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www.hertsdirect.org
Scrutiny: Fostering and the Fostering Strategy
23rd June 2011
www.hertsdirect.org
Programme
• Fostering Strategy
• Value for money
• Recruitment and retention
• Inspections
• Support for foster carers
• Involving children and young people
• Corporate Parenting
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Introduction to Fostering
Neena Khosla – Interim Operations Director - Specialist Services
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Children Looked After in Hertfordshire
• Children in the care of the local authority are one of the most vulnerable groups in society
• 1099 children looked after in Hertfordshire (March 2011). Number increased significantly in 2009 and early 2010
• Children Looked After Strategy aims to reduce the number of CLA and reduce the costs of placements
• Fostering service has a key role in achieving the objectives of the CLA Strategy.
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Fostering
• Foster carers play a valuable role in meeting the needs of children who are looked after.
• 778 children (70%) are placed with foster carers (86% of children aged 10-16)
• Mixed-economy of provision to meet sufficiency duty (currently 84% in-house and 16% independent)
• Different types of foster care:o Mainstream / Specialist (514 children, 429 carers)o Family & Friends (142 children, 127 carers)o Independent Fostering Agency (122 children)
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Hertfordshire’s Fostering Service
Fostering Service is responsible for:• Recruiting new foster carers
• Undertaking the assessment and approval processes for new foster carers
• Working with the Central Placement Service to review requests for placements, match children and carers, and establish successful placements.
• Provide ongoing supervision and support to foster carers
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Priorities for the Fostering Service
• Increase capacity, in order to reduce the need for out-of-county residential and IFA placements
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
In-house Family & Friends Independent FosteringAgency
Out of CountyResidential
March 2010
March 2011
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Fostering Strategy
Wendy Evans – Performance & Improvement Manager
Lynn Costello – Head of Fostering
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Background to the Fostering Strategy
• Children and Young People Act 2008
• Reduction in the number of in-house foster carers
• Increasing numbers of CLA
• Increasing costs
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Outcomes of the Fostering Strategy
CYPP Priority 2
‘Children and young people achieve their potential whilst in and moving on from care’
Children Looked After have a choice of placements
Five year “invest to save” scheme to improve in house foster care provision in Hertfordshire
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Objectives
• Increase the proportion of CLA placed in in-house foster care from 47.4% to 50.4%
• Expand family and friends placements from 10.8% to 19.4%
• Reduce the proportion of Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) placements from 13.3% to 4.7%.
• Reduce the cost of CLA placements overall
• Savings of £2.285 million by 2013/2014
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Achieving the Objectives
1. Recruitment targets
2. Placements and placement choice
3. Financial savings
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1. Recruitment Targets – Mainstream
Baseline: 367 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Target Actual Target Actual Target Target Target
Recruitment 72 72 53 60 55 50 47
Turnover 39 37 40 48 41 42 43
Net gain 33 35 13 12 14 8 4
TOTALS 400 402 415 414 428 436 440
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1. Recruitment Targets – Specialist
Baseline: 2 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Target Actual Target Actual Target Target Target
Recruitment 6 9 4 4 8 8 8
Turnover 0 0 0 0 3 4 5
Net gain 8 9 4 4 5 4 3
TOTALS 8 11 15 15 20 24 27
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1. Recruitment Targets – Family & Friends
Baseline: 79 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Target Actual Target Actual Target Target Target
Recruitment 55 46 35 66 48 50 50
Turnover 16 13 25 51 28 33 36
Net gain 39 33 10 15 20 17 14
TOTALS 118 112 122 127 165 181 195
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2. Placements
Type of
placement
Number of children Aug 2009
% of CLA population Aug 2009
ActualMarch 2011
% of CLAMarch 2011
Target % 2013/14
Mainstream /
Specialist
507 47.4% 514 49.6% 50.4%
Family and
friends
115 10.8% 142 12.9% 19.4%
Independent
Fostering Agency
142 13.3% 122 11.7% 4.7%
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2. Placements
Foster Care Placements (% of children in foster care)
507 514
115 142142 122
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Aug 2009 Mar 2011 2013/14 Target
In-house
Kinship
IFA
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3. Financial Savings
• 1,830 additional placement weeks – equivalent to 41 whole time placements (and a larger number of children)
• Savings of £565,000
• Exceeding our target by £286,000
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Value for Money
Darren Newman – Commissioning ManagerTara Geere – Central Placement ServiceJackie Albery – Finance Manager
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In-house foster care
• Fees and allowances – average of £328 per week for mainstream carers and up to £600 per week for specialist foster carers. (Linked to Fostering Network recommended rate)
• Unit cost of in-house placements (including) overheads - £403
• Benchmarking data indicates that Hertfordshire has lower unit costs
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Benchmarking
• CIPFA Benchmarking club – 40 other local authorities
• Additional benchmarking with neighbouring consortia (e.g. Pan-London)
2010 Hertfordshire Comparator LAs
In-house foster care £403 £434
Independent Fostering Agency
£870 £884
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Independent Foster Placements
• Independent provision only chosen where no in-house placement is available (e.g. for children with complex behaviours)
• Eastern Region 5 group
• Achieved 10% reduction at time of tender
• Cost and volume discounts. Fixed price for 3 years.
• Contract extended for 12 months with a further 2% reduction for half of providers. Others have stayed at 2008 prices
• Ofsted Announced inspection found that “changes in council commissioning practices have improved the quality and choice of independent placements while ensuring value for money”
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Recruitment Strategy
Sally Beaumont – Recruitment Team Manager
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Recruitment
• Aim to develop a range of placements in order to achieve placement choice and maximise the opportunity to make local, well matched, stable placements
• Dedicated Recruitment Team launched in June 2009:– Generate more enquiries
– Raise the profile of fostering – publicity and calendar of events
– Oversee all initial training
– Oversee independent assessments
– Up-front matching of placements
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Marketing and communications
• Targeted in geographical areas where placement need is greatest
• Focused on attracting carers for hard-to-place children – e.g. adolescents, sibling groups and children from BME groups
• Informed by the profile of our children looked after population
• Monitoring of source of enquiries
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Recruitment and retention
• Foster carers becoming younger – average age 50, compared to 53 elsewhere
• More same-sex couples
• IFA carers transferring to Hertfordshire. 5 transferred in 2010/11 with 5 Hertfordshire children.
• On average, foster carers remain with Hertfordshire for 9 years. Most likely to leave within the first 18 months.
• De-registrations are carefully monitored, e.g. through exit surveys
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Enquiries, Visits, Approvals and Training
• Number of enquiries has increased year on year. 812 in 2010/11 – increase of 283 from 2008/09. Response within 24 hours.
• 1 in 4 enquiries lead to an initial visit. Visit made within 10 working days.
• 1 in 13 enquiries leads to an approval.• More efficient process – carers booked onto panels at
earlier stage; additional panels where required.• Initial training for foster carers co-ordinated centrally by
Recruitment Team – able to respond to increased demand and fast-track carers for hard-to-place children.
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Fostering Inspections
Lynn Costello – Head of Fostering
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Fostering Inspection – March 2008
Outcomes:
Protecting children from harm and helping them stay safe
Good
Helping children achieve well and enjoy what they do
Outstanding
Helping children to make a positive contribution Good
Organisation of the Fostering Service Good
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Recommendations and Actions• Ensure that foster care agreements include the amount of support
and training to be provided– All agreements have been completed and updated in line with the new
National Minimum Standards 2011
• Ensure that all foster carers undertake first aid training– First aid training is now part of Core Training Programme. Provided in-
house or financed externally due to demand
• Ensure that children are only placed with carers whose terms of approval are consistent with the placement
– Where possible, foster carers are approved for 0-18, with an appropriate age range
• Ensure that employment records contain a full employment history– All employment records for staff and carers are completed, and gaps
are explained
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Future Inspection
• We are due a Fostering Inspection at any time
• We are currently getting ‘inspection ready’ – e.g. self-assessment audits against new National Minimum Standards
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National Minimum Standards
• NMS, together with regulations, provide basis for the conduct of fostering services
• Standards are taken into account by Ofsted for inspection of fostering services.
• Focus on delivering outcomes for children – qualitative but measurable
• 12 Child-focused standards – e.g. child’s wishes and feelings; safeguarding; health and wellbeing; educational attainment
• 19 Standards for Fostering Services – e.g recruitment and assessment, matching child with placement; placement planning and review; learning and development
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Announced Inspection – October 2008
Positive judgements:• CLA health team contributes well to training sessions for foster
carers
• Good quality commissioning and procurement processes
• Targeted work has been effective in increasing the number approved local foster carer placements
• Strategies in place to recruit foster carers from minority ethnic communities and have been effective in increasing culturally and racially appropriate placements
• Positive action to build local capacity – resulted in more children with complex needs returning from out of county placements
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Announced Inspection – October 2008• Negative judgements:
– Transition arrangements for care leavers are variable – some care leavers expressed concern at having to leave their foster homes too soon
– Young people report a lack of choice in placement provision and in some cases inconsistency of care
– Quality of support provided to unaccompanied minors is variable. Some feel that their specific needs are not understood by foster carers.
• Amended Staying Put policy and provided training• A 14+ checklist has recently been launched and workshops held. • CLA are invited to Fostering Forum, and care leavers are involved
in Skills to Foster training• Recruitment of in house carers specifically for unaccompanied
minors
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Support for Foster Carers
Lynn Costello – Head of Fostering
Ed Maguire – Performance & Improvement Manager
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Support• Carers are provided with comprehensive support package. Good
support leads to positive placements for children and improves retention of carers
• Supervising social worker provided monthly professional supervision – to explore placement issues, identify learning, and ensure children’s needs are being met
• Membership of Fostering Network• Foster carer support groups – including buddies for newly
approved carers • Specialist foster carers – support from the ARC and Datchworth
turn and are supported by a team of therapists• Quarterly Fostering Forum – carers and senior management• Emergency Duty Team - 24 hour support
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Training opportunities
• Initial “Skills to Foster” training.
• Core training – Attachment; Safeguarding; Recording; Safe Caring; First Aid; Behaviour Management
• Children’s Workforce Development Council workbook
• Access to HCC Learning and Development programme
• Fostering teams provide bespoke training courses (including TCI Therapeutic intervention on behaviour management and Webster Stratton positive parenting)
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Survey of Foster Carers
• Postal survey of all foster carers
• 111 responses – over 20%
• Questionnaire asked about:
– Training and Support
– Overall satisfaction
– Likes and dislikes
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Overall Satisfaction
• Large majority say support they receive is excellent (30%) or good (54%)
• Some small differences between different groups. Satisfaction highest among foster carers who:
– Are aged over 60– Are female– Have most experience
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SupportImportance for and satisfaction of foster carers of different types of support:
Average scores (4 = very important/excellent and 1 = not important/poor)
1
2
3
4
SupervisingSocialWorker
Child's SocialWorker
FinancialSupport
Training Out-of-HoursSupport
Respitefoster carer
SupportGroups &Networks
Foster CarerAssociation
Importance
Satisfaction
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Support
• Comparison with results of national Fostering Network survey (2009) indicate that satisfaction is higher in Hertfordshire than elsewhere.
% ‘Excellent’ % ‘Good’
Herts National Herts National
Supervising Social Worker 66% 46% 25% 29%
Child’s Social Worker 32% 14% 30% 28%
Financial support 12% 13% 54% 20%
Training 23% 25% 49% 39%
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Likes
Almost all respondents identified things that they liked.
– It is so rewarding watching a child or young person blossom in your care. You can make such a difference to them
– We love to see the child grow in confidence and do well at school and enjoy life in a safe secure environment
– It’s challenging and varied - no two days are the same
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Dislikes
• Contact with birth parents (14 foster carers)– Contact makes it difficult when having to continually
meet angry and upset parents– The children seem to be disrupted during these
times
• Poor communication (13)– The frustrations that often come from lack of
communication and last minute changes– “Not always knowing what is going on and not being
able to answer questions the children have asked
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Dislikes (cont)
• Feeling undervalued (10)– Sometimes I feel that my views are not taken into
account regarding the child
– We do all the hard work and the social workers take all the credit
• Paperwork and bureaucracy (10) – Too much paperwork and too many rules and
regulations
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Involvement of Children & Young People
Lynn Costello – Head of Fostering
Tara Geere – Central Placement Service
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Involving children and young people
• Children in Care Council – e.g. discussion of what makes a good foster carer
• Young people involved in recruitment of foster carers as part of preparation training
• Viewpoint Interactive
• Factsheets / profiles on foster carers
• The Pledge – Taking part in decisions
• Placement Surgeries
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Corporate Parenting
Neena Khosla – Interim Operations Director – Specialist Services
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What is Corporate Parenting?
• Responsibility of local authorities to improve outcomes and actively promote the life chances of children they look after
• Shared by the whole local authority in partnership with partner agencies
• Act as the best possible parent for each child they look after and to take action by speaking out on their behalf, arranging for appropriate services to meet their needs, standing up for them and representing them Sixth line of text
• When they are elected, all councillors take on the role of ‘corporate parents’ - duty to take an interest in the wellbeing and development of those children, as if they were their own children
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Announced Inspection
• Corporate parenting was identified as an ‘area for development’, including in the role played by members.
• Jan 2011 – Briefing for Members on Corporate parenting roles and responsibilities
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Member involvement
• Children in Care Council
• Fostering Panels
• Adoption Panels
• Visits to Children’s Homes
• Regular meetings with lead member for children’s services
• Reports to Corporate Parenting Panel
• Performance reporting
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Conclusions and next steps
• Objectives of the Fostering Strategy have been met in first 2 years - financial savings exceeded
• Focus going forward:
• Continue positive progress – meet and exceed targets
• Targeting our resources effectively to provide good support to foster carers
• Improving outcomes for children and young people – narrowing the gap and helping to achieve potential
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Challenges and Risks
• Sustainability of our foster carer population
• Shortage of carers for priority groups – e.g.
• Recruitment of specialist carers
• Achieving future savings targets
• Ensuring the Service and Strategy continue to be well linked to the wider agenda for children looked after
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Summary and Recommendations
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thank you