Agenda item

Tina Russell gave a presentation at the meeting as seen in the agenda report. She highlighted certain points:

Legislation was in place to ensure that each area had sufficient accommodation available to meet the needs of children and that it sought to improve outcomes for looked after children and improve their wellbeing through working with Partners. A strategy had been drafted to detail how the sufficiency duty would be met and work had been completed using our data on children in care and the demand for placement over the past three years, as well as the analysis of the incoming cohort, to inform our strategy.

The numbers of children in care in Worcestershire was above that of the County’s statistical neighbours due to historic practice. It was not possible to reduce numbers in care quickly as it would not be appropriate to move many of them out of care where they were stable and making good progress. Some of these young people would remain in care until they reached 18. Worcestershire was now one of the lowest authorities for placing new children in care and this continues in 2019/20. More work was also being done with those going home to ensure they were supported to stay at home.

There was a duty to place children within their family network if possible as it was known that family placements were better for the child if good support was given; if that was not possible then it became necessary to look for a different family environment and find a foster family. Worcestershire had an above average number of children in foster placements, however most foster carers want to take children under 10 years of age.

It was positive that the number of placements each child experienced was falling. Each time a placement broke down then the emotional impact on the child was significant and each “next placement” for that child would cost more. More support was being given to carers in order to prevent placements breaking down.

There was a duty to look at the individual needs of each child but their siblings must also be considered; sometimes that meant it was best for the siblings to stay together but in other situations the siblings may have different needs which meant they do not stay together; for example an older child with complex needs may be best in a residential home while a baby sibling would be better in foster care. Non-separation of siblings also meant that for some younger children their care plans for permanency would be in a care setting such as long-term fostering.

External residential care provision was expensive and not always good quality.  Worcestershire have had challenges with the skill and confidence of its own residential staff to meet the need of young people coming into care. Worcestershire’s training programme had been reviewed and it compared well to external agencies/private providers and DfE guidelines but more could still be done.

New providers were visited quickly to see if Worcestershire could use them before other authorities placed their children with them. The aim was to ensure the best use of resources within the County. Worcestershire Children First Foster Care tried to keep pace with retiring foster carer’s and recruit new foster carers. As part of sufficiency we want to review the “total reward” package to foster carers.

At 18 some young people stay with their foster carers, known as “staying put” but some needed to find their own accommodation. The allowance received by foster parents dropped around a third per week when the child reached 18 so some foster carers could not afford to keep an 18-year-old when they would get more money for a younger child.

Members of the Board asked if it would be possible to pay more to enable young people to stay with foster carers, which in turn would help with the difficulties of finding accommodation for care leavers. It was agreed this could be looked at, but any actions would then have an impact on the amount of foster care available for younger children. It was acknowledged that it was a sensitive conversation for a social worker to ask if a young person could stay with a foster parent after their 18^th birthday.

Following queries from Board Members a number of points were clarified:

·       It was explained that children who were placed in out of county placements were likely to be in secure accommodation or have significant complex issues such as violence or self-harm, where suitable provision was not available within the County

·       There was a difference between unregistered care and unregulated care: unregistered care was illegal, but it was occasionally necessary to use in a crisis when no registered placement available. Unregistered provision has been used a few times and in those situations work is done with our residential and outreach staff to provide the bets care possible on a very short term basis

·       Unregulated provision was supported accommodation. The DfE was setting up task groups to review regulations for Unregulated provision due to rising concern that it was being used for under 16’s and when used for those above 16 that the quality is poor leading to extremely poor experiences and outcomes for young people. Worcestershire Children First do not use Unregulated provision for under 16’s but their were many young people in need of supported accommodation so in-house resources were continuing to be developed as well as work being done with providers to improve the care experience

·       The numbers of children in care in Worcestershire would begin to reduce when older children move on and through the Supporting Families programme (edge of care) where parents would be supported and challenged in order to enable children to remain at home. Children would not be moved out of care to make figures look good or save money. Actions would be taken if they were in the best interest of the child.

·       Social Workers also needed manageable case-loads to be able to have time with families and high quality support from their managers to feel confident in managing risk. Through our improvement journey we have made good progress in this area.

·       It was clarified that sometimes courts could make an order to place the child with their parents, but the number of such care orders were reducing or being discharged where possible.