Issues of Safeguarding, Risk Assessment and Notification are one of the most common reasons agencies fail during Ofsted inspections. A situation not helped by a lack of guidance from Ofsted and inconsistencies amongst inspectors. However, Ofsted are correct to highlight these shortfalls as they can have a direct bearing on the safeguarding and welfare of young people. Get this wrong and young people can can to harm.
In our experience at CSC a lot of agencies over report on their notifications, notify the wrong external agencies, have poor procedural guidance and fail to use details from events to help guide and direct their services as required by Ofsted.
At CSC we have a great deal of experience in helping to guide and direct agencies in setting up good systems for monitoring, reporting and assessing risk. We have a number of tools our clients can access which help them fulfil their statutory responsibilities in managing safeguarding and monitoring and thereby providing an effective safe service for the young people they look after.
CSC also provide a telephone service to a number of agencies where we provide advice and guidance on managing safeguarding events to help ensure the situations are dealt with proportionately and effectively.
There are a number of data and IT solutions available to the care sector and the choices can be bewildering, particularly for start up businesses. CSC have significant knowledge of the various systems available and in particular Charms.
We can help advise you on data base and reporting matters and how to get the most from your system. We also have excellent connections in IT support and telecommunications so can assist you in the wider logistics of running a care business.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you and would like to have an informal and confidential discussion, please call Rob on 07920 133590.
From our experience the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) is a costly and time wasting process which has dubious and mixed results in the provision of Fostering Services. Including panel fees and staff time and resources we estimate that each IRM panel costs providers in excess of £3,500 (not to mention the £6,500 government subsidy paid to IRM for each case). The difficulties providers face is that IRM works to National Minimum Standards, whilst agencies are always striving to exceed national minimum standards.
Our aim is to help Fostering Providers avoid the IRM in the first place. To do this we recommend seeking consultation with CSC prior to starting the deregistration process with any carers. However, we can also support agencies through the IRM process once a case has been appealed.
We also have experience of challenging IRM through it’s complaints process and then winning the subsequent Parliamentary Ombudsman appeal and can advise agencies of the process should they feel a sufficiently poor recommendation by IRM or an injustice.
Selling your care business is not an easy task. To ensure you maximise the value of your business, you will need to prepare for sale a long before your business is taken to market. Being properly prepared for selling and having appropriate systems in place will also ensure a smooth sale process, reduce nasty surprises (which nobody likes) and will reduce the risk of potential purchasers attempting to reduce value at a later stage in the process.
CSC has experience in preparing and supporting agencies in the sale process. We also have a good number of contacts within the industry who are looking at making acquisitions across all care sectors in children’s and adults services.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you and would like to have an informal and confidential discussion, please call Rob on 07920 133590.
We have a great deal of experience with registration and inspection with both Ofsted and the Care Inspectorate Wales. We believe it is absolutely vital for agencies to be well informed and knowledgeable on regulatory processes to ensure that they are being treated fairly and equally. Although the regulators are working hard to remove inconsistencies it is common knowledge that the regulations which direct are work are applied differently and under a variety of interpretations across England Wales.
CSC can help you with:
- Registration
- Pre inspection quality checks
- Disputes with Ofsted or Care Inspectorate Wales
- Assisting you in ensuring your agency meets statutory requirements.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you and would like to have an informal and confidential discussion please call Rob on 07920 133590.
Achieving that ‘Outstanding’ rating in Fostering, Children’s Homes and Schools is becoming increasingly difficult, especially as Ofsted expect to see services to continually improve and develop. Standing still is not an option and we can help you in the key areas.
Our consultants have a proven track record of achieving ‘Outstanding’ ratings. We think this is important because:
- All services should aim to deliver the best possible services they can to promote the needs of their services users.
- Many national contracts expect services to be at least ‘Good’ to meet their pre qualifying criteria.
- Your staff teams will feel a sense of achievement, loyalty and pride when you achieve an ‘outstanding’ and in so doing motivation and moral will be boosted.
- Being an ‘Outstanding’ agency will help you stand out from the crowd and attract, staff, carers and services users.
If you would like to know more about how we can help you and would like to have an informal and confidential discussion please call 07920 133590.
As experienced business owners and managers we have a great deal of experience in business planning, forecasting and modelling. We can help you either formulate realistic business plans or we can review your own plans to ensure they are achievable, realistic and viable.
