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

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and highlighted the key achievements for the adoption and fostering services during 2018/19. In particular it was noted that the length of time for children to be placed with adoptive families had reduced and the Ofsted inspection in 2018 identified several areas of good practice. The report referred to the plan for Herefordshire to join Adoption Central England (ACE) but this had now been completed.

In discussion of the report, cabinet members noted that:

·         Herefordshire had some difficulty in finding a regional adoption agency that would accept them and the move of the service into ACE had been a significant undertaking but had been delived within planned timescales;

·         Being part of a regional agency gave access to a larger pool of prosepctive adopters for children in Herefordshire;

·         To attract foster carers to work with the council rather than with independent fostering agencies it was important to provide them support, an example of this support was the opening up of the ‘orchard’ benefits scheme to foster carers which would give access to discounts on activities;

·         It was unclear why numbers of enquiries for the sleepover scheme had reduced, there were a number of factors which might discourage potential carers including lack of space as adult children were still at home;

·         There were also a number of reasons why foster carers resigned from the service, including changes in family circumstances and retirements due to age.

Group leaders were invited to present the views of their group. The work of foster carers and adopters was praised and it was noted that:

·         These services had performed well for some time and it was hoped this would continue under ACE;

·         Work to reduce the numbers of children in care was important to reduce pressure on these services;

·         The reduction in the time to secure placements was welcomed; and

·         It was important that recruitment continued to focus on getting the right people.

The work of foster carers and adoptive parents was recognised by the whole cabinet.

It was resolved that:

(a)   The performance of the adoption service as outlined at appendix 1 to the report was reviewed, no additional risks to achievement of objectives were noted and no further mitigating actions were required; and

(b)   The performance of the fostering service as outlined at appendix 2 to the report was reviewed, no additional risks to the achievement of objectives were noted and no further mitigation actions were required.

To receive the annual reports from the fostering and adoption services and consider the outcomes and recommendations. To make recommendations to the cabinet member on the operation of the services during 2019/20.

The committee received a report by the cabinet member children and families which provided the annual reports from the fostering and adoption services. The report was introduced by the head of looked after children who explained that the annual reports showed that the two services were performing well. The council’s recent membership of the Adoption Central England (ACE) regional adoption agency was raised as a recent achievement but it was confirmed that the adoption service remained in Herefordshire.

The committee raised those points below in the discussion that followed:

·         The reasons for the decrease in adoption orders was queried? The HLAC explained that it was only a relatively small number of children that were the subject of an adoption order and was therefore prone to fluctuations. There was no one answer regarding a decrease in adoption orders but there were a variety of reasons why an adoption order was not appropriate for an individual child; it may not be appropriate for the child and the possibility of care from other family members was explored. The ADS&FS explained that viability assessments of family members to provide care were undertaken at an early stage.

·         How special guardianship arrangements were deemed appropriate and financial support for family members was queried. The HLAC explained that special guardianship arrangements could be appropriate for a child depending on their care plan. Financial support in line with the level paid to foster carers was provided to special guardians but with respect to adoption it was very unusual for an allowance to be paid and it was more likely that any financial support would assist initial set-up costs.

·         The issue of recruiting sufficient numbers of foster carers was raised and the recruitment and retention strategy currently in place was queried. The HLAC explained that work was ongoing with communications at the council on a campaign which included use of social media to target potential foster carers. The campaign had increased the number of enquiries and applications. With respect to retention the children’s social work manager explained that work was ongoing to investigate the support provided to carers and there was a review of the fees and allowances paid.

·         The training that was provided to foster carers was queried and how training was kept relevant and up to date without over burdening carers. A briefing note covering the training that was undertaken was requested. Themed training was undertaken and online training. Mandatory training was provided in order to keep carers up to date and upskilling was also important with training in areas such as understanding attachment and trauma. The ADS&FS explained that foster carers were caring for the most vulnerable children in the county therefore it was essential that their training was kept up to date.

·         The lack of capacity in the occupational therapy service at the Wye Valley Trust (WVT) was raised and the need for the purchase of private assessments on a case-by-case basis. It was proposed that the scrutiny committee write to the WVT  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9