Contact: Kate Hart Ext: 7188 e-mail: [email protected]

1 Summary

The following decisions are sought:-

1.1 That endorsement be given to the policy development for Family & Friends Care, under pinned by the use of Family Group Conferences.

1.2 That the Director of Social Services be instructed to make representations to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Local Government Association (LGA). These representations to reflect the current absence of a legal framework to support children with extended family and friends with an appropriate level of regulation, and to reflect the need for policy across all Government Departments to support Family & Friends care.

2 Reason(s)

2.1 To improve placement choice for Children Looked After and to support children in family-based care arrangements who need not be Looked After.

3 Other options considered and rejected

3.1 None.

4 Conflicts of Interest declared by the decision-maker or a Member or Officer consulted

4.1 None.

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

5.1 None.

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

Not applicable

Approved by: Date of decision:

Councillor Felicity Hindson

Contact: Kate Hart Ext: 7188 e-mail: [email protected]

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Care Arrangements for Children

Most children are brought up by their parent(s). Where this is not possible, a range of options exist in the current legal framework.

1.1.1 Informal arrangement whereby child is brought up by relatives eg grandparents, elder siblings, aunts and uncles.

1.1.2 Private fostering arrangement, whereby parent makes a private arrangement for a third person to care for their child. The local authority must be informed by both parties and must monitor/visit the placement at regular intervals.

1.1.3 Residence Order. Child's carer (could be relative, a previous foster carer, a previous private foster carer) is awarded a Residence Order in Court, and carer then shares parental responsibility with parent(s). Hampshire can support financially through a Residence Order Allowance payment.

1.1.4 Looked After. Child is formally looked after through a Court Order or through accommodation (voluntary) arrangements.

1.1.5 Adoption. Full transfer of all parental responsibility to adoptive parent(s), after an extensive court process. Hampshire can support financially through an Adoption Allowance.

2 CONTEXT FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS PROJECT

2.1 In 2001, Hampshire was invited by the Department of Health, under the auspices of the Family Rights Group, to take part in research in to Family & Friends care in two Local Authorities.

This research report was published in September 2001.

2.2 Many of the Research Report's recommendations were incorporated into the Department of Health's Discussion Document on Family & Friends Care, issued on 1 November 2002.

2.3 The policy initiative in Hampshire is built on the Report's findings, which indicated that Family & Friends placements produce good outcomes for children: these placements keep children safe, last longer, are culturally appropriate and promote positive identity. They are the placements children say they would choose and they say they feel loved and wanted when cared for by family or friends.

2.4 The report also found that Family & Friends care is less well-resourced and less well supported than other types of care for children: Family & Friends carers tend to be poorer, have more health problems and fewer material resources than other carers. Both the Department of Health's Discussion paper and the Hampshire research recommendations concluded that Family & Friends care should be seen as a distinct service type of care and Family & Friends carers seen as a discrete group of carers.

2.5 Following the Hampshire research, an Implementation Group for the Family & Friends Project was established in 2002, to take the research report's findings forward and to develop services for children Looked After in Family & Friends care and to develop Family & Friends care to provide care for children so that they would not need to become Looked After, unless their well-being demanded it.

3 OBJECTIVES OF FAMILY & FRIENDS/KINSHIP CARE PROJECT

3.1 To increase the opportunities for children, who cannot live with their birth parents, and who would otherwise enter the care system, to be brought up within their extended family and communities, for the duration of their childhood.

3.2 For the Local Authority to assess and support these care arrangements, which will include financial support where needed, to ensure these children's needs are met and their Family & Friends carers are enabled to care for them.

3.3 To ensure that children placed with Family & Friends Carers and at risk of entering the care system do not do so, unless their well-being demands it, and where appropriate to bring out of the care system those children currently living with Relatives approved as Foster Carers, provided this does not compromise their welfare.

3.4 To meet the agreed Public Service Agreement (PSA) target for Family & Friends care in Hampshire- i.e. to increase the number of children placed with Family & Friends/Kinship carers, as a percentage of those Children Looked After. (i.e. from a baseline of 163 children in 2001 to 261 children in 2005.)

3.5 Hampshire currently has 141 children in Family & Friends Foster Care and 83 children in Family & Friends care supported by other legal arrangements, and is making good progress towards its target.

4 KEY DEVELOPMENTS

An action plan was established to achieve stated key objectives, primarily in the following areas:-

4.1 Appoint Project Manager

4.2 Create a Kinship Care Policy, and Procedures to support the policy

4.3 Develop a new Assessment model for Kinship Carers

4.4 Identify budget, linked to Family Support, from which regular allowances can be paid to Kinship Carers

4.5 Set up training for all childcare staff to implement policy, procedures and in use of new assessment materials

4.6 Achieve an increase in use of Family Group Conferences for all children who need a permanent placement away from home

4.7 Develop specific support for Kinship Carers, by appointing Kinship Care Support Workers

4.8 Develop support systems for Kinship Carers in the community and written materials for advice and information

4.9 Inform partner agencies of Kinship Care Strategy and develop support and service systems for Kinship carers and the children they care for in other agencies.

5 AREAS OF PROJECT DEVELOPMENT ACHIEVED

5.1 Policy

5.1.1 A Project Manager was appointed in November 2002 on a temporary basis and now has a contract until 2005 to continue to develop and implement policy change to achieve the objectives. This post is funded from PSA monies.

5.1.2 The Family & Friends Policy & Procedures will be published in October 2003 and from January 2004 there will be an Implementation Programme of training and meetings to train staff and to inform colleagues in partner agencies, Family & Friends carers, and voluntary groups. The Policy and
Procedures document will build on consultation meetings about the draft Policy which have been held with staff, the Care Action Team (CAT), and with Education and Health colleagues during 2003.

5.1.3 Service users are on the Implementation group and continue to be involved in developing all areas of the project.

5.1.4 Newsletters about the progress of the project are published and circulated to all staff in the Department.

6 LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS CARE

6.1 Current legislation does not allow the project to include a broad spectrum of care arrangements for children who do not need to be Looked After which conflicts with the aspirations of the project.

6.2 Legal advice received states that, for the purpose of Hampshire's Family & Friends policy, children are only able to be placed outside of the Looked After system with relatives as defined under the Children Act 1989- i.e. grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, step-parents. In all other placements with more distant relatives, or with friends, the child will need to become a Child Looked After.

6.3 Work continues with organisations such as the Family Rights Group to bring these issues and barriers to the attention of the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), in the hope of making progress at national level to achieve a change in the law.

6.4 Kinship care will be the term used in Hampshire to describe situations where children are placed with relatives (as defined in 6.2) outside the Looked After System. Family & Friends care will be the terminology used to identify the whole project, and children placed with Family & Friends foster carers.

7 FINANCIAL COMPARISONS FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS CARE

7.1 The costs of different types of provision for children looked after are set out in a table attached as Appendix I.

7.2 From this table it is clear that not only does Family & Friends care provide better outcomes for children, but also represents good value for money for the local authority.

8 SUPPORT TO CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILY & FRIENDS CARERS

8.1 It is known through research that one of the key factors for successful

outcomes for children in foster care placements is the quality of support given to carers.

Research was carried out in Hampshire 2002-2003, by the Family & Friends Users' group, in which every Family & Friends carer in Hampshire was approached and asked about the kind of support they needed to enable them to care for a child.

8.2 Following this consultation, and based on knowledge from research, three Family & Friends Support workers were appointed in June 2003 and are working in each of the Districts. These posts are funded from PSA monies.

8.3 The support workers are already offering individual support to twelve Family & Friends carers, who between them, are caring for seventeen children.

8.4 In addition to this, a Grandparent Support group is being set up in Andover as from October 2003 and discussions are being held with Family & Friends carers in the S.E. District, with plans to set up a Carers' Support Group in Leigh Park.

8.5 The Family & Friends Support workers are able to work flexibly and can offer support to carers in the evenings or at weekends.

8.6 A meeting has been held with `Parentline' and arrangements are being made to train and inform their workers about Family & Friends care, after which they will offer specific support to Family & Friends carers, alongside their advice and support to parents, on their telephone advice line, which is open 24 hours a day.

8.7 Information leaflets for carers, children and colleagues are being developed and information and training evenings are planned for carers when the Policy is launched in the New Year.

8.8 Links are being made with partner agencies to ensure that children being cared for by Family & Friends have the same access to services as do children in other care arrangements.

9 FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO FAMILY & FRIENDS CARERS

9.1 Kinship carers who need financial support in order to care for a child can apply for a financial assessment. The same process will be used, and the same allowances will be paid, as for Residence Order or Adoption allowances.

9.2 By re-prioritising within current budget allocations, a budget will be identified and payments will be made under Section 17 (Children Act 1989). This will reflect the long-term aims of the Project which are firstly to bring Children Looked After and in placement with Family & Friends foster carers, out of the care system, and secondly to place children in need of a permanent placement, with Kinship carers where appropriate as an alternative to being looked after.

9.3 The financial difficulty Family & Friends carers can experience in looking after a relative's or friend's child is well-documented in the research.

9.4 The Family Rights Group published a document `Funding Family & Friends Care- The Way Forward' in September 2003, the conclusion of which was that funding should "not be a discretionary benefit administered by social services, but a state benefit either in the form of an unsupported child element to tax credit, carers' allowance or improved guardians' allowance."

10 ASSESSMENT SERVICE FOR FAMILY & FRIENDS CARERS AND CHILDREN THEY CARE FOR

10.1 Hampshire and the Family Rights Group are developing an Assessment framework for carers, which is being piloted in the S.W. District (Winchester, Andover, Eastleigh and Romsey) from 1 July 2003 -
31 December 2003.

10.2 The objective of a new assessment framework is to have documentation that fits better with the unique circumstances of Family & Friends care and for the process to identify the carer's strengths and support needs and to be less intrusive into family life than are current assessment formats.

10.3 The DFeS is taking an interest in how this progresses in Hampshire, as many Local Authorities are expressing the need for an Assessment framework that meets the specific needs of Family & Friends carers.

11 FEEDBACK FROM PILOT OF ASSESSMENT IN S.W. DISTRICT 1 JULY 2003 - 29 SEPTEMBER 2003

11.1 There is already some encouraging feedback: more than 50% of the children who have entered the care system in the pilot area and whose carers are being assessed from the beginning of the period to date are placed with Family & Friends carers and planning is in progress where it is hoped 6 other children, who cannot live with their birth parents, will be placed within their extended family outside the Looked After system. Two sets of grandparents have also applied for Residence Orders for their grandchildren and so these grandchildren will also remain outside the Looked After system.

11.2 In addition, planning is also taking place to bring 7 children already placed with Family & Friends Foster carers, out of the Looked After system. Under the auspices of the Family & Friends policy these Kinship carers will still receive financial support and support from the Family & Friends support workers, to assist them in continuing to care for the children, but the children and carers will no longer have the intervention and potential intrusion into family life that can result from being in the care system.

12 FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

12.1 Support services for children in Family & Friends care and their carers will continue to be developed within the Department and in the community and with partner agencies.

12.2 Hampshire is seeing an increase in the number of relatives who are coming forward to care for children in their extended families. This should also lead to an increase in the number of Family Group Conferences which are held, as a means for the Department to enable and support families to find their own solutions and care arrangements for children in the family network.

12.3 The project will continue to be evaluated and monitored by Performance Management Unit (PMU) and it is hoped that links can be made with either Leicester or Sheffield University to carry out research on outcomes for children.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That endorsement be given to the policy development for Family & Friends Care, under pinned by the use of Family Group Conferences.

2. That the Director of Social Services be instructed to make representations to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Local Government Association (LGA). These representations to reflect the current absence of a legal framework to support children with extended family and friends with an appropriate level of regulation, and to reflect the need for policy across all Government Departments to support Family & Friends care.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act

None