Staff in our Cumbria office in Carlisle were celebrating recently after the latest Ofsted inspection judged the service to be 'Good' overall, and highlighted many areas of first class practice especially in terms of children's wellbeing and support for foster carers and families.

We were especially pleased to read how many of our agency’s core values are being translated into good quality services delivered ‘on the ground’ to children and foster carers, for example:

• “Foster carers feel valued by the agency and feel that they work as part of a team”
• “The small size of the agency means that all staff have good knowledge of the agency’s foster carers and children placed.”
• “The agency champions young people’s rights”
• “Foster carers spoke positively about the agency and the support they receive. Inspectors received positive comments during the inspection. Examples of these include:
  • ‘I have received excellent support when I have needed it.’
  • ‘I feel communication from the agency is really good.’
  • ‘It doesn’t matter who you speak to, the staff always know you and your situation.’
  • ‘I don’t have any complaints. Staff are always there if you need them.’
• "The agency has taken action to address the one requirement and three recommendations made at the last inspection. This demonstrates their desire to learn and to develop the service."

Family Fostercare director Granville Orange says of the inspection outcome, "We are delighted that Ofsted has found our agency in Cumbria to be of a 'Good' standard, and we will as ever work hard to address the few recommendations made in this recent report, the majority of which we anticipate will be resolved as our new electronic information recording system is completely embedded into our working practices. Our team in Cumbria is looking forward to continuing to develop and improve our services to foster families in the Cumbria region."

read the full report you can download it from the Documents Library section on our website. It makes very ‘Good’ reading!