REASON FOR SELECT COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION

This Select Committee has demonstrated a commitment over the past three years to support improvements in the financial and practical support packages to foster carers, in order to retain existing placements and recruit and secure new placements for children and young people looked after on the Isle of Wight.

This paper has been requested, as part of a the scrutiny overview to provide an update on how the finance allocated, by the Council, to support foster carers has been used; the impact it has had and what changes are being considered.

ACTION REQUIRED BY THE COMMITTEE

To debate and make recommendations

BACKGROUND

Since Quality Protects was introduced in 1998, foster care recruitment and retention at both a national and regional level has been of concern. In particular concern has centred on Local Authority’s ability to offer placement choice, when matching a child/young person to a foster care placement.

The Island has also experienced difficulty in securing a sufficient number and range local of foster care placements to meet the needs of Island children. However with the support of the Council, we have been able to increase our foster carers pool in the last financial year by approving 20 new carers, whilst de-registering only 9. Of the 9 de-registered foster families, exit interviews indicate that only 1 was going to register with an independent agency but the rest left for other issues; leaving the IOW, or family moving on to undertake other activities.

In April 2003 the Council agreed a significant budget increase £250K to support the work of Island foster carers. This increased support package has included a range of initiatives and developments aimed at strengthening the overall assistance available to foster carers. Some of the services have worked well, while in others we have experienced a degree of slippage in both take up and recruitment. The following table sets out the planned initiative, allocated budget, expenditure, activity and comment re impact:

	Support Initiative				£K Allocated			Spend		Action	Comment
1	Recruitment of two Treatment Foster Carers into the Intensive Support Service				60			61		Despite two rounds of advertising we have been unsuccessful in recruiting foster carers to this role.	There are 3 foster carers we are paying £200 a week from this allocation to hold onto very difficult young people. Employment of a social work assistant. We also have funded the Youth Trust to research into LAC access to IT services
2	Recruitment of an Education Assistant as part of Looked After Children’s Team 0 – 16 years with direct links with Looked After Children’s Education Support Team (LACES)				25			16		Appointment of an experienced` worker into the Looked After Children 0-16 Team.	The worker has been involved in directly supporting young people in getting back into school, plus support to manage better in the classroom situation. This post has enabled us to respond immediately to a crisis and link with a young person to avoid placement disruption. Foster carers and schools alike have reported positively on this input.
3	Finance for a “Baby sitting” service to pay for evening childcare services.				5			0.26		10 foster carers have regularly used this scheme.	The take up has been mainly by single carers. We may need to review this and consult on the relatively low take up rate.
4	Provision of Assisted transport (lease cars) for larger sibling groups				25			17		Six vehicles have been leased for specific foster families who all have sibling groups plus their own children / young people in the family, where the foster children are placed on a permanent basis.	This has proved to be a substantial support to those foster carers caring for sibling groups as well as their own children. This has allowed families to travel together, in some cases for the very first time.
5	Through a tendered contract with the IOW Youth Trust together with sessional psychological counselling and support.				10 10			10 0.05		Service provides sessions within 5 days for foster carers and their families.	The strain and exhaustion created by fostering has been relieved with the availability of these counselling services The service has been slow to get going, but we have recently seen an improved uptake in this service.
			Support Initiative	£K Allocated		Spend				Action		Comment
6			Finance for respite care for all of our Foster Carers	25		21				Each Island carer was given £150 for each approved placement to allow them to purchase their own respite support.		This provision goes some way to match the support offered by the independent agencies.
7		Holiday breaks for Foster Carers from the Island on the Island		22			23			Seven weeks of the holiday accommodation used during the season in 2003 and we already have six weeks booked up for 2004.		This has provided invaluable holiday breaks for carers with their foster children. Including a number of carers who cannot usually afford holidays away from their own home.
8		Recruitment of a Family Resource worker to support and undertake direct work with Foster Carers		25			20			We have advertised and appointed a worker to this new post.		This awaited the recent move of the Family Resource Team to its new premises in central Newport.
9		Uplift for carers achieving NVQ or evidenced commitment to training		13			0.09			Foster carers who have achieved National Vocational Qualification in Foster carer level 3 or other suitably relevant child care training, have had this recognised by an uplift of £5 their weekly allowance. There were 9 carers who gained awards in the first tranche of training and 4 in the second.		We need to review and evaluate the take up of the NVQ qualification. We have implemented two different schemes with relatively low take up and completion rates. This may be due to: - the ongoing demands of fostering - the requirements/process of achieving the award. - the level of remuneration to motivate take up/completion
10			Social Events	5		4				These have included, summer coach outings, a summer party and a New Year’s party. .		For some of our carers these are the only social events they attend as a family, and are much appreciated as a result.
11			Recruitment of admin post to support these initiatives	20		7			The appointment of a part time operational support officer based with the Fostering Team.

12	Specific Support Packages	5	4	Unplanned support packages or financial recognition have been provided to foster carers in a number of ways.	For recruitment and training, nominating families for exceptional commitment to a young person, when extra space or equipment has been required for an additional foster placement & for services over and above those we would normally expect have been provided.
	TOTAL	£250K	£167K

RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Within the Children’s Service Plan 2004 / 2005 there is a continued commitment to maintain placement choice for children in public care through the recruitment and retention of suitable foster carers, and to improve their life chances.

The Department of Health National Objectives refers to the need to ensure that children are securely attached to carers capable of providing safe and effective care for the duration of childhood (Objective 1), and that children looked after gain maximum life chance benefits from educational opportunities, healthcare and social care (Objective 4)

In order to achieve these, services are being developed to continue to support children in need and their families to prevent family breakdown. Priority must also be given to reducing the numbers of changes of placement for Looked After Children and to maximise the contribution adoption can make to provide permanent families for children in appropriate cases. This goes hand in hand with the corporate parenting agenda to ensure children in public care maximise their life chances.

The Isle of Wight Council to the end of February was responsible for 158 Looked After Children.

RELEVANT PERFORMANCE TARGETS ARE :

A1 Percentage of children looked after with three or more placements during one year.

Improvement Statement

02/03	03/04	03/04	National	Rating
Outturn	Plan	Forecast	Target
8.3	8.0	9.0	16	lllll

C22 Percentage of young children looked after in foster placements or placed for adoption

Improvement Statement

02/03	03/04	03/04	National	Rating
Outturn	Plan	Forecast	Performance
100	100	100	98<100	lllll

A2 Educational achievement of looked after children as a percentage of their local cohort.

Improvement Statement

02/03	03/04	03/04	National	Rating
Outturn	Plan	Forecast	Target
43.8	25.0	25.0	75	ll

C19 Health of looked after children (percentage having regular health assessments)

Improvement Statement

02/03	03/04	03/04	National	Rating
Outturn	Plan	Forecast	Performance
79.5	85.0	85	80<100	lllll

FUTURE PLANS

In respect of continuation and development of the Council’s financial investment in the support packages / programmes for foster carers, consideration is being given to:

· Evaluation and refocusing, where necessary, the current finance allocations to ensure value for money and improved outcomes for children looked after.

· A review and evaluation, referring to national examples of best practice, into how the Island can develop a treatment foster care programme. This programme aims to enable children with attachment problems; offending behaviour and other high dependency and complex needs to be placed in well trained and supported foster placements.

· Continuing evaluation of the services put in place to achieve the Local Public Service Agreement stretched targets; this includes addressing the educational achievement of looked after children in order to improve on current performance.

· Response to the increasing need to provide respite placements both to families and foster carers.

· The need to consider how better support can be given to children in families who foster.

CONSULTATION PROCESS

Island foster carers have fed back that they appreciate the new support services available to them. However there is still work to be done in order that the relationship between the Council, its Officers and residents who foster Island children / young people remains focussed, effective and productive. We will be consulting on the suggested future developments together with any comments from this Committee.

It is planned to gather feedback from the recent Care Standards Commission inspection of Fostering Services and draw together a plan of action to address outstanding issues, in consultation with our foster carers.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS

Given the past two years of substantial investment, there is evidence of a reduced risk of high numbers of Island carers transferring to private independent agency providers resulting in higher expenditure on Island or mainland agency placements for Island children. However placement choice, particularly in an emergency or where there are complex and challenging needs continues to test our resources. Children’s Services will continue to monitor and report back on expenditure.

According to a very recent report from the Wessex Youth Offending Services the numbers of children receiving cautions and final warnings, this includes looked after children, has decreased and at present is the lowest in the region.

BACKGROUND PAPERS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT

3^rd October 2001 Social Services & Housing Select Committee

20^th December 2001 Social Services & Housing Select Committee

4^th September 2002 Social Services & Housing Select Committee

6^th November 2002 Social Services & Housing Select Committee

7^th October 2003 Social Services & Housing Select Committee

Contact Name

Prue Grimshaw

Acting Head of Children’s Services

Social Services Headquarters

Telephone 820600

E-Mail [email protected]

GORDON KENDALL

Portfolio Holder for Social Services and Housing