Compass Fostering South

Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 1 Compass Fostering South Compass Fostering South Limited Unimer House, Dominion Way, Rustington, Littlehampton, West Sussex BN16 3HQ Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this independent fostering agency

This agency provides a range of fostering services, including emergency, short-term, long-term and parent and child foster placements. At the time of this inspection, the agency was supporting 145 households caring for 170 children and young people.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The agency is part of Compass Community, a much larger organisation that owns a range of children’s services, including several independent fostering agencies.

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Information about this independent fostering agency

The post for a registered manager has been vacant since February 2025. A new manager has been appointed and is in the process of applying to register 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 good

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good

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: Compass Fostering South 2

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Summary of findings

Children receive individualised, nurturing care from committed foster carers and benefit from stability, positive experiences, and tailored support that helps them make progress. Strong therapeutic input, effective promotion of education and meaningful participation opportunities enhance children’s wellbeing and outcomes. Children’s identity needs are well understood and promoted. Foster carers understand their safeguarding responsibilities and are well supported to keep children safe. Leaders and managers promote a positive, child-centred culture and know children and carers well. Areas for improvement include consistent partnership working, timely notifications to Ofsted, stronger monitoring and oversight arrangements and better evaluation of service performance to drive improvements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive individualised care from foster carers who know them well and demonstrate commitment to them. Staff demonstrate a strong understanding of the individual needs of children, and carers and provide tailored support. This provides children with stability and a sense of belonging and helps them to make progress relevant to them. One child said, ‘The support over the years has been great.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a range of positive experiences with their foster carers. Their individual interests and enthusiasms are understood and nurtured, and they are supported to enjoy new experiences. This promotes children’s self-esteem and confidence. One social care professional said, ‘Every time I see him, he is doing something new.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parent and child placements are a strength of the agency. Parents describe informed and empathic support from foster carers. As a result, parents are fully informed, and their voices are heard. One parent said, ‘I feel like we have a much better chance because of being here.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s identity needs are promoted effectively. Their individual needs, such as those relating to disability, ethnicity and religion, are carefully considered in care planning. Assessments of prospective foster carers and fostering panel discussions consider carers’ understanding and ability to meet identity needs. Where children are placed with carers from different backgrounds, proactive steps are taken to ensure that their identity needs are recognised and promoted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Foster carers and staff value education. A clear education strategy promotes learning and celebrates children’s achievements. When children experience challenges, access to specialist support helps them to overcome barriers and secure outcomes that are centred on their needs. As a result, most children make progress in education, and all 16-to-18 year olds are engaged in education or training. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 3 Children’s participation is promoted through regular group activities, a magazine, an awards ceremony and a youth council. These initiatives help children feel valued, enjoy positive experiences, and influence agency practice, for example by interviewing candidates for senior positions and developing welcome bags for children moving into fostering households. The children’s participation lead is enthusiastic and has clear plans for further developing this work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Decisions for children to leave foster placements are child centred. Staff work hard to provide children with continuity by keeping them within the agency and with carers who are known to them when possible. There is generally effective joint working with placing authorities to promote stability and manage endings positively. However, managers did not consult the placing authority when a critical decision about one child’s move was made. This affected the placing authority’s ability to help the child understand and manage this change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Agency staff provide strong advocacy for carers when needed and challenge partner agencies if they are concerned about how they are responding to children’s needs. Although this is usually effective, managers did not escalate concerns promptly and robustly in relation to delays in a child’s access to therapeutic support and visits by the placing authority to 2 other children.

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

Foster carers understand their safeguarding responsibilities, the vulnerabilities of the children they care for and how to respond if concerns arise. Agency staff support carers to make sure that they understand children’s safety plans and to manage incidents. Carers say they feel supported when there are safeguarding concerns, including when they use the out-of-hours service. As a result, risks for children are well managed.

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

When children are missing from home, carers report concerns promptly and work with relevant professionals to help locate children and ensure that they return home safely. Effective joint working helps to ensure that children have access to appropriate support to understand concerns and be safer.

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

Staff and managers have a sound knowledge and understanding of safeguarding incidents, concerns and safety plans. Managers provide effective oversight when incidents occur. However, written management oversight is often recorded significantly later than the incident itself. While this has not adversely affected children, it has the potential to do so, as delays may result in information and decision-making being less clear.

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

Allegations and concerns about foster carers are taken seriously. Managers work effectively with relevant professionals, including the local authority designated officer, to ensure that allegations are investigated and children are safeguarded. Standards of care investigations and early reviews of foster carers are carried out when required. Foster carers are provided with guidance and support, and managers track progress with investigations to avoid drift and delay. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 4 Following the last inspection, the organisation reviewed its policy and practice in relation to the use of CCTV. As a result, there has been a positive cultural shift within the agency, focusing on the importance of children’s privacy and confidentiality. There are currently no fostering households where CCTV is used.

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

There are safety measures in place for one child that limit access to some areas of their home at times. While these are reasonable, used with good intent and agreed by partner agencies, they are not subject to formal multi-agency assessment, planning and review. As a result, there is no structured process to ensure that the measures remain necessary, proportionate, and the least restrictive option as the child grows and their needs change.

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

Managers do not report serious incidents to Ofsted in a timely manner. Senior leaders acknowledge that this is an area for improvement; however, actions taken to address the issue have not yet been effective. While this has not affected children’s safety, it has hindered the regulator’s ability to monitor the agency effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know the children and foster carers well. The leadership team is aspirational for children, open to learning and reflection, and visible throughout the agency. This underpins a supportive and child-centred culture.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel well supported by managers and colleagues and say that their views are valued and considered by managers. They describe an agency culture of mutual respect where their wellbeing and workload are actively considered. Staff receive regular, good-quality individual supervision. However, agreed actions are not always tracked to ensure that they are addressed or escalated if needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most foster carers say they feel well supported by the agency and speak highly of their supervising social workers. Although staffing changes have occasionally affected support, managers respond proactively to carers’ concerns and learn from feedback. Following a poor experience for one newly approved fostering household, the agency reviewed its practice, strengthened support arrangements for new carers, and worked effectively with the foster carers to improve their experience.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Carers actively engage in a wide range of training opportunities, demonstrating a commitment to developing their skills. The agency’s analysis of carers’ learning needs and preferences has informed the way that training is delivered so that it is as accessible as possible. Carers speak positively about the quality of training available, particularly the therapeutic learning, which strengthens their ability to understand and respond to each child’s unique needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Therapeutic support is embedded throughout the agency and is tailored to meet the individual needs of children and carers. Skilled therapeutic practitioners provide creative and responsive interventions that promote stability for children. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 5 Members of the fostering panel have a suitable range of experience and knowledge. The chair and vice chair have implemented changes to strengthen independent scrutiny, such as supporting panel members to apply evidence-based questioning. This ensures that the panel makes appropriate recommendations in the best interests of children. However, the minutes of some panel discussions contain errors.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have effective systems in place to monitor the service and maintain oversight of events, concerns and practice. Regular, well-attended team development days support reflection and shared learning. However, monitoring information is not consistently evaluated to identify themes, measure the impact of actions taken or demonstrate how learning informs service improvement. As a result, opportunities to strengthen practice are missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The company has recently appointed a new responsible individual. Ofsted is in the process of assessing their capacity, experience and skills to carry out the role. Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 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

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)) 13 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the service always works effectively in partnership with other agencies. This includes ensuring that placing authorities are consulted and involved in significant decisions affecting children and that delays or shortfalls in partner agencies’ responses are challenged and escalated promptly. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 4.7)  The registered person should ensure that there are clear and effective procedures for monitoring and controlling the activities of the service. This includes ensuring the timely recording of management oversight of incidents, effective tracking of actions arising from supervision and learning reviews, and the use of monitoring information to improve the quality of the service. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 25.1)  The registered person should ensure that safety measures that limit children’s access to parts of their home are informed by appropriate assessment and are

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Recommendations

subject to stringent multi-agency review to ensure that they remain proportionate and in line with the child’s emotional, physical and developmental needs. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 6.1)  The registered person should ensure that written minutes of panel meetings are accurate. (‘Fostering services: national minimum standards’, 14.7)

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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: Compass Fostering South 7

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider: Compass Fostering South Limited

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Independent fostering agency details

Registered provider address: 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester LE7 1PF

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Responsible individual:

Email address: neil.morris@compassfostering.com

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Inspectors

Jacob Robson, Social Care Inspector Jill Sephton-Wright, Social Care Inspector Chido Mangava, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for independent fostering agency: Compass Fostering South 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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