Agenda item

ORDERED that Executive:

1.     APPROVES the Council’s entry into an agreement to be part of the expanded North East Fostering Hub in line with national policy and guidance.

2.     APPROVES the allocation of resources (financial and workforce) as required by the regional model set out in the report.

3.     APPROVES the Council’s support to a North East Regional bid to become a ‘Wave 2’ Regional Care Co-operative national pathfinder and support the submission of a bid to the Department for Education by 22nd May 2026.

4.     DELEGATES authority to the Corporate Director of Children’s Services in consultation with the Executive Member for Children’s Services to take all necessary steps to implement the recommendations in line with National Policy.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services submitted a report for Executive consideration, which was presented by the Deputy Mayor and Corporate Director for Children’s Services in the Executive Member’s absence.

The purpose of the report sought Executive approval for the Council to take part in the expansion of Foster with North East and Regional Care Cooperative (FwNE) into a Regional Fostering Hub. This was in line with the Department for Education (DfE) expansion programme. Members were advised this would have built on the FwNE pathfinder that had been in operation since 2023, which all North East Councils were part of. This also required a move to an ‘End-to-End’ model encompassing all aspects of the Fostering process.

It was noted that Children’s Social Care had been operating in a very challenging context in recent years, particularly with sufficiency of places for children in care being constrained by a dysfunctional market model.  These issues had been well documented through the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, led by Josh McAllister and reported in May 2022, and a report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published in March 2022.

Financially there was a ‘burning platform’, driving change nationally, with approximately £9bn being spent on supporting children in care. Such costs were rapidly out pacing budgets which was creating significant risks to the financial sustainability of Councils. An external review commissioned in 2024 showed the region spent £540m on children in care placements in 2023-24 with around £300m of that on residential placements. It was also estimated that just over 30% of children in residential placements could have been placed in foster care if sufficiency challenges had been addressed.

In the North East the regional fostering hub (FwNE) was the first national fostering hub Pathfinder. Established in 2023 it was hosted by Together for Children. This had enabled substantial learning in the region as well as attracting investment. For example, the hub had benefited from approximately £2m of DfE monies. An evaluation of FwNE had been commissioned in 2025 and recommendations from that review had been integrated into the proposal to expand the model in line with national requirements.

The recommendations of the McAllister Review were being taken forward as part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which was at its final stage in Parliament. The McAllister review recommended the development of Regional Care Co-operatives (RCCs) and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would have given the Secretary of State powers to direct regions to establish RCCs, taking on a range of duties for commissioning of fostering and residential care.

Josh MacAlister, author of the independent review of children’s social care had become a Labour MP and, in September 2025, was appointed as Children’s Minister. He had the national political leadership to implement the recommendations arising from the review in 2022 which had seen an acceleration in the national roll out of both RCC’s and Fostering Hubs.

The DfE had established a ‘pathfinder’ programme for RCCs in 2024 and, following Expressions, two successful regions, Greater Manchester and the South East, went live with their RCC’s in 2025. The pathfinders had tested different governance models, shared commissioning approaches, provider engagement, regional collaboration on data and insights and moving away from reactive approaches to commissioning to a more proactive planned approach across the regional footprint.

Members discussed the possibility that, should Middlesbrough join the cooperative, it would get equal voting rights as other authorities. It was clarified this would be the case and that any discussions around this matter would involve relevant statutory officers, such the Monitoring and Section 151 Officers, to ensure robust governance and financial processes were adhered to.

A Member queried what the primary advantage of joining the collaborative was. It was clarified there was a crisis in recruiting foster carers nationally and regionally, and the collaborative provided an opportunity to share resources with neighbouring authorities to address that crisis.

It was also commented that, given the financial pressures placed on children’s services nationally, and the fact that placing children foster placements was a more cost effective than placing them in residential placements, there would be potential financial benefits to participating in the collaborative.

OPTIONS

The Council had considered retaining the status quo and had been advised by the DfE that it was an expectation all local authorities participated in the regional developments outlined above. Adopting a status quo approach could have led to regulatory challenge by the DfE and Ofsted and would have had additional financial implications for the Council.

ORDERED that Executive:

1.     APPROVES the Council’s entry into an agreement to be part of the expanded North East Fostering Hub in line with national policy and guidance.

2.     APPROVES the allocation of resources (financial and workforce) as required by the regional model set out in the report.

3.     APPROVES the Council’s support to a North East Regional bid to become a ‘Wave 2’ Regional Care Co-operative national pathfinder and support the submission of a bid to the Department for Education by 22nd May 2026.

4.     DELEGATES authority to the Corporate Director of Children’s Services in consultation with the Executive Member for Children’s Services to take all necessary steps to implement the recommendations in line with National Policy.

REASONS

Foster carers provided high quality care for some of Middlesbrough’s most vulnerable children and as such the Council highly value the part they play in making a difference to children’s lives.

Its ambition was to be able to offer more children and young people high quality family-based care provided by its foster carers. It was also important that the Council were able to maintain lifelong connections for Middlesbrough’s children with siblings, extended families and their wider community. Enhancing the Council’s recruitment and retention of foster carers to reverse the decline in numbers seen in recent years was essential to achieving that.

There was also a financial imperative due to rapidly escalating costs driven by a dysfunctional market model within the care system. This had led to costs, escalating well in advance of budgets, creating substantial pressure and sustainability risks for Councils across the region and nationally. A different approach was needed and the developments detailed in the report gave the Council an opportunity to completely redesign this critical service area with an enhanced regional approach that was still embedded in the locality.

The 12 North East Directors of Children’s Services had, within the scope for this activity, agreed to support this programme. There was also a national expectation to deliver the ‘End-to-End’ expansion. On a national and regional level, recruiting enough foster carers for the number of children requiring care remained a challenge and this approach had been designed to reduce the challenges faced. The costs associated with using external fostering providers and children’s homes could be high. As such, it was hoped this would see a reduction.