Newbury foster carer calls for more inspections

Ofsted urged to inspect poorer performing facilities more often, rather than decrease inspections of 'good' facilities

A NEWBURY foster carer has said that Ofsted's proposals to decrease the number of inspections of ‘good' performing local authority fostering services and independent fostering agencies should not be approved.

Patsy Stone, who has been fostering in West Berkshire for about 18-years with her husband John, said that rather than decreasing the number of visits for good foster carers - as proposed by Ofsted last Tuesday (June 7) - it should look at increasing the number of visits to poorer performing carers.

Ofsted is currently urging foster carers, or parents or children affected by fostering, to particpate in its consultation by submitting their views on how fostering services should be reviewed.

Currently all foster care facilities are inspected every three years.

Mrs Stone said that this regularity of inspection should be maintained, even for good fostering services, and that if any changes are to be made to the current process of inspection then poorer performing services should be inspected more regularly, to help them get up to speed. She added that if a school was deemed to be poor, Ofsted would keep a closer eye on it rather than treat it the same as the good and excellent schools, and said: "Three years is nice if you are a good one to make sure you keep your standards up because a very small factor can change performance."

Head of children's services at West Berkshire Council, Lorna Hunt said: "We always welcome any input from Ofsted.

“As far as I'm concerned, we have always embraced whatever frequency of inspection Ofsted have required.“

In its last two fostering Ofsted inspections, West Berkshire Council's services received excellent ratings.