ISLE OF ANGLESEY COUNTY COUNCILdemocracy.anglesey.gov.uk/Data/Housing and Social... · 4/23/2012...

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ISLE OF ANGLESEY COUNTY COUNCIL

Committee: Housing and Social Services Scrutiny Committee

Meeting date: 23 April 2012

Relevant Corporate Director: Stephen Sloss, Interim

Corporate Director of Housing and Social Services

Relevant Portfolio Holder: Margaret Foster, Commissioner

TITLE: Annual Fostering Inspection 2011

1. Introduction

1.1 The Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales undertook the annual

Fostering Inspection in December 2011. The report was published on 12th

March 2012, and can be found in Appendix 1 of this report. This inspection

examined the quality of fostering services within the Authority.

1.2 This is an annual inspection that covers the following eight headings:

Policies and Procedures/Information

Management and staffing of the services (including premises and finance)

Provision Of Foster Carers

Quality Of Care and safety for children placed

Placement Of Children Parts v & vi of the regulations

Records

Short term placements

Family and Friends as carers

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Seven of the above sections were looked at during the inspection. Short term

placements were not inspected.

2. Summary of inspection findings:

The fostering service is well managed with attention given to monitoring

and reviewing the quality of care of the service.

There has been thoughtful deployment of staff and resources to respond

to identified needs within the service.

The quality of care review of the service is comprehensive and clearly

presented.

Assessments of prospective foster carers are comprehensive.

Support to carers is provided through supervisory visits and foster carers

spoke highly of the support they receive.

3. Improvements since the last inspection

The fostering service has benefited from increased staff in the child

placement team

Work has been undertaken to bring into use the new delegated

agreement form so that there are clear decisions taken and recorded with

regard to the matters that foster carers may decided upon a day to day

basis for children in their care.

There are new initiatives to recruit foster carers.

4. Improvements since the last inspection

a) Priorities

no regulatory requirements

b) other areas for improvement

An assessment of an application to be a foster carers or a foster carers

review should be complete before it is submitted to panel

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Children and young people should be asked for their views as part of the

foster carers review process.

Foster carers should be supported to keep adequate records in respect of

children and young people in the care of Isle Of Anglesey County Council.

5. Action Plan

5.1 Please find the the action plan in appendix 2 of this report.

6. Conclusion 6.1 The inspection was positive with no requirements. The action plan will

address those good practice issues and also other issues which have been raised within the body of the report. The Children’s Services Management Team will continually monitor progress against the action plan.

7. Recommendation 7.1 That the Housing and Social Services Scrutiny Committee note the content of this report.

Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales

Care Standards Act 2000

Inspection reportFostering services

Ynys Môn Fostering Service

Ynys Môn Social Services DeptGovernment Buildings

LlangefniLL77 7TW

Date of publication – 12 March 2012

You may reproduce this Report in its entirety. You may not reproduce it in part or in any abridged form and may only quote from it with the consent in writing of the National Assembly for Wales.

Fostering Services Report Format (XE0009.0000751174) Version 5.2 March 2007

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Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales

North Wales RegionGovernment Offices

Sarn MynachLlandudno Junction

ConwyLL31 9RZ

0300062560903000625030

Name of fostering service: Ynys Môn Fostering Service

Address of service: Council Offices, Llangefni, Ynys Mon Ll77 7TW

Contact telephone number: 01248 752752

Registered provider/Director of Social Services:

Isle of Anglesey County Council

Responsible Individual/Head of Service

Responsible individual -Anwen Huws -Interim head of children’s services

Manager: Dawn Owen

Dates of this inspection episode: 17 August 2011 - 16 March 2012

Dates of other relevant contact since last report:

Date of previous report publication: 10 March 2011

Inspected by: Alison Burley and Ruth Rowlands

Other regions contributing to this report:


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Introduction

The Isle of Anglesey Fostering Services provides short term, long term, intermediate, respite and parent and child foster placements. Information recorded in the Annual Data Collection form (ADC) confirmed that the fostering service has a total of 36 approved foster carers, comprising general carers and family and friends/kinship carers. The foster carers provide a total of 68 places for children and young people. 54 children and young people were being looked after, 33 in Ynys Mon foster carer placements and 21 children were placed with other fostering service providers. 6 foster carer assessments were being undertaken.

The Isle of Anglesey children’s services have a strong commitment to keeping looked after children within their family network. This is reflected in the fostering service where more than 55% of foster carers are approved as family and friends/kinship care foster carers. The fostering service is provided by the child placement team. This team is managed through a job share arrangement between two team managers who each work 18.5 hours per week. They work with an overlap of hours so as to ensure continuity and cover across the whole week.

Summary of inspection findings:

What does the fostering service do well?

● The fostering service is well managed with attention given to monitoring and reviewing the quality of care of the service.● There has been thoughtful deployment of staff and resources to respond to identified needs within the service.● The quality of care review of the service is comprehensive and clearly presented. ● Assessments of prospective foster carers are comprehensive.● Support to carers is provided through supervisory visits and foster carers spoke highly of the support they receive.

What has improved since the last inspection?

● The fostering service has benefitted from increased staff in the child placement team ● Work has been undertaken to bring into use a new delegated agreement form so that there are clear decisions taken and recorded with regard to the matters that foster carers may decide upon on a day to day basis for children in their care. ● There are new initiatives to recruit foster carers

What needs to be done to improve the service?

a.) prioritiesNo regulatory requirements.

b.) other areas for improvement● An assessment of an application to be a foster carer or a foster carer review should becomplete before it is submitted to panel.● Children and young people should be asked for their views as part of the foster carer


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review process.● Foster carers should be supported to keep adequate records in respect of children and young people in the care of Isle of Anglesey County Council.

Inspection methods

This inspection was announced and took place during December 2011. It was conducted by two inspectors over four days in Llangefni with additional time for reading and making telephone calls. Although the Annual data Collection form (ADC) and self-assessment of service document(SAS) were sent to the service in August 2011 it was agreed with the manager of the service that the inspection would not take place until the end of the year. The completed ADC and SAS were received by the CSSIW prior to the inspection together with theannual quality of care review report for the fostering service. Other documents were provided at the inspection. Case files of foster carers and children were read. Completed questionnaires were received from social work staff and panel members. The acting manager, social workers from the child placement team and child care social workers were interviewed. Telephone interviews were held with foster carers. Minutes of panel meetings were sampled.


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Section one: Policies and procedures / information

Inspector`s findings:

The statement of purpose for this fostering service contains the information required by The Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003 and National Minimum Standards. The document had last been updated in July 2010. It gives information about the aims and objectives of the service, the staffing structure, the recruitment and management of foster carers, the financial support provided to them and the representation and complaint process. It is a clear well written document. There is information for the public, including potential foster carers, about the fostering service and about fostering in general on the Isle of Anglesey County Council website.

The policies and procedures for the service were not examined at this inspection having been found to be satisfactory at previous inspections.

There are established children’s guides available to children and young people in foster care. The guides are written in clear language and set out to answer a range of relevantquestions that a child or young person moving into foster care might have. They includeinformation on independent advocacy, how to complain and other useful contacts.

Requirements made since the last inspection report which have been met:

Action required When completed Regulation number

Requirements which remain outstanding:

Action required(previous outstanding requirements)

Original timescale for completion

Regulation number

New requirements from this inspection:

Action required Timescale for completion

Regulation number

Good practice recommendations: NMS or other source


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Section two: Management and staffing of the services, (including premises and finance)


The fostering service has a clear statement of aims and objectives and the management and oversight of the fostering service continues to strive to ensure that these aims and objectives are met. The managers of the fostering service work in a job share arrangement and both managers are suitably qualified and experienced. The team manager with primary responsibility for the service has the necessary skills, knowledge and experience and was managing the service well.

The local authority has continued to be challenged by staff changes and periods when posts have been vacant which has resulted in interim staffing arrangements. The child placement team has been more settled with some changes of role but in some cases retaining the same personnel. The line management of the team manager has beenprovided by the interim head of service in the absence of an operational manager.

The staff complement of the team at the time of the inspection was 5.8 full time equivalent posts with eight social workers carrying out the work, This represents an increase from last year with additional temporary staff in the team. One addition has been a full timeduty social worker for the team. This had allowed for consistent attention on receiving enquiries about required placements and has also led to relationships being built up with independent fostering agencies when referrals have been made for out of county placements. It was not clear if this initiative would continue beyond March 2012. The other temporary member of staff has concentrated on the recruitment of general carers. Independent social workers have also been employed on a casual basis to undertake specific pieces of work. There was to be some further reorganisation of roles within the team and there was consideration being given to a ‘spend to save’ initiative alongside plans for team restructuring.

There is administrative support for the team and the fostering service register is maintained to a high standard. All members of the child placement team are qualified social workers with a range of experience and knowledge to bring to the service. All the staff spoken to confirmed that they have supervision and appraisals of their work in line with Isle of Anglesey County Council policies.

Information gathered through responses to questionnaires and interviews with child placement team staff strongly indicates that the team manager provides good leadership and that staff had regular professional supervision and informal support . The arrangements for the vetting, employment and induction of staff were not considered at this inspection. It was confirmed in the SAS that child placement team staff all have a CRB certificate and are registered with the Care Council for Wales.

It was discussed with the team manager that the local authority is responsible, together with ensuring the safe recruitment of independent social workers, for considering the ownership and oversight of their work.

Members of the team said that their training needs and wishes were discussed in


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supervision and that they had had opportunities to attend training.

Three foster carers confirmed during interviews that the level of support they received from the fostering team was “excellent”. All three stated that their social worker was “always available”, and if they weren’t in when they phoned, they always returned the call.

Children’s social workers said that the team was knowledgeable and skilled and that this helped in finding appropriate placements for children and in supporting foster carers.

As evidenced in the quality of care review report there has been regular monitoring of the service against the elements of Schedule 7 of the Fostering Services [Wales] Regulations 2003 and reporting to the corporate parenting panel. This comprehensive and regular reporting to senior management serves to maintain the profile and details of the work of the fostering service.

There are systems in place within the local authority to monitor and influence the development of the fostering service. Data collection has been comprehensive and as detailed in the ADC and SAS. The quality of care review includes information on number of foster carers, assessments, reviews, referrals and placements, placement breakdown, placement support and complaints.

The fostering service is located within a building which also houses other children’s services teams. The offices are rather cramped and open plan so the benefits of being able to easily access closer working with the child care teams are at times balanced by the bustle in the room. No issues were identified in relation to facilities for the service.






Regulation number



Regulation number


Section three: Provision of foster carers (including panel information)

Inspector`s findings: At the time that the ADC and SAS information was provided to CSSIW, the fostering service had a total of 36 approved foster carers with 6 undergoing assessment. The foster carers provided 68 approved places, which is a slight increase in placement availability from that recorded at the 2010-11 inspection. There were 33 children with the fostering service carers and 21 in placements provided by independent fostering agencies. There continued to be an increased demand for placements over the period since the last inspection and the service had needed to place more children and young people with independent fostering agency foster carers.

The service’s recruitment strategy is to use regular local advertising opportunities in the media and to raise the profile of the service by the placement of advertisements and literature in public places. In addition child placement team staff have attended local public events and held drop in events particularly during foster carer fortnight. The acting Head of Children Services confirmed that additional staffing capacity and funding had been made available. New recruitment literature had been commissioned and a consultation event with the design agencies, social work staff and foster carers took place during the inspection to consider the range of material offered. Feedback from a social worker involved with the recruitment campaign confirmed that they had been able to identify a suitable recruitment initiative. It was hoped that the work of the fostering recruitment officer and up to date and eye catching promotional materials would enhance the recruitment activities already in place.

The service is aware that it does not have enough general foster carers offering a range of placements to meet the needs of the children and young people in Anglesey who become accommodated. Finding placements for sibling groups and children and young people with complex or challenging behaviours has resulted in an increased number of out of county placements. It is hoped that increased recruitment of general foster carers will provide more choice for placements and improved matching of children with carerswho are able to meet their individual needs. Social workers voiced their opinion that as Anglesey is such a small authority there needs to be a level of professionalism in order to be able to compete with independent fostering agencies. It was felt that recruiting foster carers should be a corporate matter, and not dealt with in isolation by the Social Services Department. Suggestions were made in relation to the annual Anglesey show being a missed opportunity to generate interest amongst the island’s Welsh speaking population, as this was perceived to be an important event for the local community. It was acknowledged by the whole team that there was a need for more Welsh speaking foster carers to enable the children to remain within their communities.

The fostering service and childcare social workers work to help keep children within their family network. Viability and kinship care assessments were continuing to take priority over general carers’ assessments and this was often as a result of directions from court proceedings. The length of time for the full process of court proceedings was also said to be impacting on children moving from some placements with general foster carers thus contributing to placement possibilities being ‘blocked’. In one file examined it was evident that the foster carer was approaching retirement and was facing increasing demands as a result of caring for two young children in small house. Whilst additional help was being provided by sessional support workers for the children the situation was clearly not ideal.


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Providing support to kinship care placements has evidently enabled some children and young people to remain in stable placements for a number of years. The demands of supporting some of these kinship care placements was reported to be significant and more demanding than would be expected from a non kinship care foster carers.

Social work staff spoke of the fostering service having some very experienced and dedicated foster carers who have been committed to the children in their care and there have been many instances of foster carers being able to sustain placements in challenging circumstances. Many were also said to have been very responsive and helpful when placement choices were limited and they had been approached to consider the placement of a child or children. It is positive that there has been a low turnover of foster carers and that the service has held long service and recognition events for carersto mark the council’s appreciation of their work.

It was recorded in the quality of care review report that 14 foster carer assessments had been undertaken in the period September 2010 to September 2011. At that time three families were being assessed as general foster carers. In the SAS completed at the end of 2011, six new foster carers had been recruited in preceding year, the majority being kinship carers and six applications were undergoing assessment.

The 2010-11 inspection had focussed, in some detail, on the recruitment, assessment and support of general foster carers and the findings resulted in a positive assessment of the general management of the authority’s fostering service and of their foster carers. The quality of the assessments seen at this inspection was also good.

During a telephone interview with one recently approved foster carer, it was confirmed that the assessment process undertaken by the fostering service was felt by the foster carer to have been “excellent, and incredibly thorough”. The social worker in question was praised for her professional and supportive approach, and for her ability to explain the process and reassure the prospective foster carer throughout the registration. The foster carer confirmed that she had attended the fostering panel when her application had been considered.

Supervising social workers maintain regular contact with foster carers, via phone and email contact. It is expected that the minimum frequency for this contact would be monthly. A formal supervision visit takes place at a minimum interval of every twelveweeks. At this visit a form is completed by the supervising social workers to record the content of the visit. It was reported by social workers that they often have more frequent contact than the minimum expected. As the twelve week frequency is relatively low it will be important for monitoring purposes that there is oversight of the volume of work undertaken so as not to under report the activity of the service. There will be further reporting on records kept of these visits in section six of this report.

One foster carer told the inspector that that she felt “valued” and “part of a team of professionals” who worked together and understood each other’s role in order to support the children. Three foster carers confirmed that they had been given sufficient information about payments and allowances and that they were always paid on time. In the files examined there was a record that an unannounced visit had been made annually and all the foster carers spoken to said that they had received an unannounced


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visit as required. The two foster carers who had been registered for a considerable number of years had received their annual review in a timely manner. All this information was recorded appropriately on their files.

Pre approval training in the form of the skills to foster course is attended by all applicants during the period of their assessment. The course has been delivered by members of the child placement team twice in the period since the last inspection. Post approval training opportunities are provided for foster carers, some specific to their task usually provided by an external training organisation Cartref Bontnewydd, and some from Anglesey’s more general training provision. A training course specifically for kinship carers had taken place, with four couples attending and it was regarded as having been a valuable piece of work.

Foster carers’ training is a heading on the supervision record and there is an expectation that foster carers attend a minimum of two days training a year either mandatory post approval training courses in the first year and refresher and other courses thereafter. It was evident from records that not all foster carers and particularly not all kinship carers are attending training as expected of them. It was noted that in a report to the September 2011 corporate parenting panel that 11 foster carers had an NVQ level 3 qualifications. Funding had been secured for two foster carers to start the Qualifications and Credit framework (QCF) health and social care diploma. It was also reported that of ten courses set up for foster carers five had been cancelled due to low attendance. There are significant issues for some foster carers not being able to travel to training and venues being at a distance. The team manager said that the Fostering Network pathway training courses were to be tried as on-line training to help overcome some of the problems. It was envisaged that supervising social workers would support the on-line training of foster carers. It was acknowledged that the team would need to look at more local training sessions, and to ensure that all foster carers receive basic training in a timely way. Training on a one to one basis is to be offered where possible and ‘coffee and cake’ events have been held where the child placement team offer informal training and networking opportunities. To take some of the training issues forward and to improve participation a draft training plan proposal had been drawn up by the team manager.

Three foster carers stated that they attended regular training, and were kept up to date on training opportunities. However, one foster carer said that she would have benefitted from training to support a mother and baby placement. They also expressed an interest in learning more about how residential family assessment centres work. The supervising social worker, during her interview, confirmed that this had been discussed with the foster carer, and suitable training opportunities were being explored.

Anglesey fostering service operates its own panel. The inspector read minutes of previous meetings and received three completed CSSIW questionnaires from panel members. The operation of the fostering panel was not observed at this inspection. The operation and effectiveness of the fostering panel was discussed with both social workers and acting head of children service. Information in the SAS and examination of the minutes of the panels indicated that the panel continues to operate predominantly in line with regulatory requirements. Where action taken has not been in compliance with regulations details are given below.


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In the CSSIW questionnaires received from panel members one said that there had been occasional issues of timeliness of panel papers being received before panel. There was a comment that the panel member was unsure of the quality of training offered to foster carers in light of the carers apparent knowledge on an issue. Overall the questionnaires reflected that the panel business includes consideration of a range of matters of approval and review and also that they consider the quality of assessments, are made aware of complaints and the content of CSSIW inspection reports.

Arising from examination of panel minutes the inspector suggested to the team manager that where foster carers are presented to panel the details of the foster carers should include the name of each person and for a couple not just Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Mr. and Mrs. John Smith but give the first name of each carer where both are the approved foster carers.

Positive comments were made about the administrative support worker for the team, one example given was that she had implemented an effective and useful spreadsheet in order to capture and identify data about both foster carers and looked after children.

Annual reviews of foster carers’ approval have been carried out and all are taken to panel. Every fourth year the review is undertaken by an independent agency. There is a process for consulting with foster carers and social workers as part of the review but it was noted that there has not been an expectation that children and young people will be consulted directly about their experience of being cared for by the carers being reviewed. There has been a reliance on social workers giving the views of the children and young people. This practice should be reconsidered so that the views of the children and young people can be made known to the panel. A recommendation will be made.

It was noted that a review undertaken by an independent social worker was presented to panel at a later date. In one example a review had been undertaken in March 2011 and went to panel in July 2011. Such a delay means that panel are not considering and making a recommendation to continue or change the terms of approval, based on current information. It was September 2011 before the agency decision maker made the fostering service’s decision on the re-approval of the carers. The timescales for the completion and consideration of reviews should be kept under review.

Regulation 29(3)(a) requires that for a review for a foster carer, the fostering service must undertake such enquiries and obtain such information as it considers necessary. If the practice of this service is to ask for an updated medical assessment as part of the information required for a review then the review should not be regarded as complete without this. If the information required has not been obtained the assessment for the review is not complete and the papers should not be presented to panel. It is inappropriate for panel to recommend that a foster carer be ‘approved subject to a medical assessment’ Notwithstanding that the review is incomplete, to make a recommendation to approve subject to receipt of a medical assessment implies an assumption that the assessment will not reveal issues. Similarly if a piece of health and safety equipment is required to make a home safe it should be in place before the application is considered by panel. A recommendation will be made in respect of this matter on this occasion, although there has been non compliance with the Regulation andcare must be taken that all processes are complete before submission to panel.

In a file examined the reasons for the panel’s recommendation to the agency decision


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maker were not recorded. Regulation 25(2) requires that a fostering panel must record the reasons for its recommendations. Care must be taken that procedures are followed.These issues were discussed with the acting head of service, who acknowledged that this was a training issue and would be addressed.

The inspectors were told that a legal adviser has not been able to attend recent panel meetings due to their workload demands. It was agreed that this needed to be addressed as a matter of priority and that the situation should be kept under close review in the expectation that legal input to panel meetings can be restored.






Regulation number



Regulation number


● It is recommended that children and young people are asked their views as part of the foster carer review process.

● It is recommended that any assessment of an application or a foster carer review is complete before it is submitted to panel.

National Minimum Standard 11.3

Regulation 29(3)(a)


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Section four: Quality of care and safety for children placed


Anglesey fostering service continues to promote good standards for care and to support foster carers to keep the children and young people in the care of the authority safe with their needs being met. The work of the service is primarily concerned with recruiting, assessing, training and supporting foster carers. The team manager and staff were enthusiastic about their work and were committed to meeting the needs of the children and young people and to achieving the good outcomes for them. Foster carers spoken to were evidently keen to be well informed and to be equipped to provide good care. The predominance of kinship carers leads to the service supporting some carers to maintain placements in sometimes very complex and challenging environments. A childcare social worker valued the work of fostering service whilst recognising the difficulties of the service in finding and supporting placements for children.

During interviews the manager and staff demonstrated a child-centred approach and had an awareness and understanding of the children’s individual needs. Although there is a clear aim to reduce the number of children and young people placed with independent providers this has been difficult to achieve. The number of children and young people placed with foster carers not from the Anglesey fostering service had risen to 21.

As part of the aim of the fostering service to increase attendance at training events the service must ensure that all foster carers receive regular training that supports them in the task of safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare. Although some examples were seen a copy of a safe caring agreement was not seen on every file.

Work has been undertaken by the fostering service to start introducing a new delegatedagreement form so that there are clear decisions taken and recorded with regard to the matters that foster carers made decide upon without day to day reference to the local authority. Welsh Government guidance has been produced to promote ‘ensuring that children and young people in foster care are able to enjoy the same opportunities as their peers to have a fulfilled childhood and foster carers are given enough autonomy to make everyday decisions about the children in their care.' The work undertaken and planned for introducing the delegated agreements corresponds with this.

End of placement interviews and disruption meetings are held but there were very few end of placement reports from social workers or foster carers seen on files. Such information can make an important contribution to knowledge to go forward with a child to their next placement.

A Quality of Care review of the fostering service was undertaken and a report of the review written by the team manager of the child placement team. The report covers the period September 2010 – September 2011. Specifically for the review consultation was undertaken via questionnaires with foster carers. The responses were varied as to their satisfaction with the service but overall represented, albeit from 30% response rate, a range and balance of views. The report states that in future consultation will also take place with children and young people. To gain a perspective on the quality of the service it is important that there is also consultation with child placement team members, children’s


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social workers and panel members. The outcomes from the monitoring activities were summarised as undertaken against Schedule 7 of the Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003 were included in the review.

There is information on service achievements over the review period and key actions identified for 2011-2012. Within the aspects included, the report as submitted for the inspection was comprehensive and the findings of the review very well presented and analysed. The views of children and young people and other contributors to the service would further enhance the review process.

In Anglesey there are well acknowledged shortfalls in the range of placements available to children. This clearly impacts on the placement choices available and limits the scope of matching a child or young person to foster carers. Greater availability of foster carers would help in achieving closer matching, planning for placements and stability for children. There had been some success in achieving placement stability and it was evident that staff of the fostering service had worked hard to resolve placement difficulties.

A placement request form was in use to support the matching of children with foster carers. The form has been updated and requires childcare social workers to specify the needs of the child and the desired outcomes from a placement. There was an appropriate robustness in the team to resist placement requests without the appropriate information. It was reported that having duty officer has improved practice in searching for placements and use of the Children's Commissioning Support Resource (CCSR).

The provision of education and health support to children and young people and any work being undertaken to improve the educational and health outcomes for children was not considered at this inspection.

There are notification forms to be completed by childcare social workers in respect of significant events for looked after children. The procedure is that a copy of the completed form is sent to the child placement team and to the independent reviewing officer. It was stated in the SAS that significant events had not always been reported as required and action has been taken to improve the monitoring of the processes via the statutory review process.

The quality of care review report stated that there had been two child protection concerns(in relation to one foster carer household) raised under the All Wales Child Protection Procedures. Investigations have been undertaken and an independent review of the foster carers had been carried out. In the period between the end of the period covered by the quality of care review and the end of December 2011, CSSIW had not been notified of any further events that have required consideration of safeguarding issues.

The complaint procedure was not assessed during this inspection; however there was information provided within the SAS that two complaints had been passed to the county’s complaints officer, a complaint was dealt with by the operations manager and two other complaints were received by the team manager of the child placement team. All were reported to have been resolved at the first stage of the complaints procedure.


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Regulation number



Regulation number



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Section five: Placement of children parts v & vi of the regulations

N.B. Use of this section of the report will apply primarily to inspections of local

authority fostering services and the duties and responsibilities covered in Parts 5 and 6 of the Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003 only. It may need to be used for inspections of independent agencies where a local authority delegates certain duties to them under Regulation 40.


The ADC information, provided pre-inspection, recorded that 54 children were looked after by Isle of Anglesey County Council who were in foster carer placements. 33 children and young people were with Anglesey foster carers and 21 with foster carers provided by other fostering providers. The use of independent fostering agencies to provide placements was not examined as part of this inspection.

From the assessment of the information and evidence obtained during this inspection, the inspectors were of the view that the local authority was meeting its legal obligation to ensure that children and young people were in placements that were the most suitable for them, having regard to all the circumstances.

During the week of the inspection there were said to be only three placements available for children with Anglesey foster carers. The constraints of the limited choice and availability of placements has a significant impact but in the given circumstances decisions were based on reasoned judgements. Due to the nature of some placements made foster carers did not always have an opportunity to meet a child’s social worker to discuss the child and their needs in detail. There was evidence that where a proposedplacement was part of a long term plan for the child that a planning meeting had taken place and that this had been seen to have been valuable in preparing for the ongoing care of the child.

The duty officer for the child placement team liaises regularly with the arrangements with The emergency duty team (EDT) and shares information about placements available. Placements had at times, in an emergency, been made placing children and young people with foster carers outside the terms of their approval. In a number of cases the placements had continued due to lack of alternative placements. The quarterly reporting to the corporate parenting panel included a summary of ‘outside terms of approval’ placements and it was evident that there was monitoring of the circumstances and consequences of these. There did not appear to have been excessive numbers of specific reviews or exemptions.

Regulations 22 and 31 require that specific records and a fostering service register are kept. The fostering service has a robust system for maintaining a register and an effective overview of all placements.

From the examination of children’s files it was evident that in some cases foster placement agreements needed to contain more detail regarding the child and the purpose of the placement. Regulation 34(3) and Schedule 6 of the Regulations require that information is provided to foster carers at the time of placement. In an agreement seen a social worker had written against the detailed aspects of the child’s needs ‘would be met


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through the placement’ without addressing the individual aspects of their needs and care.Not all Looked After Children (LAC) forms were well completed; there were some duplicate forms and apparently partially completed forms on file which was confusing. In one case the medical consent section of the form had a parental signature but no deletion of Yes or No. Thus no consent was in place. There should be attention both to detail in the placement of children and also in the oversight of records kept

It is positive to see the use of delegated agreements is to be expanded and improved and that the independent reviewing officer will include their use as part of the statutory reviewing process. A copy of the minutes of the latest LAC review was not seen on all children’s files. Where review minutes were on file there was good recording of content of the review, any decisions made and action to be taken.

Children’s social workers are required to make statutory visits to looked after children in their placement at regular intervals, dependent on the nature of their placements and the length of time they have been looked after. The purpose of such visits is to ensure that the placement is meeting the child’s needs and that their welfare is safeguarded and promoted through the care they receive. In the children’s files examined there were records to confirm that statutory visits had taken place. The overall statistics for the performance of statutory visits by social workers to children and young people in placement were not considered at this inspection. Where copies of reports of visits were seen on file they showed that children and young people were being seen alone and were being asked for their views on the placement. There was also confirmation that theindependent reviewing officer was monitoring whether statutory visits had taken place as required.






Regulation number



Regulation number



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Section six: Records


The authority maintains records of all looked after children and foster carers. A sample of the case records of children placed with foster carers and the files of foster carers were reviewed at this inspection. Children’s files contained care plans, evidence of plans beingreviewed within the legal timescales and of statutory visits taking place. Records showed that contact arrangements were in place where appropriate and that there was investment in supporting contact.

The system for managing the fostering service records was for the foster carer files to be in paper form and some records were moving to the electronic RAISE system. The duty officer for the child placement team was part of a working group considering the way information was kept and what records would become electronically stored. With forms being put onto RAISE it was said that access and recording was easier. As seen in the sample, records were being kept up to date.

In foster carer’s files there was application and assessment information and health and safety checklists. Relevant extracts of the minutes of panel meetings were on file as were letters and certificates confirming current terms of approval. Copies of foster care agreements were on file. Chronologies of placements were on most but not all files. The inspector was provided with a print out of registered carers list and the details of looked after children. The information required by the Regulations was available and was up to date.

Foster carer and children’s case files were held in cabinets within the fostering service office accommodation. It was confirmed in the SAF that foster carers are provided with lockable cabinets to store all information relevant to the child in placement.

Records of supervision visits were made on a record form specifically for the purpose. The format for recording the supervision visit to foster carers does not include the expectation for the supervising social workers to record if they have seen the child or young person in placement or to record any consequent observations regarding the careof the children. The quality of recording was found to be variable with some recording more detailed than others despite the heading prompts of the form. Unannounced visits by supervising social workers had taken place but for one visit a record of the content of the visit was not on file.

The quality of care review report refers to supervising social workers countersigning the file that foster carers keep in their home for the child in placement. It was seen in foster carer file records that supervising social workers had recorded that no records were being kept. There were two files where this was the case. One for a kinship carer and one a general carer.

A question was asked at inspection regarding the need for kinship carers to keep records of children in placement as they are placed with family or friends. Children in placement with foster carers are in the care of the local authority. This brings obligations that for the


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child that there should be a record of their life in care. Some records should be kept. For example there should be a record of key developmental milestones, medication administered, illnesses, any issues regarding education and foster carer oversight and involvement in contact, and the child achievements. Regulation 22 Schedule 2.3 is specific that records of accidents must be kept.The child’s social worker should have access to records in the foster home when they make a statutory visit as part of their considerations of the care of the child and their progress in placement

Notwithstanding the question regarding kinship carers and record keeping a general foster carer had not been keeping records. The children had been in her care placement for 3 years which is a significant period in their lives. In three of the four supervising social worker’s visits made in 2011 the supervising social worker made no record that they had seen records kept by the foster carer. In the relevant section ‘seen and countersigned’ had only been recorded as a ‘yes’ on one visit. The file had last been seen June 2011.The supervising social worker recorded that the foster carer ‘does not attend training or record’. The supervising social worker had written on the supervision record that the foster carer ‘has no time to record, the children are a full time occupation’. It was not clear if this is the opinion of the foster carer or of the supervising social worker. The placement was not for permanence and when the children move to an alternative placement it is not adequate to rely on the memory of a carer as to what happened when and to which child. Supervising social workers visit every three months and without some records being kept by the foster carer it is unclear how they can form an opinion as to the care, education, health, wellbeing and activities of a child over the preceding three months. Records may be relevant to life story work and children may ask to see records kept about them.

Part of supervising social workers role is to support foster carers to keep adequate records. Work needs to be undertaken with some foster carers to improve daily diary recording in respect of the children and young people in placement. A recommendation will be made in respect of this.






Regulation number



Regulation number


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Good practice recommendations: ● It is recommended that foster carers are supported to keepadequate records in respect of children and young people in the care of Isle of Anglesey County Council.

NMS or other source

National Minimum Standards 24.1 and 24.7


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Section seven: Short term placements


Short term placements were not assessed during this inspection.






Regulation number



Regulation number



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Section eight: Family and friends as carers


Information in the ADC advised that 13 children were in placement with kinship carers under Regulation 38. The service was not asked to report on the number of new kinship carer placements made in the period since the last inspection but in the SAS it was confirmed that of the six new foster carers approved in the previous year the majority had been kinship carers.The placement of children with family and friends was not assessed in detail during this inspection. However the kinship carer assessments were examined as a result of matters arising from minutes of fostering panel meetings.

Regulation 38 states specifically that the local authority must firstly be satisfied that the immediate placement of a child is necessary. Where an immediate placement is made and it is anticipated that it will be for longer than six weeks the local authority must undertake statutory checks as required by Regulation 27. Placements may be made with the intention of the child being in placement for longer than the 6 weeks permitted under the provisions of regulation 38 for example during court proceedings. The local authority must be satisfied that the placement they have made is the most suitable way of performing its duty towards the child they are looking after under section 22 of the Children Act 1989 as required by Regulation 33(a). The local authority must have a written agreement with the person with whom the child is placed which specifies their duties as detailed in regulation 38(3).

It was evident that there had been occasions when there had been delay in clarifying the legal status of placements and taking the required action thereafter. It was not clear that social workers were aware of the need to define the nature of a placement and to understand that an emergency or immediate placement is subject to specific regulatory requirements. In one case a child was placed with a relative and only three months later was a written agreement with the kinship carer completed. This is wholly unacceptable. The fostering service had recognised that kinship care placements had been made whichthey had not been informed of and they had reminded childcare social workers of the need to be aware of the potential nature of a placement.

If a placement is made with a family or friend carer the local authority must be satisfied that the particular placement is best for the child concerned exercising responsibilities to consistent with the child’s welfare. As a result initial viability assessments had been undertaken on kinship carers and full assessments are carried out as for all the authority’s foster carers. The assessments, often directed by the court for kinship placements have represented an increasing amount of work for the family placement team. In some cases multiple assessments have been required and within short timescales. The children’s social workers have been undertaking an initial viability assessment, with the fostering team social worker taking the assessment forward if it was judged viable. It is the intention of the fostering service to develop the input from the team at an early stage to ensure that any potential kinship carer has sufficient information from the outset, about what being an approved foster carer entails.


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The files examined illustrated thorough assessment work, thoughtful and well reasoned reflection of the planning options for the children often in conjunction with court processes. It was noted however that these assessments, undertaken within the context of Regulation 38, were not being achieved within the required timescales. It is acknowledged that it may be difficult to complete an assessment within the required time scales, but each case, once a Regulation 38 placement was confirmed as such, had beenpresented to panel within timescale so that panel are both aware of the placement and the progress of the assessment. There has therefore been good practice in monitoring the progress of Regulation 38 assessments and regular reporting to panel. The fostering panel can only make a recommendation when an assessment is complete but panel can provide a view on whether or not they are satisfied that the child's needs are being met within the placement at that time.

The inspector would want to emphasise the importance of putting in place the required written agreements to ensure families receive all the information that the authority considers necessary to enable the kinship carers to care for the child, as required by Regulation 34(3) and Schedule 6 of The Fostering Service (Wales) Regulations 2003. The full implementation of the delegated authority agreements are important for all foster carers so that decisions about children and young people can be incorporated into every foster placement agreement.






Regulation number



Regulation number



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A note on CSSIW’s inspection and report process:

This report has been compiled following an inspection of the fostering service undertaken by Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) under the provisions of the Care Standards Act 2000 and associated regulations.

The primary focus of the report is to comment on the quality of life and quality of care experienced by service users (foster carers and children in placement).

The report contains information on how we inspect and what we find. The report is divided into nine sections reflecting the broad areas covered by the inspection.

This inspection focuses specifically on the Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003 but also takes into account the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services.

CSSIW inspectors are authorised to enter and inspect fostering services at any time. Inspection enables CSSIW to satisfy itself that the service should continue to operate, and for IFAs this will include satisfaction that continued registration is justified. It also ensures that all fostering services are compliant with:

The Care Standards Act 2000 and The Fostering Services (Wales) Regulations 2003, whilst taking into account the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services.

The service’s own statement of purpose.

Fostering services are inspected annually by CSSIW At each inspection episode there are visits to the service during which CSSIW may adopt a range of different methods in its attempt to capture service user’s and their relatives`/representatives` experiences. Such methods may for example include self-assessment, discussion groups, case tracking, visits to carers` homes, observation, interviews, and the use of questionnaires. At any other time throughout the year visits may also be made to the service to investigate complaints and to respond to any changes in the service.

Readers must be aware that a report is intended to reflect the findings of the inspector at a specific period in time. Readers should not conclude that the circumstances of the service will be the same at all times.

The registered/responsible person/s is/are responsible for ensuring that the fostering service operates in a way which complies with the service specific regulations. CSSIW will comment in the general text of the inspection report on their compliance. For those regulations which CSSIW believes to be key in bringing about change in the particular service, they will be separately and clearly identified in the requirement section.

As well as listing these key requirements from the current inspection, requirements made by CSSIW since the last inspection, which have been met and those which remain outstanding are included in this report. The reader should note that requirements made in last year’s report which are not listed as outstanding have been appropriately complied with.

Where key requirements have been identified, the provider is required under Regulation 42B, (Compliance Notification), to advise CSSIW of the completion of any action that they have been required to take in order to remedy a breach of the regulations.


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The regulated service is also responsible for having in place a clear, effective and fair complaints procedure which promotes local resolution between the parties in a swift and satisfactory manner, wherever possible. The annual inspection report will include a summary of the numbers of complaints dealt with locally and their outcome.

CSSIW may also be involved in the investigation of a complaint. Where this is the case CSSIW makes publicly available a summary of that complaint. CSSIW will also include within the annual inspection report a summary of any matters it has been involved in together with any action taken by CSSIW.

Should you have concerns about anything arising from the inspector’s findings, you may discuss these with CSSIW or with the registered person.

Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales is required to make reports on regulated services available to the public. This report is a public document and will be available on the CSSIW website: www.cssiw.org.uk

CSSIW Fostering Inspection: Improvement Action plan

March 2012

OUTCOME: Summary of inspection findings:

The fostering service is well managed with attention given to monitoring and reviewing the quality of care of the

service.

There has been thoughtful deployment of staff and resources to respond to identified needs within the service.

The quality of care review of the service is comprehensive and clearly presented.

Assessments of prospective foster carers are comprehensive.

Support to carers is provided through supervisory visits and foster carers spoke highly of the support they

receive.

Key actions Good practice recommendation – success criteria / measure

Timescale Risks and risk mitigation commentary

RAG status

Corrective action

Standard: Provision of foster carers (including panel information). - It is recommended that children and young people are asked their views as part of the

foster carer review process

1. Develop a framework for participation of young people in foster carers reviews

Yes or no within timescale

July 2012

Green

2. Implement Process with NYAS & Social Work Teams

Children’s views requested for 100% of reviews where the children were of appropriate age that their view could reasonably be sought. 25% of children’s views gained out of those requested

November 2012

Young people may not want to be involved Mitigation

1. Involve young people in designing the framework

2. Involve a variety of methods – not a form filling exercise

3.

Green

Standard: Provision of foster carers (including panel information) Any assessment of an application or a foster carer review is complete before it is submitted

to panel

1. Current processes are reviewed and adapted to ensure that all necessary statutory checks are up to date prior to presenting the review to the panel.

100% compliance

April 2012 None Green Completed

Standard: Records Foster carers are supported to keep adequate records in respect of children and young people in the care of Isle Of Anglesey County Council

1. Awareness raising for staff of the recording policy for foster carers.

100% staff will have attended an awareness raising session

July 2012 None Green

2. Child Placement social workers will check, read and countersign records during each supervision session

100% compliance (to be audited through each quarter)

October 2012

Non compliance Mitigating Action

1. Audit compliance

Green

3. Recording training for foster carers to be arranged and updated every three years.

50% of carers attended Recording Training

Dec 2012 Foster carers don’t attend arranged training Mitigating Action

1. Develop a variety of training delivery mechanisms

2.

Green

4. Awareness raising for staff of the recording policy for foster carers.

100% compliance July 2012 Green

Other actions highlighted as a result of the inspection but do not form good practice recommendations, but need

addressing:



RAG status

Corrective action

Section: Management and staffing of the services (including premises and finance) - The Local Authority is responsible together with ensuring the safe

recruitment of independent social workers.

Review and adapt the engagement process for independent social workers

100% compliance and files contain: CRB’s Care Council Certificate CV References

June 2012 None Green

Section: Provision of foster carers (including panel information) The legal advisor has not been able to attend the recent fostering panel meetings due

to workload demands. This needs to be addressed as a matter of priority.

A legal advisor is made available to provide legal guidance to the panel each month

Legal advisor is available

May 2012 Demand of increasing proceedings in children services restricting the capacity of the legal service to meet growing needs in the service Mitigation actions

1. Develop business plan for dedicated Panel legal advice

Green

Section: Placements of children parts v and vi of the regulations



RAG status

Corrective action

1. LAC forms need to be fully completed to ensure that they contain all the relevant information and consents.

100% of LAC forms read and countersigned by the relevant team manager.

September 2012

Non compliance due to other competing demands Mitigating actions 1. A quarterly audit of LAC forms should take place to monitor the quality of LAC documents and information.

Green

2. Copies of LAC forms should be given to all relevant parties- foster carers/parents.

100% compliance September 2012

Green

3. New LAC forms should be produced for each placement.

100% compliance September 2012

Green

Section: Family and friends as carers It was evident that there had been occasions when there had been delay in clarifying the legal status of placements and

taking the required action thereafter.



RAG status

Corrective action

In situations where the Local Authority is responsible for making a placement, the regulatory framework should be applied in a timely manner.

100% compliance with statutory requirement

May 2012 Lack of compliance due to lack of understanding of impact of recent case law. Mitigating action

1. Training provided to include co-working between teams.

2. Clarify legal issues around friends and family placements.

3. Social workers and Team Managers seek legal advice when they are uncertain about the Local Authority’s duties in friends and family placements. This should ensure that a distinction is made between private arrangements and local authority arrangements

4. Relevant procedure reviewed and up to date

Green

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