Agenda Item 6
Index
Page
1.0 Purpose of report3
2.0 Recommendations3
3.0 Types of Foster Care3
4.0 Social Workers supporting Foster Care 5
5.0Hertfordshire Foster Carers and Children in Care5
6.0 Non Local Authority Providers7
7.0 Fostering Panel8
8.0Education8
9.0Health8
10.0 The findings of the OfSTED Fostering Inspection9
11.0 Conclusions9
Appendix IScoping Document13
Appendix iiThe different types of care16
Report of the FOSTERING TOPIC GROUP
Author: Tom HawkyardTel: 01992 555300
1.0 Purpose of report
1.1 To scrutinise the fostering service provided by Hertfordshire County Council and to make recommendations as to improvements that could be made in the service. Appendix I shows the scoping document which gives details of the areas the scrutiny focussed on.
2.0 Recommendations
2.1 To support the kinship care initiative. (3.3)
2.2 To amend county guidelines to ensure children in Special Guardianship Orders SGO), being placed for adoption and under Residency Orders (RO) are prioritised for school admission in line with all other children in care. (3.3)
2.3 To pro-actively seek to increase the number of foster carers working
For the County Council in order to meet the needs of children in Hertfordshire who require fostering, in particular the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) foster carers. (5.1)
2.4.1To improve the transition for children moving from the Social Work team to the Looked After Children team (LAC). (5.2)
2.4.2To continue to recruit further carers in order to reduce the
County Council’s dependency on Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA’s) (6.1).
To establish a reporting arrangement regarding corporate parenting issues.????
IS THERE ANYTHING MEMBERS WOULD WISH TO SAY ABOUT SOCIAL WORKERS
3.0 Types of Foster Care
3.1 Foster care is a generic term referring to a situation where a person under the age of 18 is looked after by a person or organisation who is not their parent. Foster carers are approved to look after different categories of children such as on age and numbers of children they can accommodate.
3.2 There are a number of different types of foster care designed to meet the specific needs of the individual young person. These include long term and permanent care, shared care, respite care, short term care, teenage foster care and mother and baby care. All are well established in Hertfordshire. Appendix ii provides further information on the different types of care.
3.3 Members heard that the County Council has been successful in obtaining start-up funding over three years to develop a Kinship Care Service. Kinship care refers to a wide range of arrangements by which a child can be cared for without being looked after. This will include Private Fostering, Special Guardianship Orders (SGO’s) and Residence Orders as well as much less formalised arrangements which may or may not be supported by Section 17 funding. (this refers to Section 17 in the Children Act which requires a local authority to advise, assist and befriend a child in need in their area. The money is held by the area team).
3.4 Family and Friends care, which is also part of Kinship care, is care provided to children who are looked after by members of thechild’s extended family and friends’ network who have been approved as foster carers. There are a number of benefits that can be expected from Kinship care:
-a reduction in the number of children in out of county placements with consequent budget savings,
-improved placement stability which should improve educational outcomes for the child,
-placements which better meet identity and cultural needs,
-greater use of SGO’s and Residence Orders as exit routes from care,
-the ability to provide hands-on care and advice to carers who have specific support needs.
3.5 In addition there are private fostering arrangements. Individuals are
legally obliged to tell the local authority if they are entering a private fostering arrangement lasting more than 28 days. The local authority then conducts an inspection as it has a responsibility to ensure the child is safe. It is impossible to know exactly how many of these arrangements there are nationally as they depend on a person’s willingness to inform the local authority, though it is thought that what figures are available are a gross under estimate of the true numbers.
3.6 Independent fostering agencies, not working for Hertfordshireare alsorequired to inform the local authority who they are placing but that is where local authority involvement ends. Those private agencies who do work for Hertfordshire are required to meet county standards.
4.0 Social Workers supporting Foster Care
4.1 The Child Care Social Work Team is made up of three teams who have involvement in the care process namely
–the assessment team responsible for carrying out initial and core assessments, care proceedings and child investigation reports. A child may remain the responsibility of the assessment team until their first review after 4 weeks.
–the locality team who take responsibility for the child if there is a possibility of the child returning home
–the LAC team who take responsibility if permanent care arrangements need putting in place for the child.
4.2 The Central Placement Service undertakes a number of roles including dealing with emergency placements, the matching of placements and the quality of placements. In terms of placements the service does look at what in-house placements are available in house before approaching Independent Fostering Agencies ( IFA’s).
4.3 The government have stated that they expect any social worker allotted to a LAC should be qualified. Hertfordshire has a shortage of qualified Social Workers so Professional Assistants have, on occasion, fulfilled this role. The Social Worker’s responsibility includes maintaining contact, family liaison, statutory reviews,and contact with the carer, ensuring that the child’s health needs are met and care plans in place and that the child has attended school and has a Personal Education Plan (PEP). The Link Worker and the Social Worker involved in the placement should work closely together. The Link Worker supports the carer, the Social Worker the child.
4.4 Records of all LAC are held on the ICS system. Members expressed concern over the number of professionals who have access to personal information about the child.
5.0 Hertfordshire Foster Carers and Children in Care
5.1 Numbers of foster carers and children in care fluctuate on a weekly basis but there are roughly 450 foster carers and 970 children in the care of the authority. 80% of these are fostered. ARE THE OTHER 205 IN RESIDENTIAL CARE???? In order to develop the service approximately 70 to 90 foster carers need to be recruited each year. There is currently a shortage of around 80 carers though some of these are specialist carers. Members heard that the development of the kinship care team should help to reduce this number. (see 3.3). However the present situation does cause a number of problems:
-20% of children in foster care are from black and ethnic minorities (BME) who are under represented as foster carers. As a result there is a shortage of placements for BME children and no mentoring to support transracial placements There can be cultural issues if children are placed with foster carers from a different ethnic background.
-inadequate choice, range and type of foster care placements, for examplea child placed in care in Stevenage but at school in Hemel. This also increases costs due to the need to transport the child across Hertfordshire to school.
-short term care for sibling groups and adolescents are particularly difficult to resource and can lead to inappropriate residential careor placements out of county, neither being suitable for the child’s needs and the latter being a particularly expensive option.
Members were pleased to hear that the development of the kinship care team (see 3.3) and the Preferred Provider Framework for Commissioning Foster Care (see 5.3) should help address a number of these issues.
5.2There are differences between the support provided for the carer versus that offered for children. Members heard evidence from carers that once they had been allocated a Link Worker has been allocated the support provided was excellent with a formal structure, regular meetings and support groups such as the Fostering Support Group. Carers also generally get to know who the other foster carers are in the area and there will often be a sharing of information/mutual support amongst those carers in a particular locality.
For children the experience can be more variable. Members heard that issues included:
-difficulties for children contacting their Social Worker if say that Social Worker was in a meeting all day,
-arranging times for Social Workers to visit, possibly during the evening if the child was at school,
-children having to change Social worker when moving into the LAC team
-the frequency with which children see their Social Worker. Members heard that some of the more stable, long terms children in foster care do not receive the support they should because the allocated Social Worker can find his/her time taken up by responding to crises such as child protection issues which take priority.
-children feeling that ’others’ are talking about them and making decisions about their future without involving them.
There can also be issues for a child if a placement breaks down, and for whatever reason the child is moved to another placement. For a child who is already vulnerable this can increase their distress.
5.3 Members heard that it was difficult to compare remuneration in Hertfordshire with other authorities and with the private sector providers because there are different payment structures which vary considerably. However members were pleased to hear that the county’s fees do not compare unfavourably with peer authorities and are in line with the SE fostering rate, though this is still less than London Boroughs pay. The carers who gave evidence also confirmed that they felt that the package offered by Hertfordshire was competitive with neighbouring authorities and the private sector for the children they looked after. Appendix iii provides further details on fostering rates.
5.4 Carers can rely on the income they get from fostering. It becomes an issue if they are without a placement. Currently Hertfordshire only pays a carer for one week when they have no placement. Some authorities do pay a retainer for a longer period. However if Hertfordshire were to do this the carer could be obliged to take any child offered. There would also be pressure on the fostering service to fill the place with the risk of an inappropriate placement.
5.5 A Carers Charter was introduced in April 2008. Every foster carer will have to meet the standards in their first year as a carer. A major training initiative has been introduced to help carers meet the new standards. At present it is unclear what exemption kinship carers may have with regard to the requirement that all foster carers approved after 1st May 2008 attain the national training standard within the first year. Members were pleased to hear from carers, who gave evidence to the topic group, who both said they had attended in-house training courses which had been good. Both had also done some training on their own initiative.
6.0 Non Local Authority Providers
6.1 Non-local authority providers are much more expensive than in-house providers, typically two to three times greater. However Hertfordshire is seeking to place only the more complex cases such as large sibling groups and those with complex disabilities or specific educational needs with Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA’s). To this end the county is looking to increase the number of carers on its books in order to help this process. Members heard that the development of the kinship team should help this process (see 3.3)
6.2 Members were told about an initiative, currently underway, involving five local authorities, including Hertfordshire, to develop a sub-regional Preferred Provider Framework for commissioning Foster Care from the independent sector. The benefits to this process include:
-the introduction of competition to the commissioning prices,
-better value for money,
-the provision of a legal standard for the quality of fostering that is locally based,
-IFA’s having a better understanding of local placement needs,
-improved partnership working to enhance the outcomes for children in care,
-reduced transactional costs
-greater efficiency in contract management arrangements.
7.0Fostering Panels
7.1 Fostering Panels meet to assess and approve applicants wishing to become foster carers.
7.2 Members were reassured to hear that the quality of papers presented to the panels had improved with strengths and weaknesses of applicants clearly identified and that a guide to the type of questions panel members might wish to ask was included.
7.3 Members had already heard from carers that it might have been beneficial to have met the fostering panel prior to attending for interview so were delighted to hear that from the 1st June it is a requirement for prospective carers to attend the panel. This is the first time they meet panel members and will be linked to training at NVQ level 3.
8.0Education
8.1 The Education Support Service for children in care and care leavers is a multi professional team that works with children and young people from pre-school up to 24 years if the young person is in further or higher education.
8.2 Members were pleased to hear of the support offered to young people including one to one support in school, additional subject tuition, out of school hours study support and peer mentoring.Carers had also advised the Topic Group that schools had been supportive e.g. advisory teachers helping with placements.
9.0 Input from Health
10.0 The findings of the OfSTEDFostering Inspection
10.1Members were pleased to receive the OfSTED Inspection Report and hear that the overall assessment of the inspection was ’good’ with standards met. Members noted that ‘Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do’ was assessed as outstanding.
10.2The inspector identified the need for a Health Passport and was keen to see the Central Placement Service develop. Both of these are being actively addressed by the Fostering Service.
OTHER BITS TO THINK ABOUT
Length of stay with foster carers. When a child becomes looked after are we sufficiently focussed on either returningthechild to his/her parents or looking for other options e.g.adoption, long term foster care? The stay may also be very short if the foster carer can’t cope.
Allocation and effectiveness of nominated Social Workers. This person is the main contact, without the allocation the foster carer and child may not know what is going on.
Workload of fostering panels, paperwork and consistency of approach to approvals.
Children and Young Person’s Bill (Care Matters)
-improved support for children and families to prevent admission to care
-a consistent adult in the child’s life
-a stable high quality placement and the possibility of staying there past the usual leaving age
-a placement in a good school and an effective programme of further education
-support for all aspects of children’s lives outside school
-better transition to adult life
-strong accountability to make the whole system work and focussing on the needs of children in care
Recruitment
It takes a long time to become a foster carer.
11.0 Conclusions
11.1 The kinship foster care initiative is to be welcomed and its development encouraged. (3.3)
11.2 There is Concern about private fostering arrangements which are believed to be under reported and over which the local authority has limited control. (3.5)
11.3To improve the transition for children between the social work teams
and the LAC teams in order to make it as smooth and easy as possible for the child. (4.3)
11.4There are concerns over the impact of the ICS systems on the LAC in
terms of confidentiality, and the number of professionals who had access to, or knew of, personal information about the child. (4.4)
11.5There is a need to attract more foster carers in particular those from
minority ethnic groups who are under-represented. (5.1)
11.6To consider whether to pay a retainer for a longer period than just one
week. (5.3)
11.7To continue to recruit further carers in order to reduce the County
Council’s dependency on Independent Fostering and to support the new proposals for Commissioning Foster Care in the Independent Sector. (6.1 and 6.2)
Members are keen to see some sort of reporting arrangement regarding corporate parenting issues to continue after the topic group??
Foster carers are doing a job??
Sources Used
OfSTED Inspection Report for the LA Fostering Agency