Agenda item
Brent Fostering Service Quarterly Monitoring Report: Quarter 4
To provide information to the Corporate Parenting Committee about the general management of the in-house fostering service and how it is achieving good outcomes for children, in accordance with standard 25.7 of the Fostering National Minimum Standards (2011).
Minutes:
The purpose of this report was to provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee about the general management of the in-house fostering service and how it was achieving good outcomes for children for the period from 1st January – 31st March 2021.
Onder Beter (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) outlined the report, highlighting section 5 which detailed online recruitment activity and an increase in the public interest of fostering, section 7 which detailed the online training and support offer to foster carers and added that there had been positive developments in the collaborative fostering project.
The Committee were pleased that the monthly online foster carer support groups were being viewed more positively following previous feedback that the sessions had sometimes been difficult to attend in person and child care would be a barrier. It was suggested that the Council considered holding these in hybrid format in the future to enable that flexibility. The Committee also asked for the feedback on training to be taken on board that some online sessions felt too long and could be broken up into smaller segments. Onder Beter agreed to take on the feedback.
In relation to the online training sessions, the Committee queried whether those who provided training were able to follow up with attendees after the session, for example with those who may have wanted to raise something they needed to talk about that they had not been able to raise in front of a group. Onder Beter noted that foster carers were provided 1 to 1 support primarily through their supervising social worker, and if anything needed to be picked up that could be done with the social worker and trainers.
Nigel Chapman (Operational Director Integration and Improved Outcomes, Brent Council) expressed that the importance of hearing from foster carers was key, and that some kinship carers may be invited to the next meeting to talk about their experience of foster caring. In relation to training, the Committee had heard that Care in Action feedback regarding what makes a good foster carer would be fed into training, and Nigel Chapman suggested that it might be useful to include in the next report the difference the feedback had made to how carers heard and listened to young people’s experiences as well. The Committee heard that feedback from young people had also been used in the Council’s recruitment and marketing of fostering.
The Committee highlighted that section 4.2 of the report detailed a decrease in the number of in-house foster carers, noting that this was the second quarter the Committee had seen a decrease and wanted assurance around this. Onder Beter advised the Committee that, while COVID-19 had impacted recruitment activity, the number of carers recruited to 2020-2021 was similar to the numbers of previous years. There had also been a decrease in the number of looked after children which would impact the data seen as some of those included at the time of reporting would no longer be in foster care.
In relation to the DfE decision to not allocate further funding to the collaborative fostering project in section 9.1, Nigel Chapman advised that the Council had challenged the DfE and asked for feedback for the decision, and while they had not been wholly satisfied with the response had to accept the decision. The team were planning to put forward proposals through funding made available for new and innovative pieces of work.
The Committee would be presented with a report regarding support provided to kinship carers at the next meeting, including a summary of findings of an audit activity reviewing kinship arrangements. The report would include information on the support to those kinship carers who may fall between the gaps, for example those who lived in another borough to where their kinship was arranged. The Committee were invited to email the team with any further points they would like in the future report.
RESOLVED:
i) To note the report.
Supporting documents: