (‘The Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations

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Recommendations

Volume 4: Fostering Services’, page 41, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that the panel chair ensures that the written minutes of panel meetings are accurate and clearly cover the key issues and views expressed by panel members. Specifically, this relates to recording the reasons for the discussions that take place when referring to the context of the items that are presented before them. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 14.7)  The registered person should ensure that there are effective processes in place to ensure that the managers and staff are clear about their roles and responsibilities. The level of delegation and responsibility of the manager, and the lines of accountability, should be clearly defined. In particular, the agency should follow its own escalation policy and process. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 25.4)

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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: Fostering North East 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: St Cuthbert’s House, West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 7PY

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: sheila.errington@stcuthbertscare.org.uk

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Inspector

Michael Dack, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Fostering North East 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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