Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 1 Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd Shrublands Cottages, Magadalen Way, Gorleston, Norfolk, Norwich NR31 7BP Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This independent fostering agency is privately owned and supports 24 fostering households in the Norfolk and Suffolk area. At the time of the inspection, the agency was providing services for 45 children.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The registered manager was registered with Ofsted in October 2024.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The responsible individual has recently registered a supported accommodation service with Ofsted in 2026, to provide ongoing support to young people. This was not inspected as part of this inspection.

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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

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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: 5 February 2024

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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: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 2

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Summary of findings

Children have great overall experiences as part of the support provided by this independent fostering agency. Children make good progress and often remain settled with their carers over many years.

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Summary of findings

Foster carers are extremely positive about their experiences and the support offered to them by the staff and managers at the agency.

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Summary of findings

The agency is managed to a good standard. Managers and staff ensure that children receive good help and protection and there are some excellent aspects to children’s overall experiences. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good-quality care, and some have excellent experiences while living with their foster carers. Most children are settled and live with their carers for several years. Children are provided with stability and consistency and make significant progress over time that prepares them for the future and adulthood. One child said, 'They love me and treat me like one of their own'. Another child said, 'I wouldn't want to live in any other place'

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Several young people remain with their carers after they turn 18 in 'staying put' arrangements. This has been a carefully considered next step for these young people and offers ongoing stability into early adulthood. This has enabled some children to pursue their careers and education in colleges and further education. One young person who is attending college said, ‘I honestly couldn't have asked for more, and I'm grateful of the experiences I've had and continue to have.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported with their education and health needs. The staff at the agency are strong advocates for the children. All of the children are in education and are receiving the support that they need for any identified learning or health needs. The agency staff support and challenge other professionals to ensure children get the help and support that they need. They have supported a child to access a bursary that will enable them to attend university. Without this bursary this would not have been possible. Agency staff have also challenged to ensure that other children receive the right education setting and support at the right time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in seasonal group activities with the agency. These groups are well thought of by children and as a result are well attended. Children comment on how much they have enjoyed festive activities across the year. All children, including carers’ birth children, and carers participated in an awards night. This was well received with many positive comments from children and carers about the event. This helps both children, carers and birth children to be included and celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's move into the fostering households are well planned. Carers are sensitive to their needs and the emotional impact of these moves. Children are carefully culturally matched. This has allowed children to settle into a home quickly where their identity is reflected in their carer's experiences and religion. On those occasions when children have moved on from carers, the moves are well planned. The agency staff take suitable steps over many months to support children and carers to prevent these moves wherever possible. Additional support, meetings and training are always considered in addition to the wider support generally offered to carers to try and keep children with their foster carers when possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a range of feedback from children, their foster carers and their social workers about children's experiences at the agency. Several social workers commented on ways in which the agency go 'above and beyond' to support children and carers. There is consistently child focused work by all staff at the agency and a Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 4 theme in the feedback is the 'family feel' and how included all children feel with their foster family and as part of this agency.

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

Children feel safe and supported by their carers. All children who participated in the inspection said that they are happy living with their carers. Children are generally safer as a result of living with their fostering family. For most children, incidents of concern are infrequent, and the majority of children have experienced stability over several years.

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

On some occasions, children have gone missing from home. For the majority of these children have rarely left the home for longer than an hour. Foster carers and staff work quickly with the agency and police to help the children to return home safely. Staff undertook specific direct work with one child who went missing overnight on several occasions to help develop their awareness of their safety in the community. This has helped to make the child safer and these incidents, which occurred in close succession, have not occurred again.

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

Supervising social workers, and the agency and family practitioners, get to know the children through regularly spending time with them at times of increased vulnerability. Over time incidents have reduced and children have become more settled with their foster carers because of this additional support received.

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

Carers who are supporting children with more complex needs are given additional support. This includes increased supervision sessions, increased visits with staff at the agency, designated time with a therapist and tailored carer support groups that recognise the challenges their children are facing. This additional support helps carers to offer increased stability to children with more complex needs.

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

Assessments of potential new foster carers are of good quality. These are detailed and include suitable analysis and recommendations that are shared with a skilled fostering panel. The fostering panel undertakes its functions well and offers appropriate challenge. Fostering panels take place face to face and include a variety of skills and experience from panel members which offer a diverse view and questioning of applications.

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

Recruitment practices in the agency are generally good. However, there have been some occasions when professional curiosity has been limited and some checks and balances available to the agency have not been completed. This does not ensure consistently good and safer recruitment.

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

On one occasion, leaders and managers did not effectively respond to an allegation about a foster carer. This was not appropriately followed up with all relevant professional agencies or shared with the local authority designated officer (LADO). This does not help leaders and managers to assure themselves of children's safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 5 Since the last inspection, there have been some well-planned organisational changes. The previous registered manager has become the responsible individual and the sole director of the company. r. This professional continuity has provided stability to carers and children at a time of change. The current registered manager, who has been in post 2 years, was appointed quickly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and responsible individual have high aspirations for children. They want all of the children to achieve their potential. They ensure a variety of good- quality support is offered to carers to achieve this goal. Both leaders are well respected by foster carers and many carers provided excellent feedback about their experiences with the agency. Foster carers said:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

 ‘Overall, I feel extremely well supported by Beams, and this has a direct positive impact on my ability to provide stable, high-quality care for the children placed with me.'  'The agency really cares about the children in it's care and goes to great lengths to ensure positive outcomes for them.'  'One of the agency's greatest strengths for us is the way they act as a bridge between foster carers and other professionals. They communicate effectively, advocate for us when needed, and help ensure that everyone works together in the best interests of the children.'  'As foster carers, we genuinely feel valued and respected. Our supervising social worker is approachable, supportive, and always available when we need advice or guidance. We never feel alone, and knowing Beams is there for both us and the children makes a huge difference. We are proud to foster with Beams.'

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency has a dedicated well-being and development lead. Carers are supported with wellbeing days across the year which include carer days out, yoga sessions, and craft workshops. This is in addition to the regular carer support groups offered across the year. This helps to bring carers together. Carers all said that they value this additional support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers continue to develop the service. Children and carers are regularly consulted about their experiences, and this information is used to make improvements to the service. For example, when a child made a complaint, this was quickly responded to, and the child received a carefully thought-out letter in response to how their worries were explored. Carers resoundingly said they felt heard and a part of the agency family.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The agency has good external relationships with professionals, schools and services in the local community. A social worker said, 'Communication is professional, responsive, and warm. I have found agency staff approachable and easy to engage with, and they appear genuinely invested in maintaining positive partnership working with professionals.' The agency also has effective relationships with local authority commissioners, who praise the stability the agency provides. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 6 There is a positive community ethos which is demonstrated from the top down about different ways in which the agency can enrich the local community. Since the last inspection, the agency has built a sensory garden which is available to the children and foster carers. It is also open for the local community, including other charities that support vulnerable people, to use.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that staff receive regular supervision sessions and training. Several supervising social workers undertake additional training to support them in their areas of interest. This helps to diversify the knowledge and experience of staff in the team

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a varied training portfolio for foster carers. Foster carers are sometimes offered bespoke sessions to meet children's specific communication needs. Foster carers are resoundingly positive about the support and training offered to them. While there is a high-quality training offer some carers do not always consistently engage in the training offered. This makes it harder for the agency to ensure all carers in the household have the right skills to meet children's needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Routinely, foster carers maintain good records. However, some records have not been kept up to date. The gaps in information in situations such as allegations regarding foster carers, and in children's records, potentially undermine leaders and manager’s ability to understand how children are being cared. This also does not help children if they wished to understand and review their records in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers generally have good oversight and monitoring of the agency and its functions. There are weekly review meetings to explore any incidents or risks and any changes in a fostering household are considered. Usually, these systems support leaders and managers to undertake effective reviews of incidents. However, for one child, there have been several incidents, including occasions when carers have held the child or redirected them at times of stress and challenge to the carers. These incidents are not always clearly reviewed by the manager at the time. Consequently, there are gaps when patterns and trends have not been clearly identified to help the agency learn from these events and support foster carers. The manager identified clear steps to rectify this monitoring at the time of this inspection, but these have yet to be implemented. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure allegations against people that work with children or members of the fostering household are reported by the fostering service to the LADO. This includes allegations that on the face of it may appear relatively insignificant or that have also been reported directly to the police or Children and Family Services. ('Fostering services: national minimum standards', 22.6)  The registered person should ensure a clear and comprehensive summary of any allegations made against a particular member of the fostering household, or staff member, including details of how the allegation was followed up and resolved, a record of any action taken and the decisions reached, is kept on the person's confidential file. ('Fostering services: national minimum standards', 22.7)  The registered person should ensure support and training is made available to foster carers, including hard to reach carers, to assist them in meeting the specific

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Recommendations

needs of the children they are caring for or are expected to care for. ('Fostering services: national minimum standards', 20.8)  The registered person should ensure staff, volunteers, panel members and fostering households understand the nature of records maintained and follow the service's policy for the keeping and retention of files. There is a system in place to monitor the quality and adequacy of record keeping and take action when needed. ('Fostering services: national minimum standards', 26.2)  The registered person should ensure the manager regularly monitors 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', 25.2)  The registered person should ensure the fostering service can demonstrate,

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Recommendations

including from written records, that it consistently follows good recruitment practice, and all applicable current statutory requirements and guidance, in foster carer selection and staff and panel member recruitment. ('Fostering services: national minimum standards', 19.2)

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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: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Ltd 8

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: Beams Foster Care and Family Service Limited

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: Shrublands Cottages, Magadalen Way, Gorleston, Norfolk, Norwich NR31 7BP

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Independent fostering agency details

Email address: karen.beales@beamsfcfs.co.uk

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Inspectors

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Beams Foster Care and Family Service 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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