Agenda item

(To receive a report by Deborah Crawford, Head of Service Fostering, Adoption and Leaving Care, which provides an overview of the Fostering Service Performance for Quarter three)

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Service – Fostering, Adoption and Leaving in Care, which provided an overview of the fostering service performance for quarter three.

During this third quarter of this year, the service had continued to respond to the continuing effects of the pandemic by continuing to offer support in a variety of ways. Alongside face-to face supervision and support, the virtual foster care community continued to grow from strength to strength providing a wraparound support service to all fostering families, which was critical in securing their wellbeing in the invaluable role they undertake in caring for children and promoting placement stability.

During quarter three the number of children in care had continued to rise to 696 (sourced by monthly reporting at the end of November 2021). At the same time those placed with Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA) decreased to 35.

Placing children and young people with family and friends remained the first consideration when they first entered care. This continued to be looked at throughout their care journey experience through Kinship. Kinship continued to work with the area locality teams in refining this process and regular discussions and joint supervisions with the children’s social workers and practice supervisors were key within this process.

Staying Put continued to be an active part of the fostering service and referrals continued to be received. There were currently 29 young people waiting to join the scheme when they reached their 18th birthday. Each Staying Put arrangement was discussed at the first Children in Care review following the young person’s 16th birthday. The decision regarding Staying Put was recorded within the young person’s Pathway Plan and reviewed at each Children in Care review thereafter.

Fostering recruitment continued to work through the challenges presented by the pandemic and recruitment activity was returning to a more stable place that matched previous activity trends. Recruitment had developed into an area that was seen as everyone's responsibility with a wider pool of Supervising Social Workers completing half of initial visits. As restrictions had eased the service has adopted a smarter way of working using both face to face and online interactions and this will continue to be reviewed.

The Head of Service – Fostering reiterated her thanks to Foster Carers across the County for their hard work and dedication during an extremely challenging time.

Consideration was given to the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

• Private providers of foster care were required to adhere to the same regulations and the same standards as the Council, including Ofsted inspections. Any Lincolnshire child placed with an independent fostering provider was subject to the same level of scrutiny and would have each household would have a supervising social worker.
• Concerns were raised by the Panel over the commercialisation of foster care and the use of money to produce profits rather than for providing support to children.
• A corporate audit of the recruitment and retention progress within the fostering service was soon to be undertaken which would review the recruitment and retention processes for foster carers.
• It was clarified that the Council did not have any responsibility for children from other local authorities who were placed in Lincolnshire within private fostering providers.

RESOLVED:

              That the report be received, and the comments made be recorded.