Children Of All Nations (COAN)

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 1 Children Of All Nations (COAN)

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Unit 1&2, 62 Bensham Grove, Thornton Heath, Croydon, CR7 8DB

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This is a privately owned, independent fostering agency based in London. It aims to meet a range of placement needs for children, including sibling groups and parents with children. The agency has 13 fostering households. The agency is currently providing placements for 16 children.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The registered manager has been in post since September 2018 and registered in November 2018.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience high levels of stability in foster care and build trusting and secure relationships with their carers. Foster carers help children to develop a sense of belonging in foster care. Some children achieve permanence with their foster carers. One child reported to their social worker that they could sense that their foster carer really cared about them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers and staff help children to settle in foster care. Good matching by staff ensures that, as far as possible, foster carers share the same cultural and linguistic background as the children they care for. Staff use video and family profiles to introduce foster carers to children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in foster care from their starting points. Foster carers help children to engage in education and ensure that children’s health and emotional needs are met. One child said that they had stopped going missing from home and getting into trouble because of the guidance of their foster carer. This young person described their foster carer as being passionate about making sure that they did well in life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers and staff help children to express their wishes and feelings. Children know how to make a complaint. Leaders and managers provide children with opportunities to meet with other children in foster care through consultation events. This might include trips to the seaside, picnics and bowling. Foster carers also take children away on holidays. Children who have not travelled far from home say that they have enjoyed these experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children can stay with their foster carers beyond the age of 18 if they need more time before moving on to independence. Foster carers are open to ‘staying put’ arrangements that enable care leavers to remain living with their foster carers when they turn 18. Children benefit from the additional security these arrangements provide at a crucial time in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from having foster carers who understand the importance of staying in touch with birth families. Foster carers understand how children’s feelings and behaviour may be impacted after seeing birth family members. Foster carers and staff help children to manage their conflicting feelings regarding family members.

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

Foster carers and staff help to keep children safe. Managers and staff collaborate well with local authority social workers and other safeguarding partners to ensure that risks to children are minimised. During this inspection, leaders, managers, staff and foster carers worked effectively to address safeguarding concerns regarding a child. Ofsted received an appropriate notification regarding the child. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 3 Safety plans for children outline what foster carers can do to minimise harm to children. However, staff have not updated some fostering household’s safer caring plans. The plans refer to children who no longer live in the home or do not reflect the foster carers’ current circumstances.

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

Children rarely go missing from their foster homes. Foster carers understand what they need to do when children do go missing from home.

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

Foster carers receive appropriate training in relation to using de-escalation techniques and the impact of past trauma on children. This helps foster carers in managing children’s behaviour and emotions appropriately. Foster carers demonstrate empathy and resilience in dealing with children’s distress.

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

Leaders and managers have safe recruitment practices in place to ensure that only appropriate adults can work with vulnerable children.

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

Foster carers receive regular visits from staff. Staff speak to children on these visits. However, not all foster carers have had one unannounced visit by staff in the last year. This is a missed opportunity to observe and assess the level of care offered to children that such a visit would provide.

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good

Leaders and managers work closely together to achieve the objectives of the fostering agency. The responsible individual, who is also the director, acts as the agency decision-maker and supports a fostering household. The registered manager undertakes fostering assessments for the agency. Leaders and managers understand that roles can become blurred and compromise independence in a small fostering agency. Leaders and managers have plans in place to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and understood.

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good

Recommendations and requirements made at this inspection demonstrate that leaders and managers do not have an effective system for monitoring the day-to-day activities of the fostering agency. Ofsted is still not receiving quality of care review reports, at least annually. Unannounced visits to foster carers are not occurring for all foster carers, at least annually. There are gaps in records of visits made to some foster carers as staff have not uploaded reports to foster carers’ files. Staff do not send copies of recordings of visits to foster carers. Not all foster carers have a foster care agreement that reflects their current terms of approval.

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good

In addition, children’s case records vary in terms of quality and do not reflect the day-to-day experiences of children or meet the expectations of the leaders and managers. Leaders and managers do not have an effective system for independently assuring the quality of prospective foster carer’s assessments undertaken by the registered manager. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 4 Leaders and managers collaborate well with local authorities, foster carers and other partners to ensure that children’s plans are achieved. Where plans change for children and arrangements must end, leaders and managers demonstrate flexibility to ensure that transitions happen with the least disruption as possible for children. One commissioner wrote, ‘It has been a real pleasure working with an agency who put children and foster carers at the heart of what they do with such transparency.’

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good

Staff have access to good training and development opportunities to assist them in their role. Staff report that they are well led and supported by leaders and managers. However, the registered manager does not send recordings of supervision undertaken with staff for them to sign and keep their own records. In addition, the registered manager and the placements manager do not receive regular professional supervision.

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good

Foster carers receive appropriate levels of supervision and report that they find these sessions helpful. Foster carers say that they feel valued, and leaders, managers and staff go ‘above and beyond’ in supporting them. Foster carers report that they receive appropriate opportunities to attend training, and where necessary, they can access specialist training. However, not all foster carers have achieved the training, support and development standards in foster care within one year of approval.

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good

The fostering panel chair reports that the panel works well in its role of quality assurance and independent scrutiny of foster carer reviews and prospective foster carer assessments. A tracker system is in place to highlight practice issues to the panel, such as lack of analysis and evidence in reports. This enables a dialogue with leaders and managers to address shortfalls. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 5

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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, The 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 registered person must maintain a system for—

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Requirement Due date

monitoring the matters set out in Schedule 6 at appropriate intervals, and

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Requirement Due date

improving the quality of foster care provided by the fostering agency.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide the Chief Inspector with a written report in respect of any review conducted for the purposes of paragraph (1) and, on request, to any local authority .

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (1) must provide for consultation with foster parents, children placed with foster parents, and their placing authority (unless, in the case of a fostering agency which is a voluntary organisation, it is also the placing authority). (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to ensuring that reports are forwarded to Ofsted, at least on an annual basis.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 1 July 2024

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Requirement Due date

A fostering service provider must maintain a case record for each foster parent approved by them which must include copies of the documents specified in paragraph (2) and the information specified in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The documents referred to in paragraph (1) are—

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Requirement Due date

the foster care agreement. (Regulation 30 (1) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, foster care agreements should reflect current terms of approval and be signed by foster carers. 1 July 2024 Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all foster carers have current safer caring plans in place that are relevant to the children living with them. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 4.2)  The registered person should ensure that foster carers have at least one unannounced visit annually. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 21.8)  The registered person should ensure that they regularly monitor all records kept by the service to ensure compliance with the service’s policies, to identify any concerns about specific incidents and to identify patterns and trends. Immediate action is taken to address any issues raised by this monitoring. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 21.8)  The registered manager should ensure that they have an effective process in place to monitor all staff’s work and all fostering activity is consistent with the 2011 Regulations and NMS and with the service’s policies and procedures.

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Recommendations

(‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 25.3)  The registered person should ensure that foster carers understand that Information about the child is recorded clearly and in a way which will be helpful to the child when they access their files now or in the future. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 26.6)  The registered person should ensure that the placements manager is properly managed, supported and receives appropriate and regular supervision. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 24.2)  The responsible individual should ensure that suitable arrangements exist for professional supervision of the agency’s registered person. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 24.3)  The registered person should ensure that a written record is kept by the fostering service detailing the time, date and length of each supervision held for each member of staff, including the registered person. The record is signed by the

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Recommendations

supervisor and the member of staff at the end of the supervision, and they should receive a copy for their records in keeping with agency policy. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 24.5)  The registered person should ensure that assessments of prospective foster carers are quality assured by a suitable and qualified person not involved in the assessment process. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 13.7)  The registered person should ensure that foster carers are able to evidence that the Training, Support and Development Standards have been attained within 12 months of approval. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 20.3) Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 7

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Information about this inspection

The inspector has 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: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: Children Of All Nations Ltd

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Unit 1&2, 62 Bensham Grove, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8DB

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Independent fostering agency details

Responsible individual: Jacqueline Johnson

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: info@childrenofallnations.co.uk

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Inspector

Colin Bent, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Children Of All Nations (COAN) 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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