“Quest Guardians is a well-established guardianship organisation which was set up by the current Managing Director’s mother in 1993. The organisation structure, which now includes the third generation of the family, is set up so the field operatives have a regional head office contact as well allowing pupils, host families, schools and parents to be excellently supported and looked after with all their dealings. The new offices and most recent IT systems introduced help co-ordinate this large business who support over 650 pupils and ensure that the efficiency and care is second to none. I found the company to be forward thinking and dynamic in its approach to all its stakeholders and the collective knowledge of how they all work is evident within operations.
The feedback from all that were sent the questionnaires was overwhelmingly positive and complementary and the comments were full of praise of the guardian organisation. The Managing Director continually stresses the importance of building up enduring and fruitful relationships with all those they deal with and attention to detail plays an important part in the operation.
All documentation and policies are well presented and clearly written with the end user in mind and have all the required detail in them together with helpful additional information. The file for inspection was meticulous in its arrangement and many random checks on all electronic records evidenced that the excellent practice permeated through the organisation.
Safeguarding checks are rigorously undertaken on all prospective employees, host families and their extended families. Evidence of successful completion and regular updating of Enhanced DBS checks was seen. The new IT system ensures that host family children have the checks undertaken prior to them turning 16.
The Managing Director shared his frustration that the host families could not put their fingers on information that the inspector needed to see and made some suggestions as to how he would remedy this. The fact the checks were done and held at Head Office means they are compliant but it would have been more suitable to see them in situ.
The guardianship organisation is very committed to offering a high level of personal service to all its various stakeholders. On the basis of the interviews and visit to Head Office, it’s host families, members of school staff, pupils and other written and electronic communications evidenced, the guardianship organisation is fully compliant with the AEGIS framework.”
Sue Duff – AEGIS Inspector
November 2016