An independent fostering agency must appoint a responsible individual (RI) who oversees the agency's compliance with Ofsted and fosters care regulations. The RI has significant responsibilities including managing standards of care, ensuring staff training, and safeguarding children's welfare. The agency is required to maintain clear communication and monitoring systems to support effective service delivery and uphold the quality of life for children in care.

1. Responsible Individual
Training
Safaraz Ali,
RI for F5 Foster Care
www.safaraz.co.uk

2. An independent fostering agency must have:
• A registered provider, and where the provider is
an organisation, a person known as a ‘responsible
individual’ who represents the organisation to
Ofsted
• The Fostering Services Regulations 2011 require
fostering agencies to have a responsible individual
• A provider must demonstrate to Ofsted that the RI
they appoint is able to meet the requirements of
regulation.
• Ofsted’s inspectors scrutinise the steps providers
have taken to determine that a responsible
individual who has been appointed to a registered
establishment or agency is fit to supervise the
management of an establishment or agency
• As a registered provider of children’s social care,
you must continue to meet any relevant
regulations and conditions of registration placed
on you by the Care Standards Act 2000 and
associated regulations

3. Registered Person/ RI
The registered person is
accountable for ensuring that
the legislation is implemented
In an organisations with a RI,
the registered person can be
either the RI or the RM
The RI acts on behalf of the
organisation to ensure the
legal responsibilities are
effectively discharged
The RI is ultimately
accountable for ensuring the
effectiveness of the RM’s
practise and the quality of
care provided

4. The Fostering Services Regulations 2011 states:
• 6-(1) The registered Provider must
appoint an individual to manage
the fostering agency.
• (2) where the registered provider is
–
o (a) an organisation, it must not
appoint the person who is the
responsible individual as the
manager.
• The responsible individual and
responsible manager must be
separate individuals.

5. The social care common inspection framework
(SCCIF)
Effective from April 2017 applies to the inspection of:
• Children’s home
• Secure children’s homes
• Independent fostering agencies
• Boarding schools and residential special schools
• Voluntary adoption agencies
• Adoption support agencies
• Residential family centres
• Residential holiday schemes for disabled children
• Residential provision in further education colleges
The SCCIF means that the
same judgement applies
across the range of settings
listed

6. Responsible Individual’s role within the team
• The responsible individual has a
management overview and responsibility
for everything that happens in the agency
• In most cases that responsibility will be
delegated to a registered manager and
the team that oversees the day-to-day
management of fostering services.
• It is imperative that the RI is working in
concert with the whole team and that all
lines of communication are clear, and the
agency has a robust set of standards

7. Key Roles in Regulation
• Being the point of contact
• Supervising the management of the
regulated activity
• Key expectation is to ensure that there
are adequate number of staff in place ,
that the necessary resources and
equipment are in place, that the staff are
sufficiently trained and that venerable
people are safe from harm and abuse
• Ultimately, a failure in any of these areas
will the responsibility of the responsible
individual and the organisation

8. Factors to Consider
• Selecting a suitably qualified person with sufficient knowledge, experience and crucially, the
capacity to undertake the role.
• Key questions to consider
• Organisational
• Professional
• Interpersonal skills
• Other
• How well does the RI know the minimum standards?
• How well does the RI know the Ofsted process?
• How will the RI ensure they are leading and not managing?
• How well do they communicate with children, in particular the kinds of children likely to be
placed?
• What knowledge do they have about caring forchildren in foster care, in particular, the kinds of
children likely to be place?

9. Supervisory and Monitoring System
• The RI will need a robust supervisory and
monitoring system in place to satisfy
them that all of the expectations placed
on your ole are met
• Need absolute clarity on who has
ultimate responsibility for deciding
admissions to the service.
• Could potentially be an area of conflict
between RIs, senior providers and the
RM. RIs should ensure that their views
and any concerns raised are given serious
considerations

10. The Role of the RI
• Empower managers to lead by providing effective
support rather than dependency
• Create an environment where the RM and the
team know you have confidence in them and their
work with children
• You will be a calming, containing influence in times
of challenge
• You may need to act as an arm’s length voice of
reason helping RMs, providers and children to hear
and understand each other’s views and needs
• Ensure the RM and the team have the right skill set
to create and deliver your vision
• maintain evidence that those employed have
sufficient training, experience and skills to
undertake the role
• Ensure that they and the staff undertake CPDD to
keep abreast of new legislation and practise

11. Working with Staff
• A RI needs to be able to demonstrate that they are a good and fair employer
• Ensure that staff and foster carers deliver a high – quality service and are aware, through the
disciplinary procedures in place, of the consequences of not doing so
• They must equally be assured that they will be well supported by their managers
• The RI can influence (but not deliver) the service that they feel is appropriate to enable children to
thrive.
• Ensure that they are doing all that they should by establishing effective monitoring systems and
diligently applying these – these should include a record of action taken and the impact. They will need
to provide feedback and direction to RM based on your analysis of performance and ensure
improvements are made where required
• Will need to consider the specific training needs that staff and foster carers require to meet the needs
of children placed and evaluate the extent to which it has the desired impact on practise
• Must employ enough staff and carers to enable the service to operate safely and meet the needs of
children in accordance with the statement of purpose
• May be required to authorise increases in staffing or think through staffing plans with the RM

12. Working with Children
• Most important aspect the service provides should be the quality of life for
the people who use it
• The service should also be able to show that it has improved the quality of
life for the children who use it
• The RI will need to be child focused and regularly check on the progress of
the children living with the foster carers
• They should ensure that they are aware of young people’s success and not
solely focused on inspection success
• They should have an active role in representing and championing the needs
of children placed and the service you provide
• This will involve engaging in more senior level discussions with others to
ensure the expectations of inspecting agencies and commissioners are met

13. The RI and Working with Others
• RI’s should ensure that they support registered managers to fully
implement Regulation 4 and escalate their concerns
• It is a common concern from fostering providers that they do not have a
‘full set of papers’ provided in a timely manner by the placing LA
• This presents RI’s and their team with difficulty in ensuring, as they must,
that the child is cared for in accordance with their care plans and that the
children are fully aware of what is in those plans
• Providers must evidence that they have chased up the LA to provide them
with the requisite plans, but this is no enough if it fails to produce a timely
response
• In such circumstances, RI’s may also need to work proactively with those in
other organisations who are at a more senior level to the RM to develop
effective inter-agency working relationships and partnerships

14. Build and Maintain External Relationships
• Families
• Commissioners
• Professional bodies
• Regulators
• Community
• Organisations
• Checking that families are not excluded and that
they participate as fully as they wish to in the care
and support of their loved ones should be high on
the agenda of the RI
• The RI is much than a point of contact – they are the
people most able to develop relationships and
participate in partnerships and joint working

15. The National Minimum Standards
• The NMS together with Regulations relevant to the placement of children in
foster care such as the Fostering Services Regulations 2011 form the basis of the
regulatory framework under the Care Standards Act 200(CSA) for the conduct of
fostering services
• Covers 31 standards with the first 12 being labelled child focussed standards and
the remaining named the standards of fostering service
• Everyone needs to be aware of all the expected standards and the impact that
has on service delivery.
• For a RI, there has to be a comprehensive understanding of how they will be
delivered

16. The Standards
Standard 13
Recruiting and assessing foster carers who
can meet the needs of looked after children
-- Fostering service recruits and assesses and
support a range of foster carers to meet the
needs of children they provide care for and is
proactive in assessing current and future needs
of children
Standard 14
Fostering Panels and the fostering service’s
decision maker
-- The fostering panel and decision maker make
timely, quality, and appropriate
recommendations/decisions in line with the
overriding objective to promote the welfare of
children in foster care
Standard 16
Statement of Purpose and Children’s guide
--Children, their parents, foster carers, staff and
the responsible authority are clear about the
aims and objectives of the fostering service and
what services and facilities it provides
- the fostering service’s operation meets the aims
and objectives in the statement of purpose
Standard 17
Fitness to provide or manage the admin of a
fostering service
-- Fostering service is provided and managed by
those who are suitable to work with children and
have the appropriate skills, experience and
qualifications to deliver an efficient and effective
service

17. The Standards
Standard 19
Suitability to work with children
-- There is a careful selection of staff,
fostering households, volunteers and the
central list of persons considered suitable to
be members of a fostering panel and there is
monitoring of such people to help prevent
unsuitable people from having the opportunity
to harm children
Standard 20
Learning and development of foster carers
--Foster carers receive the training and
developments they need to carry out their
role effectively
- a clear framework of training and
development is in place, and this is used as
the basis for assessing foster carers’
performance and identifying their training and
developments needs
Standard 21
Supervision and support of foster carers
-- Foster carers receive the support and
supervision they need in order to care
properly for children placed with them
Standard 22
Handling allegations and suspicions of
harm
-- Allegations and suspicions of harm are
handled in a way that provides effective
protection and support for children and the
person making the allegation

18. The Standards
Standard 23
Learning, development and
qualifications of staff
-- Children and foster carers receive
a service from staff, volunteers and
panel members and decision makers
who have the competence to meet
their needs
Standard 25
Managing effectively and
efficiently and monitoring the
service
-- The fostering service is managed
ethically, effectively and efficiently,
delivering a service which meets the
needs of its users
Standard 26
Records
-- Records are clear, up to date,
stored securely and contribute to an
understanding of the child's life
Standard 27
Fitness of Premise for use as
fostering service underpinning
legislation
-- The premises and administrative
systems are suitable to enable the
service to meet the objectives of its
statement of purpose

19. The Standards
Standard 28
Payment to carers
-- Payments to foster carers are fair
and paid in a timely way
- Foster carers are clear about the
fostering service’s payment
structures and the payment due to
them
Standard 29
Notification of significant events
-- All significant events relating to the
health and protection of children
fostered by the service are notified
by the registered person to the
appropriate authorities

20. Safeguarding
• Safeguarding is the most important aspects of fostering, and the RI must be ultimately
responsible for ensuring that it is understood and implemented throughout the organisation.
• Every agency must ensure the following in recruitment
• To appoint someone as a RI, an organisation must be able to show that:
• They have a clear DBS
• The person in in post at all times – if there is an emergency, you should appoint a
RI ASAP.
• The RI will be responsible for ensuring as far as is possible and within their control that
allegations are handled and investigated fairly, as quickly as possible without compromise
and above all else in a manner that protects children
• It is their role to be alert to patterns and concerns and proactively ensure attention to
safeguarding children’s welfare remains paramount

21. Qualifications and Experience
The registered manager (or registered person, where
the registered person is an individual and there is no
registered manager) has:
• A recognised social work qualification or a
professional qualification relevant to working with
children at least at level 4;
• At least 2 years experience relevant to fostering
within the last 5 years;
• At least one year’s experience supervising and
managing professional staff
• The requirement to supervise the management of
the regulated service means that people in the role
must have strong leadership and communication
skills and the ability to work effectively in
partnerships with the registered manager –
assuming they are two separate positions.

22. Records
• The RI needs to ensure managers and staff understand why children’s records must be maintained
• They must comply with standard 36 of the NMS (not the most important)
• Staff and carers need to understand that their records may well constitute the best personal and
social history that a child has children in care frequently do not have ongoing relationships with
their families, and access to old photographs or relatives who can explain who is in them and
where they fit into their lives
• Your records may be the best ones available , so in the interests of the child's wellbeing they must
be accurate and provide a picture of the holistic life of the individual young person
• Remember to ensure that when RI auditing and reviewing records they seek out the positive
comments, records of children’s achievements, the fun they have had, reflect on progress made
in the placement
• An agency’s records may be responsible in years to come for helping a child to find the key piece
the jigsaw of their early years
• The RI’s role is to provide effective feedback to managers and staff on the quality and content of
the records

23. Summary
• An independent fostering agency must have a
registered provider and where the provider is
an organisation, such as a company, a person
knows as an RI who represents the
organisation to Ofsted
• The registered person is accountable for
ensuring that the legislation is implemented.
In an organisation with a RI, the registered
person can either be the RI or the RM
• The RI has certain responsibilities in relation
to managers, staff children and foster carers
and should follow the applicable NMS