Response to the Future of Foster Care Consultation
Our Vision
What are your views on our vision for foster care?
Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) is part of the British Association of Social Work (BASW), the largest professional body for social workers in the UK. SASW’s key aims are:
- Improved professional support, recognition and rights at work for social workers,
- Better social work for the benefit of people who need our services, and
- A fairer society
We believe that children have a right to safe, responsive care provided by carers who are trained and equipped to support children with often very complex needs. While we largely support the vision for foster care, we also recognise the need for significant investment in recruitment, training and support of foster carers to ensure a high-quality level of care for children and young people.
Flexible fostering approach
What are your views on the proposed flexible fostering approach?
Flexibility and creativity in how we use foster carers is welcome and, in some places, we feel even more innovation could be brought to foster care drawing on learning from services across Europe. Care should be given to recruitment, training and supervision of foster carers particularly where the role expands to closer work with families in their home settings. This type of work requires particular skills and knowledge along with clear boundaries especially given families on the edge of care can have chaotic lives and very complex needs. Not all foster carers will be able to provide flexible fostering. Consequently, close relationships between foster carers and their supervising social workers are essential in order to assess their potential correctly to prevent breakdowns. The role of social workers, with their unique skills and training, in the selection, training and support of foster carers, and in the planning and support of children’s plans cannot be underestimated.
What are your views on the seven different elements in the flexible fostering approach?
We believe that a more flexible approach to fostering is welcome. This, however, would need to be fully resourced both in the recruitment and training of foster carers, and in the resourcing of social workers in fostering teams and in child protection teams. Current vacancy rates in child protection services mean that social workers are operating with high caseloads and little time for the careful assessment and planning work required to successfully support families and foster carers. The proposals create a greater degree of complexity, and risk, for families and foster carers and these risk factors need careful consideration.
In principle, the concept of foster carers moving into training and mentoring roles is a sound one. Very often foster carers stop providing care because they have become burned out by their caring duties, have had difficult experiences of families or services and need to stop for their own wellbeing. In such cases it would be inappropriate to ask them to offer peer support, and indeed they may be unable to do so in a constructive, supportive way. Given this, peer supporters would need debriefing, training and ongoing support and monitoring to ensure they didn’t move into a peer support role at a time when they needed rest and recovery. Any peer support should be an additional support working alongside supervising social workers, not a replacement for professional support and supervision.
Considerations of safety need to be a priority for any extended role which requires foster carers to attend the homes of families who need support. Families who need support often have complex needs with lives that can be unpredictable and chaotic. We consider it inappropriate to have foster carers potentially living with families who need support, this would create a very complex dynamic where the foster carer has a professional role while working in families' homes for a prolonged period of time. Considerations of safety, privacy and dignity for both the family and the foster carer are challenging and safeguarding issues are complex.
A shared care arrangement might be preferable to a foster carer staying in a family home. Parents might be able to provide a loving environment for their children but are struggling with some basics of care e.g. nursery/school routines, bedtimes, ensuring hygiene etc. In such cases it might be beneficial for children to reside with foster carers during the week and with their parents at weekends. Such an arrangement might be helpful in view of reunification.
While flexibility in fostering arrangements is welcome, and can provide innovative supports for families, this should not compromise the safety of children and young people who need a more robust approach to safeguarding and protection.
Consideration also needs to be given to the legal status of children where families are in receipt of flexible fostering services, e.g. would this be provided on voluntary basis under a child protection plan, or as part of the provision of a Compulsory Supervision Order giving the child Looked After status.
What implications does a flexible fostering approach have for how fostering is funded and how foster carers are remunerated?
Foster carers currently have self-employed status, which means there are clear financial implications for extending their role beyond providing residential childcare. We believe foster carers should have employed status either with the local authority or Independent Fostering Agency to secure their financial status and to ensure quality of care provision, this however would have significant financial implications for care providers.
Should foster carers retain self-employed status consideration needs to be given to how additional support services provided by foster carers will be remunerated. Would this be at the same rate as would be paid if the foster carer had the child living with them, or at a lesser rate, which may make the role less sustainable.
We are unclear how flexibility in foster caring fits with intensive family support services which are provided under the terms of the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding. There is the potential for duplication of support and funding where intensive family support is provided alongside a flexible fostering service particularly at points of transition from child protection plan to Compulsory Supervision Order. At present workers providing intensive family support are securely employed by local authority or third sector employers. It is reasonable to think that extended fostering roles might be attractive to family support workers who might then move from secure employment to self-employment as a foster carer, which is inconsistent with Fair Work Principles.
Consideration also needs to be given regarding financial support for parents to make a potential reunification or at least family time a success. Parents’ benefits awards regarding their children might have ceased whilst the children are officially looked after creating significant hardship. Financial support might need to be provided should the children spend some of the time with their parents.
How can the Scottish Government, working with you, support the delivery of the flexible fostering approach?
Not applicable
Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs)
What is the role of Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) in the future of fostering?
Foster care provided through local authorities has the advantage that children and foster carers are well known and therefore better-informed judgments can be made regarding a potential match between a child and a foster carer. Communication is often better within the network around the child if foster carer and social worker belong to the same agency.
Another advantage obviously is that the child will be placed within its own local authority whilst a placement with an IFA might be far away from their connections.
Independent Fostering Agencies can have a place in providing specialist placements for children with complex needs, who have struggled in mainstream placements. They can also provide flexibility which is much needed within the sector. As such there is a need for IFAs, however, their use can also create a degree of competition particularly around recruitment and retention of foster carers through their ability to pay higher fees to foster carers. They can therefore be an expensive way to provide care. This is a concern as children may be moved from a successful, secure placement when it is deemed to be too expensive for local authority care budgets.
Should we require all IFAs to have charitable status? Please explain.
IFAs should be required to hold charitable status as this ensures that any profit made is brought back into providing care services for children, which is consistent with the Promise’s principle that organisations should not make a profit providing care for children.
Should we limit how much local authorities can pay to IFAs? If so, why, and how would we do it?
Payment to care providers should be transparent with costs clearly accounted for. At present, there is a discrepancy between local authorities and IFAs in the amounts paid to foster carers and the supports available. This creates a disadvantage for local authorities in recruiting and retaining foster carers, who frequently are assessed and trained by the local authority and then transfer to an IFA for higher financial allowances. It is important that any review of foster care addresses this inequality.
Should IFAs be required to pay their foster carers the Scottish Recommended Allowance (SRA)?
The SRA should be the minimum paid to foster carers, with additional allowances for those offering specialist placements regardless of whether they are local authority or IFA. However, the SRA needs regular, potentially annual, reviewing to ensure the allowance rate is sufficient.
What more could be done nationally to support local authorities when paying for placements from IFAs (including forecasting, market shaping and procurement)?
Transparency of costs by IFAs is essential for the local authority to oversee the services provided to the child through their payments, ensuring that all their needs are adequately met.
Recruitment
What are your views on the ‘offer’ described above?
A coordinated, supported approach to recruitment and retention of foster carers is to be welcomed, particularly where this draws on existing knowledge about the barriers to someone becoming a foster carer.
What more can the Scottish Government and local authorities do to recruit foster carers? Please explain your answer. You may wish to share successes and challenges of recruitment of foster carers in your response.
There is a need for structural change in foster care which addresses employment status, professionalism, training and support. It will be difficult to change the nature of foster care without clarity about the offer to them, leading to difficulties in recruitment and retention. These issues therefore should be addressed as a priority.
Learning, development and practical support
What is your experience of the SSSC ‘Standard for Foster Care’, and do you find it helpful?
The SSSC Standard for Foster Care provides a useful framework for learning and development however, implementation has been inconsistent which greatly reduces its effectiveness.
Should there be a new national learning framework for foster carers which could also be a pathway for continuous development?
There is a need for investment in resources for training and teaching foster carers, this work often sits within the local authority social work teams which are overstretched. Investment needs to focus both on social workers having time and space for their own learning and development, which in turn they can draw on in training foster carers. A national learning framework will be ineffective without associated investment.
In order to ensure foster carers are taking up the offer of regular training it might be necessary for foster carers to be registered with the SSSC. However, further analysis is required to understand possible unintended consequences of such a development.
What more can the Scottish Government do to nationally support the learning and development of foster carers?
Foster care does not sit as an isolated part of our child care and protection system, understanding the links between foster carers, social workers, children’s hearings and universal services is key to creating a learning and development offer that supports foster carers. There is a need to look holistically at children services, with foster care as a part of that, rather than taking a siloed approach.
What, if any, specific support might be needed to ensure that foster care in Scotland is attuned to the unique and specific needs of infants and very young children?
Foster carers need to have a finely tuned understanding of attachment and developmental trauma, and a tool kit of flexible parenting approaches that support recovery and healing. While this would support infants and very young children, arguably the complexities of need for older children coming in to foster care require an equally attuned parenting approach. It is unhelpful to differentiate between infants and older children when thinking about caring needs. Training should draw on a wide range of theories relating to developmental trauma and should avoid taking a one size fits all approach.
What other practical support would help foster carers?
No response
What, if any, additional learning and development would be needed for the ‘flexible fostering’ approach?
The different approaches outlined in the flexible approach to fostering each have their own complexities and therefore different needs in terms of training and development. Each role development should have training that is tailored to those complexities focussing not just on the tasks required, but the value base and ethical considerations that are inherent in working at close proximity to families in crisis.
Financial Support
How effective is the current financial model for foster carers? Is there an alternative? Please explain your answer.
The current financial model for foster carers is ineffective, it leaves foster carers with financial uncertainty and can mean foster carers overstretch themselves at times to ensure their financial security. We believe foster carers should be employed by the local authority or IFA to provide care for children and young people. This would give a consistency of income and allow foster carers to provide high quality care without the worry of finances.
Do you think there should be national approach to fees for foster carers? Please explain your answer.
We believe foster carers should be employed, this would remove uncertainty or competition between local authorities and IFAs about fee levels.
When siblings are cared for in placements provided by different IFAs they can receive different allowances regarding pocket money, activities or presents. This can be difficult for children to understand and might have unintended consequences by making the child feel less worthy or impacting negatively on their sibling relationship.
Do you think there should be a national approach to additional payments? Please explain your answer.
Any additional payments should be transparent with clear criteria to outline when these should be paid.
Should the financial model for foster carers include a retainer fee for when a foster carer does not have a child placed with them? Please explain your answer.
There are many reasons for a carer not having a child placed with them. In the absence of employed foster carers, the consideration of providing a retainer may be appropriate in some cases and not in others. The challenges of foster care mean that some carers may feel unable to take a child on placement at a particular time, they may lack experience to receive a child with complex needs or have been injured by a child in their care. Each of these situations needs careful consideration as to whether a retainer might be paid. Taking a national approach might be beneficial in supporting retention of foster carers, however providing a retainer fee in all cases where a foster carer did not have a child in their care would increase costs associated with foster care and require further investment.
Do you think there should be a national approach for Continuing Care allowances and fees? Please explain your answer.
Foster carers offering continuing care should know what they will be paid for providing this care, a national approach would create consistency and predictability for young people and their carers.
Would an enhanced framework of transparency with a legal requirement, for example, on local authorities and independent fostering agencies to publish foster care allowances assist foster carers and wider recruitment and retention?
People who are considering becoming foster carers should know what they are likely to be paid, as such we believe local authorities and agencies should be required to publish their fee rates.
National Charter
What are your views on the proposal for a national charter of support for foster carers?
We do not consider a national charter would provide any meaningful change in status for foster carers and is unnecessary.
What else could national government do to increase the value, status and recognition of foster carers?
No response
Day to day decisions
Is the existing framework under which foster carers can make decisions clear?
While the existing framework is clear, the circumstances in which the framework is applied are often fluid and changeable. Ideally decisions would be made in conjunction with the child’s family and social worker, respecting the parent’s rights and responsibilities however, this is often challenging. More support should be offered to foster carers navigating decision making for children in their care.
Would further guidance, for example good practice, be helpful to support decision making for foster carers (sometimes called delegated decision making) be helpful? If yes, please explain what you’d like it to include.
Further guidance may be helpful however, no guidance document can encapsulate the legal, moral and ethical complexities of the landscape that foster carers operate in. There is really no substitute for professional support provided by experienced, knowledgeable social workers.
National Register of foster Carers
What are your views on a national register for foster carers in Scotland?
It is unclear that a national register of foster carers would bring significant benefits to children, young people or indeed foster carers. There may be benefit in exploring the registering of foster carers with SSSC, coupled with a requirement to complete CPD to retain registration. This would support training for foster carers while giving both oversight and professional standing to the role.
If a register is introduced where should the register be held?
Any registration of foster carers should sit with SSSC who already have structures and processes for registering the child care workforce.
What are your views on the potential to linking continuous professional development to a register?
Any registration process should include a requirement to complete CPD, there is little benefit to a registration process that does not have a CPD requirement.
What are your views on a national approach to foster care placement matching?
Matching children with foster carers is a sensitive, complex matter and is best undertaken by local teams who know the child and their particular needs and who also have knowledge of local foster carers and their abilities and strengths. Disruption of foster care placements is harmful to both the child and the foster carers and increases the possibility of future disruption to the child. It should be avoided as far as possible. A national approach to foster care matching simply would not have the flexibility to respond to immediate need and be nimble enough to cope with changing demand. The supportive relationships between social workers, foster carers and families are often instrumental to the success of a foster placement and should be retained where possible.
How can the Scottish Government support local authorities with resource planning of foster carers, including building an evidence base and data on placements, including those outside local areas?
Decisions regarding children in foster care are best made by people who have a good understanding of local resource with the aim of placing children as close to their home as possible. Scottish Government should continue to support local authorities by ensuring sufficient resources are available to enable them to access quality care services and by continuing research into evidence-based models of foster care.
Allegations
Should the Scottish Government update its guidance on managing allegations against foster carers? If yes, please explain what you’d like to see updated or added.
The current guidance was written in 2013 and should be updated in line with changes in legislation, policy and statutory guidance since this time.
What more can the Scottish Government do to ensure that allegations against foster carers are dealt with quickly and fairly?
The Scottish Government should ensure local authority social work teams are well resourced to both complete enquiries quickly and to offer support to the foster carer and child where allegations have been made.
Raising Concerns
Is there is a need for the Scottish Government to take action in this area? If so, please explain why and what would be helpful, for example best practice guidance?
No response
Wider Issues
Is there anything not covered in the consultation which impacts on fostering that you would like to tell us about, or take action on? E.g. housing, poverty etc
Children from the most deprived areas of Scotland are considerably more likely to be accommodated than children from more affluent areas. When a child is accommodated, the benefits paid to their birth family are reduced often creating considerable financial hardship leading to difficulties with family time and reunification. We believe the Scottish Government should continue to take action to reduce child poverty, and to explore financial arrangements for families where children have been accommodated.
Housing, and poor-quality housing is a factor in recruiting and retaining foster carers in local communities which enable children to live close to home while in alternative care. Foster carers may need support to find accommodation for larger sibling groups enabling them to live together rather than be separated from family members.
Children from the most deprived areas are 10 times more likely to be accommodated than children from affluent areas. Housing and poor housing is an important factor as well. Also foster carers need support with finding bigger accommodation to be able to take bigger sibling groups etc