Memorandum submitted by The Nationwide
Association of Fostering Providers
THE NATIONWIDE
ASSOCIATION OF
FOSTERING PROVIDERS
NAFP is the only UK wide Trade Association of independent
and voluntary fostering services providers. Formed in 2008, NAFP
is a not-for-profit organisation and a company limited by guarantee.
Our Mission is:
"to be the voice of the independent and voluntary
fostering sector for children and young people, and to promote
high standards of professional and business practice within the
membership"—
MEMBERSHIP
Membership currently stands at 45 organisations,
representing 150 registered fostering services in England, Scotland
and Wales. This reflects over 70% of the children placed in the
independent and voluntary sector. Member organizations include
the largest independent fostering agencies and large children's
charities working together with small and medium size fostering
agencies.
Membership is open to all registered independent
and voluntary sector fostering providers and the Board and Executive
Committee are elected from each level of membership to ensure
that all sizes of organisation have a voice. NAFP's current
Chairman is Kevin Williams, CEO of the Children and Adolescents
Trust.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This submission is made on behalf of the membership
of NAFP, and focuses on Ofsted's role as the Regulator of children's
fostering services.
Inspection and Registration of Fostering Services
was introduced under the Care Standards Act 2000, which established
the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) and brought independent
and voluntary fostering services within the inspection framework
for the first time.
The responsibility for registration and inspection
was transferred from NCSC to the Commission for Social Care Inspection
(CSCI) and then to Ofsted, who remain responsible for the inspection
and regulation of children's homes and children's fostering services
alongside their other responsibilities for education and daycare.
Thus there have been three changes of regulator in less than 8
years.
While NAFP welcomes the opportunity to demonstrate
good outcomes for children and quality services through a robust
and thorough inspection regime, we would not wish to see a further
change of regulator since this would place unacceptable burdens
on fostering providers at a time of severe economic pressure.
NAFP would prefer to see improvements in the current system,
as outlined below, which we believe would bring benefits for looked
after children at minimal cost to services.
Recommendations for Action:
1. NAFP welcomes and supports regulation and
seeks to work in partnership with regulators to improve the current
system
2. Ofsted is an improvement on NCSC and CSCI
in many respects, e.g. is able to inspect corporate bodies/ large
national organisations centrally thus cutting down on costly and
unnecessary bureaucracy.
3. However, Inspectors still "tick boxes"
i.e. there is a focus on providers having the correct paperwork
in place rather than on achieving good outcomes for children.
NAFP therefore recommends that the system for carrying out inspections
is reviewed to promote a more child-centred focus.
4. Advice and guidance is currently not given
to support providers. CSCI Inspectors were able to offer advice
and guidance to fostering services with regard to their interpretation
of the regulations. CSCI also produced a "precedents log"
which was helpful in clarifying how issues had been dealt with
by inspectors and services. NAFP recommends that this is reinstated
by Ofsted.
5. Services are currently seeing localised interpretation
of the National Minimum Standards by Inspectors. This may be due
to some inspectors having a poor knowledge of the type of services
they are inspecting, or a lack of clarity as to what the standards
and regulations dictate. NAFP recommends that there is more "joined
up thinking" between Ofsted and the Department for Education
in order to ensure that both inspectors and fostering services
are clear what is required in each situation.
6. Members have found that scoring is still subjective,
with different inspectors awarding different scores for the same
piece of evidence. NAFP recommends that there is a set standard
for achieving each score, which is defined in the National Minimum
Standards.
7. In order to make the system more child focussed,
and encourage consistency in inspections, there is a need for
a national outcomes tracker/format that can be used by Oftsed/LA's/DfE
instead of each body having a different format. This would also
save costs for both placing authorities and providers who would
not need to use numerous methods for collating statistics to evidence
children's progress in placement. NAFP recommends that the Scottish
system of Case Tracking ia used for all looked after children.
8. Currently Ofsted is not seen as a body that
works in partnership with fostering services e.g. no named inspector/contact
person, no consistency of process, no discussion or advice, and
an adversarial approach to inspection. NAFP recommends that a
working group is established with representatives from the independent
and voluntary fostering sector and local authority fostering services
to review the current system of inspection by Ofsted and make
much needed improvements.
October 2010
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