Issue - meetings

The Board received a report from the Strategic Director, Children and Young People which set out the background to the Placement Strategy Review.

            As of 9 October 2009, Halton had 158 Children in Care. The overall trend showed a reduction in the Looked After population from a high in 2004 of 169. In December 2004, a detailed analysis of the Children in Care population identified some trends and useful information, which was outlined in the report.

In recent years, there had been significant difficulty in recruiting sufficient foster carers to meet both the demand for placements and to provide a choice of placement. An additional 20 carers would be needed to provide for the current Children in Care population. The Ofsted Inspection in October 2009 identified that Halton, as a fostering provider, was unable to meet the standard required of sufficient number of foster carers to allow for placement choice.

The report outlined a number of proposed actions that would address the shortfall in the number of foster carers; this included increased levels of allowance, building capacity of the Foster Service team to provide placement support, an increase in the range of essential support services available to children and carers and use of a revised and more intensive marketing campaign to recruit more carers.

Members noted that an Invest to Save approach to developing foster care provision had been successfully taken by St Helen’s Council; their number of foster care places had risen from 59 to 103 in three years, which meant a significant reduction in the number of expensive purchased placements and improved retention of their existing carers.

The Board wished to place on record their thanks to Christine Taylor for her hard work in developing the strategy.

RESOLVED: That

(1)         the Executive Board endorse the approach identified in the Placement Strategy and the further work required to develop it; and

(2)         support be given to an Invest to Save Bid.