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2 DELIVERING A CHILD-CENTRED APPROACH TO KINSHIP AND FOSTER CARE

Our vision for children

9. Our vision for all children in Scotland is that they will be responsible citizens, effective contributors, successful learners and confident individuals.

10. If they are to achieve this, they need to be:

Safe: protected from abuse, neglect or harm at home, at school and in the community.

Nurtured: having a nurturing place to live, in a family setting with additional help if needed or, where this is not possible, in a suitable care setting.

Healthy: having the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, access to suitable healthcare, and support in learning to make healthy and safe choices.

Achieving: being supported and guided in their learning and in the development of their skills, confidence and self-esteem at home, at school, and in the community.

Active: having opportunities to take part in activities such as play, recreation and sport which contribute to healthy growth and development, both at home and in the community.

Respected: having the opportunity, along with carers, to be heard and involved in decisions which affect them.

Responsible: having opportunities and encouragement to play active and responsible roles in their schools and communities and where necessary, having appropriate guidance and supervision and being involved in decisions that affect them.

Included: having help to overcome social, educational, physical and economic inequalities and being accepted as part of the community in which they live and learn.

Getting it right

11. Both the Scottish Government and local government support the stated intention in Getting it Right for Every Child that every child who needs it has the right package of support at the right time to achieve the outcomes set out above. In the case of looked after children, there will be an additional level of support provided by the local authority as corporate parent to help them achieve this vision.

12.Getting it Right for Every Child means ensuring children are supported in being involved and enabled to play a leading part in the assessment and decision-making processes in a manner which best fits the circumstances, their abilities, age, stage and best interests. Family members and those in the wider network are the main contributors but even when a child is looked after away from home, parents and carers are necessary contributors to any plan, unless there are good reasons to the contrary.

Getting the planning right

13. The child's plan should be centred on the views of the child, wherever possible, and draw on the strengths and contribution of the foster or kinship carer. It must identify the specific support required by the child and any additional support required by the carer to meet the child's needs. Research and good practice shows clear benefits of a back-up plan if the placement were to break down, or if the carer or child simply needs a short break.

14. The response to the consultation with young people on this strategy, backed up by several other research publications, highlights one clear message: they crave stability and security while in foster care. The child's plan should therefore focus on achieving an end goal of a permanent sustainable solution, whether a return to the birth parents, or a permanent kinship or foster care placement, or within residential care or through adoption; and on providing clarity, transparency and effective communication throughout.

15. In addition, the planning process must be flexible enough to incorporate changes that arise. For example, as children grow older, the more say they should have in their care plan to express preferences about who they are placed with; the nature of the household; where they go to school; the nature of contact with their parents, siblings and other family and friends, etc.

16. In summary, the child's plan and the decision-making process will be built on a shared set of general principles, which are:

• The child's needs at the centre.
• The child's views, wishes and experience are taken into account with the child engaged and involved in the planning process as far as appropriate and possible.
• Assessment and planning involves parents and those who care about the child, as far as safely possible.
• Strengths within the child's network are brought to bear in addressing needs and risks.
• Assessment and care planning in early prevention, in short break planning, in child protection, in reunification and in permanency planning is a collaborative exercise between the child, parent where possible, the carer and any other relevant professionals.
• Consideration of an independent advocate for the child. A range of models could be appropriate depending on the needs of the child and the strengths and capacity of the other relevant people in the child's life.

The role of Advocacy

Sally, 16, has lived in various care settings for five years. She is now in weekend foster care and lives at college during the week. Sally self-harmed when stressed. It recurred when the social worker reduced the weekday contact with her foster carer without Sally's consent. Her foster carer arranged advocacy in consultation with Sally.

With the advocacy worker's intervention, her social worker reinstated the weekday contact with her foster carer, arranged a care planning meeting and the overdue Looked After and Accommodated ( LAAC) review. He also agreed to consult Sally about her care plan. Sally was happy with the outcome and would contact the advocacy provider (Who Cares? Scotland) if she needed support in the future.

Strengthening the capacity of the family to look after a child if she or he is at risk of becoming looked after

17. Identifying at the earliest stage that the birth parents of a child may be struggling to look after the child in their care and building in support to prevent risks becoming realities, will be a cornerstone of the Early Years strategy that will be published next year.

18. We know that some local authorities already recognise the relevance of foster carers' skills to developing and strengthening family capacity and this is an area that could be further developed and where good practice could be shared amongst authorities and other agencies.

• The Scottish Government and local government will work together to explore how to build on best practice to strengthen the links between foster care and support for families.

19. In the context of making decisions about the type of care that is needed to meet the needs of children and young people who may need to live away from their parents for a period of time, or even permanently, the Scottish Government and local government support fully the principle that at the earliest stage, the role of family members is considered as the first option for supporting and caring for the child, prior to a local authority providing foster care.

20. As we have stated above, the precise role of family members will need to be determined in collaboration with all relevant parties, primarily the child and in line with the capacity and circumstances of the child and the potential carers. The extent to which other family members are able to help achieve the aim of achieving satisfactory permanent arrangements, (that is, a permanent return to the birth parents or to an alternative permanent carer) will be a key criterion.

21. Planning a child's future can be a complex and emotionally fraught process. Family Group Conferencing ( FGC) can provide an effective forum for many children and their family members to discuss the capacity of the family to care safely and permanently for the child and to agree the additional support that might be needed by the carer and wider family. FGC is currently used in 17 local authorities to complement and sometimes streamline statutory decision making processes. It can provide a vehicle for building partnership and trust between family members and professionals.

22. We believe that the case for a FGC could routinely be considered when:

• a child needs any form of help which depends on co-ordinated planning between professionals and the child's family
• a child requires an integrated professional and family plan for rehabilitation to the care of his/her birth family
• a kinship care arrangement is being considered
• a child in kinship care needs a permanent plan.

23. The advantages of a FGC are that a child's wishes and feelings are a central consideration; that their needs for their wider family to be taken into account takes precedence over the wishes of any one member of the family, for example a parent, to exclude the rest of the family; and, if properly conducted and managed, FGC can reduce the number of meetings held for a sequence of overlapping purposes for the same children - a source of concern for many looked after children.

Case study - -How a family group conference can help a child

Reasons for Referral

Amy (14) is subject to a referral to the Children's Panel mainly as a result of her increasingly poor attendance at school. It is agreed to defer a hearing until a FGC is held. Her mum has taken her two siblings to live with her new partner. Amy's father has severe MS and lives in sheltered accommodation. Amy is living with gran. Gran has a poor relationship with mum and dad.

Issues/Decisions

• Amy needs a clear message about where she is going to live and for how long.
• Contact and access arrangements need to be made between Amy and family members with whom she's not living.
• Amy needs to get back to school.

Summary of Family Plan

• Amy is going to stay with gran for the foreseeable future. Everyone is happy. When mum and mum's partner get suitable accommodation, Amy and the family will decide whether she would like to go with them.
• Amy will see her mum and brother and sister at least once per week. Gran works late one evening so mum will call at the house after school and spend the evening with Amy.
• Amy will visit her dad on Sunday mornings. Every other weekend her brother and sister will go too. His home-help will be there to let them in.
• Amy has an appointment with her school guidance teacher for Monday at 3 pm when they will plan to get Amy back to school. Gran will check that she attends school and will meet the guidance teacher with Amy.
• Amy's social worker will see her twice a month until the next FGC Review.
• Amy's aunt Pat is always available by phone and she calls in on gran at least twice weekly.
• The Family Plan will be taken to the Children's Hearing.

24. However, at the heart of any method used, whether FGC or any other, must be active and effective engagement with the wider family. Even when an FGC is not feasible, the principles underpinning FGC as set out above still apply across the spectrum of kinship and foster care.

The role of kinship care

25. This strategy has emphasised the central role of the child and their family in the decisions made about their care. The starting-point in considering kinship care arrangements should be:

• It is the right of every child to have their family and friends explored as potential carers if they need to leave the care of their parents.
• Any arrangement for care by family or friend must be in the best interests of the child.
• The safety and needs of the child in any assessment of family or friends as carers must be paramount.
• A child's needs for good family and friends carers should take precedence over the wishes of a parent to exclude the family from care.
• Support to a family or friend placement should be available when needed.

Informal kinship care arrangements

26. Government in Scotland at national and local level does not intend to distort existing and future family relationships by any unnecessary interference in the majority of kinship care arrangements, i.e. those where the arrangements have been arrived at by the family themselves, with or without the use of Family Group Conferencing ².

27. For the majority of these children, any formal intervention by a local authority or any other relevant agency is neither required nor desirable and the arrangements in such cases could be seen as part of normal family and societal arrangements. It is possible however that many of these carers would find it helpful to know that information and advice is available if and when this might be necessary.

• The Scottish Government therefore intends to fund, for a 3-year period, the introduction of a service for all kinship carers to be delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland, through their bureaux across Scotland. Each bureau will provide advice, information and support on the income, tax and benefits entitlements when a child joins the household and it will identify the appropriate legal status of the kinship carer's relationship with, and responsibility for, the child.

28. As part of the consultation on this strategy, the Scottish Government commissioned a report from Citizens Advice Scotland. This report sets out clearly the impact on the weekly income of a household of a child joining it. It was published in July 2007 and is available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/181297/0051506.pdf . It identifies a number of improvements that could be made to ensure that kinship carers are more easily able to access the benefits to which they are entitled when a child joins their household.

• As entitlement to benefits is a reserved matter, the Scottish Government will work with others such as the UK Government to identify the improvements that are required and seek to ensure that kinship carers receive efficiently the benefits to which they are entitled.
• COSLA agrees to recommend to its members that they discuss their approach and criteria for payment of discretionary support to kinship carers with their local partners and others, such as Citizens Advice Scotland. This will ensure, as far as possible, that there is consistent local advice and approaches to supporting kinship carers.

Other family-led arrangements - private fostering

29. Private fostering is where parents make arrangements with people who are not close relatives ³ to care for their children for more than 28 days. Parents have a duty to report the arrangement to the relevant local authority, who must inspect and monitor the accommodation and other aspects of the arrangements, although they do not assess and approve the carers as such.

30. In Scotland the Care Commission inspections cover the extent to which local authorities meet the relevant legislation in overseeing private foster care in their area. Its November 2007 inspection report The quality of fostering and adoption services in Scotland states there are only 25 known private fostering arrangements across Scotland. The number of private fostering arrangements is likely to be much higher.

31. In 2005 the Scottish Executive issued leaflets in CD- ROM format to all local authorities. The accompanying letter requested the local authorities to distribute the leaflets to schools and other premises to highlight the respective legal responsibilities of parents, private foster carers and local authorities.

32. In rare cases, private fostering may be a cover for child trafficking. The UK Government is currently developing strategies, as part of its reserved responsibility for immigration, to tackle the problem of human trafficking. Within this there is a specific workstream on child trafficking. The Scottish Government will be liaising closely with the UK Government on this issue, including making the links to the regulation of private fostering.

• The Scottish Government will update its information and redistribute to local authorities. We will also ask relevant children's and family agencies; Citizens Advice Bureaux; the NHS; and other relevant bodies to join us in a determined campaign to remind parents of their duty to inform local authorities.
• In addition to the above, the Scottish Government will ask the Care Commission to continue to pay particular attention to this issue in their next inspection round (2008-9) and to bring forward recommendations on how it should best be addressed.
• The Scottish Government will work with the UK Government to tackle the issue of human trafficking and to ensure that our policies on private fostering tie in with the strategies being developed.

The role of foster care

33. If it is not possible, or safe, or in the child's best interests to stay for however short or long a period with a family member, an alternative will be required. Foster care is a key strength within the range of services available for children who need to be looked after. In the next chapter, we discuss how we intend to strengthen the support available to foster carers and seek to increase the number of carers available.

34. Foster care has the potential to deliver a broad spectrum of support to children and families, in the spirit of Getting It Right For Every Child. It can include providing:

• planned short breaks for a child or young person
• immediate but temporary care for a child or young person with the aim of supporting him or her to return permanently to their birth family or to move to a permanent substitute family; to support throughcare or aftercare arrangements in residential care; or to support him or her in transition to independent living
• specialist care, for example, intensive fostering for young people with behavioural problems as an alternative to secure care
• a permanent substitute home for a child who cannot return to live with their birth family, by means of a permanence order or other legal provision.

Planned short breaks

35. In the context of taking a child-centred approach to developing the role of foster care and foster carers, planned respite can give a child time away from his or her family circumstances, to the benefit of both. Such services can be invaluable alongside services provided to the rest of the family, to enable the child to continue to live at home. In some cases, the continued involvement of the foster carer could be desirable to support the child and family.

Immediate but temporary care

36. A child-centred approach will mean that the child's safety, security and needs are of paramount importance. Foster care will sometimes have a temporary role on the road to a more permanent solution for the child. However, temporary must not mean unplanned or unimportant and agencies and carers will need to be aware that even temporary placements in foster or kinship care must contribute to achieving the vision for the child.

37. Such carers can and do provide valuable input, support and nurture to a child at what can clearly be a difficult and traumatic time in his or her life. There is considerable potential for the foster carer to be involved in the planning of the return home for the child and in some circumstances for direct and supportive engagement with parents.

Foster care - -meeting a range of children's needs

Children who are disabled

Linda Baldry has looked after more than 100 children:

"I had a one-year-old arrive with cerebral palsy, and at that time he couldn't even sit up without assistance. He's four now, and goes horse riding, swimming and to gym club. He's talking about starting ballet and is always doing little pirouettes and twirls. It's just such a privilege to share in his life."

Teenagers

John and Belinda Swansbury's decision to become foster carers was influenced by Belinda's experience of being in care when she was younger. They have been fostering teenagers for over four years:

"I personally feel that teenagers are just very exciting young people. There's never a dull moment. While you get your ups and downs, I feel it's a privilege to be a part of their lives.

"Training is crucial because fostering is a job, but a job from the heart. It is extremely hard work but the rewards overwhelm this."

Alison and Andy Siddons have been fostering for over 15 years. Currently they care for teenagers:

"Teenagers are sweet, and have such good qualities. Sometimes you can build up a friendship, you can see yourself in them and they are able to express emotions and ambitions to you which younger children can't do.

"One girl came to live with us at the age of 11. She's now 23 years old, happily married, and has two children of her own, so I'm a foster nana. She says she has taken away the experience she found with us to be a good parent."

Jeanette Donnelly started fostering by offering respite care while keeping on her job as an accountant. She recently decided to give fostering a go full-time and cares for teenage girls:

"It can be quite exciting having new kids coming in, wondering what they're going to be like and watching how they fit in and how they learn things from me.

"When you go to bed at night and you know that they're safe and they're well and they're looked after and well fed it gives you a sense of achievement."

Short-term breaks

Sharon and Stuart Okin recently became foster carers but had been thinking about it for years:

"The type of care we offer at the moment is short-term and emergency care, so we will offer maybe one weekend a month or maybe two weekends a month for a child where needed. Juggling our careers with foster care isn't hard - you just have to be really organised and you need to have lots of energy. The children often need a lot of support so I think the key is to be organised."

Josephine McClelland: "I have provided respite to over 40 children in 8 years. It's enjoyable. I feel complete."

Unaccompanied asylum seekers

Elaine Hopkins-Smart and Keith Hopkins have been fostering for 12 years and at the moment look after unaccompanied asylum seekers:

"We find that when children come to us they have lost their confidence - their self esteem, their identity. By the time they've been here for a while, and we've gone through a lot of listening and talking they move on to become more accepting of everything.

"They gain a role in life. They might pass exams and be absolutely thrilled. It's fantastically satisfying for us to see that. It's about turning them round that's the buzz we get from fostering."

On fostering

"Myself, my husband and our 3 children started fostering 10 years ago.

"We saw and continue to see our role as carers as one which requires a professional approach, a setting of standards, contributing to a team, undertaking our tasks and responsibilities with the seriousness and diligence that the lives of these children and young people merited.

"I am regulated, monitored, assessed and standardised.

"I write reports, attend meetings, submit forms, keep my paperwork in order, record my days, attend training, as well as wipe noses and bottoms, sing songs and read stories, and act as mother, teacher, taxi driver, counsellor, therapist, nurse, spiritual advisor, confidante, rule giver, cook, nutritionist, careers advisor, pillow, whipping boy, moderator, IT consultant, advocate, bank manager, librarian, encyclopaedia, legal advisor, and just be there."

38. It is important that foster carers are properly engaged in planning for the child's care. Foster carers cannot meet the specific needs of each child in their care unless they have an understanding of the circumstances of the child, the plan for the child's return to their family and a clear role in delivering this plan. Furthermore, unless the foster carer is involved in the review of the plan and has a clear role, as appropriate, in supporting contact between the parent and child, the chances of a successful return home are reduced. In short, the full potential of foster carers is not being used, if their unique knowledge and understanding of the child is not taken into account in the plan to return the child home. The lack of involvement in planning is consistently mentioned by foster carers as a key source of frustration in their work to provide the best possible care that meets the child's needs.

39. Foster placements need to be appropriate to the circumstances of the child and carer. Placements are more likely to succeed where the child's needs are matched to the carer's skills and experience. As part of planning provision, agencies will want to consider how to attract and develop the range of specialist skills required to meet identified need.

Transitions - temporary and permanent

40. Similarly, there will be other circumstances where a child or young person will be placed in foster care as part of a temporary, but planned transition to independent living or as a contribution to a residential care placement, both during and after the time within residential care. There are several examples of such projects and the success factors again centre on the clarity of role and purpose for foster care in supporting the child or young person to move to a permanent home.

What do children and young people say will improve life in foster care?

41. All children and young people need support at transition times in their lives and kinship and foster care can provide a secure base for a child or young person at these key times. This was highlighted in the strategy consultation with young people aimed out by the Fostering Network's Young People's Project and the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum.

42. We will introduce two changes which this consultation with children in foster care said would improve their experience.

• Government in Scotland will work together with other foster care providers to ensure that all young people who wish to remain with their foster carer up until their 18th birthday, will do so. This will meet the Scottish Government's commitment in We Can and Must Do Better ⁴ that 'we will encourage local authorities to ensure that young people are able to remain in their established foster placement beyond 18 if appropriate'.
• We know it is a source of great concern and embarrassment to young people in foster care, when they are told they cannot stay overnight with friends or that a stay is dependent on a disclosure check. It also undermines the responsible foster carer who has considered the needs of the child and believes it would be safe for the child to stay overnight at a friend, but is not empowered to give permission. The Scottish Government will issue guidance on overnight stays in January 2008.

Achieving stability in a permanent alternative family

43. Government in Scotland believes that achieving a permanent, stable, secure home for children with the minimum of delay, needs to be the ultimate goal of those providing fostering services.

44. Too often, vulnerable children can drift between placements and unsuccessful attempts to return home permanently. Equally, children can remain in one placement in foster care or even in residential care for many months, even years, without any conclusive decisions about their future. Every disrupted placement adds to the difficulty of forming trusting and secure relationships and this only increases the likelihood of future placement breakdown or decreases the chance of a successful transition back to the birth family, or on to independent adulthood.

45. Planning is vitally important for the child. Improving the planning and decision-making process and involving the family fully in that process, should make it more straightforward to develop options for permanence, if it becomes clear that a safe and successful return home is not possible.

46. For many children in these circumstances, particularly those under school age, adoption will be the preferred option. This strategy does not deal with adoption, but is developed in the context of, and designed to complement, the reforms being implemented through the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. It is clear that if fostering services are working effectively during the early stages of the child's time in care, the decision-making process for adoption will be improved. Less trauma will have been experienced by the child and therefore the adoption is more likely to lead to a positive outcome for the child.

Permanence orders

47. For some children who cannot return home and for whom adoption is unrealistic, a permanent substitute alternative must be found. An important and potentially transformational legal tool is now in place to help deliver this ambition. The permanence order will be introduced by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 when it comes into force in 2009. It is a flexible vehicle to promote stability, continuity and support in permanent placements. The introduction of a permanence order into Scottish legislation is recognition that vulnerable children must have stability to develop attachments to their carers. It is also flexible enough to recognise that a child's existing attachments to their parents or other kin must be respected. Where appropriate, conditions relating to contact and other parental responsibilities and rights can be provided for in the permanence order arrangements.

48. The introduction of permanence orders will provide the opportunity for those who are already foster or kinship carers to become permanent carers for a particular child or children. It also provides the potential to attract those who think that becoming a permanent carer would suit their skills and aspirations better than shorter-term foster care. The implications for broadening the range of people who may wish to become carers for looked after children is discussed in the next chapter.

49. Above all, if appropriately used, the permanence order will empower the foster or kinship carer to take decisions and care for the child in the way they think best.

• The Scottish Government will review the existing regulatory framework to ensure that legislation supports the proposals in this strategy.
• The Scottish Government will commission a revision of the Guidance to the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to embed our vision of how we achieve improved outcomes for children who are looked after away from home. As part of this, the revised guidance will emphasise both the importance of strengthening the capacity of the family to look after the child and of achieving the aim of permanence and stability for the child, in whatever care setting.
• The Scottish Government will introduce permanence orders by January 2009. To achieve this successfully, work will begin immediately on the consultation on the necessary changes to the regulations and other statutory mechanisms.
• A national training, information and communication programme on the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 more generally will be commissioned and delivered during 2008 for practitioners, looked after and accommodated children, kinship and foster carers and others.

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