Agenda item

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report to provide an overview of the activity and performance of the Fostering Service during 2022/23.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report to provide an overview of the activity and performance of the Fostering Service during 2022 - 2023.

Key points included:

• Foster carers were a critical resource.  Without them the Council would struggle to get good quality placements for Children Looked After (CLA).
• The Majority of CLA lived in family households with Leicester City foster carers looking after 65% of those in foster care.
• The majority of fostered children were placed locally, in Leicester, Leicestershire or Rutland.
• Over 130 families were supported in mainstream fostering and over 60 families were supported in kinship fostering.
• There was an experienced cohort of foster carers, with 63% of foster carers having more than five years’ experience.
• 16 new mainstream fostering households had been recruited in 2022-23.
• 44% of foster carers approved this year were approved to care for sibling groups.
• Foster carers reflected the diverse community in Leicester.
• 20 Kinship Care Families had been approved, which were households who were closely related with the CLA.
• An enhanced foster care programme had been established for children with complex needs who received additional support.
• The private sector market had become very challenging.
• There was a Child Family Support Team (CFST) who worked with children who had experienced trauma.  They had worked with 42 children during 2022/23 and their foster carers in managing behaviour and maintain relationships.
• The Marketing Strategy was being refreshed, a new officer had been recruited who had presented a draft strategy that would come to the Commission once complete.
• The CFST was being looked at in terms of how to enhance it to support a wider range of additional needs.

The Committee were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points included:

• The CFS team had post-adoption support staff who could offer support to carers looking after children who had experienced trauma.  Carers who believed that there were additional support needs could apply to the additional support fund.  The Director of Childrens Social Care & Community Safety would reach out to SGO carers via the newsletter to help them become aware of the help on offer.
• Even when external markets were approached, it was not always possible to find the best match for the CLA.  Additionally, costs were higher in the private sector.
• Challenges included:
  • Historically, the foster carer cohort was an aging population.  Within the Fostering UK charity, 40% were over 60 and would eventually get to an age where they could no longer foster. 
  • Housing situations may mean that people are unable to foster.
  • There were system challenges around the competition between the private sector and the local authority.  Increasingly, local authorities were seeing the return of CLA who had left private systems due to changes in organisations and the ethos of organisations changing their value base.
• The aim was to place every CLA in Leicester where safe to do so.
• Whilst the demographics of foster carers did not completely match the demographics of Leicester, they largely reflected of the children in foster care.
• It was a possibility that Asian families often had someone within the family to take responsibility for a child, however, it was also possible that the Council may not be aware of this if there had been no suggestion of abuse or neglect.  This was the reason why the government released the Kinship Strategy.  
• There had been a challenge that Kinship Carers had to go through the same level of assessment as foster carers, despite the fact that there was a fundamental difference as it involved a family member and not a stranger.  The newly launched Kinship strategy aimed to make it easier for kinship carers to access support.  There were challenges for the local authority with the strategy, as under these proposals they would administer the financial side. 
• The overall goal was that families did not have to go through as rigorous governmental process as previously.  There needed to be some level of support for the Family Network Support Plan.  Once the policy was finalised it could be shared with members.
• Financial support existed for kinship carers who qualified, although the process was complicated.  There was always more that could be done around family networks and around kinship and it was always aimed to achieve more where safe and appropriate.
• In terms of advertising for recruitment, the Council aimed to make the best use of limited resources and as such advertising was planned around the recruitment strategy, taking cohorts of children and young people and communities into account.  Bus stops and lamp posts were used for advertising, additionally, targeted recruitment and marketing activity was carried out.  Additionally, targeted social media could be made use of.  Existing foster carers themselves were a good recruiting force as they could both recommend the experience to others and also take on more CLA when their initial ones left home.  Therefore, it was important to give foster carers a good experience.
• The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool which could include an automated admin process was still in procurement, however, in procurement, security would be considered, and the Data Governance Officer would be consulted.  Additionally, any software provider would need to follow national standards.  Costs would be updated on next year.
• Regarding financial support provided through the Leisure Fund, Active Leicester membership was given to foster families.  The Leisure Fund was a pot of money so that if young people who pursued a particular sport of activity they could be provided with lessons and/or equipment etc.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into account by the lead officers.

3)    That the next report explain CRM accounts.