Foster Cares Ltd

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 1 Foster Cares Ltd Foster Cares Ltd Foster Cares Ltd, 7 Fern Court, Bracken Hill Business Park, Peterlee, County Durham SR8 2RR Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

Foster Cares Ltd is a medium-sized, family-run independent fostering agency. It consists of a main branch based in Durham and an office that operates from Warrington. The agency registered with Ofsted in 2003.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

There are six supervising social workers and one recruitment social worker across the two offices. There is administrative support in both offices. The agency also employs independent social workers to carry out the assessments of the prospective foster carers. Other independent social workers carry out the foster carers’ annual reviews.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The agency offers placements for children from birth to 18 years old. There is a number of ‘staying put’ arrangements for young adults.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The range of services offered includes short-term and long-term placements, parent and child placements and bridging placements. The agency looks after children with disabilities and a small number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The agency currently provides foster care to 77 children with 47 fostering families. The agency has its own in-house short-break care arrangements to provide fostering families with breaks, holiday support and short-term care in the event of an emergency.

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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 Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 2 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: Foster Cares Ltd 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The leadership team, staff and foster carers promote a family culture. New foster carers say this is the reason they have joined this agency. Children experience a sense of stability and permanency in the foster home because of the nurturing and therapeutic care they receive. A child said, ‘It’s amazing here. I am thankful that I came to live here, and I wouldn’t change a thing.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are welcomed into the foster family. They are integrated in the wider family network, which creates a sense of belonging. Well-planned introductions help children to feel valued and respected. Children are supported to visit their new home and receive child-friendly profiles of their new carers before moving in. This includes photos of the foster family, the home, and their pets. The visual profiles help children to gain an understanding of their foster family and help to reduce potential trauma that moving home can bring for children. Consequently, children settle into their home quickly.

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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 their cultural needs, such as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Foster carers receive specialist training to support them to meet the child’s identified needs. This helps children to build meaningful relationships with carers who understand and can meet their needs. ‘Staying put’ arrangements are seen as natural steps for children who wish to remain with their foster family. These arrangements provide stability for children into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress due to the individualised care that they receive. Skilled foster carers learn about children’s complex needs, which enhances the children’s day-to-day experiences. Foster carers are strong advocates for children and work persistently with a range of care professionals to improve the children’s educational, health and social development. As a result, some children have exceeded expectations in terms of their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency regularly considers ways to seek children’s views and opinions. Children contribute to the development of the agency, for example through suggesting questions for prospective foster carers and developing leaflets around important topics, such as mental health. Children contribute to foster carer reviews and share their views with the supervising social workers. This helps to ensure that the child’s voice is heard on the standards of care provided to them. Additionally, children know how to make complaints, and supervising social workers remind children of their right to do so during visits to the foster home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school regularly and make good progress in education against their individual targets. Foster carers attend education meetings where they discuss the children’s education targets and goals. This helps foster families to support the children to achieve their learning objectives. Some children progress to further and higher education. This increases children’s aspirations and future life choices. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 4 The agency encourages foster carers to attend support groups to gain peer support and knowledge. Foster carers told inspectors that they benefit from this because it helps them to reflect on their practice and receive updates about the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with information about the agency and how they will be cared for. The children’s handbook includes important information, including how to make a complaint. However, the document is not easily accessible and understandable for all children. For example, the agency does not provide the handbook in different languages or formats to meet children’s communication needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is varying quality in the use of language in foster carer records. Some records demonstrate that foster carers record information about children’s experiences, using careful and respectful language. However, some records show institutionalised language that would not be helpful for a child to read now or in the future.

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

Children say that they feel safe and cared for in their foster home. Supervising social workers carry out unannounced visits twice annually. The second visit is carried out by a different supervising social worker for impartiality. Supervising social workers develop good relationships with children and visit them at least every two months. Children identify supervising social workers as trusted people who they can speak to. One child said (about the supervising social worker), ‘They are amazing and will always listen.’ These arrangements support the overall safe care arrangements for children.

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

The manager responds promptly when there are potential concerns about children’s safety. Allegations made about foster carers are investigated thoroughly. The manager liaises with safeguarding professionals to ensure that there is a multi- agency approach to safeguarding. Children’s risk assessments are individualised and concise, focusing on current risks and what actions foster carers should take to help keep children safe.

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

The agency provides the foster carers with good support and training to understand risks in the home and in the community, such as exploitation, knife crime and internet safety risks. Foster carers understand their role in keeping children safe while allowing them to take age-appropriate risks, such as developing relationships. This means that foster carers are equipped with the knowledge to identify and respond to risks to children.

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

Children rarely go missing from home. When they do, they receive a coordinated response to ensure their safe return.

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

The foster carers understand therapeutic parenting and use effective strategies to respond to children’s behavioural expressions. This means that physical holds are not used to manage children’s presenting behaviours or needs. Foster carers use their Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 5 positive relationships and knowledge about the child to help the child learn how to manage their emotions.

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

Assessments of prospective carers are usually carried out by an independent social worker. The robust process enables the assessor to consider the strengths and challenges of prospective carers. The assessor evaluates the prospective carers’ ability to foster, and the agency acts, for example by pausing the process if necessary. In some circumstances, the agency ensures that prospective carers complete the skills to foster training before the assessment starts. Furthermore, the manager has introduced an additional quality assurance process of assessments so that any areas of concern or enquiry can be addressed at an early stage and before the assessment is considered by panel.

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

The agency employs several external independent reviewing officers to chair annual reviews and reviews where there is cause for concern. The minutes of these meetings are thorough and provide a clear rationale of recommendations, for example when carers are de-registered. This helps the agency decision-maker to review recommendations within timescales and make decisions about foster carers’ practice. This helps to ensure that children are cared for by safe adults.

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

Foster carers understand the importance of family ties and support children spending time with family members where it is safe to do so. This encourages effective working relationships between foster carers and children’s birth families. This promotes the children’s identity and helps maintain important relationships. However, the agency does not have systems in place to seek the views of parents or other people who are important to the children. This is a missed opportunity to gather feedback and consider how this can help make improvements to the agency and the care children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and responsible individual have worked for the agency for several years. They are supported by long-standing supervising social workers and business support team members. Together, they bring consistency and stability to the agency that foster carers recognise. The manager is highly motivated and strives to make improvements for the foster carers and children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency has two offices in two different areas of the country. The manager knows the foster carers and the children well and has effective oversight of both offices. Senior leader meetings and team meetings are used as forums to share information with supervising social workers. This helps supervising social workers to have current knowledge about foster carers and children, which helps them to respond to duty calls. Foster carers say that they feel able to seek support from their own and other supervising social workers. This means that the foster carers receive consistent information and support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervising social workers say that they feel listened to and their opinions about service improvement are taken seriously. The minutes of meetings reflect Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 6 collaborative discussions and the team working cohesively together. Staff members, including business support staff, say that they ‘love’ working for this agency and the ‘family feel.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have oversight of the care children receive through monitoring and review systems. They understand foster carers’ strengths and are familiar with the individual needs of the children. The manager advocates on behalf of children and foster carers and makes representation to children’s placing authorities when children are not receiving the service they are entitled to. Consequently, foster carers feel supported and gain confidence to appropriately challenge professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is held in high regard by the staff and foster carers. Professionals in the children’s network speak highly of the quality of care afforded to the children. Professionals say that foster carers ‘always go above and beyond’ in their care of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervising social workers access a variety of training to enhance their practice. Effective oversight of training records ensures that staff complete refresher training within timescales. Staff receive regular supervision and make suggestions about what training they feel would be beneficial for their development. This helps staff to feel valued by the agency and improves their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager consults with foster carers and children to improve the service, which includes questionnaires about training, activities, and the level of support from the agency. One example is how the agency has developed a support group to help foster carers to care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. This helps foster carers to share information and meet the child’s needs. Additionally, the agency consults with children about planned activities and tailors these to children’s likes and interests.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The leadership team is proactive and committed to developing the service provided to children and their fostering families. Quarterly reviews and analysis identify areas of need and actions are set. The leadership team recognises that recruitment and retention are areas they continuously strive to improve. This has resulted in increased financial support for carers as part of a retention package. Additionally, following consultation with a LGBTQ charity, the agency has amended the application form to be more inclusive for prospective foster carers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Panel is chaired by an experienced and knowledgeable professional. Panel members bring a wealth of experience and safeguarding practice. Preparation for panel is well coordinated and paperwork is provided in a timely manner. Minutes from the panel are robust and demonstrate the chair and panel members understand their role and function. This helps them to make evidence-based decisions about prospective carers, or continued service when there have been concerns about foster carers’ conduct. Decisions by the agency decision-maker are made within timescales and there is evidence of clear decision-making. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that entries in records, decisions, and reasons for them, are clearly expressed. In particular, ensure that language used is helpful to a child who may wish to access a record of their life story. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards,’ 26.5)  The registered person should ensure that, subject to the child’s age and understanding, the child receives the children’s guide at the point of placement and that the foster carer explains the contents of the children’s guide in a way that is accessible. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards,’ 16.3)  The registered person should ensure that the wishes, feelings, and views of children and those significant to them are considered in monitoring foster carers and developing the fostering service. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards,’ 1.7)

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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: Foster Cares Ltd 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Foster Cares Ltd, The Old Hall, Byers Green, Spennymoor, County Durham DL16 7PS

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: nichola.mulholland@cares.co.uk

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Inspectors

Cat Makel, Social Care Inspector Jess Elliott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Foster Cares Ltd 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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