Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 1 Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 1st Floor, Discovery Park, Ramsgate Road, Sandwich, Kent CT13 9FF Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This agency registered with Ofsted in August 2021 and is privately owned. It does not accept emergency placements. Within its range of fostering services, the agency includes the placement of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. At the time of this inspection, the agency was providing care for 17 children in 12 fostering households.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The manager is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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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: 13 September 2022

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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: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Committed carers strive to build and maintain trusting relationships with children, enabling them to make positive progress. Long-term stability for children is a priority for this agency. This provides children with a sense of belonging and positive experiences in a family environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The therapeutic intervention is a significant strength and aligns with the agency’s statement of purpose. All members of the fostering households have access to the therapy team. As a result, all children, including carers’ birth children, understand each other’s needs and learn strategies to positively manage their relationships with each other.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Focused therapeutic intervention enables children who have had traumatic early life experiences to access specialist assessments and services. Children experiencing mental health difficulties receive help and support at the earliest opportunity. Staff and carers provide children with consistent, well-informed care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There have been many changes in supervising social workers and managers in the agency. This has created some drift in relation to obtaining relevant documentation from children’s placing authorities. As a result, important information-sharing about children’s needs that is necessary to fully inform care planning has been omitted. Nonetheless, children are actively encouraged to attend their own meetings, which means that their thoughts, views and wishes can be heard and acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s faith and religious needs are carefully considered, and, where possible, their cultural needs are matched to their fostering household. Children are sensitively encouraged to attend religious festivals and places of worship. This means that children continue to build emotional resilience and maintain a sense of their identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parent and child placements are a strength of the agency. Confident and experienced carers support parents in caring for their children because of the respectful relationships they build. The result is positive outcomes for children, as permanence has been secured through children being adopted or remaining with their birth family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers understand the importance of children maintaining connections with their birth families. Effective and informed communication with professionals to support this means that children have a safe and meaningful time with the people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children in education are making progress and enjoy learning. When children are not in education, carers advocate for them through professional meetings and effective communication with the agency. For one child, this means that their views have been heard, and they are excited to be attending their chosen school. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 3 Many children attend organised activities and have community-based hobbies. Children celebrate their achievements, which enhances their social skills and development. An experienced and child-centred skills worker organises meaningful activities to support children and offer some respite from the challenges of a fostering household.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers respond appropriately when children become unwell, ensuring that they seek necessary medical attention. All children are encouraged to attend health appointments in line with their care planning. This means that children can be involved in decision-making about their health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The agency’s children’s guide is personalised and adapted for children based on their age and understanding. However, some children have not received it in a timely way. As a result, one child did not initially understand their rights.

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

Children have close bonds with their foster carers, so they have trusted adults to confide in. This provides children with a sense of security and ensures that issues or difficulties are addressed at the earliest opportunity.

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

Foster carers and staff understand children’s individual risks and vulnerabilities. Carers describe to staff and managers what they need to do to keep children safe, but staff and managers do not always add updated information to children’s individual risk assessments and safer care plans.

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

Supervising social workers and managers had not ensured that all carers have completed and refreshed the necessary training to inform their practice, particularly in relation to safeguarding. Senior leaders took immediate action to address this during the inspection.

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

Every fostering household is subject to an unannounced visit at least once a year. Regular visits to the home by supervising social workers and the clinical team include supervision meetings. These provide reassurances that children are safe and that foster carers are meeting children’s needs.

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

Children’s moves into foster households are generally managed well. However, before the placement of each child, the matching process does not always consider the impact, risks and family dynamics. Therefore, some carers were not equipped to manage the escalating needs of a child, and some previous challenges for carers had not been considered.

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

Managers inform the relevant professionals and the regulator when serious incidents occur. These notifications are timely and provide the appropriate and necessary information. Generally, follow-up action is taken to mitigate the risk of further incidents. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 4 When children go missing or do not return home at the agreed time, carers and staff proactively follow the necessary process to ensure their safe return at the earliest opportunity. Local authority professionals say that carers act in the best interests of children and keep them safe.

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

When a child moves out of the foster placement in either a planned or unplanned way, carers and staff work hard to manage the moves as positively as possible for children. Learning through reflection has supported the agency in identifying strengths and areas for development.

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

Standards of care investigations are thorough and well documented. Despite the agency’s understanding and framework to support this process, managers do not always review carers’ suitability for foster care following the conclusion of an investigation. In one example, this has prevented vigorous monitoring of the carers’ ability to work transparently with the agency.

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

Complaints are well managed and recorded. One carer commented that she felt well supported when she was the subject of a complaint. Effective communication and a dynamic assessment and plan enabled the child to return to the home and maintain stability in their life.

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

All staff have completed necessary mandatory training. It is difficult to assess the impact of training due to the frequent changes in supervising social workers. The content of the training is good and increases the knowledge of staff, particularly those who have not previously worked in a fostering environment.

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

All staff who join the agency undergo rigorous safer recruitment checks. These are diligently carried out to reduce the risk of unsuitable adults working with children and families.

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good

Since the last inspection, there has been some changes in leadership. The current responsible individual has been in post since March 2025, and the manager is in the process of registering with Ofsted. Numerous staff changes in the staff and management team and restructures have created a lack of stability in the agency. The high turnover of staff has resulted in poor oversight and clarity of roles and responsibilities.

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good

The manager has high expectations and aspirations for staff and carers. She is experienced, embraces challenges, and actively seeks to improve her knowledge to better inform her role. Senior leaders show ambition and have some insight into the strengths and vulnerabilities of the service. This has informed a focused vision for the future.

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good

Monitoring systems and quality assurance processes are not effective and have failed to identify the shortfalls identified during the inspection. The lack of consistent Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 5 oversight has created a culture that lacks urgency and has caused a drift in completing identified actions and tasks.

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good

Leaders and managers do not consistently address poor practice to ensure that staff carry out their duties to the high expectations of senior managers and in line with the guidance and regulations that support this. In addition, managers have not escalated concerns when important and relevant documents have not been shared by the local authority.

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good

Supervising social workers receive regular supervision, but this has been ineffective in ensuring that staff fulfil their roles and responsibilities. For example, important documents have not been updated, information has not been shared, and actions have not been monitored, resulting in those actions not being addressed.

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good

Agency staff report feeling well supported. A planned induction and transition of cases provides an informed overview of the expectations, policies and practices to support staff joining the agency.

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good

Foster carers say they feel well prepared and supported by the agency staff. They commented particularly positively on the quality of training provided, including bespoke training to support them in caring for children with specific needs.

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good

Panel arrangements are effective. Panel members are suitably qualified and offer a range of experience and knowledge, including care-experienced young people. Appropriate and informed questions enable the panel to identify the strengths and developmental needs of foster carers.

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good

The multidisciplinary approach includes all senior leaders, managers and the therapeutic lead. Regular reviews are well documented and provide some clarity on the necessary actions to continuously enhance outcomes for children. The monitoring of these actions is not consistent and fails to address incomplete tasks and lack of accountability by supervising social workers.

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good

The agency decision-maker offers clarity and scrutiny to decision-making. Information and reports from supervising social workers and managers are received promptly. This facilitates prompt and informed decision-making. However, on one occasion, essential information was omitted from an annual review report, which managers failed to recognise. Therefore, no formal action was taken to address and support a foster carer sufficiently to further improve the outcomes for one child. Nonetheless, any informed recommendations are in line with the agency’s overriding objective to promote the welfare of children in foster care. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 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 fostering service provider must ensure that there is a sufficient number of suitably qualified, competent and experienced persons working for the purposes of the fostering service, having regard to—

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Requirement Due date

the need to safeguard and promote the health and welfare of children placed with foster parents. (Regulation 19 (b))

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Requirement Due date

This includes supervising social workers, managers and leaders. 28 February 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, before the placement of each child, the foster carer is provided with all the information held by the fostering service that they need to carry out their role effectively. The information should be provided in a clear, comprehensive written form and include the support that will be available to the foster carer. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 15.2)  The registered person should ensure that, as soon as possible after an investigation into a foster carer is concluded, their approval as suitable to foster is reviewed. There should be a clear policy framework that outlines the circumstances in which a foster carer should be removed as one of the fostering service provider’s approved foster carers in the interests of the safety or welfare of children. This should be available to foster carers. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 22.8)

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Recommendations

 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 should be taken to address any issues raised by this monitoring. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 25.2)  The registered person should ensure that the foster carer is given a copy of the child’s placement plan and any other relevant documentation as soon as this is provided to them by the responsible authority. If provision of the care plan and any other documents by the responsible authority is delayed, the fostering service should make robust representations to relevant officers in the placing authority to Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 7 ensure these documents are received. (‘Fostering services: national minimum

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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: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering Ltd

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Innovation House, Innovation Way, Discovery Park, Sandwich CT13 9FF

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: acf@evolvegroupservices.co.uk

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Inspectors

Jill Sephton-Wright, Social Care Inspector Jacob Robson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Evolve Therapeutic Fostering 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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