Ofsted inspection report published

Following the Ofsted inspection of our Fostering services in October, we are pleased to tell you that the report has now been published on the Ofsted website.

Overall, the independent fostering agency provides effective services and the overall judgements was GOOD.  This means that we have maintained the GOOD level of services to our children and also to our foster carers. 

There are many positive aspects of services within the report:

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people

• Foster carers and staff are strong advocates and have high aspirations for the children they care for. As a result, children make good progress from their starting points;
• Children moving in with mainstream foster carers receive child-friendly profiles of the carers before moving in whenever possible;
• Children form positive relationships with their foster carers and are valued members of their foster family;
• The agency is proactive in supporting foster carers and connected carers to apply for special guardianship orders.

How well children and young people are helped and protected

• Safeguarding is a high priority in this agency. Managers have an operational overview of all issues that affect the safety and well-being of children, and they monitor actions taken and progress made;
• Managers, staff and foster carers understand each other’s roles and responsibilities and the remits of safeguarding agencies. Managers make sure that children are protected during any investigation and provide foster carers with access to independent support in recognition of the emotional impact that this has on them;
• Managers take robust action when there are concerns about foster carers’ practice;
• Safe recruitment processes for staff, panel members and foster carers help to ensure the suitability of these people to work with or care for children

Effectiveness of leaders and managers

• Managers are successfully supporting many areas of improvement and development. These include the timely completion of foster carer annual reviews and supervision; diversity, stability and permanence within the staff teams and at team manager level; regular reflective staff supervisions and appraisals; and the continuing development of the partnership practice model of care and the staff leadership programme.
• Staff are well supported through a range of systems, including regular supervision sessions, annual appraisals and team meetings.
• Panel members bring a range of experience of fostering, both personal and professional. The foster panel provides a robust quality assurance function while being sensitive to the applicants attending the panel.
• The agency has an experienced agency decision-maker who is social work qualified and provides a clear rationale when approving foster carers.

The report recognises the quality of our fostering service and the impact this has on our children’s outcomes.

Well done to everyone in our Fostering Service, to those who support the service; and of course to our foster carers.