Agenda item

Rob Hamer, Interim Head of Service – Placements & Resource will present the fostering report.

The Interim Head of Service, Placements and Resource, presented the Annual Report 2023/2024 on Fostering which included statistical data on the Fostering Service.

The Service continued to have the highest number of children placed with in-house fostering families.  Overall, there had been a reduction of 24 children in foster care over an 18 months period due to a number of reasons.  The largest number were children moving from connected care arrangements to family arrangements, such as Special Guardianship Orders.  In the previous 11 months there had been 17 connected carers deregistered in this respect.

In February 2023 Middlesbrough Council increased payments to foster carers and introduced level payments instead of banding.  This meant that Middlesbrough Council were now competitive with Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) and over the last 12 months there had been an increase in approved foster carers.  In 2023, 11 foster carers were approved compared to the previous 12 months when 1 was approved.  There were 7 foster carers in assessment which would increase the number of placements to Middlesbrough children by a further 12 placements.  There had been a number of new foster carers who had transferred from other Local Authorities (LAs) and a number from IFAs to Middlesbrough Council. 

Over the previous 13 months, no connected carers assessments had gone out of the 24-week timescale.  Timescales and practice guidance was in place on connected assessments making them more robust and child-focused.  The service was stable with no agency workers across the three teams.  A Social Worker was DDP trained to lead and offer Dyadic Developmental Parenting to carers and social worker consultations.  The fostering service now received the same training offer as both Residential and Resources, giving social workers and carers greater knowledge and support.

A weekly stability discussion took place between Futures for Families and Fostering to prevent placement breakdowns for teenagers in fostering arrangements and the impact of this would be detailed in future reports.

The creation of a dashboard for Fostering was underway which would give managers greater oversight of the service, and enable data to be more quickly accessible allowing managers to spend more time with staff as well as the ability to complete observations.

There were a number of issues causing concern which were listed as follows:

•           The number of children that continued to be placed in unregulated connected care placements as a result of no, or negative, assessments.

•           A failed launch of the “Mockingbird” fostering model in May 2023. This will be relaunched in May 2024 with consultation meetings currently ongoing in this regard.

•           The recruitment of foster carers and marketing was handled regionally, led by TFC, under the umbrella of Foster with North East. Since its inception in September 2023 there had been a reduction in enquiries leading to initial visits.

•           Available capacity with foster carers to care for teenagers in an emergency following placement or family breakdowns. Don’t have enough carers for teenagers.

Added complications included:

•           Restrictions on how the Council advertised for foster carers having to use Foster with North East material and not being able to share the benefits of being a carer in Middlesbrough.  

•           Foster carers raising the instability in the wider social work workforce (Children and Young People having multiple social workers).

•           Placements for larger sibling groups were difficult to find.

•           Some connected carers choosing not to take a Special Guardianship Order due to the financial support offered.

The service continued to aim to be able to meet the needs of 70% of looked-after children through in-house fostering provision by the end of 2025 and needed to recruit a substantial number of fostering families to achieve this.  A planned marketing campaign aligned with the terms of Foster with North East to target Middlesbrough residents over the coming 12 months.  Trauma-informed training for foster carers and support in understanding how to create a trauma-informed environment with support from service.  All young people aged 12 plus to have access and support to the Pathway to Independence Booklet which offered support in developing skills as they reach adulthood.

It was noted that a further 12 foster carers would need to be recruited over the next year to meeting the 70% target.  Given the number of enquiries received recently this would be challenging.  A marketing flyer would be included in council tax envelopes issued to Middlesbrough residents in the next month to encourage people to become foster carers.  The recruitment team also attended major public events in Middlesbrough, such as the MELA, to promote the service.

It was highlighted that the pathfinder around Foster with North East would become compulsory within the next year and the majority of Local Authorities would be taking part for another year.

In addition to the initial training offered by Foster with North East, Middlesbrough also provided its own in-house training for foster carers.  This included restorative and trauma-informed training which demonstrated a wider range of support for Middlesbrough carers.

With regard to Connected Carer arrangements, it was estimated that up to 70% of those carers would be willing to move to a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) if the financial arrangements were more favourable.

AGREED that the information provided was received and noted.