Agenda item

This report provides an update for Members on the Fostering Service.  It provides information on recruitment activity during 2012-13 and activity planned over the forthcoming year. 

Discussion:

The Service Manager for Looked After Children (LAC) introduced the report and gave an overview of the range of activities the fostering service team had completed recently.   She explained that the service’s key aims were to place LAC locally (where it was safe and appropriate to do so) and to place LAC according to their assessed need.  The fostering team had an active recruitment plan in place which included: -

·        campaigns within Medway, which had resulted in 15 expressions of interest;

·        “skills to foster” groups were being run frequently to reduce the time taken to appoint fully qualified carers;

·        reviewing the foster carers handbook to using more I.T related programmes;

·        a £500 “finders” allowance would be offered to those carers who nominated others to become carers;

·        increasing the use of positive media, for example, in the next edition of Medway Matters there was planned to be an interview with a foster carer.

The LAC Service Manager also explained that the Fostering + service was being reviewed to be more effective in supporting carers to work with some of the most challenging young people.

Officers then answered questions from Members, which related to:

·        Further work taking place with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which would offer a range of services and support, including mindfulness training and some evidence based training;

·        There had been 3 “skills to foster” group sessions with more planned on a monthly basis. The fostering team had been trying to reduce the time it takes to assess foster carers to around 4 to 6 months. Work had also been done to support new foster carers, providing excellent support and supervision to reduce the number of potential foster carers dropping out;

·        Ofsted were expected to change the inspection framework for fostering services and the new framework was awaited.  However, issues that had been raised in the previous inspection were still being addressed and the previous Ofsted inspection had helped update the action plan and enabled officers to create evidence files based on the minimum standards expected;

·        Benchmarking against similar local authorities had become difficult as other authorities have different setups for their services;

·        Although the feedback from young people had been positive the fostering team ensured that any complaints or issues that young people had were dealt with effectively.  Other ways of obtaining feedback from LAC were also being explored, for example, using Independent Reviewing Officers.  Officers also undertook to confirm the total number of feedback forms sent to LAC for completion;

·        Fostering allowances had been increased in accordance with national guidelines and had taken affect from 1 April 2013;

·        The process to recruit for an interim post for six months to support the development of “foster to adopt”, tracking systems and ensuring policies reflect legislation changes and good practice standards was being progressed.

·        There were a number of ethnic minorities who are foster carers and a further breakdown on the actual numbers of carers by ethnicity would be provided to Members.

·        Although the service would consider looking at increasing the payments offered to foster carers above the national allowance, many foster carers actively choose to work for Medway instead of an independent business.

Decision:

The committee noted the report and requested: -

1)                 a breakdown on the number of foster carers by ethnicity;

2)                 the total number of feedback forms sent to looked after children for completion.