Glowing praise for fostering and adoption services
Warwickshire’s fostering and adoption services continue to excel, according to government inspectors.
Following a week spent with children and young people, their foster carers and adoptive families, inspectors from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) assessed Warwickshire County Council’s foster care service as excellent in four out of six areas and rated the adoption service as good.
During the week that the three inspectors were in Warwickshire they visited a number of foster carers and adopters, met with children in placements, held meetings with a range of social work staff and managers, observed the work of the adoption panel and attended foster care training and other events involving children in care. They also ‘case tracked’ a number of children which involved an in depth review of case records and decision making processes.
The foster care service exceeded national standards in the areas of promoting the health and development of children, protecting children from abuse and harm, valuing diversity, and promoting consultation with children in care and foster carers.
The inspectors of the foster care service said: “Arrangements that are made to keep children and young people safe and the efforts made to find out and, as necessary act on what they think about the quality of their care are outstanding.”
Inspectors also commended Warwickshire’s foster care service on the way it recruits, trains and promotes carers saying that the service was “well organised and effective”.
The adoption service received similar praise and the adoption report highlighted a number of strengths, including:
The preparation, assessment and approval of adoptive families is thorough and includes robust safeguarding checks
Adopters speak highly of their social workers
The whole process is professional and thorough
There is a good range of support services including independent counselling and support for birth parents
The agency is well managed and there are good monitoring systems in place
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “Warwickshire is very committed to the best outcomes for our looked after children and to finding secure and successful homes for prospective adopted children. I am delighted that these inspections have confirmed our commitment.”
Warwickshire’s foster care and adoption services are now concentrating on areas such as foster placement choice and adoption support to make their services even better.