Item 6.1

North Somerset Council

 

REPORT TO FINANCE AND RESOURCES POLICY AND SCRUTINY PANEL

 

Date of Meeting:  1^ST NOVEMBER 2005

 

Subject of Report: FORMER Executive Member’S Response to the Finances & Resources & Children & Young People Policy & Scrutiny Panel Working Group Reports on Foster Care

 

Town or parish:  Not applicable

 

Officer/Member presenting: Cllr NIgel Ashton – FORMER Executive Member for Social Care

 

Key Decision:  no

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS: none

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

The Joint Scrutiny Panel Foster Care Report presented its findings to the Children & Young People’s Policy & Scrutiny Panel on 14^th April 2005.   The Scrutiny Panel recommended that the Executive Member for Social Care update the Panel on progress in responding to the Working Party’s report on foster care in approximately 6 months time.   This report responds to the key findings and specific recommendations made by the Working Party and updates the Scrutiny Panels on progress since the Working Group reported.

 

GENERAL RESPONSE FROM EXECUTIVE MEMBER

 

The Executive Member welcomes the work undertaken by the two Policy & Scrutiny Panels examining North Somerset’s approach to providing good quality stable care to Looked After Children for whom the Council has Corporate parenting responsibility.   The report makes an important contribution to raising the profile, awareness and understanding of the Council and Elected Members to the important and hugely demanding work undertaken by our foster carers on behalf of the Council.  

 

The recommendations provide some worthwhile proposals on how the service might be further developed and improved which will require, in some cases, further work and cost benefit analysis.   However, it is disappointing that the Working Group report did not fully identify the costs associated with its recommendations and provide guidance to the Council on how and where such funding could be found.

 

PROGRESS SINCE THE WORKING GROUP REPORTED

 

Since the completion of the Working Group’s report, there are further signs of improvements in number and choice of foster carers available to Looked After Children.   There has been an excellent response to recent recruitment measures with an increased number of enquiries, assessments, and most importantly approvals of foster carers particularly for children aged 12 years or under.   The number of approved foster carers was 87 in July (from 75 in March 2004) and will rise to 90 in September.   A further 13 assessments are currently underway and the September “Introduction to Fostering” course is full.   Given this, we are likely to be in a position by December 2005 to meet the needs of this age group of Looked After Children from the in-house service.   This is likely to reduce the need for independent foster care placements for this age group in the future.   However, there continues to be significant challenges in being able to provide appropriate and sufficient care placements for very challenging and demanding adolescents.  Work has been undertaken by officers to focus more specifically on prevention of accommodation and the development of more specialist adolescent carers for this group of young people with some success.   The number of Looked After Children has been reduced from 178 in 2004 to 150 currently.

 

The following sets out, in detail, the Executive Member’s response to each of the key findings and detailed recommendations arising from the Working Group.

 

Key Findings

 

1.                  Foster caring is a demanding, around-the-clock profession so North Somerset foster carers need to be able to access advice and support from the Fostering Team 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

 

The demands of fostering is recognised as is the need to provide relevant and accessible advice and support when needed.   The costs associated with providing a service by existing staff outside of normal office hours and at weekends are estimated to be between £35,000 and £50,000 per annum.   This is currently un-funded.   An entirely new service will be even more costly.  However, discussions are taking place with staff in the Fostering and Adoption Team to ascertain whether they would be prepared to provide an out-of-hours rota.  Further cost benefit analysis is required as is the need to identify funding if this recommendation is implemented.

2.                  North Somerset Council should pay foster carers the minimum allowance recommended by the Fostering Network; including 4 weeks additional allowance to cover holidays, birthdays and religious festivals.

 

The Government has already made provision within the Children Act for the establishment of a National Minimum Allowance for foster carers.   Work is taking place at a National level and proposals are likely to be put to Government over the next 6 months or so.   The cost of paying the Fostering Network’s recommended Minimum Allowance to foster carers in North Somerset is estimated to be between £179,000 and £215,000.   This will be considered, if appropriate, as part of the 2006/07 Medium Term Financial Plan.

 

 

3.                  North Somerset Council should investigate all options in regards to the recruitment of new foster carers with specific attention to the recruitment of black carers and those from minority ethnic backgrounds, and foster carers who are able to care for disabled children.

 

This key finding is accepted.   The service has been re-organised to improve and provide a more focussed and specialist approach to recruitment.   Recruitment methods have been updated and modernised and, through previous Medium Term Financial Plan decisions, investment in recruiting foster carers has been significantly increased.   £150,000 has also been invested in the development of a professional Foster Care Scheme to provide short breaks for children with disabilities.   Work continues to be undertaken to target and recruit black carers for children from minority ethnic groups and we will continue to learn from Best Practice and work, where appropriate, with colleagues from neighbouring authorities.

 

DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS

 

Provision of a Start-up Fund that foster carers can access in order to provide the basic provisions for foster placements

 

A system to provide foster carers with £50 at the start of a new placement was put in place in 2004.   A social worker placing the child takes out the cash at the first placement and this is then recouped from the carer’s first boarding out payment.   Work is being undertaken to provide a £100 float for foster carers, particularly those caring for babies for whom initial start-up costs are particularly expensive.   Work in this area remains ongoing.

 

Consider the Development of the South West Regional Purchasing Body with other Local Authorities

 

Sponsored by Chief Executives in the region, work is starting at a regional level through the South West Centre of Excellence to improve value for money and to adopt a more consistent approach across the South West to commissioning and contracting care placements.   Funding is being sought to develop a regional approach to commissioning, managing placement availability, and improving supplier availability.   North Somerset is involved in this work.

 

However, the demand for foster placements in the South West, and indeed nationally, exceeds the supply of carers.   The Fostering Network has already estimated that, nationally, there is a shortage of foster carers of around 80,000.   In circumstances where demand for placements exceeds the supply, it is highly unlikely that regional purchasing is going to have a significant effect on reducing costs, although such an approach may be successful in cost containment. (ie preventing fee increases over and above the rate of inflation.)

 

Investigate the Options in Employing a Recruitment/Public Relations Expert in order to ensure North Somerset has a targeted recruitment plan for the groups identified by the Commission for Social Care’s Inspection Report

 

Existing resources have been used to recruit a Marketing Officer.   An appointment was made in August 2005 and the member of staff will be taking up her post in October.   She has marketing and recruitment qualifications and experience.   She will be actively involved in consulting foster carers about the recruitment process as per the recommendation below.

 

Actively involve and consult foster carers in relation to the recruitment process; word of mouth is arguably one of the most effective ways to recruit new carers.   Consider the introduction of a payment scheme for carers who successfully recruit new carers.

 

Experienced foster cares are now routinely and actively involved in the recruitment of new carers.   Experienced carers are a part of a “Mentoring Scheme” which involves foster carers working with potential applicants, making home visits, explaining first-hand about fostering, and providing support through the assessment process.   All foster carers have been informed that the Council will pay a £25 fee to those carers who hold a coffee morning with family and friends who may be interested in fostering.   We have offered £250 to any carer who recommends someone who is subsequently assessed and approved as a foster carer.  To date no foster carer has taken up this offer.   The idea has been discussed previously with the Foster Carer Forum who are generally not in support of this approach.  

 

Ensure that following the completion of the foster placement a debriefing exercise is carried out to ensure that both the foster carer and social worker have the opportunity to discuss any issues or concerns they may have.

 

A system for collecting feedback from carers, children, Reviewing Officers, children’s Social Workers and parents was implemented in 2004 as part of the annual review of foster carers.   Any issues and concerns raised by these key people are then discussed by the Fostering Panel as part of the annual review and approval process and taken up by the relevant officer within the agency.   To date, workloads for child care staff and fostering social workers has prohibited the debriefing exercise recommended for every single placement, although meetings are held when there is a risk of a placement disrupting or where a child has an unplanned end to their placement.

 

Ongoing Reviews to be conducted by the Fostering Panel to ensure that foster carers are not overburdened or placed under any undue pressure

 

Every carer who has a placement outside of their original registration approval is reported to the Fostering Panel every month to consider and agree.   This includes carers that have children who are older or younger than they were approved for, or carers who have more children than they were approved for.   The Fostering Panel considers the circumstances of each individual case on a monthly basis and will recommend whether this should continue or not.   The Fostering Panel Chair was changed in 2004 to a manager who does not have responsibility either for the children’s social workers or for the Fostering Service.   As such he is operationally independent and is able to provide an independent and objective perspective on each placement to the Panel.   The annual review of foster carers also considers placements made during the year and the foster carers’ capacity and registration category is reviewed.

 

 

Nigel Ashton

1^st September 2005