This report is seeking approval for an increase in allowances and fees for foster carers approved by Herefordshire Council.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report. She explained that it was hoped an increase to allowances would increase the choice of placements available and reduce the chance of placements breaking down. Having a wider choice of local placements would improve outcomes for children and young people in foster care and reduce reliance on more expensive private arrangements and out of county placements.

The head of service for care experienced children and young people highlighted the key points of the report. She explained that a review had shown Herefordshire had fallen behind the allowances paid by other councils. The recommendations in the report would address this and ensure that Herefordshire did not fall behind again. The recommendation to provide a discount on council tax was a way to provide a benefit to council foster carers that private foster care agencies could not offer. It was hoped this would attract potential foster carers to work with the council rather than join a private agency.

Cabinet members were fully supportive of the proposals and noted that:

•                  Efforts to recruit more foster carers were ongoing but numbers remained similar to the previous year for general carers although there had been an increase in the number of kinship carers;

•                  There had been an increase in the number of children and young people placed in residential care because the council could not find a placement for them, at the time of the meeting there were 23 children in residential care whose needs would be best met in a foster family;

•                  Additional support had been added to the HIPPS scheme in terms of finance and wrap around care, covid had made the situation more difficult but pressures did exist before the pandemic;

•                  It was a priority that children received stability, support and guidance when it was deemed necessary for them to be in foster care;

•                  It was hoped that the additional allowance and discount on council tax would allow potential carers to adjust their work commitments;

•                  Every foster carer had an allocated social worker in addition to the social worker allocated to their child in care, there were offers for regular respite, support groups for peer support and a well-developed training programme;

•                  The holistic package of support was important - conversations took place regularly with foster carers to understand what additional support they needed and the reasons for carers leaving, all carers had an annual review where they could feed back on their experiences and foster carer representatives were included on the corporate parenting panel;

•                  Independent foster care agencies were approved and regulated by Ofsted in the same way as the council, a regional framework of independent agencies was in place but the council would always look to use in-house placements first;

•                  Where a child was placed with an independent foster carer they remained the responsibility of the council;

•                  It would be hard for the council to compete with independent agencies on a financial basis and if the council were to increase allowances further to match those currently paid by independent agencies then it might simply drive private allowances up further;

•                  the proposed uplift in council allowances would bring Herefordshire back into line with average payments from neighbouring councils and the council would look at ways to attract potential carers through the holistic package provided;

•                  potential foster carers were encouraged to work with their local council and there were reciprocal arrangements in place with neighbouring councils to redirect enquiries;

•                  the sufficiency of placements was reviewed at least annually as the financial impact of insufficient placements was significant, the council was constantly reviewing what more could be done to recruit additional foster carers.

The head of service for care experienced children and young people explained that anyone interested in becoming a foster carer could find information on the council website and make an online enquiry to the recruitment officer who would be happy to talk to anyone interested with no commitment.

Group leaders and representatives were invited to present the views and queries from their groups. There was general support for the proposed increases and recognition of the important work done by foster carers. It was noted that:

•                  it was not a case of recruitment becoming more difficult although it was a constant challenge to recruit sufficient foster carers;

•                  it was most difficult to recruit carers for older children, for sibling groups and for children with disabilities;

•                  allowances should be kept under review to ensure they did not fall behind other councils again;

•                  the council tax discount could benefit wealthier carers more than less well-off ones although there was support for the principle of the discount.

The chair of the children and young people scrutiny committee highlighted that the issue of payments to foster carers had been explored by the committee in the past and that the proposals in the report were welcomed. There was likely to be more that could be done to improve recruitment and retention of carers.

The cabinet member environment, economy and place proposed that the discount on council tax be increased to 100% in order to recognise the value of what foster carers did and provide even more encouragement for potential council foster carers. This proposal was seconded by the cabinet member health and adult wellbeing.

The section 151 officer was asked what the financial impact would be of increasing the council tax discount for council foster carers to 100%. He confirmed that this would create an additional £87k revenue pressure and that he believed this could be managed within the budget.

It was resolved that:

(a)             Fostering fees and allowances are increased to the amounts detailed in Appendix A from 1st January 2021;

(b)             The Director of Children and Families is given delegated authority to approve annual increases in fostering fees in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children and Families and the section 151 Officer;

(c)             The fostering fees and allowances policy is approved and implemented from 1st January 2021 (Appendix B); and

(d)             Council approved foster carers receive a 100% exemption to their Council tax from 1st April 2021.