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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Background overview
1 The consultation on "National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy" was published by the Scottish Executive on 6 th December 2006 and ran until 16 th February 2007.
2 Findings from the analysis of consultation responses will be used to determine the direction and content of the final strategy.
3 The consultation booklet posed a series of questions divided into 5 main sections:
- What do children and young people tell us they need from fostering and kinship care?;
- Meeting the needs of foster carers;
- Family and friend carers - "Kinship carers";
- Private fostering arrangements;
- Fostering services, including kinship care - planning for the next 20 years.
Overview of CONSULTEES
4 A total of 111 responses to the consultation were analysed, comprising 48 responses from individuals and 59 responding on behalf of an organisation. In 4 of the responses the respondent type was not given. In addition, the Fostering Network ran 16 events, for foster carers, kinship carers and those working in the area of fostering, at 6 locations across Scotland. The information presented in the 16 documents produced after the meetings has been incorporated in our analysis and reporting. Although there were no responses received directly from young people, one response did present the views of young people who had taken part in a consultation exercise run by the Fostering Network's Young People's Project. Thirty-eight young people with experience of foster care participated in 5 meetings across Scotland and a response was submitted incorporating their comments.
5 Among the organisations responding, the largest number of responses received was from Local Authorities (24%).
OVERVIEW OF RESPONSES
6 Across this consultation, a number of key themes emerged time and time again. The following paragraphs outline some of the more frequently mentioned. Across the proposals posed in the consultation paper, of those providing definitive "yes" or "no" answers, there were generally higher levels of support for each proposal. However, significantly high proportions of respondents did not provide definitive answers to each question. In these cases, we have tried, wherever possible, to identify an answer as either a positive, negative or mixed from the comments given, in order to quantify as many consultation responses as possible.
7 The themes occurring most frequently across the range of consultation questions included:
- funding and financial support;
- support for foster carers;
- support for kinship carers;
- support for children and young people;
- the need for more carers;
- suggested methods of recruitment.
Funding and financial support
8 There were comments at many of the questions on the need for financial support. Issues included the need for extra funding to local authorities to enable them to provide training to carers and funding for a range of support services was also seen as necessary. Increased financial assistance for carers, and in particular financial support for kinship carers, emerged as one of the key themes in consultation responses.
Support for carers
9 The provision of respite was identified as crucial in supporting carers as was the need for 24 hour support. A wide variety of areas in which carers would benefit from training were suggested; those suggested most frequently included:
- child protection;
- attachment, loss or resilience training;
- child development;
- safe caring;
- first aid;
- managing challenging behaviour;
- record keeping and report writing.
10 There were also some comments that there needs to be more support for kinship carers and that they do not receive the same levels of support or regulatory provision as foster carers.
Increasing the pool of available carers
11 Responses indicated a need for an increased pool of available carers, particularly if some of the proposed changes are accepted; as well as more social work or other professional staff to provide assessment and support to both carers and to children and young people.
Recruitment
12 Word of mouth was seen as an ideal way of recruiting carers with existing carers seen as the ideal people to promote foster care. There were some suggestions for local authorities and /or other organisations to pool resources in order to create larger regional or national recruitment campaigns to back up those at a local level. Responses from those consultees who reported that they had run a campaign indicated that more of these had proved successful in attracting and sustaining applications than had not.
Specific support for kinship carers
13 Kinship carers were seen to have different needs from foster carers in terms of support and training with a small number of comments that the two types of care should be dealt with in separate strategies.
14 Kinship carers are often older and may be on low incomes but do not receive the same levels of financial support available to foster carers. Support in dealing with the bureaucracy and legal problems was also seen as important, as was support in coping with the needs of the child or young person in their care.
Support for children and young people
15 There were calls for greater involvement of children and young people within the fostering process; for example, to have early contact with potential carers, to have greater involvement in family group conferences and so on. There was a feeling that this is not being fully achieved at present due to a lack of resources, both staff and financial. There was widespread support for allowing young people to remain with their foster carer after the age of 18; financial support would again be required to enable this to happen.
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