The Board will consider a verbal update from Tom Brailsford, Service Director Resources, Improvement and Partnerships, and Elaine McShane Service Director, Family Support and Child Protection, on the Proposal for Fostering Modernisation.
Contacts:
Tom Brailsford,
Service Director ,Resources, Improvement and Partnerships
Elaine McShane Service Director, Family Support and Child
Protection
Minutes:
The Board considered a verbal update on the Proposal for Fostering Modernisation from Elaine McShane, Service Director, Family Support and Child Protection and Laura Caunce , Head of Service, Children’s Sufficiency, Resources, Improvement and Partnerships.
Elaine McShane gave an overview on the focus of the proposals and the developing approach. The Board were advised that this was still a work in progress and that a full report on the Fostering Modernisation would be presented to the Board at a later date.
The Board requested more detail in relation to the ‘Staying Put’ policy. Elaine McShane advised that the policy was in the final stages of development alongside the financial policy for care leavers . These policies were interlinked, and the aim was for these to be completed and presented to the Board at the same time.
Laura Caunce provided an overview on the planned developments to the Fostering Recruitment Process following the review ,which took place in 2020, and focused on identifying where the process could be redeveloped to make services more efficient. Once this work had been concluded it was agreed that an update would be given at a future meeting of the Board.
Work had also been undertaken to improve the quality and accessibility of information on the website. As a part of this, enquiry forms had been added to the website with an auto respond feature to make sure that information about applying to be a foster carer was provided to prospective applicants quickly.
The Board emphasised the importance of timely of responses to prospective Foster Carers. Laura Caunce agreed with Board members and advised that a target was in place to ensure responses to enquiries were made within 24 hours of receipt. However, there were clear expectations that if the enquiry was received within the working day that it should be responded to within that day.
In the discussion to follow, issues were raised about foster carer retainment. The Board requested that the details of how many foster carers the Council were losing to other organisations was included in the next report presented to the Board.
Laura Caunce advised that work was to be undertaken around the promotion of the Kirklees Fostering offer which included the formation of a marketing strategy which was in the late stages of development.
The Board felt that it was important to make sure the offer was promoted in a way that was honest but also brought into discussion the option to offer benefits to foster carers to make the offer more attractive and suggested that research into the fostering offers of other local authorities was carried out to identify possible areas for improvement.
Laura Caunce agreed to provide a report at a future meeting of the Board once the work around developments to the Fostering Recruitment Process had been concluded. This report would contain the additional information on the number of carers lost to other organisations. It was also agreed that Laura would start work on researching the fostering offers of other organisations. The Board also advised that any information on these pieces of work as they developed would be welcomed.
The Chair reiterated the issue of the recent de-registrations of Foster Carers as described by one of the Boards representatives from the Kirklees Fostering Network (KFN)under Item 8. It was requested that the matter be discussed with the relevant member of the KFN to identify the key themes and reasons behind the issue.
RESOLVED:
2. It was agreed that once the work around developments to the Fostering Recruitment Process had been concluded that an update report would be provided at a future meeting of the Board.
3. The Fostering Proposals update report would also contain the additional information on the number of foster carers lost to other organisations.
4. It was agreed that research would be carried out in respect of the fostering offers of other organisations.
5. It was agreed that any information on these work streams as they developed would be provided to the Board.
6. It was agreed that the relevant member of the KFN would be identified to hold discussions around the key themes and reasons for de-registrations.