Questioner:

Anonymous, Herefordshire

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Question:  Are Herefordshire Children’s Services biased towards mum and why do dads not get the same help and support that mum's do?

Response: The Children Act 1989 refers to parents, not mothers or fathers. The assessment of parents is determined by their capacity to meet the needs of their children. Help and support provided by Children’s Services should be inclusive of both fathers and mothers.

There is a positive impact on children when fathers have a positive and caring relationships with them so it is important to promote a ‘Think Family’ approach whereby the inclusion of fathers, as well as mothers, will help to achieve the best outcomes for the children.

In practice, this means a child’s father should be encouraged to engage and participate in assessments, planning and reviews about help and support. Children’s Services do not consciously seek to disadvantage fathers or show unfair bias towards mothers at the expense of father and if there is a cause for concern it should be raised with the allocated social worker and their line manager so this can be considered and addressed.

Questioner:

Ms Maggie Steel, Hereford

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Question: If a member of the public has safeguarding concerns over a foster carer or a kinship carer, is the fostering panel made aware of those concerns?

Response: The Fostering Panel promotes safe, secure and stable placements. It carries out a rigorous quality assurance function and promotes thorough assessments, support and training for foster carers. As part of this function, the panel oversees the conduct of assessments and annual reviews of approved foster carers.

Any allegations about safeguarding concerns in respect of a foster carer, including a kinship carer (also known as ‘Connected’ or ‘Family and Friends Carers), raised by anyone, including a member of the public, will be responded to in accordance with established multi-agency Child Protection Procedures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children. The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) will also work with multi-agency partners and employers, to manage allegations about people who work with children in paid or unpaid positions, including foster carers.

Allegations made about foster carers will necessitate an early fostering review and the matter being referred to the Fostering Panel to consider the continuing suitability to foster. The supervising social worker for the foster carer and/or the children’s allocated social worker will inform the Fostering Panel about safeguarding issues regarding the foster carer for the Fostering Panel to consider during the foster carer’s annual review. The Fostering Panel can subsequently make a recommendation to the Agency Decision Maker which could include the recommendation to terminate the foster carer’s approval.

Questioner:

Ms Donna Conway, Leominster

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Question:  On page 6 of the presentation about fostering in Herefordshire it states this:

"Development of the recruitment strategy through the successful retention of current Foster Carers who will champion and promote becoming a Herefordshire Foster Carer, including a £500 referral scheme for Foster Carers."

What assessment procedures and safeguards are in place to ensure that all foster carers and kinship carer applicants, those selected and retained are safe to care for children?

Response: The recruitment of foster carers is in line with the Department of Education’s Fostering Services National Minimum Standards. Careful recruitment and regular monitoring of carers by our Fostering Service is designed to prevent unsuitable carers from being recruited and having the opportunity to harm children or to place them at risk.

The relevant authorities are informed of any concerns about inappropriate adults. The recruitment, assessment, preparation, training and support of foster carers by our Fostering Service has a strong focus on child protection and keeping children safe, including help to ensure that children living in foster homes are safe, and feel safe.

Foster carers are reviewed annually by the Fostering Panel who will make appropriate recommendations to the Agency Decision Maker.

Questioner:

Ms Reid, Hereford

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Question: I refer the presentation ‘An introduction to Fostering’ (Agenda Item 8).  According to a Freedom of Information request the average cost of one child in care for one year was in January 2023:

·         In-house Fostering: over £16,000

·         Private Fostering (Independent Fostering Agencies, IFAs): over £46,000

·         Children's homes: over £260,000

It is very likely that costs have increased since then.

I understand that in Herefordshire the rate of children privately fostered is high compared with rate of “Statistical Neighbours” or nationally. Also, the rates of looked-after children and children in children’s homes are high.

Inter alia, looked-after children's costs can be reduced by reuniting children with their families and encouraging private fosterers to become in-house fosterers.  How will the council reduce the costs?

Response:We currently have only one child who is subject to ‘Private Fostering’. This is not high; our numbers remain very low, and we suspect this is due to under-reporting which is a challenge for many local authorities and partnerships.  ‘Private Fostering’ is a different arrangement to that of a looked after child. A privately fostered child is a child under 16 (or 18 if disabled) who is cared for by an adult who is not a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, stepparent (including civil partnerships), sister or brother where the child is to be cared for in that person's home for 28 days or more. These placements are subject to checks to ensure the child is safe; Private Fostering arrangements are not paid for by the Local Authority.

Our current Placement Sufficiency Strategy seeks to recruit more local in-house foster carers and improve working relationships with providers in order to increase choice and value for money. We are also seeking prevent children entering care with expansion and development of our Edge of Care and Home (ECHO) Service.

Whilst Children’s Services seeks to manage children’s placements as part of the agreed financial savings strategy for 2024/25, it is important to ensure that the needs, risks and circumstances of children are paramount and that, where possible, we continue to reunify children with their families, where it is safe to do so. In the last year, 22 children have been reunified with their parents. A further 22 children are living with their parents under a Care Order (Placement with Parents Regulations). These children's plans are subject to ongoing review and, when it is appropriate to do so, we will apply to the court for a discharge of their care orders.

Questioner:

Ms Maggie Steel

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Supplementary Question:

The Department of Education’s National Minimum Standards on Adoption/Fostering services (Standard 14, 4.3) requires a fostering service provider, such as Herefordshire Council, to provide to the Fostering Panel all information needed about a foster carer so they can make an informed decision.

4.3 All necessary information is provided to panel members…. to enable full and proper consideration

Where the public is concerned that Herefordshire Council has failed to provide “all necessary information” to the panel, or has provided false information, how can the public contact panel members to raise their concerns?

Response: The fostering panel is an independently chaired, closed panel. Members of the public are not able to contact the panel directly or attend it, unless they are invited to do so in respect of their own foster care approval or review.

Questioner:

Ms Donna Conway, Leominster

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Supplementary Question:

If the Police were to make an urgent MASH referral about an approved foster carer because of concerns the police held about the risk of child sexual abuse to the children in his/her care, is the Foster Panel made aware of those police concerns, and if so, are these concerns mediated to the Foster Panel by the LA’s social workers or by the police directly?

Response: Local safeguarding partners, including the Police, process responses to safeguarding referrals via the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). Agency checks and child protection enquiries will be undertaken in accordance with established child protection procedures upon receipt of concerns and allegations. The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) will also be involved in co-ordinating a response about an adult who works with children, in a paid or unpaid capacity, when there is concern they may have behaved in a way that caused harm to a child. The Fostering Panel is made aware of relevant findings which may affect the Foster Carer’s approval status and regular reviews are also undertaken on an annual basis.

Questioner:

Ms Reid, Hereford

Scrutiny Meeting:

7 May 2024

Supplementary Question:

My original public question included:

“… the average cost of one child in care for one year was in January 2023:

• In-house Fostering: over £16,000

• Private Fostering (Independent Fostering Agencies, IFAs): over £46,000”

And:

“I understand that in Herefordshire the rate of children privately fostered is high compared with rate of “Statistical Neighbours” or nationally.”

The response stated:

“We currently have only one child who is subject to ‘Private Fostering’.”

To clarify, I understand that the rate of children placed with Independent Fostering Agencies by Herefordshire Council is higher than the rate of similar areas. 

This suggests poor working relationships etc with past, potential, and current in-house foster carers.  How will the rate of in-house foster carers be increased at pace?

Response: To confirm, Private Fostering and Independent Fostering Agency (IFAs) arrangements are not the same. The response to this supplementary question assumes that the focus is actually about the use of IFAs, as opposed to Private Fostering. Performance data shared with Scrutiny Committee members on 7 May 2024, reported that there were;

•386 children in our care, and of these:

-78 were cared for by Kinship/Connected Carers (20%)

-204 were cared for by Foster Carers (53%), of which 95 were with in-house carers; and 109 were with IFAs

The supplementary question asserts that the number of children being cared for by IFAs indicates a poor working relationship with in-house foster carers, in the past, currently and in respect of potential new Foster Carers. It is acknowledged that after the Ofsted inspection in July 2022, rebuilding trust and confidence with Herefordshire’s approved foster carers was a priority, and continues to be so.

Progress has been made during the intervening period and the recent Foster Carer Fortnight which took place between 13 to 26 May2024, received very positive feedback about the programme of events and activities. This included the Annual Foster Carer Conference, the first for several years, which received a very positive evaluation from Foster Carers. By harnessing a more relational and restorative approach, the Fostering Service is demonstrating its commitment to working collaboratively and harnessing the knowledge, skills and experience of our Foster Carers. Evidence shows that Foster Carers are some of the most effective fostering champions who can encourage and support others to begin fostering.

There are several enquiries, assessments and approvals currently going through the process to meet the annual target. The existing Foster Carer Recruitment Campaign is being refreshed with the benefit of Department for Education (DfE) funded research, which provided an independent diagnostic about Herefordshire’s Foster Care recruitment and approval practice. Phase 1 of this research has already provided beneficial feedback and recommendations and Phase 2 will offer best practice support and intervention, which is currently being negotiated. It is anticipated that this will provide independent expertise and support to assist the Fostering Service to maintain focus and develop at pace.