Behind the Inspection Rating: Putting faith in attention to detail

In 2004, Ismail Amaan and Munaf Zina set out on a mission to provide Muslim foster homes for Muslim children by founding Foster Care Link. "We saw a gap," says Amaan, Foster Care Link's director. "There were agencies that specialised in finding Jewish families for Jewish children and Christian-based organisations for Christians, and we thought there was a gap there for our community."

Since then, the agency has grown steadily, expanding beyond its London origins with a Manchester office and now, after a decade of work, landing its first "outstanding" rating from Ofsted.

A key reason for its Ofsted success is the well below average level of placement breakdown. Amaan puts this down to the agency's attention to detail when it is assessing and supporting placements. "We look at the young person's background and what they are used to in family life," he says. "So if it's a Bengali speaking child, we try to find Bengali carers so that when they go into that family, the food is exactly the same as they have had it before, as is the dialect of the language. That way, it's like going into an extended family and they can settle really fast."