Northamptonshire Children's Trust Fostering Agency inadequate in all areas, says shocking Ofsted report

‘Serious’ and ‘widespread’ failures that have left Northamptonshire’s fostered children ‘not protected’ and their welfare ‘not promoted or safeguarded’ have been revealed by Ofsted.

Northamptonshire Children's Trust Fostering Agency, the trust that fosters children into families in the county, has been graded ‘inadequate’ in all areas – the lowest grade possible.

The independent fostering agency, formed as a trust in 2020, provides fostering service for both West Northants Council (WNC) and North Northants Council (NNC).

This, the second inspection since registration, has seen it dropping from ‘requires improvement to be good’ to ‘inadequate’.

The report said: “There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and/or the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress."

Inspectors raised concerns about safeguarding practice across the agency, children’s complaints and concerns not consistently being recognised, recorded and responded to appropriately, and staff retention and staff stability being a huge challenge.

At the time of the inspection, 495 children were being cared for including mainstream foster families and connected carers.

Inspectors heard one child was left ‘feeling suicidal’, drugs paraphernalia found in a child’s bedroom were left uninvestigated and an ‘overwhelming pattern’ of social workers not spending time with children.

The report said: “Health concerns, such as seizures, substance misuse and self-harm, are not monitored well by the agency.

"The agency does not have good oversight of foster carer training.

"There is no evidence to confirm that certain foster carers have the right training in place to meet the complex health needs of the children in their care.

"Furthermore, there is a pattern of children with high-risk health needs not being visited regularly by supervising social workers.

"For example, when one child had taken an overdose, there was no evidence of this child having been visited by a supervising social worker.”

Unable to recruit and retain staff has had a massive impact on the teams looking after children under their care, with the effectiveness of leaders and managers rated inadequate.

The report said: “Staff retention and staff stability have been a huge challenge for the agency. Supervising social workers’ caseloads are relatively high and they are not receiving regular, good-quality supervision from their managers.

"Staff do not yet recognise when information gathered needs to be escalated, recorded or acted on. When children raise concerns, the agency has a duty to act on these and to investigate accordingly, through consultation with the child and all other relevant professionals.

"There is an overwhelming pattern of social workers not spending time with children. Sometimes supervising social workers will record ‘child seen’ in an observational record. However, often there is no narrative of the supervising social worker having had a conversation with the child.

"The fostering agency process is that discussions with children are recorded in foster carers’ supervision records. Information for and about children is being lost because they do not have their own chronological

records.”

Inspectors did report that supervising social workers were hard-working, caring, kind and ‘committed to their roles’.

They acknowledged some ‘good initiatives’ such as carer celebration days, various support groups, reflective supervision and the introduction of virtual-reality training. Despite service shortfalls, foster carers were ‘positive overall’ about their supervising social workers and described them as supportive.

Recommendations have been made to improve foster carers’ practice with regular supervision meetings with a suitably qualified social worker to ensure the foster carer is meeting the child’s needs, taking into account the child’s wishes and feelings, and offer support and ongoing training.

Some children have been making progress supported by ‘committed foster carers who want the best for the children in their care’.

In a joint statement, Cllr Jason Smithers, leader of NNC, and Cllr Jonathan Nunn, leader of WNC, both said: “We are not at all happy with what this Ofsted inspection has found.

"Although we both acknowledge that improvements have been made at the Children’s Trust, as shown by the recent overall ILACS (Ofsted's framework and guidance for inspecting local authority services for children) inspection which upgraded the whole Children’s Service from a rating of ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Requires Improvement’, we believe that any organisation is only as strong as its weakest link, and at the moment that appears to be the Fostering Service.

"There is clearly much work needed to improve this service, and we have immediately arranged an urgent meeting with the trust’s senior leaders and chair to understand more about what is being done to address the issues identified in the Ofsted report.

“Both North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council are committed to work with the trust to help improve the situation. Given how vital supporting our children in foster care is, and how hard the foster carers work, it is our view that the trust’s senior leaders and chair needs to act urgently to rectify and deal with the findings of this report.

“We both cannot make any less a commitment to our vulnerable children than to work tirelessly with the Children’s Trust, otherwise we will continue to let down the young people in foster care, so we’re looking to the trust’s senior leaders and chair to work openly and collaboratively with us to turn this service around as quickly as possible. Nothing short of that is acceptable.”

Julian Wooster, chairman of Northamptonshire Children’s Trust said: “This is not the outcome that we anticipated, and we fully accept the findings and recommendations that Ofsted have made for the Independent Fostering Agency. Action in relation to this service area has already been taken following the initial feedback from Ofsted.

“It is heartening that Ofsted recognised that supervising social workers are hardworking and committed to their role and foster carers are positive about and feel supported by Trust staff.

“Overall, the Trust with support from partners continues to improve on the positive inspection outcomes achieved last year. Key to this continued improvement of services in Northamptonshire is the personal commitment of leaders at all levels in the Trust and our partners, to ensure an unrelenting focus is on the needs of vulnerable children in Northamptonshire.”

Read the full report here https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/4/2615433