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3. What do children and young people tell us they need from fostering and kinship care?
3.1 It is not surprising that the messages from research identifying what children and young people who are in foster care or kinship care want, are consistent.
3.2 Like any child, they want to feel safe. They want to be loved and nurtured in a home environment. They want the opportunity to enjoy school; to have fun with their family and friends and to have access to sport, leisure and cultural activities. They want to feel just like any other child. They want to feel normal.
3.3 The long-term goal of the National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy will be to achieve safe, stable and secure placements for all children and young people by getting the placement right first time. Our starting point for analysing how this can be achieved is to take on board what children and young people consistently tell us. We have set out below what we describe as the key requirements of children and young people for a safe, stable and secure placement.
3.4 Interestingly, the research suggests that these requirements are relevant for living either with a foster carer or a kinship carer.
Getting the placement right first time
3.5 When a child or young person knows and understands that they must be moved from their parents, however temporarily, they are likely to express a strong preference to live with a member of their family or a friend. Whether or not this is possible, they want to be given general reassurance about what is happening and how they will get a say in the current move and how it develops. They want to know details about their future carers and the home environment that they are moving to. They want to know how they will keep in touch with their parents, their siblings and other members of their family and how long they may be away. They want to know about arrangements for staying at school; keeping in touch with friends and attending out of school activities. This is achieved for many children but a substantial minority report that it is not.
3.6 A significant proportion of children in England (65% according to The Office of the Children's Rights Director's report, Being Fostered, June 2005) say they had no choice of home at all when they moved to their present foster home and said they wanted to get their placement right first time. We discuss the need to build the capacity of fostering services at section 4. However, this confirms that the efforts of fostering services and of those securing arrangements for kinship care placements to focus and concentrate their efforts on getting the assessment of both the child or young person and of their foster or kinship carer right is the correct way forward. Local authorities and independent agencies need to review consistently whether the assessment process is sufficiently robust and the most appropriately qualified and experienced staff are carrying out this assessment and matching process.
3.7 In the National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy we intend to set out proposals for: improving the links between the assessment of the needs of the child or young person and the process used to assess the abilities and qualities of foster carers to meet the needs of children and young people; and improving the ways in which the qualities and competencies of the foster or kinship carer are matched to the needs of the child or young person.
3.8 We recognise that there will be times when an emergency placement is necessary. In which case, the matching process should ensure that the foster care resource available can meet the needs of this very demanding role and situation. Nevertheless, this goal of improving the matching process should aim to ensure that the planned placement is right first time.
3.9 We recognise that the system currently lacks the flexibility and capacity for this to be possible for all children and young people. Local areas do not have sufficiently large or diverse pools of foster carers at present. In order to achieve expansion of the pool of foster carers, a range of options is likely to be required. These options could, for example, include payment of retainers to the foster carer to keep space available for sibling groups or identifying a group of carers with specific skills with troubled teenagers.
3.10 There are also similar issues in relation to kinship carers, which we discuss at section 5.
3.11 We seek your views on creating the right conditions to enable improved matching of placements to the needs of children and young people:
- Do you think that setting a maximum number of placements for each foster carer would improve the fostering experience of the child?
- If introduced, setting a maximum number of placements would need to be phased in. What, in your opinion, would be a realistic timeframe for this?
- Are you aware of any examples of good practice that demonstrate how best to involve the child or young person in the choice of placement?
- How do you think that the matching process could be improved (for instance, by combining the expertise of child protection and family placement services, or by using family group conferencing)?
Maintaining the stability and security of the placement
3.12 Quality assessment and a comprehensive care plan is the cornerstone for setting foster care or kinship care within the wider context of decisions about the child or young person's living arrangements. It will set out how the safety, stability and security of the child or young person will be maintained and ensure that the placement is successful. However, some children and young people do not feel the care plan reflects routinely their needs and priorities.
3.13 Consideration of how contact with the parents and the wider family can be managed is crucial to the best interests of the child or young person. It matters to children and young people that they will not lose contact with their parents, their siblings or other family members. Building in appropriate contact with all those family members who are important to the child is crucial if the child is to feel reassured by being placed with foster carers, family or friend carers and to build security and stability for the child. The assessment and care plan must reflect this requirement. These needs should be identified under the Getting it Right for Every Child assessment, record and plan, which should be drawn up in consultation with children and carers.
3.14 When assessments are made, contact with the wider family must also be considered. Children and young people recognise the impact and effect of such contact and the assessment of their needs should reflect that, as appropriate. with the wider family needs to be assessed and reviewed. Older children and young people are also able to understand and support a decision stating that contact would be unsafe. Some children and young people state they can find contact stressful and damaging and would prefer it to cease or to be minimal. This suggests that contact must be well planned, supported and reviewed.
3.15 Taking the child's needs and views fully into account is crucial. They must feel able to express concerns safely and to discuss their views on how contact can be managed safely, if at all. Listening to the views of the carers with whom the child is placed about the impact of contact on the child is also essential.
The support of the lead professional
3.16 All children living in foster care or kinship care are likely to need the support of a number of agencies. Because of this, Getting it Right for Every Child has identified the need for a lead professional. In addition to the support they receive within their home, the lead professional will help them know someone is on their side and looking out for their best interests, someone who can link up all the various aspects of the life the child feels they may have left behind and who can help provide consistency and support for them in their placement and meeting any other needs and someone who can work with the child and their carer to identify their needs and the support required to meet these needs. Essentially, the child or young person (and indeed their carer) needs to be assured that their plan will identify their needs and that these needs will be met. This is best provided by the child's lead professional and through the agreed plan, which should be understood and "owned" by the child; reviewed as required and adapted to meet the child's needs.
3.17 A consistent theme in relevant research is that children and young people, and indeed their carers, greatly value this role but again a substantial minority state that there are too frequent changes in the social worker that they see and that they do not see a social worker often enough, when they need this. They need a stable presence in their life and this is the role the lead professional should be undertaking.
3.18 The lead professional will have responsibility for ensuring that the plan is delivered, which will involve all those who have a part to play, such as education and health. In order to achieve this, the lead professional must be given authority, responsibility and accountability and be supported by all the relevant organisations to negotiate and work with the range of appropriate bodies to secure the specific services and additional activities that the child or young person needs, whether or not the child or young person is the subject of a supervision requirement. The child's school, the local health services and others would be expected to support the lead professional to deliver this on behalf of the child or young person.
3.19 Foster carers and kinship carers also have a vital and equal role to play as part of this team. It may be appropriate on occasions to delegate authority to the carer to identify how a child or young person's needs can best be met, for example contracting with a tutor or identifying an out of school activity.
Transition to adulthood and independent living
3.20 The foster carer and kinship carer play a crucial role in preparing a young person for adulthood and independence. Ideally, young people would remain in foster care until their 18th birthday. If they want to remain beyond this, and once they are no longer subject to a supervision requirement, they should be able to do so, if this is in their best interests and the foster carer or kinship carer feels able and is willing to continue their support.
3.21 Anecdotally, many young people return to their parent once they leave foster care. Some will choose this option and it will be in their best interests; others may feel they have no other option. The need for care planning and support before and during this process of transition to support the choices of the young person, is essential. Without this, too many young people may fall between the gaps and not be able to take full advantage of education and training opportunities. Critically, a small number may slip into persistent offending patterns or substance misuse. Therefore, if their choice is to remain with their foster carer and this is feasible, we will identify what is necessary to facilitate this choice.
3.22 The National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy will refresh the existing guidance on throughcare and aftercare arrangements to address how we can best achieve a more stable transition to adulthood and independent living for every young person who is in foster care or a kinship care arrangement. This will include transitions from residential care to foster care or kinship care or from foster or kinship care to supported accommodation.
3.23 The forthcoming report on improving the educational outcomes of looked after children identifies a comprehensive range of actions to support a young person's transition from care into independent living and it states that it is essential that a young person has access to relevant information about education, employment, training, finances and health, etc. All of these will also need to be taken into account by carers and authorities.
- What improvements or changes must be made to the current arrangements to enable young people to stay in their foster home beyond their 18th birthday, if they wish, or if it is appropriate?
The changing statutory position of children and young people in foster care or living with kinship carers
3.24 At the time of writing, further legislative changes are being considered by Parliament through the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill. This proposes a new court order called a permanence order. The permanence order will provide increased stability for children who cannot live with their family and will be flexible enough to cater for the individual needs of such children.
3.25 The permanence order will replace freeing orders and parental responsibilities orders. A court will be able to allocate parental responsibilities and rights between a local authority, foster carers, kinship carers and parents, as it sees fit in the best interests of the child. The right to regulate a child's residence will always lie with the local authority, but other parental responsibilities and rights can lie with other parties. This recognises that for many children parents will continue to play a role in their life, even if they cannot live with them. It also recognises that foster carers are often best placed to make the day-to-day decisions about the child.
3.26 We recognise, like any new arrangement, permanence orders will need to be publicised and explained to children and young people, foster carers, kinship carers and those responsible for implementing the system, such as social work departments and the judiciary. It will be very important that the role of permanence orders in the range of options for a child or young person, from adoption to temporary or respite care is understood by all. The Executive will promote a range of training and information measures as part of the process of implementing the Bill, should it be passed by the Parliament. This will ensure this order is fully used for all children and young people who could benefit.
Amendments to regulations
3.27 The Scottish Executive has made clear its commitment to amend the Arrangements to Look After Children Regulations 1996 and the Fostering of Children (Scotland) Regulations 1996. 2
- We invite comments on the proposed amendments as set out at Annex A.
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