Agenda item

To consider a presentation giving an update on fostering services following the Ofsted inspection of the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Fostering Agency reported in March 2023.

RESOLVED: That the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommended that the relevant successor Overview and Scrutiny committee should seek to consider the following matters relating to provision for children in care:

·         The quality assurance framework and processes put in place to support effective operation of fostering services in future

·         The outcomes delivered by the Valuing Care project on opportunities to step down care placements

·         An overview of the operation of the multi-agency referral panel and of the decision-making panel for children entering local authority care, to include data on caseloads, decisions and the outcomes for young people

·         Data on the number of children in care from West Northamptonshire, broken down by relevant factors

·         An outline of any discussions between the Northamptonshire local authorities and the Department for Education about the long term future direction for the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust organisational model.

The Executive Director People Services advised that the agenda item was intended to set out the latest position on fostering services from WNC’s perspective following the recent Ofsted inspection.  Ofsted had done further work since that had not yet been published, although the item would give a sense of it.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services then presented an overview of the outcomes of the inspection and subsequent action, highlighting the following points:

·         Fostering was subject to a separate inspection in Northamptonshire as there was an independent fostering agency (IFA). In the past fostering was included in general Ofsted inspections.

·         The inadequate judgements by Ofsted in the 2023 inspection were clearly concerning.

·         Ofsted had identified some areas of strength, including the progress being made by some children, the commitment shown by foster carers and supervising social workers, and good initiatives such as carer celebration days and the introduction of virtual reality training.  However, there were issues with variability and consistency overall.

·         A key area for development identified by Ofsted concerned the need for the IFA to have a standalone information and recording system, such as CHARMS.  This would support better oversight of its effectiveness.  This was now being addressed.

·         Practice within the IFA needed to be more child-led and to focus more on the needs and progress of children rather than on those of carers.

·         Children were seen by social workers but not by supervising social workers at the same time as they saw foster carers.  This was now being addressed.

·         Other areas for development identified by Ofsted included the information about a child’s medical needs provided to foster carers; better safeguarding training; and better management of caseloads.

·         Two improvement plans had been developed since the inspection and would be subject to robust oversight by a new West Northamptonshire Corporate Parenting Board. Action had been taken to improve IFA performance monitoring, review key policies and practice guidance and implement an audit programme.

·         All children had been seen by a supervising social worker and were all safe.

·         Most social workers in the IFA had undertaken safeguarding training and this was in-place for foster carers.  There would be better tracking of training for both groups.

·         Staff recruitment was continuing, including for supervising social workers.

·         Ofsted had carried out a monitoring visit in April 2023 to check actions taken since the inspection.  The findings had not yet been published but Ofsted had indicated that it had seen some improvements.  Compliance notices would remain in place until a further visit in July 2023, which was not unusual.

·         The key focus now needed to be on maintaining the focus on child-led practice and on regular oversight and assurance of overall progress.  As recruitment progressed there could be more focus on retention existing staff.

The Executive Director People Services made the following points:

·         WNC, North Northamptonshire Council and Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) all agreed that it was not acceptable to have an IFA that was rated as inadequate.  This was not a reflection of what social workers were doing on a daily basis but on the overall service.

·         Fostering needed to be valued more in Northamptonshire than it had been previously, which would also contribute to reducing expenditure on out-of-county placements.

·         The new West Northamptonshire Corporate Parenting Board would play a key role in overseeing the effectiveness of services and targeting improvement action.

The Committee considered the presentation.  Members made the following points during the course of discussion:

·         The IFA needed to be able to offer foster carers a good experience or they would take up the option of moving to an agency.

·         NCT did not operate a traditional IFA-style model.

·         There had been a significant change in information-recording requirements for foster carers in Northamptonshire.  This was unreasonable as it could affect their legal protection.

·         NCT was focussing on the Signs of Safety model but no training on this focussed on foster carers was available.

·         The size of caseloads was a key issue as this would affect capacity to deal effectively with individual cases.

·         Other local authorities were able to provide foster carers with a more bespoke training package that helped to attract them and enabled training to be pitched differently for the recipient’s particular situation.

·         Councillors needed to be able to take more confidence that current actions would achieve necessary outcomes and to know more about the timescales and costs involved.  There should be a clear ‘you said; we did approach’ to responding to the Ofsted inspection.

·         It was questioned why NCT had not been in a better position at the time of the Ofsted inspection: whether it had not anticipated the negative conclusions or had but thought performance would be rated higher.

·         Overview and Scrutiny should play a part in ensuring that areas for development were being addressed effectively.  Processes needed to ensure, for example, that the issue of children not being seen by supervising social workers did not reoccur. 

·         Consideration should be given to using resources spent on out-of-county placements for more residential provision if this would be beneficial.

·         It was very concerning that some looked after children saw residential care as preferable to being in a family environment.  This needed to be rebalanced.

·         The number of young people now coming into care under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, because their parents could not cope or the young person requested it, was a concern and added to overall demand on the care system.  There should be more support to prevent a situation reaching this point.

·         The presentation showed a good understanding of the current situation and commitment to improve that could give councillors confidence.

The Executive Director People Services and the Deputy Director of Children’s Services provided additional information in response to points raised by members during the course of discussion as follows:

·         There were no plans at this point to have separate fostering services in the west and the north: it was oversight of the service that was being separated.

·         There were 480 children in in-house foster placements and 346 children in agency placements in Northamptonshire.  The average weekly cost of these placements was £328 and £945 respectively, which demonstrated the importance of maximising in-house capacity.

·         Foster carers often received similar recompense from an agency as from an in-house service.  Agency overheads were what increased the cost.

·         16 fostering households was a typical average caseload for a supervising social worker.  The IFA was currently above this but recruitment would help to address the situation.

·         The organisation of the IFA was subject to the statutory direction that established NCT.  The model could not be changed until services had achieved a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted.  Even then, a decision to split up NCT would have a massive impact.  It would be helpful to have a continuing dialogue with the Department for Education about the direction and long term vision for the children’s trust model to reflect this.

·         The way in which NCT had been created had tended to create barriers between it and the local authorities in the county.  These were now being broken down again and there was a much stronger sense that the two local authorities needed to work with NCT to improve performance.

·         Points raised concerning Signs of Safety training and information-recording for foster carers would be raised with NCT.  The introduction of a CHARMS system would assist foster carers.

·         Caseloads were sometimes lower for agencies than for in-house fostering as agencies covered a larger geographical area and so had to allow for more travel time.

·         NCT had been anticipating a critical outcome from the 2023 Ofsted inspection but not to the degree that occurred.  However, the need for better oversight of effectiveness had been addressed since the moment that Ofsted had left.

·         WNC operated the Valuing Care project to look opportunities to step down care placements.  It also worked actively with NCT on options for future residential care provision.

·         There were currently approximately 1,200 children from Northamptonshire in residential care placements.  The total had recently been at the lowest level seen for some time.

·         NCT had a good education service that worked with young people to help them not to reach the point where they need to come into care.  Decisions about taking a young person into care and when they could leave again should be subject to robust consideration.  Young people remaining in care was more of an issue in Northamptonshire and was the focus of current work by NCT.

·         Placements with wider family members were considered at an early stage.  There could be more use of this approach in Northamptonshire but it was certainly used.

The Executive Director People Services highlighted the knowledge and influence that the Deputy Director of Children’s Services had brought to WNC since taking up the role, which added to the oversight of children’s services performance and development.

The Committee considered potential conclusions and further action on the item.  The Committee was advised that any recommendations concerning future scrutiny of this topic could be made directly to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny committee.  It was also highlighted that councillors who were not appointed to the new committee responsible for scrutinising children’s services were still likely to have some opportunities to contribute to its work.  

RESOLVED: That the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommended that the relevant successor Overview and Scrutiny committee should seek to consider the following matters relating to provision for children in care:

·         The quality assurance framework and processes put in place to support effective operation of fostering services in future

·         The outcomes delivered by the Valuing Care project on opportunities to step down care placements

·         An overview of the operation of the multi-agency referral panel and of the decision-making panel for children entering local authority care, to include data on caseloads, decisions and the outcomes for young people

·         Data on the number of children in care from West Northamptonshire, broken down by relevant factors

·         An outline of any discussions between the Northamptonshire local authorities and the Department for Education about the long term future direction for the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust organisational model.