National Fostering Agency Group annual conference 2017

Valuing what matters
Lisa Pascoe, Deputy Director, Social Care Policy
11 May 2017
Foster care - May 2017

Today is all about what matters
To children
To foster carers
To you
Foster care- May 2017

 The majority of looked after
children live in foster care
 Nearly 6,000 children in England
live in children’s homes

Care can be good for children
 The narrative needs to change
− Children that come into care – particularly foster care – at the right time,
tend to do better in their education compared to other groups of children,
such as children in need.
 83% felt that being in care had improved their lives
 Compared with peers, more looked-after children:
− felt safe at home
− liked school
− felt their carers were interested in their education
but, more likely to have low well-being.

What matters to children?

Children need to understand why they
came into care
84
children’s homes (1091 responses) fostering (1293 responses)
4%90%
90% 4%
Yes NoYes No
84% 7%
I have been helped to understand why I am in care
Slide 6
Most children told us they understand why they came into care

Helping children to understand why they
came into care is important work

Children can find moving into a new home
to be a difficult experience
Around one in three children told us they
didn’t receive useful information before they
moved in or had a short break with their foster
family
(1402 total responses)
Around one in four children told us they didn’t
receive useful information before they
moved in or had a short break at their children’s
home
Children don’t always get told things about their new home

Even fewer children get to visit the home
they will be moving into
Some children already knew their foster carers because they
were family members or people they had visited for short
breaks; this may be why the figures are lower when compared
to children’s homes.
Around one in three children told us they weren’t able to
visit their children’s home before they moved in or had a
short break
Around half of children told us they weren’t able to visit
their foster family before they moved in or had a short break

Finding things out beforehand help children

 Some children didn’t know anything
about their new home or who they
would be living with before they
moved in.
 Some told us they didn’t find
anything out because their move
was unplanned or they couldn’t
visit because their new home was
too far away.

Children need to be able to build
relationships with adults they can trust
Children told us that when other people have picked on them or upset them,
staff or foster carers have helped them deal with difficult situations by:
offering support and reassurance
talking to those involved
contacting the school (where necessary) to get the situation resolved
taking action to stop it from happening again.

Children want to feel part of their foster family
Although most children feel like they fit in with their foster family, those who don’t told us that
some of the reasons why were because:
their foster family is too different from their own family and they don’t feel like they belong
their foster family isn’t their ‘real’ family
of their own behaviour.
I feel like I fit in with my foster family
80% 94% 1%
All the time All/most of
the time
Never

When children don’t feel as being part of
the foster family

Children rely on the adults caring for them
to help keep them safe
I feel safe inside my foster home
I feel safe inside the children’s home
93% 99% <1%
All the time NeverAll/most
the time
the time
70% 92% <1%
Children living in foster homes told us they feel safer than those
living in children’s homes

Children told us they still feel less safe
outside their home
I feel safe outside my foster home
(1406 responses in total)
65% 92% 1%
the time
66% 91% <1%
I feel safe outside the children’s home
(1356 responses)
the time

We asked children to tell us more about
why they don’t feel safe outside their home
Some of the reasons they gave were:
because of the location of their home and the surrounding area
they were worried about strangers
they might come into contact with members of their birth family
they don’t feel safe in school, for example because of bullying
because of certain places, for example areas they aren’t familiar with
or busy places.

Children need adults to teach them how to
be safe
Children told us that staff or foster carers help them to stay safe by:
spending time with them, always being around and doing activities with them
keeping in contact with them when they are out and checking who they are with
having rules in place, for example curfews
asking about their day and if they have any worries or concerns
providing helpful advice, for example about making good decisions, being aware
of strangers and staying safe online
making sure they are physically safe, such as by helping them with road safety or
ensuring that any equipment they rely on, for example wheelchairs or safety
harnesses, is used properly.

How children are helped to stay safe

Children staying with foster carers told us
that they have less chance to talk to
someone independent about being missing
When children had the opportunity, they talked to independent organisations such as
Barnardos or Catch-22, or their social worker or the police.
Did you have the chance to talk to someone
independent about being missing
(fostering 170 total responses)
66% 29%
Yes No
81% 13%
Did you have the chance to talk to someone
independent about being missing
(children’s homes 454 total responses)
Yes No

Listening and being there

What matters to foster carers?

What do foster carers tell us matters?
Foster carers want to be:
treated as professionals
considered key members of professional team around the child
given good information
well-trained
valued (which includes suitable remuneration)
able to access to 24-hour support

Leadership matters

Creating environments where social work
can flourish

The social care common
inspection framework (SCCIF)

Consultation and pilots
We consulted on:
a new approach to inspections of local authority children’s services from
2018
a new common inspection framework for all social care establishments,
agencies, boarding schools, residential special schools and further
education colleges (residential provision) we inspect from April 2017
changes to inspections of independent fostering agencies (IFAs), including
a shorter notice period for inspections and earlier returns to IFAs judged as
less than good.

Consultation and pilots
 We had 218 replies to the online consultation.
 We had meetings/webinars/events with 250+ individuals, including:
− children and young people
− providers
− representative groups, e.g. ADCS, Alliance for Children in Care,
LandEx, National IRO managers group
− social workers
− foster carers.
 We conducted eight pilot inspections testing the SCCIF and short notice
inspections of independent fostering agencies (four IFA pilots).

Our response to the consultation and pilots
 A reduced notice period for independent fostering agencies – now two
working days.
 Common judgement structure:
− overall experiences and progress of children and young people, taking
into account
− how well children are helped and protected
− the effectiveness of leaders and managers.
 Evaluation criteria amended to take account of feedback.
 We will re-inspect IFAs judged as inadequate within 6-12 months, and
IFAs judged as requires improvement within 12-18 months.

Inspection – a mirror to what matters
 Do you know what matters to children and act on it?
 Do you know what matters to your foster carers and act on it?
 Do you know what matters to your staff and act on it?
 Are children’s progress and the quality of their experiences at
the heart of your thinking and your action?
If you get four yeses then you are through to the next round…

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National Fostering Agency Group annual conference 2017

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National Fostering Agency Group annual conference 2017