Agenda item

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).

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the report. She highlighted that a Sky advert had been sent out in the previous month as a marketing technique for the recruitment of foster carers. She had been pleased to receive some anecdotal feedback that the advert was targeting the right interest groups, and she looked forward to seeing the results of that. Moving forward, the quarterly fostering report would include a focus on kinship carers as well as mainstream foster carers. Kelli Eboji informed the Committee that two foster carers had attended the Committee to talk about their experience of fostering for Brent.

The Chair thanked Kelli for her introduction and invited the foster carers present to speak.

One foster carer had begun his fostering career as a nominated foster carer when he was younger. Over time, he had seen how important it was for the family network to work together to help and support the young person being cared for, and so he became a joint foster carer. The journey had been daunting but rewarding, and he highlighted that no child he cared for was the same as the last. The fostering family had a good network around them, and the family approach to foster caring had encouraged him to be more involved, aware and learn more.

Another foster carer had started her foster career when a young person had came into her care as a friend of her son. The young person was a late teen and had experienced difficult circumstances in life. The young person had been with 3-4 foster carers prior to being with this foster carer, and her son had asked if she would look after the young person for a few nights. She had got in touch with Brent who wanted to bring the young person back into the fostering system to find a carer for them, but through discussion with the foster care team arrangements were made for her to become his carer. She was approved as the young person’s carer at foster panel and the young person had now been in her care for 18 months, was well settled and thriving at school.

The Committee asked the foster carer what barriers had been faced which meant the young person did not want to return to his previous foster carers. The foster carer advised that the young person she cared for had a learning disability which the previous foster carers had not fully understood, and there were also barriers in place because they were in different local authorities and so there had been a lot of changes in school for the young person. The initial process of becoming the young person’s carer with Brent had been very smooth, but there had been challenges along the way, such as changes in staff. The family had seen several different social workers over the last few months, making it difficult to build a bond. She highlighted this was a crucial time for her young person’s life and it was important to have stable support from the social work team.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) added that often a child chose to stay with someone they knew due to the connection and familiarity of the person, which was another reason the fostering service wanted to shine a light on kinship care and make it more visible.

The Committee asked whether the Council were offering any additional support to foster carers amidst the rising cost of living. The foster carers advised the Committee that the support was ongoing. For example, during the pandemic children required laptops, and social workers had done very well in providing those. There were always new environments with new barriers for children, and with the support foster carers had around them they could speak to their social worker who would react as quickly as possible to support the family.

The Committee asked whether there was a Forum set up for kinship carers. Kelli Eboji advised the Committee that kinship carers received specific induction training, and were also able to participate in the mainstream foster carer training and support groups. She hoped to develop more forums where the voice of kinship carers could be heard, and there had been discussions with some non-government organisations and volunteers about promoting the voice of kinship carers specifically. Zafer Yilkan (Director Integration and Improved Outcomes, Brent Council) added that as part of engagement with foster carers the service was looking at introducing more face-to-face activities such as coffee mornings and could consider some kinship carer only sessions.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note the report.