Recently in fostering Category

A think tank's report on foster care highlights the need to consider all placement options, says Jonathan Stanley, policy and practice consultant at the Independent Children's Homes Association.

The Policy Exchange's Fostering Ambitions report tells a familiar story: "Service structures and budgets are driving the decision rather than assessment of need."

For too long we have had a system that does not put children in the 'most appropriate placement' as required by the 1989 Children Act. Thorough assessments should match children's needs to their placement. Some children will need fostering or adoption, while others would benefit from residential options.

We do know about the adverse outcomes of residential care but a correlation doesn't necessarily mean such placements are the cause.

Our use of specialist support often comes too late for a child to realistically achieve the outcomes required for a successful transition into adulthood. For many children the need for specialist support and intervention was only recognised when they entered the care system, yet residential care is often the last resort used after serial breakdowns in placements.

There is no justification for placing children in a care placement that cannot meet their needs when more effective and appropriate options are available.

So before we take too many steps down the short-term budgeting road can we stop for a moment to ask: "Are we saving now to spend more later?"

Yes there is a chasm of overspend and poor outcomes but all evidence should be included. The NEF's report, A False Economy, concluded that £1 invested in high-quality residential care generates a social return of between £4 and £6.10. Apply that figure across the entire population of young people in residential child care and the total value of these services is equivalent to almost £700 million over a 20-year period.

Put simply, what is saved on other social costs by investment in these kind of residential placements would be enough to pay for the country's annual care bill for children in care.

Eleven councils in southern England are to jointly commission specialist foster placements in a bid to make savings and reinvest the money in services for looked-after children.

Southampton council will head up the group, called the Independent Fostering Agency.

The 11 councils, including Oxfordshire, Surrey and Hampshire, have about 650 children placed with around 50 different independent fostering agencies, costing £29m per year.

Southampton anticipates a saving of 7.4% (£160,000) in the first year of the contract alone.

Cllr Jeremy Moulton, Southampton's cabinet member for children's services, said the new arrangements will "help to ensure that we are able to offer the children in our care the best chance of fulfilling their potential by ensuring a greater choice of local placements, greater placement stability, and robust contract management to maintain quality".

Picture credit: Mel B

All foster carers and residential workers must receive training to help them support the mental health needs of looked-after children, YoungMinds has recommended.

This should be backed up with regular supervision and reflective support sessions.

The children's mental health charity made the recommendations in a report into the mental health of looked-after children in the UK, published today.

Based on interviews with 50 children living in foster placements, children's homes and secure settings, the report found children felt anxious about moving into placements and had a fairly negative perception of mental health services.

Young people also said they were frustrated that the only representation of life in care known to their peers was the television character Tracy Beaker. They said they were tired of telling friends they were 'not like Tracy Beaker'.

Looked-after children should be given the opportunity to visit foster placements and children's homes before they move there, the report recommended. They should also be given more information about placements to help them understand the environment they will be living in.

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at YoungMinds, said: "Mental health services should be prioritising the needs of looked-after children and ensuring services are designed and delivered to meet them."

YoungMinds has also written to councils across the country, urging leaders to protect child and adolescent mental health services over the next financial year.

Annie Semphill, the social worker seen in Monday's episode of Protecting Our Children, responds to comments and questions from viewers, including those who took part in Community Care's live panel debate.

I couldn't quite bring myself to read all the reaction online as the programme was aired, but I got a good choice selection from my husband throughout the evening.

I feel really honoured by the praise and appreciation shown for our work, but we were really just doing our jobs. I'd like to share some of the warm words that were posted online with all the social workers in Bristol. It was very encouraging, if also a bit embarrassing.

One of the surprising areas of interest was a fascination with the security guards who accompanied me on visits to Shaun and Marva. Because of our long history with the couple I knew Shaun could be unpredictable with a tendency for violence. It did make me feel safe to have two large uniformed men standing behind me as I approached their front door.

I was less worried by the dog as I felt Shaun could keep control of him and wouldn't risk using him in a dangerous way.

Many Community Care readers wondered why I was off sick towards the end of the case, shown in the film, and asked if this was because of the emotional burden the case had on me. I wasn't off due to stress - I had quite a serious virus - but I think the case did exhaust me and made my recovery longer than it might otherwise have been.

I think the film successfully showed the supportive atmosphere in which I was working. Emotional turmoil comes with the territory when you're a social worker but I did feel it more in this case. We'd had such a long involvement with Marva and I really did have some cautious hope for her this time as the experience of dealing with the family had improved enormously.

There was much legal discussion behind the scenes on this case. It might not have been the focus of the programme, but there was a lot of preparation with colleagues to ensure that if we did need to move to care proceedings it could be done smoothly without delays.

The BBC filmed with me, Arthur, Shaun, Marva and all the other supporting colleagues for a good seven months to produce an hour's worth of television. I think it did convey the complexity of the decisions involved and was emotionally sympathetic - both to my profession and Shaun and Marva.

I am heartened to see the number of comments from social work students online who are now further encouraged to qualify.

• The final episode of Protecting Our Children is on Monday Feb 13, BBC2, 9pm. 

by Dr Lucy Rai, senior social work lecturer at the Open University

In the second episode of the BBC series Protecting Our Children we followed the pregnancy of a young couple, Marva and Shaun.

The pair had already had three babies removed from them and posed a significant risk to their unborn child, due to their chaotic lifestyle and severe alcohol abuse. We saw Annie, their social worker, trying to engage with them to minimise the harm to their unborn child. This episode also provides a number of valuable lessons for social work.

Assessing the safety of an unborn child

The risk to Marva and Shaun's baby began before birth. The level of alcohol Marva was drinking, together with her overdoses and lack of personal care, placed the unborn baby at considerable risk. Intervention at this stage could only focus on supporting Marva to prioritise her health and self care, which was no easy task when her self-harming behaviour was driven by depression and her relationship with Shaun.

Meeting the needs of children is so often only possible through meeting the needs of parents. Marva came heartbreakingly close to letting go of her destructive relationship with Shaun in order to prioritise her own health and that of her baby.

Managing emotional work

Last night's episode illustrated very poignantly that recognising and working with emotions is a central part of social work. As Annie said at the end of the programme, the time to stop working in child protection is when you stop feeling.

Annie could only build a working relationship with Shaun and Marva by acknowledging their feelings of loss, anger and anxiety. Arthur, Annie's team manager, also showed during supervision how important it was for Annie to express her changing feelings about the work.

The pain in this story, tempered only with occasional moments of hope and exhilaration, provides an important lesson about the importance of keeping feelings at the centre of good social work practice.

Harsh decisions

The decision to separate Marva from her baby affected everyone involved in the case profoundly. It illustrated the kind of social work recommendations that keep children alive.

Responsibility for such decisions remains with the court. In this case, the court will have taken into account the vulnerability of such a tiny baby and the level of risk posed by the child being in the sole care of parents with a history of extreme alcohol misuse, overdoses and, in Shaun's case, violence.

In this context, to wait until harm has actually taken place may well be too late.

• The Open University co-produced Protecting Our Children, in partnership with the BBC. Dr Rai provided expert input into the development of the series.

by Sacha Mirzoeff, series director of the BBC's documentary series Protecting Our Children

Find out all you need to know about Protecting Our Children and take part in a live chat with experts during the screening.

There are some areas of society where it's said to be impossible to make morally responsible films. Typically the media has chosen to cover social work by going undercover and making investigative programmes. Sadly the end results are often sensationalist films that demonstrate a lack of understanding of the complexity of the work.

And so the bandwagon of poor media coverage of social work trundles on...  

I feel that there is a way of approaching any issue in a documentary as long as there is a clear understanding from all about what is being tackled and how best to do it. 

The director of children's services at Bristol council, Annie Hudson, was open to our approach to show the day-to-day complexities of child protection work. It took months of effort and negotiation to draw up a working protocol that ensured the welfare of children, families and social workers was protected.

We finished with a working protocol, written up by the council's legal department and ratified by the senior family court judge in Bristol. It worked for everyone. On the one hand, it was tougher than the Children Act in terms of identifying children in the public domain during and after proceedings. But on the other hand, it gave the BBC freedom to be able to continue filming during proceedings - as long as everyone was in agreement that it was fine to do so.

Each social worker was given the choice about whether to participate in the series.  Understandably only a small number came forward at first. For those that did, we went through their cases together and discussed the families that might be suitable to approach. Of course even smaller numbers of families agreed to take part. It took months of patient asking before we had enough material to start making the films.

Even with a protocol, how could we at the BBC tell if we were doing the right thing?  We ended up doing the opposite of what many filmmakers strive to do. We rescinded control rather than holding on tight. As many of our contributors are extremely vulnerable, we used a system of rolling consent whereby they, or any of the professionals working with them, could pull out right up until transmission. 

After showing the practically finished films to everyone involved we listened and reacted to their comments. Lawyers, court-appointed guardians, council solicitors, council heads and area managers, our legal advice, editorial policy, our own childcare consultant, the seniors in the BBC and most importantly of all, the families and social workers we filmed, all had their say. It took a long time but we could then rest safe in the knowledge that the end result was balanced, accurate and fair.

• Protecting Our Children is on Monday February 6, BBC2, 9pm. 

As if taking on your first social work case wasn't nerve-wracking enough, imagine doing it in front a BBC film crew and, a year later, having your practice scrutinised by people all over the country. Susanne, the NQSW seen on the BBC's Protecting Our Children, has her say here and reacts to viewers' comments.

"I'm quite relieved that my episode has now gone out.

After many months of filming (you can see the changes in the weather), attending the official BBC screening and doing pre-publicity press interviews, I can now reflect on the experience.

"Most of the commentary I've seen across Twitter, various blogs and the Community Care pages has been positive about what we were trying to achieve with Mike and Tiffany - the couple whose care of three-year-old Toby was in question. 

"It's interesting to see how black and white views have been and that a lot of people are sympathetic to Mike and Tiffany's situation, as well as to what I and my managers were looking to achieve for Toby. 

"I've also seen a lot of commentary from professionals about the various steps and interventions they think should have been attempted with Tiffany in particular.

"While I can't go into detail about their family life, beyond what you see in the programmes, I would like to reassure the social work community that there were many strategies attempted with the family before Tiffany makes her decision about adoption. This did not happen quickly without many opportunities for reflection. As I am on the community team I only take cases that would have seen around three months worth of work from my colleagues in duty.

"There were also several comments about what my caseloads might be. So for those who are still curious, Toby was my first major case, allocated on my second day. During the months I was filmed I was dealing with between 11 and 17 other cases. 

"Now I am looking forward to watching my colleagues in episodes 2 and 3."

Foster carers should be paid annual fees and under-performing councils should have their fostering services taken over, according to a report published today.

The wide-ranging report, by the think-tank Policy Exchange, recommended "radical reform" of English and Welsh fostering services to address the national shortage of foster carers.

Annual fees should be paid to foster carers, based on their skills and experience, the report recommended. A top tier of the most experienced and highly trained foster carers should be created and the carers paid a formal salary.

Foster carers should be commissioned via anonymous bids from local authority placement teams and independent providers when a child enters care. This will ensure children's needs are prioritised above placement costs, the think-tank said.

It also recommended the government should intervene if councils are failing to commission suitable foster care placements. This could involve local authorities handing over their fostering services to independent providers.

Matthew Oakley, co-author of the report, said: "We desperately need to reform the current foster care system. We can start by overhauling a system that can put cost considerations before a child's needs and does not encourage enough families to become carers."

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, said: "The report correctly identifies a number of the difficulties with the current arrangements for commissioning foster care but very careful thought needs to be given to how best to solve this.

"We would urge caution before adopting a number of the recommendations."

Picture credit: Images_of_Money

Well that seems to have been the judgement of social workers in Hampshire who chose to put two children into local foster care rather than send them to Yorkshire to live with their aunt. The reason given: the children wouldn't be able to adapt to 'Yorkshire culture'.

According to reports, the children's aunt - who has now secured custody of the boy and girl following a nine-month legal battle - was deemed an appropriate carer by an independent social worker, but this was ignored by Hampshire social services.

The children's aunt reportedly said: "Their social worker decided that the children 'had grown up within the southern region and couldn't adapt to the change in area and culture'. Apparently, speaking with a Southern accent would cause 'difficulties and isolation'."

Although there's bound to be more to the case than meets the eye, the family's lawyer described it as "one of the most bizarre social services decisions I have ever come across".

He added that the case was "an extreme example of the challenges that many kinship carers face". Do you agree? Would you put a child into foster care rather than send them to live with family in a different part of the country? Have your say on CareSpace.

Picture credit: neate photos

As John Goldup, Ofsted's social care director, revealed exclusively to Community Care last month, the watchdog is hoping to make changes to its framework for inspecting adoption and fostering services - and has today launched a consultation for practitioners to respond to.

Among the changes being considered by Ofsted: cutting notice periods for inspections from two months to just 10 working days and developing a more proportionate approach to inspections, which could involve inspecting outstanding-rated services less frequently.

Inspectors will also be asked to devote more attention to inspecting the quality of services and the outcomes actually achieved for children and young people.

The consultation is open from today and runs until 31 August, with key findings published at the end of the year. The new inspection frameworks will come into force in April 2012, shaped by the consultation results and a series of pilot inspections. Read our full story here.