The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing welcomed the opportunity to talk about fostering in Corporate Parenting Committee and highlighted that for Bridgend, the foster care service was an essential part of what the Council did to be good corporate parents. This year had been an extraordinary year, especially for the foster families and children. The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing thanked foster carers for everything they had done throughout the pandemic, acknowledging them as unsung heroes for that period.

In Bridgend the fostering service, led by the Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services, was part of a whole system approach to provision for children and young people. The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing stated that they wanted to continue to grow the foster care service both in recruitment and also in retention and the figures around recruitment, the stability of placements and the retention of foster carers were encouraging.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services presented a report, the purpose of which, was to update the Corporate Parenting Committee regarding the progress of work undertaken on establishing a National Fostering Framework in Wales along with updated information about Bridgend Foster Care service provision and the fostering service review and developments that were underway. He concurred with the comments made by the Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing and thanked the foster carers and the team supporting them in a particularly difficult year.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services explained that the report followed on from previous information brought to the Corporate Parenting Committee by the Head of Services back in 2018. He outlined phase one, phase two and phase three where regional development managers were appointed throughout Wales to engage with the national work streams and coordinate plans for delivery in their areas. The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services outlined the current position and that since April 2019, Bridgend was part of Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership/Health Board. The Regional Development Manager post for this region was hosted by Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) CBC. To support the implementation of the National Fostering Framework across the region a strategic group had been stablished to provide overview and scrutiny in order to monitor the performance of the NFF work-streams at a local and regional level. The strategic group was supported by an operational group to deliver the identified priorities and a regional Work Programme had been agreed that supported the National Fostering Framework.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services was pleased to report that as of the 1^st April the Regional Front Door went live and they had already taken phone calls on behalf of Bridgend County Borough Council with enquires from people who wanted to be foster carers and there had been a first visit to a new prospective foster carer. The next area of work was to develop a regional ‘Local Authority Offer’ and all three LA’s had completed the national core offer template designed by the Regional Development Manager, who collated and highlighted consistencies/differences across the region. Work had been undertaken to develop a new HR policy for each LA with a view to establishing them as “Fostering Friendly Organisations”.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services explained that fees and allowances was a key area to harmonise payments for all foster carers. All three LA’s had linked with the national working group for this area of development and were in the early stages of considering options that would support a Regional approach to payment of carers.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services concluded by saying that the collaboration across the region was very positive in terms of quarterly meetings, representation from each LA in regional task and finish groups, the regional strategic group and the launch of the operational group bi-monthly meetings.

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services explained that in 2018 it was proposed that 6 Transitional Foster Careers would be recruited who would act as a step-down for young people coming out of the residential units before being placed in long-term family or independent placement. The scheme was only successful in recruiting 3 Transitional Foster Carers who were approved at the beginning of 2019 and this did have an impact upon the overall success. In January 2021 a review of this scheme was undertaken, with one of the previous transitional foster carers’ central to and informing the discussions/decisions and they were currently seeking to recruit an additional 5 carers.

The Deputy Leader referred to the 6 transitional foster carers and asked what would be done differently this time and how confident the team was that the positions would be filled. The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services advised that there would be a clear policy in place which supported the work of the transitional foster carers, so they could understand what to expect from the service in terms of what support would be available and how it would be delivered. Some previous feedback was that foster carers who came into the role had been told one thing and then they were asked to do a slightly different role eg, the carer believed they would only have a child placed with them over long introductory periods where they had would get to know the child first but were asked to look after children with very short notice and in an emergency. Some of the support such as respite wasn’t available to them.

The Deputy Leader thanked the Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services for his comprehensive answer and asked how support could be given without a full team. What was being done to attract the social carers to come into the service, were payments competitive with neighbouring authorities and what was the difference between the in-house service and the independent sector?

The Group Manager - Placements and Provider Services replied that having a full team of transitional foster carers was significant as was having a full staff team. Since Nov 2019 they had funding for four reunification workers as part of the support which was in addition to what was there previously. In terms of foster carers, the money paid to the foster carers would not be the same as an independent fostering agency. However, support to undertake the role played a significant part in attracting foster carers and it was important to make sure that the foster carer felt like part of a professional team.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that having a regular break from foster caring, given the intensity of the work, was important. This was not a standalone service and was part of the overall remodelling linked into what was done through Maple Tree and the workforce there. A behavioural analyst had been recruited which made a real difference in terms of the practical support on how to deal with situations. All these things would be critical to make sure that it was fair financially for foster carers.

The Team Manager – Placement Services gave a presentation, “Bridgend Foster Care update”. She explained that in the year ending 31^st March 2020 there were 142 initial enquiries, they undertook 40 initial visits, they commenced 21 fostering assessments and approved 8 foster carers. They achieved a conversion rate in BCBC of 5.6% compared to 2.6% for RCT and 6.5% for Merthyr. In 2021 there were restrictions on movement due to the pandemic and the team adapted how they worked with carers as part of their assessment process undertaking virtual assessments and by using smartphones and technology. No assessment was approved at appeal without at least one face to face assessment.

The Team Manager – Placement Services outlined changes to pre-approval training which was an extremely important opportunity to make sure the foster carers were aware of the challenges and issues they might deal with and the big rewards that came with fostering. She outlined Fostering Care Fortnight, the Fostering Network’s annual two week national campaign to raise the profile of fostering and played a video of a young lady who was previously looked after and still resided with the same foster carer under a ‘when I am ready’ arrangement. 

The Team Manager – Placement Services presented the findings for the year ending 31^st March 2021 when they received 104 initial enquires, undertook 43 initial visits, commenced 27 Fostering Assessments and approved 16 foster carers. This was an increase in approvals by 100% and an increased conversion rate of 15.3%.

The Team Manager – Placement Services provided details regarding the Connected Persons assessments of which 53 had commenced. He added that looking ahead, they had learned the value of personal stories and were working to identify carers and young people to be part of recruitment campaigns. They would continue to use social media heavily within campaigning activity. The National Foster Wales campaign would further promote the benefits of local authority foster care to enable them to build on this foundation and a regional approach to recruitment would enable them to share best practice and further improve screening at initial visit stage.

The Chairperson thanked the Team Manager – Placement Services and the Group Manager – Placements and Provider Services. She also thanked the foster carers and everybody involved with the foster teams.

A member commended foster carers for doing a wonderful job. She felt the film was very touching and showed a sense of belonging and thanked the Team Manager – Placement Services and the team for all the work they were doing.

The Chief Executive thanked the Team Manager – Placement Services for the powerful presentation. He was impressed by taken by the engagement and success of stories and social media and was interested to know what the Council could do across all its resources and staff to assist to build on the success they had already had.

The Team Manager – Placement Services advised it would be helpful if people could share their post on social media and ensure the settings were set to public. She would also be happy to go into different environments and deliver presentations about fostering. She had given a presentation at Parc Prison and from this, someone did come through who was assessed and approved to become a foster carer.

The Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing added that when refreshing the Corporate Parenting Strategy it should take into account how the whole council could contribute and what would make a difference for foster carers.

The Group Manager – Placements and Provider Services acknowledged that the Communications Team had done some fantastic work to support the team and their continued support would be appreciated. He challenged members to identity individuals and point them in the right direction and encourage them to become a foster carer in Bridgend.

The Chairperson requested more training for Councillors to help recruit within their environment and what to look out for and information that they could share specifically with individuals.

The Leader congratulated the team on their performance whilst maintaining high standards and a minimum of one visit to a home. The Leader asked if there were any figures on reunification and stability that they could use as a bench mark against other authorities. He asked if they had connections with local churches and positive minded people who could provide stable caring homes for children. He also asked if there was support for siblings and birth children of foster carers. They were an important part of the family environment and some placements had broken down due to the relationship not working with birth children.

The Team Manager – Placement Services confirmed that she had met with three priests within the area who were really enthusiastic and supportive and happy to work with them in the future. They may also have social media channels that could be explored. With regards to the birth children of foster carers, some excellent work had been done in that area and there was a dedicated social worker in the post who had previously arranged various activities/trips with them and part of the action plan was to start these activities when safe. She confirmed that the feedback from carer’s children had been really good and they shared the same value base as their parents and that were committed to the fostering environment. The other consistent feedback was through the support given by the supervising social workers, where the household was discussed and not just carers or children. Extending the training provision to online had enabled the children of foster carers to also access that training and build on their knowledge.

In terms of the regional partners and performance with regards to reunification and placement stability, she advised they would need to look at the National Fostering Framework Returns for evidence. It was something that could be looked at and was very much in keeping with regional approach, sharing practices, and looking to improve things as a region and targeting areas.

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations asked about where the voice of the looked after child would fit in with the restructure and how the experience of the child would shape the service going forward. Also in relation to housing, they had identified certain characteristics such as relationship status as a potential barrier to fostering and she asked if housing had been identified as a potential barrier and if something could be done with housing partners to help get around it. 

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing explained that in terms of the voice of children and young people, a Corporate Parenting Officer post was being created and that post would have a particular role in terms of engagement and participation across all the children looked after and care leavers. They would be working across partnerships and different departments and with the third sector, with RSLs and with health and this was reflected in their corporate parenting work.

The Team Manager – Placement Services agreed that housing had been a challenge particularly when accessing a connective person as part of court proceedings. It was not appropriate to not place a child with someone who had the capacity to provide a permanent home to a child where the only issue was access to housing. It was tackled case-by-case and all the housing agencies were supportive with regards to converting rooms etc.

The Chairperson added that this was really positive and agreed that housing could be a barrier to those that wanted to foster and that it would be helpful to have support in place.

RESOLVED:            The Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting noted the updated information contained within the report and supported the further development of the Bridgend Foster Care service as set out in the report.