Chapter contents
Complaints and Representations
Complaints and Allegations Against Foster Parents
Complaints and Representations
Disagreements between people will occur from time to time. We can often discuss the problem and find a solution, but sometimes this is not possible. This might be because someone:
- Feels very strongly about an issue.
- Doesn’t feel they have been listened to properly.
- Feels they have had a ‘solution’ imposed on them against their wishes.
- Doesn’t feel they have been treated fairly.
We have a Complaints and Representations procedure to manage these situations, and we welcome the opportunity to reflect on our practice and service provision. Above all, we seek to provide a safe and positive experience for you, and for our fostered children. The complaints procedure can help us identify where our services may need improving.
Definitions
Who can make a complaint or representation?
- Fostered children and care leavers previously placed with our carers.
- Foster parents, staff members, local authorities or any other person who has had involvement with ISP.
- Birth parents, relatives or others who have an interest in the care of a fostered child.
You can make a complaint can up to 12 months from the event giving rise to it. However, our Complaints Officer can extend this limit at their discretion.
Please note that we may be unable to investigate anonymous complaints. However, we will notify Ofsted and the relevant local authority if a child may be at risk of harm.
Our Complaints Policy
If you have a concern, please first of all discuss it with your manager. They might consult with the Complaints Officer to find out whether your concern is a complaint or a representation. You are, of course, able to contact the Complaints Officer yourself, if you wish. The contact details are:
If you are worried about a child’s welfare or immediate safety, tell your supervising social worker or manager straight away. If the office is closed, call the out-of-hours service on 07775 668970.
Serious complaints of a safeguarding nature regarding a foster carer will be notified to:
- The relevant placing local authority
- The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) in the local authority in which the foster parent resides
- Ofsted (England)
Principles of the complaints policy
- Concerns, representations and complaints will be resolved as quickly as possible.
- We will ensure that the person making a complaint is kept informed throughout the process. In addition, we will treat them with respect and consider any disability and communication needs they have.
- All complaints are managed in line with confidentiality and data protection law, and records are kept securely.
- All complaints and representations are monitored by the Complaints Officer.
- No person subject to a complaint or representation shall take part in its consideration, unless the Registered Manager considers this appropriate.
- If a complaint is about the Registered Manager or a senior manager, the Complaints Officer will appoint an independent person to undertake an investigation.
- A written record is held for all complaints or representations, recording the nature of the complaint, the action taken in response to the complaint, and the outcome of the investigation.
For more information, read our Complaints, Representations and Compliments Policy.
What to do if you are still not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint?
If you are not happy with our response to your complaint then you may take your complaint to Ofsted:
OFSTED: Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester M1 2WD
Telephone: 0300 123 1231
Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk
Complaints From Young People
It is important that fostered children are happy with the service they receive. Therefore, a young person can make a complaint at any time, even after they have left ISP. If the young person does not feel able to make the complaint themselves, they can ask another person to help them, e.g. their foster parent, birth parent or local authority social worker.
For more information, see our Complaints Procedure for Children & Young People
Young people can make a complaint via the i-space website.
Complaints and Allegations Against Foster Parents
We have a duty to take seriously any complaint or allegation made against one of our foster parents. There is a procedure that we must follow to investigate the complaint or allegation, and also ensure that you are supported throughout the process.
For more information, see our Practice Concerns, Complaints & Allegations against Foster Parents Policy.
See also our Complaints and Allegations Guide for Foster Parents, which gives a summary of the process.
Being subject to a complaint or allegation can be a very stressful experience for foster parents, and ISP will provide you with access to independent support and advice from Foster Talk.
Standards of Care Procedure
What are standards of care?
All foster carers have a duty to provide high quality care to the young people placed. Your Foster Care Agreement, and the National Minimum Standards define these duties.
Behaviour that can cause concern includes (but is not limited to):
- Misuse of a position of trust e.g. intimidation, humiliation, threatening behaviour, undermining of children, making sexual remarks, promoting sexual relations with young people.
- The misuse of drugs or alcohol.
- Misuse of internet, email, texting and/or social network sites.
- Inappropriate intimate care/invasion of privacy e.g. showering with children, adults sharing a bedroom with fostered children, sharing changing rooms with fostered children etc. There may, of course, be times and situations when one of the above is necessary or appropriate, and agreed by the Registered Manager.
- Inappropriate and disproportionate physical intervention or restraint.
- Inappropriate intimate photographic and video images, secret images, images appearing in a public arena where the whereabouts of children may be disclosed and put them in danger.
- Breach of safer caring guidelines, policy and procedures.
- Irresponsible behaviour.
- Failure to understand how behaviour can adversely impact the safety and wellbeing of a child, and failure to change such behaviour.
- Inability to make sound professional judgements.
- Failure to follow policy or procedure relating to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
- Failure to adhere to appropriate boundaries.
- Behaviour in personal life which can put children at risk.
- Behaviour that seriously undermines the trust and confidence placed by the foster agency.
- Secret liaisons with children.
- Medical conditions that raise the possibility of risk to the safety and welfare of children.
Investigations into standards of care
When ISP receives an allegation against a foster parent, we must decide whether the concern raised suggests a breach of the standards of care requirements and risks the safety and well being of a child. If this is the case, we will start an investigation.
The investigation will decide whether a breach has taken place, and if so, agree action to ensure that the breach does not happen again. A breach might happen as a result of ignorance, or a momentary lack of forethought, and addressed through ongoing supervision or further training. However, if the breach is serious, we must consider whether to implement child protection procedures. We will usually place the foster parent ‘on hold’ during the investigation of serious breaches.
We can resolve problems in many ways. These include information and advice, extra support, more training or changes to registration criteria. There will be occasions when it is not possible to reach such an agreement with a foster parent. If this is the case, we might consider a termination of approval.
What can foster carers do if they are unhappy with the outcome?
If you are unhappy about the actions taken, or process we have followed, you have access to our complaints and representations procedure. If we propose to change your terms of approval without your agreement or terminate your approval, you can apply to the Independent Review Mechanism for a review.
Independent Review Mechanism
If ISP decides considers that someone is no longer suitable to be a foster parent, or that their terms of approval should be changed without their agreement, we must give them a written ‘qualifying determination’. This is a notice that our decision maker proposes to amend their terms of approval or to terminate their approval as a foster carer. The agency decision maker will explain the reasons for our decision.
We will advise you that you can, within 28 days of the date of the notice, either:
- Submit written representations to the decision maker;
or
- Apply to the Secretary of State for a review of the determination by the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM).
N.B. You cannot do both. We will therefore give you information in writing on how to go about either process.
After 28 days, if we have not received representation from you, or notice of your application to the IRM, our decision maker will decide whether or not to change your terms of approval or to terminate your approval as a foster parent.
If we receive representations from you, we will refer the matter back to our fostering panel for review and further recommendations. The ADM will make a final decision.
If you make an application to the IRM, we will supply them with all the relevant documentation they need, within 10 days. Our decision maker must take account of the recommendation of the IRM, as well as that of the original fostering panel in reaching a final decision about approval.
Read our policy regarding termination of approval, on CHARMS.
Conflicts of Interest
General principles to guard against conflicts of interest
ISP expects foster parents to adhere to the following general principles:
- You must not use your role as a foster parent for personal gain. This includes the use of confidential information, as well as the use of your status or ISP’s standing to promote an activity for personal gain.
- You must declare any personal interest which may impinge, or might reasonably be judged by others to impinge, on your impartially in carrying out your role.
- It is possible that you might be asked to foster a child who is related or otherwise known to you, without realising this at the outset. If you become aware of a potential conflict of interest, you must inform your supervising social worker or manager immediately. This would not necessarily mean the end of the placement, but there would be a discussion about any extra safeguards that might need to be put in place.
- Knowledge or evidence of impropriety, including those related to purchasing and contracting activities, must be declared. It is the duty of both an employee and a foster carer to report any concerns about another employee or foster parent’s activities, if those actions could affect ISP’s reputation.
- You must not undertake any personal business activity using ISP’s name or resources. This includes voluntary work.
- You should let us know if your relative or partner is engaged in a business which might provide services to ISP.
- If you wish to tender for a contract from ISP you must declare such an intention at the earliest possible opportunity.
Foster parents (or household members) who are also employees of ISP
Any foster parent or household member employed by ISP should regularly review in supervision whether, for example, their access to records, ability to influence a placement or approval decision, or to influence inappropriately any matters relating to their fostering task, creates any conflict of interest.
Where individuals have dual roles within the organisation, these roles must be clearly separated in the interests of children’s safety, and additional safeguards put in place. No child should be expected to live with a foster carer who has a dual role in relation to that child e.g. as their therapist or teacher.
