Agenda item

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee about the updated Fostering Offer to be launched in April 2024.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the revised fostering offer by presenting a short video explaining the benefits of being a foster carer in Brent. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following points:

• A key emphasis over the next year was around promoting the local authority fostering offer, utilising marketing techniques such as the newly created video referenced in section 4.9.3 of the report and competing with independent agencies in the wider market.
• The report detailed a 6-month programme of work, approved by Council Management Team, exploring ways to improve and increase placement sufficiency and save money in terms of the large amounts being spent on semi-independent agencies.
• The revised offer was due to be implemented in April 2024. The background and rationale for the changes in the offer was that, between 2017 and 2023, there was an almost 40% reduction of in-house capacity in Brent fostering households and beds / placements. This was being experienced nationwide, where nationally around 1/8^th of fostering households left their roles in 2021-22.
• Brent currently had 23 fostering households aged 65 or over, and part of forward planning was around recruitment of foster carers when those older carers retired.
• As a result of the national reduction of fostering households, Brent had become reliant on commissioning independent fostering agencies, so the Council had looked to improve recruitment through the revised offer to avoid costly independent placements.
• Section 4.1.4 of the report highlighted that benchmarking showed the allowance offer previously was not competitive compared to Brent’s West London neighbours, so the first priority for the revised offer had been to look at that, and section 4.2 outlined the different elements of the new offer, including an increase in the weekly fostering allowance and a new digital offer for foster carers, as well as leisure offers.
• The offer also introduced a range of initiatives to support placement stability, including a LAC resilience service which was a new programme in the test and learn phase.
• The service was working with HR to make Brent a foster friendly organisation and was developing policies in line with that approach. Alongside this work was being done with West London colleagues to work towards a joint fostering recruitment hub.

The Chair thanked officers for the update and invited comments and questions from Committee members with the following raised:

In relation to the weekly fostering allowance, the Committee asked whether there was a connection between a higher allowance and an increase in the recruitment of foster carers. Kelli Eboji advised there was no direct correlation that could be evidenced, but there were higher levels of enquiries with increased weekly allowances. Brent had identified itself as operating in a competitive area with many fostering agencies within Brent and its border. Many boroughs were offering more, and Brent was losing its constituents to those boroughs and the independent sector which often offered double the allowance offered by local authorities. In response to whether nominated carers receive an allowance or training, the Committee was advised that nominated carers were typically not paid an allowance, although if they provided respite care for the foster carer then there would be an agreement with the foster carer that they would contribute to the costs associated with that. This was not an additional expense for the Council and agreed within the fostering household. The support programmes on offer with the revised offer would be made available for the whole fostering network so nominated carers would benefit from that.

The Committee asked about the offer of Council tax exemption and how that would work. Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) explained that the Council currently offered Council tax exemptions for Brent care leavers regardless of where in the UK they lived. In the next financial year, the Council was aiming to get an exemption for Brent foster carers in the same way, as either a full exemption or a discount. This was within the Council’s gift to offer and was not something independent agencies could offer so it acted as a good incentive to foster with Brent.

The Committee asked for clarification on the LAC resilience service outlined in the report and why it was spoken about in the context of hospital discharge. Kelli Eboji explained that it was compared to the hospital discharge process in the report because the service used the same positive behaviour therapeutic approach. The discharge service offered therapeutic wraparound support for young people who had been discharged from hospital, whereas the resilience service was focused on LAC and foster carers where they struggled to maintain a placement and had experienced multiple breakdowns. As such, the resilience service was aimed at both the LAC and foster carer.

The Committee highlighted feedback they had heard from foster carers that the package they received was not well communicated before they become a foster carer. They asked if anything was being done to improve that communication to ensure the package was clear beforehand. Officers confirmed that the service was working with the Council’s Communications Department on this currently in the same way that it had communicated the local offer to care leavers.

The Committee commended the offer of a blue light card for fostering households.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note and advocate for the need for Brent to improve its offer to foster carers in order to increase the number of in house foster carers and improve retention rates.

ii)             To note the benefits of ongoing work to establish a regional West London Fostering Hub.