Bromley Fostering Audit: No Agency Visits in 2024 or 2025

Bromley Council’s routine visits to the independent fostering agencies it pays lapsed for two years, its own auditors have found. Only one visit was recorded in each of 2022 and 2023, and none in 2024 or 2025.

The finding is in the audit summaries that went to the council’s Audit and Risk Management Committee on Tuesday 3 November. These are quality and contract visits to the agencies. The audit does not say that children in placements went unseen, and its summary raises no concern about any child’s care.

The auditors still gave the service a “reasonable” rating, the second highest of four. They raised three medium-risk findings and no high-risk ones. Council managers have agreed actions on all three.

What the fostering audit found

Independent agencies are used when the council’s own foster carers cannot meet a child’s needs. The three findings were:

• Missed visits. Routine visits to agencies were “not consistently undertaken”, with the record above.
• A downgrade nobody caught. An agency in use fell from Good to Requires Improvement at Ofsted, and routine checks did not detect it. The auditors say prompt action followed once it was found, and no concerns were noted about the placement. They say there is no systematic way of tracking changes in a provider’s quality.
• Choices not always shown. Alternative placements, where they existed, were not consistently put to decision-makers. The audit says it therefore cannot be shown that decisions rest on proper options appraisals.

The auditors also noted paperwork reaching the social care system late. The longest delay was eleven weeks and six days.

What was working

The same audit found sound practice in several places:

• every sampled agency was rated Good or above by Ofsted when the child was placed
• every sampled search and placement was approved by a head of service, and the placement ratified by the funding panel
• of 35 placements where a price rise was sought from 1 April 2026, 30 were agreed below the proposed rate

The committee report says the search for placements was “robust, despite these searches often being conducted under time pressure”. The council plans a new commissioning framework of its own, though it expects to go on buying some placements one at a time.

Damp and mould checks before the next phase of Awaab’s Law

A second audit looked at how the council is preparing for Awaab’s Law, the rules setting deadlines for landlords on hazards such as damp and mould. The report says Phase 2 takes effect on 30 November 2026, with Phase 3 due in 2027.

The council is landlord of about 186 homes, run for it by a community-based housing association. It expects that number to grow. The audit gave a reasonable rating, found no particular cases of concern, and raised four medium-risk and two low-risk points. They include:

• the housing contract and its performance measures pre-date the law, and do not yet spell out its duties
• case trackers have gaps, such as when residents were contacted and when works started and finished
• overdue cases need better recording, escalation and oversight
• quality checks rely on managers rather than a formal programme of independent testing

The report says management oversight works now “because numbers are low”.

The council’s wider audit record

The progress report covers audit work from April to 23 October:

• Eight audits complete, and none given a “limited” or “no assurance” rating. Six were reasonable and two substantial.
• 29 recommendations raised: 14 medium risk, 15 low risk, none high.
• Follow-up has slipped. 68% of the recommendations checked this cycle were fully implemented and 20% partly. On the team’s own measure, which counts partly done as half, that is 79%, against a target of 80%. The report gives 93% for the 2025/26 annual report.
• A stretched team. From April to September the audit team effectively had two of its six full-time posts available. Three posts have since been filled. Only 38% of draft reports met their target date, against a goal of 75%.
• Money recovered. A review of six years of council payments has found almost £1.3m of recoveries, and £1.2m has come back so far.

The follow-up list shows what remains open. Items still not done or only partly done include agency staff procedures, the equality strategy, inspections of newly registered food businesses, and two council tax measures.

What it means for you

If you foster or are thinking about it, these findings concern the council’s oversight of independent agencies, not its own carers. The council is looking for more carers for teenagers.

If you rent a home from the council’s housing scheme and have damp or mould, report it and keep a note of the date. The law sets the deadlines, so the date you reported it matters.

These are the committee’s papers from before the meeting. Minutes recording what councillors said have not yet been published.