The Child Psychology Service

Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 1 The Child Psychology Service The Child Psychology Service C.I.C The Stables, 44 Brook Street, Shepshed, Loughborough, LE12 9RG Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this adoption support agency

The Child Psychology Service (TCPS) has been in operation since April 2013. It is a not-for-profit company. In October 2013, the service was registered with Ofsted as an adoption support agency to enable the agency to work with people affected by adoption. The service provides assessments and undertakes therapeutic work with families. Training is also provided on many topics related to child psychology for parents and professionals. Supervision is also available from TCPS to provide a psychological perspective to professionals on their clinical work.

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outstanding

How well children, young people and adults are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The adoption support agency provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the adoption support agency contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for service users.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 3

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

When families contact the agency, they speak with well informed and empathetic staff. The agency has worked hard to reduce waiting times and as such families and children are now able to quickly access the necessary support. There is a robust referral process in place, with a focus on gathering holistic information from involved professionals. This informs decision making about the most suitable therapeutic work. However, there is not always clear recording of the psychological formulation for therapy.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

The agency continues to evolve to meet the needs of children accessing the service. Since the last inspection the staff team has grown to include clinicians from multi- disciplinary backgrounds. This enables for joint assessments to be completed such as those focussed on sensory integration. The work of the agency is underpinned by research informed practice, they remain proactive to engage in projects seeking to establish quantitative evidence of the impact of therapies offered by clinicians.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Children and families develop warm and trusting relationships with their involved clinician. They understand the therapy being completed and feel well informed by their worker. Regular points of review allow for the impact of the therapy to be understood intermittently. One parent shared that their clinician was calm, level- headed, and offered good advice. Another parent described their clinician as an ally.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

There are clear and informative children’s guides shared with children when they begin accessing the service. These inform children about external agencies that they can contact should they wish to make a complaint. These do not however include details about who they can speak to within the agency should they not wish to escalate their complaint.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

One parent spoken to said that the therapy had helped them to reconnect with their son after a period of feeling emotionally distanced from each other. She shared that the work completed had 'flushed out topics that we needed to talk about and allowed us the space to go home and work on things'. She felt because of therapy that family dynamics were slowly improving and had provided a much-needed platform to talk about the wider issues of adoption with their son.

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Overall experiences and progress of service users: outstanding

Children are supported to better understand themselves through therapy, one child had been helped to identify feelings of anger towards his birth parents that he had not previously expressed to his adoptive parents. Another child who had completed several years of therapy wrote to her clinician stating, 'thank you for working through the darkness with me'. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 4

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outstanding

Safeguarding is at the heart of the work at the agency. All children have risk assessments in place which are regularly updated by their allocated clinician. Managers and staff understand the wider contextual safeguarding concerns for children. They recognise that this can limit the engagement and impact of the therapy and the need for these concerns to be prioritised initially.

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outstanding

There are clear systems in place to monitor safeguarding concerns identified for children. Auditing of this system is overseen by a senior clinician at the agency. A safeguarding log is used to understand concerns both present and historical for any child accessing the agency and to action plan effectively. There has been a recent commitment to thematically evaluate the log and identify areas of learning and reflection for staff.

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outstanding

Staff benefit from regular supervisions which always prioritises discussions about safeguarding matters. This ensures senior staff oversight of concerns and momentum in referrals to other agencies. Staff are tenacious when advocating for families. They go the extra mile to challenge, especially when external services have been slow to respond or have not become involved with families. For one child this meant the much-needed support from a youth service was eventually implemented where there were ongoing concerns regarding exploitation.

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outstanding

There is a commitment to ensuring that staff joining the service share in the ethos and culture of the service. There are good safer recruitment processes in place at the agency. The manager however does not yet ensure that full employment histories are known for new members of staff including the months and years when they previously worked elsewhere.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The service is led by a dynamic and committed senior management team. They work with staff in an open and honest way. Staff feel valued both as a professional and as a person. Staff are nurtured and appreciated by their colleagues and managers. Managers and staff model with each other the safe and empathetic approach that they offer to families. Consequently, the staff team are extremely committed to the service and retention of staff is excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The service is ambitious but rooted to its values as a social enterprise. There has been a recent focus on nurturing relationships, in a meaningful way, with commissioning partners whilst also diversifying their work to ensure ongoing financial viability. Staff are allocated specialist areas of responsibility which they relish taking ownership of. This is driving forward developments in these specific areas. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 5 Staff receive regular supervisions which they value. These offer a safe space for reflection and advice. Supervisions are research and theory informed and allow for reflective discussions between staff and supervisor. Managers have implemented innovative ways to ensure the continued development and learning of staff through appropriate dissemination of learning in team meetings and journal club.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are excellent monitoring systems in place to understand the impact of the work completed by the clinicians. Families are given honest appraisal of the therapy and know when things have improved or not. There are ambitious plans to further capture these in more graphical ways for families. It is hoped this will make it easier for them to understand the outcomes of the work completed. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure there is a written record about how the psychological formulation is reached when this is not informed by a specialised psychological assessment. (Adoption: national minimum standards 2014 15.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children's guide includes how children can raise complaints directly with the adoption support agency. (Adoption: national minimum standards 2014 15.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the full employment history is known of staff, including the months and years that they worked in previous places of employment. (Adoption: national minimum standards 2014 21.2)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, young people and adults, using the 'Social care common inspection framework'.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the adoption support agency, how it meets the core functions as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Adoption Support Agencies (England) and Adoption Agencies (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2005 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 7

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Adoption support agency details

Registered provider: The Child Psychology Service C.I.C

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Adoption support agency details

Registered provider address: 8 High Street, High Street, Bloxwich, Walsall WS3 2DA

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Adoption support agency details

Email address: amber@thechildpsychologyservice.co.uk

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Inspector

Louise Copping, social care inspector Inspection report for adoption support agency: The Child Psychology Service 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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