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 to achievement of objectives noted and relevant mitigating actions approved;

(d)    the statement of purpose for the fostering service (appendix 4) be approved; and

(e)    approve the executive’s response to the recommendations of the children and young peoples’ scrutiny committee as per appendix 5.