Foster care agency monitored after six children die in its care in under three years

A FOSTER agency is being monitored by Ofsted after six children in its care died in less than three years.

The watchdog visited Credo Care in Lydd, Kent – which looks after disabled youngsters – on July 31 following the most recent tragedy.

The visit focused on the quality of support given to children, and how foster carers and staff are supported to help meet young people’s needs.

A report, uploaded to the Ofsted website and dated July 31, states: “This monitoring visit was conducted following the death of a child.

“Ofsted does not investigate incidents of this kind.

“This inspection focused on the quality of support provided to children and how staff and foster carers are supported to meet the
needs of children in these circumstances.”

The foster agency had 71 children in its care at the time of inspection.

A previous Ofsted report, from July 2023, states that a monitoring visit on the 19th of that month was also carried out following the unexpected death of a child in foster care.

“The agency has experienced the deaths of five children in a
20-month period,” the report says.

“The majority of the children had life-limiting conditions, and some
were receiving end-of-life care.”

The agency was founded in 2000 and its office covers three
regions – the south, midlands, and east of England .

It specialises in caring for children with physical disabilities and those who have complex medical needs, learning difficulties and/or autism spectrum disorder.

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The agency offers short-term, long-term, “staying put” and specialised respite care placements.

The 2023 report says the visit was carried out to establish whether the agency conducts learning reviews following each child death.

There was also a review of the training and support that the agency provides to foster carers and staff – in order to “gain assurance” that children are safe at this agency.

The report says: “Leaders and managers do not conduct learning reviews after the death of a child. Instead, they provide information for the responsible authority’s review.

“The agency has involvement in Joint Agency Response to a child death meetings.

“However, considering the specialism of this agency where children sometimes have life-limiting conditions, not conducting a learning review is a missed opportunity to review the care and support that the child has received, the support that carers received and whether it was adequate.

“It also means that there is potential for the agency to not know whether it could have done anything different or where it could
improve.”

Inspectors spoke with cops and the responsible authority, who did not express any concerns about the agency, and were complimentary of the care children received.

They had no safeguarding concerns, the report states.

It adds that staff and carers receive “good-quality” support following the death of a child, with access to internal therapeutic support as well as specialist external support.

Staff support each other and feel that managers are available and accessible, while foster carers continue to receive support from their supervising social worker, it says.

But inspectors found that while there is an excellent training programme in place for foster carers, one had not undertaken paediatric first-aid training before receiving a child into their care.

“Again, considering the specialism of this agency, managers should have ensured that these carers received this essential training,” the report says.