Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 1 Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering BETA North Limited T/A BETA Care Services The Old Exchange, Barnard Street, Darlington DL3 7DR Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This independent fostering agency was formerly known as Beta Care Services. From 1 September 2020, the trading name changed to Evolve Fostering. The agency has been registered with Ofsted since 2012 and operates in the north-east of England.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The agency provides emergency, respite, short-term and long-term foster placements. It has one ‘staying put’ arrangement.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

At the time of the inspection, 41 children were being cared for in 24 approved fostering households.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 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

Date of last inspection: 17 January 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make progress from their starting points. Foster families welcome children with a wide range of diverse and complex needs into their homes. The agency provides training and support to ensure the foster carers have the necessary skills to provide bespoke care to each child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster families described the agency as a ‘family’. Social workers can be contacted at any time, even out of hours, so that foster carers can speak with social workers who know them and their families well. It was a common theme of feedback from foster carers that this small agency works to provide seamless support when needed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster families benefit from the support and guidance of a clinical psychologist who is commissioned by the agency. Foster carers can attend individual consultations to discuss children in their care, or participate in group discussions and training. This support helps foster carers to develop their understanding of how to support and parent children. Feedback from foster carers about the support they receive from the agency is that ‘they go above and beyond’ and because of this, they feel ‘valued’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs and their well-being are promoted by their foster carers. Children are swiftly registered with general practitioners and opticians when they join a foster family. Foster carers receive additional training and support when they care for children with complex health needs. This ensures that children have all they need to support their physical and emotional health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children being able to have good experiences is a priority for the agency. Group activities are carefully planned to ensure all children who wish to join in can participate in an activity they will enjoy. Children and their foster families are invited to special events and celebrations. This includes celebrations and award events that recognise children’s achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers help children to spend time with their families. Foster carers work well with families to promote children’s connections with their loved ones. This also helps the foster carers develop working relationships with parents, understanding the importance of this for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Welcome hampers are given to children when they move to live with a foster family. This includes a lovely child-friendly children’s guide. The guide provides children with information at an early stage about the agency and how they will be looked after. The agency has replicated this for parents, so they have similar information.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who are approaching their 18th birthdays do not always have clear plans about their next steps. Managers do not escalate their concerns when assessments for children are not completed. This can lead to children not knowing what their future arrangements will be once they leave their foster carers’ home. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 3 Although some children achieve long-term stable placements, others experience breakdowns in their care arrangements. Matching for children is not always strong. Information about children’s needs and foster carers’ skills and experience is not always well considered or explored. Some children are placed with foster carers when limited information is known about the children. For some children, this has led to them being cared for by foster carers who do not have the necessary skills and experience to meet their needs. This has resulted in children experiencing

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

Foster carers, supervising social workers and the manager know the children well and help children to understand their past experiences. Foster carers actively seek support when they need help to manage any risks and vulnerabilities. Fosters carers take steps to help mitigate risks for children by collaborating with professionals to identify strategies to help keep children safer.

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

Supervising social workers visit and speak with children at their foster home and during activities. Children’s feedback about their experiences of living with the foster family are gathered for their foster carers’ review. This ensures that children’s voices are heard, and their views about their relationships with carers are included in the review.

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

The recruitment, assessment and approval of those who apply to foster is robust. New foster carers spoke positively about the process and the preparation they receive before children are placed in their care.

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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 know children’s safety plans and are aware of procedures they need to follow to support the safe return of children to their care. The agency’s safeguarding policies are accessible for foster carers.

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

One child made an allegation against a parent and this information was not fully shared with the child’s social worker by the supervising social worker. Although the information was later added to a report, this prevented the social worker from having full information about a safeguarding concern.

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

Supervising social workers work with children to help them to develop new skills. Creative ways to engage children with important conversations are welcomed by foster carers, who may need some additional support. One child was supported through drawings and conversations about their bedtime routine. Another child has been provided with an independence file to help them develop life skills.

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

Safer care plans are in place but are not always personalised for individual children or kept up to date. In addition, children’s safety plans are out of date and need to be updated with children’s known risks and vulnerabilities. Therefore, strategies are not clearly identified for foster carers to follow to help support children. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 4 Physical holds are rarely used as foster carers train in de-escalation techniques to reduce the need to hold a child. However, some children are held, even though fosters carers are not trained in skills to ensure that the hold is safe and proportionate. Records of physical holds are unclear. The agency does not ensure the child has someone independent of the incident to speak to after a hold has taken place.

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good

The manager does not have systems in place to evidence that there is management oversight, evaluation or decision-making on children’s files. This is because records are not routinely made of discussions about incidents involving children, foster carers and decision-making.

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good

The responsible individual completes audits of children’s files. However, some children’s files do not have care plans or signed delegated authority so that carers can make decisions for children and arrange health appointments. This means foster carers do not have access to all of the required information about the children they care for. Leaders and managers have recently introduced an escalation policy, but this is still to be embedded into practice.

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good

Children’s and foster carers’ records are not routinely quality assured. Although an audit takes place to check the date of a record, there are no management oversight arrangements to quality assure children’s records. This has led to shortfalls raised in relation to safer care plans and children’s risk assessments.

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good

Foster carers’ logs do not consistently use caring language. One foster carer used insensitive language about a child. Although the supervising social worker reads these logs, there was no follow-up to ensure children’s records are written in a way that will be of benefit to the child.

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good

When allegations are made, the manager investigates these and ensures that foster carers and children are listened to. There are robust procedures in place to consider a foster carer’s de-registration. However, the lessons learned through discussions are not captured in writing.

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good

The manager did not notify Ofsted of a significant incident. This has prevented independent scrutiny and oversight of safeguarding practice in response to this incident.

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good

The chair of the fostering panel is an experienced professional. The panel is made up of a diverse selection of members with experience relevant to fostering. Information about foster carers and children’s experiences is scrutinised by the panel. The agency decision-maker is an experienced professional and has oversight of the panel and the decisions it makes. However, minutes of panel meetings do not always evidence how shortfalls in information are followed up. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 5 Supervising social workers say they are well supported by the manager. Supervision takes place regularly and provides opportunities for reflective discussions about foster carers, children and current practice issues. In addition, supervising social workers have informal discussions with the manager and this helps with sharing information about fostering families.

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good

Furthermore, foster carers’ feedback about the agency highlighted that the managers are visible and active in all areas of the service they offer. Foster carers spoke positively about the management of the agency and how they have been supported to develop as carers and provided with additional support when needed. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 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, 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 provider and the registered manager must, having regard to—

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Requirement Due date

the size of the fostering agency, its statement of purpose, and the numbers and needs of the children placed by the fostering agency, and

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Requirement Due date

the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of the children placed by the fostering agency,

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Requirement Due date

carry on or manage the fostering agency (as the case may be) with sufficient care, competence and skill. (Regulation 8 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they meet the shortfalls identified that relate to national minimum standards 25.2 and 26.6. 20 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must provide foster parents with such training, advice, information and support, including support outside office hours, as appears necessary in the interests of children placed with them.

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must take all reasonable steps to ensure that foster parents are familiar with, and act in accordance with the policies established in accordance with regulations 12(1) and 13(1) and (3).

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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 20 March 2025 Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 7 regulation 6(3)(d) of the Care Planning Regulations. (Regulation 17 (1) (2) (3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they meet the shortfalls identified that relate to national minimum standards 3.7, 12.3, 15.1 and 15.2.

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must prepare and implement a written policy on acceptable measures of control, restraint and discipline of children placed with foster parents.

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Requirement Due date

The fostering service provider must take all reasonable steps to ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

no child placed with a foster parent is subject to any measure of control, restraint or discipline which is excessive or unreasonable, and

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Requirement Due date

restraint is used on a child only where it is necessary to prevent injury to the child or other persons, or serious damage to property. (Regulation 13 (1) (2(b)(c)))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they meet the shortfalls identified that relate to national minimum standards 4.5 and 3.8. 20 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

If any of the events listed in column 1 of the table in Schedule 7 takes place in relation to a fostering agency, the registered person must without delay notify the persons or bodies indicated in respect of the event in column 2 of the table. (Regulation 36 (1)) 20 March 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the fostering service works effectively in partnership with other agencies concerned with child protection, for example the responsible local authority, schools, hospitals, general practitioners, etc., and does not work in isolation from them and ensure that all information to help protect a child is shared. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 4.7)  The registered person should ensure that the panel chair ensures that written minutes of panel meetings are accurate and clearly cover the key issues and views expressed by panel members and record the reasons for their recommendation. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 14.7) Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 8

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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: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 9

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: BETA North Limited T/A BETA Care Services

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: 73 Duke Street, Darlington DL3 7SD

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: info@betacareservices.com

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Inspectors

Joanne Wallis, Social Care Inspector Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beta North Ltd trading as Evolve Fostering 10 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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Inspectors

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