Archived decisions
Hampshire County Council | |
Children and Young People Select Committee |
Item 11 |
23 January 2008 Hart and Rushmoor Hampshire Action Team submission to the Children and Young People Select Committee - Recruitment and payment of foster carers in Hampshire. Report of the Chairman of the Children and Young People Select Committee | |
1. Introduction
On November 28 2007 the Children and Young People Select Committee received a submission from the Hart and Rushmoor Hampshire Action Team (HAT) regarding the recruitment and payment of foster carers in Hampshire. The HAT submission can be found at Annexe A of this report.
The HAT recommends that the Children and Young People Select Committee undertake a detailed investigation into the recruitment and payment of foster carers in Hampshire as part of their Work Programme for 2008. This report outlines the activity already undertaken by the CYP Select Committee within their 2007 Work Programme on this topic along with the proposed next steps with this agenda as agreed by the Committee in 2007.
2. Recommendations
2.1 Members are asked to consider whether the Committee's current approach to the continued monitoring of foster care services continues to be satisfactory.
2.2 Members are reminded to consider the Committee's agreed priorities for the 2008 Work Programme in their deliberation of this topic.
3. Committee Activity in 2007 Work Programme
The following timeline shows work undertaken by the CYP Select Committee to date:
3.1 12 Dec 06 - CYP Select Committee received the final report of the Treasurer's Consultancy Review on non-County Placements and Independent Fostering Provider Placements. The Committee supported the recommendation to the Executive Member for Children's Services to endorse the action being taken to manage the placement needs of children looked after. Within this report, a set of action points were listed - these are detailed at Annexe B of this report.
3.2 17 May 2007 - The Executive Member for Children's Services received details of a summary level commissioning strategy for Children in care and those on the edge of care. The proposals for the strategy were based upon reducing the level of purchased residential and foster care services in order to invest in increased support to families and schools to better support to those on the edge of care. The proposals also supported children and young people in care by promoting stability of education and care placements and providing more choice of service with a focus on the most vulnerable. Subsequent to this report, the Chairman of the CYP Select Committee requested that an update on progress with the commissioning strategy was presented to the Committee in Spring 2008 in order to continue the Committee's monitoring of this topic.
3.3 22 May 2007 - CYP Select Committee requested a whole council briefing presented by the County Fostering Team which addressed issues including the recruitment and payment of foster carers in Hampshire. Members were satisfied with progress on this agenda.
3.4 5 July 2007 - CYP Select Committee received an update on the Treasurer's Review of Non-County Placements and Independent Fostering Provider Placements. This report included data on Hampshire's position compared with comparator Shire authorities and an update on new funding protocols with new Primary Care Trust regarding non-county placements for children with disabilities. The Committee considered this report and was satisfied with progress being made.
3.5 23 January 2008 - Executive Member for Children and Families. A report on Foster care Allowances and Fees will be received.
3.6 23 April 2008 - The CYP Select Committee has requested an update from Children's Services regarding the development of the new Commissioning Strategy for Children Looked After - details of which were set out in the 17 May 2007 report to the Executive Member for Children's Services.
4. Current status of work on the recruitment and payment of foster carers
4.1 Recent advice from Children's Services indicates that significant advertising across the county has resulted in a significant increase in potential foster carers contacting Hampshire.
4.2 Increased staffing levels are responding to these enquiries so that they can be engaged with Hampshire's fostering service without delay.
4.3 Foster Carers Allowances and fees have been subject to detailed review and comparison with other local authorities and the Independent Fostering Agencies. Proposals to increase the allowances and fees have been drawn up and presented to the Children's Services Management Team, the Chief Executive and will be going forward to the Executive Member (Children and Families) for a decision on 23 January 2008.
4.4 This decision will be subject to Budget approval by Cabinet
Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents
The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have 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.
File : E3A2 (Volumes 1 and 2)
Annexe A
Ref No: |
HR03 |
R | ||||||||||||
HAT Submission to theChildren and Young People Select Committee |
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HAT: |
Hart and Rushmoor |
Date of submission: |
28th November 2007 | |||||||||||
SUBMISSION |
Submission Made to: Chair and Vice Chair of the Children and Young People Select Committee Copies to: Cllr Patricia Banks - Executive Member for Children and Families Cllr John Maxwell - HAT Chairman - Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Sam James - HAT Chairman - East Hampshire Emma Gordon - Scrutiny Officer John Coughlan - Director of Children's Services Jennie Polyblank - County Service Manager (Family Placement) Kate Hart - Area Director North (Children and Families) Vanessa Courtney - Head of County Services (Children's Services)
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Submission relating to: Recruitment and payment of Foster Carers in Hampshire | ||||||||||||||
Recommendation: The HAT for Hart and Rushmoor would like to recommend that the Children and Young People Select Committee carry out an detailed investigation into the recruitment and payment of foster carers in Hampshire. | ||||||||||||||
Context: (supporting evidence) The HAT for Hart and Rushmoor received a generic briefing from Children's Services on 11th July 2007 which included information on Foster Care services. At this meeting there was a lengthy discussion about the low numbers of foster carers being recruited in the North of the county (only 49 carers compared to 150 in South East and South West Hampshire). It was stated that one of the key factors affecting recruitment is the amount of money the County Council pays its foster carers in comparison to neighbouring authorities and independent foster providers. HAT members were extremely concerned about this and wished to find out further information. Officers from the Foster Care Team were invited to the HAT meeting on the 14th of September to present the following information: · What processes are currently in place to recruit new carers? · How does the County Council advertise for carers and what types of publicity are used? · What are the current rates paid to foster carers by Hampshire in comparison to other local authorities? As a result of the information provided by officers the HAT established that: A lot of time and resources are being put into recruiting foster carers and a large number of different marketing techniques are being used. North Hampshire (which includes Basingstoke, Hart, Rushmoor and East Hants) has been a priority for marketing and the percentage of recruitment activity currently being directed into the north can be seen in the table below. Spend on Foster Carer Recruitment from 1 Apr - 25 Oct 07 £ % of spend County 33770.50 58.90% North 12618.12 22.01% South East 4848.22 8.46% South West 6097.10 10.63% 57333.94 Despite this focus only 224 of the 651 enquiries a year from prospective carers come from the north of the county (please see appendix one). 2) There is an extremely aggressive market with bordering local authorities, independent fostering agencies and voluntary sector providers, particularly in the north. Statistics show that Hampshire County Council pays the lowest allowance to foster carers in the whole of the South East of England, for example, Hampshire pays £146.09 for the care of an 11-15 year old whereas Medway pays £311.92 (please see appendix two). It is important to note that direct comparisons are not always helpful since Hampshire has a basic allowance with a set of skills fees payable on top, depending on experience. Whereas other local authorities may just have one set "allowance" for all carers. However, what is very clear is the fact that Independent Fostering Agencies are offering way in excess of the fees and allowances paid by any local authorities, often up to £700 a week. 3). Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of recruiting in-house foster carers, there are insufficient carers to meet the current demand for placements. Therefore just over 30% of children, (71 out of 232), in the north of Hampshire are being placed with independent fostering providers. Not only is this expensive it also causes further recruitment problems since foster carers are more likely to work for independent agencies if they are offering much higher fees. A simple answer to improve recruitment rates of foster carers would be for the County Council to increase its fees in line with other competing local authorities and to make itself more competitive in relation to independent fostering agencies. However, HAT members fully appreciate that this issue is very complex and any recommendation would need to involve looking at the whole package including support services for carers and children, respite care, kinship care, etc. This is an important issue for the whole County that should be investigated properly. The HAT believe that the current situation is unacceptable and cannot be sustained. The HAT would therefore like to recommend that the Children and Young People Select Committee carry out a formal investigation into the recruitment and payment of Hampshire Foster Carers to identify any improvements and/or options for a way forward. |
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Response : From: Date: |
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APPENDIX 1
Comparison of Enquiries by District Jun 02 - Aug 07
Appendix 2
Comparison of Fostering Allowances South East
Annexe B
Excerpt - Report of the Director of Children's Services to the Executive Lead Member (Children's Services), Non County Placements and Independent Fostering Provider Placements, 15 December 2006.
12. Further Action to be taken
12.1 Work has begun to develop a comprehensive commissioning strategy for looked after children. This will allow for detailed consideration of possible changes to the service which would enable Hampshire to manage some of the needs which it currently has to purchase from other providers.
12.2 Now that the Green Paper, Care Matters, has been published, any consideration of arrangements and services for children looked after will need to reflect the Green Paper, and any subsequent proposals or amendments once the consultation has closed in January 2007.
12.3 Further contracting arrangements are being negotiated with IFP's on a cost and volume basis to reduce costs to the authority.
12.4 Hampshire's fostering service continues to work hard to recruit foster carers and to support those it already has in order to retain their services. Other reports have identified a range of initiatives being developed to enhance and develop Hampshire's own foster care capacity. In particular, the development of a Level 5 skills fee for carers offers a comparable remuneration to carers to that on offer from IFP's, and other initiatives - some of which have been in place for some time - provide good support and training opportunities.
12.5 Hampshire Children's Services managers are reviewing the criteria for bringing care proceedings and are reviewing those circumstances under which children are accommodated at parents' request, with a view to even tighter gatekeeping of this service. Policy and practice require that a Family Group Conference is held, and that if a placement is required it is provided by family members wherever possible.
12.6 Hampshire continues to broker and support the use of other options to provide care and security for children. Consequently, it has seen increase in the use of kinship care and Residence Orders is increasing; adoption is sought wherever appropriate, and Hampshire is now supporting the use of Special Guardianship Orders. Further oversight of care planning arrangements has been put in place to ensure that they are sufficiently robust.
12.7 For the past 3 years, a Placement Forum has operated within social care at District and County level to review all children in NCP and IFP placements and to gatekeep and consider all potential new placement requests. The County Forum has also monitored the capacity in Hampshire's fostering and residential provision, and makes decisions to use the available capacity to best effect county wide.
12.8 Arrangements are planned from January 2007 to bring together the social care and special educational needs County fora so that there is early joint consideration of the needs of young people with special needs or disabilities. This will maximise planning and provision of Hampshire's own resources and ensure that there is joint decision making about expensive, specialist provision when there is no other alternative.
12.9 Treasurer's Consultancy workshop brought together a range of staff who made a number of proposals for improving local and community based provision. Some of these represent best practice and staff will be reminded of these and encouraged to make maximum use of the opportunities that these present.
12.10 A need for greater consistency across the County was identified to ensure that all children with disabilities have equitable access to service provision and that professional judgement does not lead to differential arrangements.
12.11 Proposals for the use of the LPSA 1 reward grant money include plans to invest in children looked after (to the value of £625,000); to reduce pressures on the purchasing budgets by more robust scrutiny of contracts; more detailed county wide management of fostering vacancies to maximise the use of in-house provision, and contracting with IFPs to increase in house foster care provision. Further work is underway to evaluate the potential savings from this investment.
12.12 Due to the nature of services required by children with complex needs, it is agreed that a priority area for joint commissioning with the new PCT would be a range of cost effective services to support children in their own families. This will be subject to further consideration in the near future.