FOSTERING SERVICE ANNUAL REPORT COVERING THE PERIOD OF 1ST APRIL 2021 TO MARCH 31ST 2022
The Fostering Services Regulations 2011
require that the Fostering Services provides written reports on the
management, outcomes, and financial state of the fostering service.
This Annual Fostering Service Report provides quantitative and
qualitative evidence relating to fostering services in the Bradford
Council area as required by statutory guidance. The Annual
Fostering Service Report must be presented to Corporate Parenting
Panel.
The Strategic Director of Children’s
Services will submit Document “C” which presents
the Fostering Service’s annual report which provides an
overview of the work of the Fostering Service and should be read in
conjunction with the fostering Service Statement of Purpose
(Appendix A).
Recommended -
Members are
requested to note the content and actively consider and comment
upon the strengths and future recommendations.
(John Heron –
07816 522073)
Minutes:
The Fostering Services
Regulations 2011 require that the Fostering Services provides
written reports on the management, outcomes, and financial state of
the fostering service. This Annual Fostering Service Report
provides quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to
fostering services in the Bradford Council area as required by
statutory guidance. The Annual Fostering Service Report must be
presented to Corporate Parenting Panel.
The Strategic Director
of Children’s Services submitted Document
“C” which presented the Fostering
Service’s annual report which provided an overview of the
work of the Fostering Service and should be read in conjunction
with the fostering Service Statement of Purpose (Appendix
A).
- John Heron, Bradford
Council Strategic Lead for Fostering (SLF), introduced two carers
from BIFCA: Steven Watson and Belinda Neilson. The agenda paper was taken as read. SLF highlighted the development of the
relationship between the Fostering Service and BIFCA: the aim was
to work in partnership with foster carers to recruit and retain
more carers and improve the quality of service. He talked through the developments planned for
2022-23 as set out in section 14 of the agenda paper.
- Noting the conversion
rate of 6.6% from initial contact through the website to approval
as a new foster carer, the Panel asked
whether the non-conversions were due to potential carers dropping
out or being eliminated by the service.
SLF said they were both: some visitors to the site might be curious
but have no real interest in fostering.
Those who downloaded information from the site were required to
give an e-mail address, and these contacts were followed up: of the
1625 initial website contacts, 381 had downloaded material and
responded to this follow-up contact by confirming their interest in
fostering. The Fostering Service was in
competition with independent fostering agencies, many of which
could pay carers significantly more than the local authority could:
on average, a potential carer would consider around five agencies
before deciding whether to foster and if so with which
agency. For this reason, the Fostering
Service made appointments to see potential carers as quickly as
possible. Of the 381 potential carers
who had confirmed interest, the Fostering Service had visited 320,
of whom 118 had been invited to make an application: 33 had done
so, and of those 25 had been successful. Asked what use was made of
the internet for recruitment of carers, SLF said that it was second
only to existing carers in its importance to
recruitment.
- Noting the relatively
poor conversion rate at an advanced stage of the recruitment
process (33 applications from 116 home visits), the
Panel asked whether this reflected unsuitability of the
potential carer’s circumstances or the potential carer
withdrawing as they learned more about fostering. SLF said that there was more that the service
could do to help potential carers to envision how their lives as
fosterers would look. A new manager had
been recruited to the fostering recruitment team and was
undertaking creative promotional work with BIFCA, but there was a
need to support this with a budget. It
would be helpful if Councillors and Council workers wore badges
promoting foster caring: all in the Council should see foster carer
recruitment as part of their job.
- The Panel discussed
the scope to tap into the willingness of the public to open their
homes under the Homes For Ukraine scheme. Councillors who had been
involved with Homes For Ukraine would be in a position to support
this. Foster carers present saw value
in a campaign encouraging those who had thought of taking in a
Ukrainian refugee to consider fostering. AD/SRCP agreed: these families were known to the
local authority and had been DBS[1]
and household checked: there was no reason why they should not be
asked the question.
- Referring to section
6 of the agenda paper, the Panel asked
whethervirtual fostering panels were effective. SLF confirmed that they had worked well, enabling
people to take part who might otherwise have been unable to do
so. It would be unfortunate to lose
those benefits, but there were also advantages in in-person
meetings. A hybrid model would be
adopted.
- Replying to
questions, SLF confirmed that there was a
shortage of foster carers in Bradford: ideally, around 75% of
children would have foster carers, compared with 69% at
present. The gap was particularly stark
for children with more complex needs. A
Level 4 foster care setting was needed, with wraparound care for
both the child and the carer, including therapeutic, medical,
police, educational and CAMHS[2]
services.
- Ali Jan Haider,
WYHCP, undertook to discuss with SLF the issue of crisis support
for children with severely complex needs.
ACTION:
WYHCP
- AD/SRCP highlighted
the need to consider the profile of carers: it was more challenging
to recruit carers for adolescents or young people with disabilities
or life experiences that affected their ability to form
attachments. Potential carers needed to
be confident that the local authority had an effective structure to
help them to develop strategies to support these
children. A Panel member observed that
carers she knew said that they did not receive the CAMHS support
that was needed: carers present agreed strongly that this was an
issue. This needed to be a major
priority for Children’s Services.
Replying to questions, SLF agreed that the
availability of CAMHS and other multi-agency support to wrap around
the carer was partly a budget issue.
However, if agencies were willing to work together flexibly, there
was also scope to do more with existing resources.
- A carer observed that
having strong training and other support gave carers the confidence
to take on children with more complex needs. Collectively, carers needed to be able to manage
the needs of any child in Bradford.
Another carer said that, when a carer
was asked to take on a child, they typically received little
information about the background or needs of the child or the
length of the placement. Thus it was
difficult to tell whether the child would be a good match,
particularly if the carer already had other long or short term
foster children: carers were reluctant to risk unsettling those
existing placements. Asked what carers would need to make them more confident
about taking on foster children, the carer said it would be helpful
to have some flexibility for agencies to intervene if the child
started to disrupt existing placements.
Asked what support currently existed in such
situations, the carer said that there was none. SLF said that the supervising social worker could
help, but that a more robust support structure was
needed.
- Asked
about the risk that independent agencies would poach
carers trained at the expense of the local authority, a carer
quoted Richard Branson: “Train people well
enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they
don’t want to.” SLF said
that foster carers showed great loyalty to their supporting social
worker and to their organisation.
Resolved –
1.
That Members of the Panel wish to thank foster carers
for their care of the children of Bradford both throughout and
beyond the Covid pandemic
2.
That information is provided by the service to help
with the recruitment drive of more foster carers
Action: Strategic Director, Children’s Services
Supporting documents: