To review Adoption and Fostering Services performance and approve related documents.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the item. She highlighted that:

·         the adoption service performed well, as recognised in the recent Ofsted inspection;

·         the service had had success in placing older children and sibling groups;

·         the service was required to join a regional adoption agency (RAA) by 2020 or to have delegated their adoption function to a RAA, Herefordshire planned to join Adoption Central England (ACE) which covered Coventry, Warwickshire, Solihull and Worcestershire;

·         the key priorities of the adoption service were summarised in section 11 of the annual report;

·         the fostering service was staffed by experienced and committee team members;

·         the service had been successful in recruiting foster carers but an increase in demand meant there was still a shortage of in-house placements;

·         both services were outperforming statistical neighbours and regional averages in some key areas;

·         the work of the teams and of the foster carers and adopters was commended.

The chair of the children and young people scrutiny committee gave feedback from the committee’s consideration of the draft report. At a subsequent meeting of the committee it was agreed that the committee should write to various cultural organisations to encourage schemes to improve access for young people in care to cultural activities. This would be an expansion of current schemes to promote access to sport and leisure activities. Councillors were requested to forward on any suggestions of organisations that could be approached.

Group leaders were invited to give the views of their respective groups. There was widespread admiration and gratitude for the work of foster carers and adopters. It was also stated that:

·         the increase in the number of looked after children was a concern;

·         transition from care was a vulnerable time for young people and required focus;

·         there was concern about the impact of universal credit rollout and pressures on families, there should be focus on edge of care support;

·         there was a range of services which had potential impact on children in care which were interrelated and the success of each depended on the others.

In discussion of the report cabinet members noted that:

·         those foster carers who had been recruited were of high quality, including some excellent respite care being offered;

·         costs for a looked after child stemmed from a wide range of services that had to be provided and included staffing costs, placement costs and legal costs associated with court orders;

·         the whole council had a duty to looked after children as corporate parents.

All those present put on record their thanks to foster carers and adopters for their care, work and support to looked after children in Herefordshire. 

It was resolved that:

(a)    the performance of the adoption service as outlined at appendix 1 to this report be reviewed, any risks to achievement of objectives noted and relevant mitigating actions approved;

(b)    the statement of purpose for the adoption service (appendix 2) be approved;

(c)    the performance of the fostering service as outlined at appendix 3 to this report be reviewed, any risks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13

To receive the annual reports from the fostering and adoption services and consider any outcomes and recommendations. To make recommendations to the cabinet member on the operation of the services during 2018/19.

The committee received a report concerning the fostering and adoption service reports for 2017/18. The Director Children’s Wellbeing (DCWB) introduced the report and explained that the two reports provided an annual review of the previous year and recommendations for the services for the current year.

The committee raised those comments in the discussion which followed:

Adoption report

·         It was noted that there was an income target of £74k for the adoption service and it was queried how challenging this target was to achieve in the context of the overspent budgets in 2017/18 of the fostering service budget and external fostering budget. The DCWB explained that the fostering and adoption services had overspent in order to meet the needs of children and families. The overspent budgets had been taken into account during the budget setting process for 2018/19. There were local, regional and national pressures upon budgets to support looked after children and those moving to adoption in the current year. The income target was affected by the move to regional adoption agencies, which was a national requirement. The Council had been able to apply to a central government fund to recoup some costs involved in the purchase of placements.

·         It was queried whether the recent funding allocated to Children’s Wellbeing would be allocated to address the overspends. The DCWB explained that the £1.6m  funding was dedicated to projects identified as priorities in the service to address capacity issues, including trying to recruit more social workers, family support workers and business support to reduce caseload pressures on social work staff and to enable there to be more capacity to support managers to manage.

·         There was concern expressed at the length of time it had taken to join a regional adoption agency (RAA). The committee requested an update on progress made to join an RAA. The Childrens Social Work Manager - Adoption (CSWMA) advised the committee that Adoption Central England (ACE) had accepted an application but a more detailed case had yet to be presented to the Executive Board of ACE. A date was not yet known when the Council would join the agency but it was hoped that this would occur later in the year. The move to regional adoption agencies was a priority for the government and ACE was now required to determine the membership of the Council. The timing had been affected by national government and periods of elections and purdah.

·         It was queried whether the training provided by the Council for carers was consistent with the standards of ACE and an explanation of the budgetary impacts on the Council of remaining outside of the RAA was requested? The CSWMA explained that ACE had adopted the training framework of the Council and the financial impacts consisted of greater spending on placements. 

·         The Committee commended the adoption service on placements achieved during the year in particular those sibling groups placed together where possible.

·         It was noted that the report referred to gaps in research of a child’s birth family  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6