Agenda item

In attendance for this item were:

Andy Roberts, Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families

Tina Russell, Chief Executive, Worcestershire Children First (WCF) and Director of Children’s Services

Maria White, Assistant Director Permanency, Care Proceedings, Fostering and Adoption, WCF

Sharon Hurley, Registered Manager – Interim, Worcestershire Children First Independent Fostering Agency (WCFF)

Susan Fletcher, Kinship Team Manager, WCFF

Carol Barker, Mainstream Team Manager, WCFF

Alison Williams, Recruitment and Retention Lead, WCFF

The Panel received a report on the WCF first independent Fostering Inspection Report, for the Inspection carried out in September 2021. The CMR reminded the Panel that Fostering Services were previously part of the Council, but when WCF was formed, the fostering services were required to form as an independent Fostering Agency, and therefore were subject to a separate Ofsted inspection.

The Assistant Director introduced the Team and provided background to the establishment of the WCF independent fostering agency (WCFF), registered on 1 October 2019. In December 2020, Ofsted had carried out an assurance visit and had found no serious or widespread concerns. Following this, in September 2021 a full inspection had taken place, and the outcome was an overall inspection judgement of ‘Requires improvement to be Good’. The inspection report had included 9 requirements and 4 recommendations that needed to be addressed for WCFF to improve.

The Assistant Director explained that a Fostering Service Improvement Plan had been developed to address the requirements and recommendations of the inspection report. The level 1 plan set out a ‘plan on a page’ and featured 7 different workstreams and included links to the relevant fostering regulations and national standards, whilst the level 2 plan included more detail and milestone activity and measures to be achieved in each area. Each of the workstreams would be progressed by a working group, led by a Fostering Team Manager, and the Panel was updated on the actions that had already been completed in the plan. The Panel was assured that those people directly involved in the fostering process such as children, young people, carers, and staff were included in the workstream activity.  

Members were then invited to ask questions and the following is a summary of the questions and responses provided:

·         In response to a Member query about how the situation had arisen that Managers were not ensuring that sufficient attention was given to the matching of children to foster carers, the Assistant Director advised that the matching process was being refreshed to ensure that both the specific needs of children and the evidence providing assurance that foster carers could meet their needs, were being carefully reviewed and recorded. Although, much of this work was already being done, a weakness had been identified in capturing and demonstrating this on the matching report. In response to a follow-up question, the Chief Executive highlighted the importance in regulated settings for evidence to be recorded. A system was being developed whereby social workers and other professionals could record activities without it being too burdensome.

·         A Member noted that the effectiveness of leaders and managers was inadequate and suggested that this was normally the first area to improve, but in this case it seemed to be the other way around and sought assurance that the progress made would not be undone when the effectiveness of leaders and mangers was addressed. The Chief Executive explained that when fostering services were moved from Children’s Services and became an independent company, the focus was on the new company demonstrating its independence from WCF. Also,at that time, the Fostering service had lost its Registered Manager so was unable to showcase the management of the service. Ofsted had made it clear that they wanted to hear the voice of WWCF, so there was a focus on ensuring that the company has its own statement of purpose, complaints policy etc.

·         In response to a question regarding the monitoring of the improvement plan, the Chief Executive explained that the leadership team would be monitoring performance on a monthly basis and that progress reports on each workstream would be presented to the WCF Executive Board and to WCF Board meeting on a quarterly basis.

·         In response to a member question about when the last Ofsted inspection of the fostering service had taken place, the Panel was advised that the exact date would be confirmed after the meeting.

·         A Member queried what support had been offered to staff when the service was transferred to an independent company status. The Chief Executive confirmed that ways of working had not changed for front line staff, the focus had been on managing the service effectively. On reflection, more planning and preparation in advance would have been helpful.

·         It was confirmed that the Director of Children’s Services and the CMR were responsible for safeguarding children in the County Council and  WCF was responsible for fostering.  Whilst local authorities did not need to register a fostering service as an independent company, WCF (as an independent company of the Council) needed to. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that it had been a difficult transition process, but he was confident in the ability of  the Assistant Director to lead the service going forward.

·         A Member asked whether the actions set out by Ofsted for completion by 28 November 2021 were complete and in response was advised by the Assistant Director that the Ofsted Inspector was happy with the progress   made by WCFF and had acknowledged that some would not be completed by November.

·         The Recruitment and Retention Lead gave an overview of the work taking place around the workforce development workstream including the rebuilding of the brand, networking and building community awareness, the development of a new website (by April), effective use of marketing opportunities and developing workshops for children. The Chairman commented that Councillors as Community Champions should be engaged to support the recruitment process in their locality and asked that  the views of children and young people were considered during this process. 

·         The Recruitment and Retention Lead provided a summary of the recruitment process from initial expression of interest through to Panel stage for those who were successful in the assessment process.  This process was expected to take 16 weeks, although there could be some delays caused by the statutory checking procedure. The Chairman asked whether as part of that process, applicants met children in foster care, which he felt was very important. The Panel was informed that applicants were encouraged to meet established foster carers and the children in their care wherever possible. There was also an annual Foster Care fortnight each year to provide opportunities to informally meet families.

·         A Member asked about the use of other independent foster agencies. The Chief Executive explained that despite extensive recruitment, all of the local need could not be met by WCFF at this time. If a match couldn’t be made with the foster carers available, an independent fostering agency would be used, and also to ensure diversity needs were met; this was not limited to those based in Worcestershire.

·         The Council’s role as corporate parent was raised and how this fitted with the work of this Panel. It was agreed that this would be clarified after the meeting.

It was agreed that the Panel would be provided with regular updates on the progress of the Service Improvement Plan noting that a re-inspection would take place within 12 months’ time.