One senses the world of Fostering is in a state of ferment. Key reports will be making their findings known later in the year; alongside this, initiatives such as the ‘Mockingbird’ model are likely to have a transformative effect. What remains crucially important, however, is the level of support available for young people leaving care. A brief history is useful: before the ‘Leaving Care Act’ of 2000, a statutory framework for care leavers did not exist. It was left to individual local authorities to judge what level of support they would provide. Obviously, to coin a phrase, this made it something of a postcode lottery as to what a young person might expect by way of support. Predictably enough, with no nationally defined rules as to what might be an adequate level of support, the bulk of care leavers leaving fostering received only minimal assistance. The Act of 2000, set out for the very first time, certain requirements local authorities had to observe. These were to –
make an assessment of the young person’s needs once they left care,
develop a ‘Pathway Plan’,
appoint a Personal Adviser.
These measures made available support for young people leaving fostering behind up to the age of 18, or to 21 if the individual concerned was in education.
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Subsequent legislation affecting fostering and care provision – post 18
The ‘Children and Young Persons Act’ of 2008 brought in some more provisions. These obligated local authorities to provide assistance to care leavers in education: this included a £2,000 bursary that could be claimed by those in higher education. in addition, extended support could be accessed from a Personal Adviser to the age of21 for all care leavers; and then to age 25 if they decided to remain in education.
Fostering and changes made in the last Parliament
There were three further important developments made during the period of the last Parliament – all aimed at improving the quality of the support available to care leavers.
The first ever cross-government care leaver strategy was published in 2013. This recognised the urgent need to make sure that government worked coherently across the various agencies to fully appreciate the needs of care leavers holistically. A number of changes to policies and practices were instigated to provide better support. Included were measures to identify care leavers in order for them to receive ‘tailored support’. An example of this was the introduction of a special ‘marker’ by Jobcentre Plus so that care leavers could actually be identified, and offered help such as access to the Work Programme as soon as they became unemployed.
A ‘Staying Put’ duty was introduced in the 2014 ‘Children and Families Act’. Under this, if a young person had been in a fostering home, local authorities were required to support them in order to remain with their foster carers to the age of 21. This had to be where both parties were happy for the arrangement to continue. The idea behind this was to allow young people a greater sense of continuity in their care programme as well as offer a more gradual transition to adulthood.
The creation of a new inspection framework for children’s social care in 2014. For the first time this could make a detailed judgement on the quality of support being made available to youngsters leaving care.
The government has recorded their determination to instigate the widest reaching reforms to the provision of social care for children in a generation. The goal is to create a system that is –
“staffed and led by the best trained professionals; dynamic and free to innovate in the interests of children; with less bureaucracy; new checks and balances designed to hold the system to account in the right ways; and new ways to intervene where services consistently fail some of
the most vulnerable in our society.”*
HM Government ‘Keep On Caring Supporting Young People from Care to Independence’ July 2016
Fostering reality to be measured
The Strategy ‘Putting Children First’ was published on the 4th of July 2016 was designed to set out how these important goals are to be achieved. The aim of creating a system “staffed and led by the best trained professionals; dynamic and free to innovate in the interests of children” could well prove to have been a hostage to fortune. But we are not that far into 2017, so to a certain extent, the jury must remain out. They may only be straws as in the wind, but it only takes one or two examples to suggest this lofty goal may not be as close to realisation as we; and presumably the report’s authors, would wish us to be. I would cite our last blog as just such an example: it details a rather unseemly dispute between foster carers and a local authority involving a union which is all rather reminiscent of the industrial feuds of yesteryear. I am not sure that these foster carers view themselves as ‘dynamic and free to innovate’ – some way yet to go…
And the good news at the end of this rainbow…another spate of birthdays to celebrate for
our children.
Follow up on our ‘Rewards’ bonus scheme.
Our agency will pay a bonus of £500 if you are currently fostering and in a position to refer someone to be a carer with Rainbow. Once your referral has been approved, and their first placement made, the money we will make the payment to you. If you are already an approved carer – and have a long term placement, you can transfer to Rainbow and get a bonus. We also give support and guidance for transferring – a straightforward process. We can also advise on a whole range of issues such as foster carer pay: how long does it take to become a foster carer? Or even what is fostering? We can also provide information on how much do private fostering agencies pay? As well as the fostering allowance.
If you are a carer: please make sure you check out our news section
Please remember to visit our special news section on Rainbow’s web site. There are many articles of interest if you are involved in fostering children. Simply visit http://bit.ly/2e8PrIK
Fostering and leaving care
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