Report of the Head of Looked After Children

This report provides an update on the Council’s performance in relation to its adoption and fostering services.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Looked After Children which provided an update on the performance of the Council’s Fostering Service and the regional adoption agency Adoption Counts.  The Annual Fostering Service Report 2017/2018 and the Manchester Annual Adoption Report 2017/2018 were appended to the covering report.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:

• Ofsted’s 2017 inspection of the service;
• The numbers of Looked After Children (Our Children) and the types of placement they were in;
• The recruitment and retention of foster carers;
• The Fostering Panel;
• The number, type and age of children waiting for adoption and the length of time they were waiting;
• Recruitment of adopters;
• Staffing of Adoption Counts;
• Development of Adoption Counts; and
• Adoption support.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the progress made in both fostering and adoption services;
• The training and support provided to foster carers;
• Request for further information on the staffing structure;
• What alternatives were there for older children who did not want to be fostered;
• Request to see the six-month report on Adoption Counts when it became available;
• What progress had been made in recruiting to the posts within Adoption Counts; and
• What was the outcome of the two complaints relating to Adoption Counts.

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services outlined the recruitment process for prospective foster carers and the support and training provided to foster carers.  He offered to circulate to Members the recently revised Foster Carer Handbook which included the staffing structure.  The Fostering Manager outlined the structure of the service and the progress made in reducing agency staff and sickness levels. 

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services reported that Alonzi House supported young people, along with their families, to enable them to stay with their own family.  He advised that, if a decision was made for a young person to become Looked After, the service would consider whether they could be placed with extended family.  Where this was not possible and the young person did not want to go into foster care, they might be placed in a Children’s Home.

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services reported that he would review the information in the six-month Adoption Counts report and determine the most appropriate way to share this information with the Committee.

Mark Tobin from Adoption Counts reported that, when the agency had gone live, there had been a high number of vacancies but that now all but one of the posts had been filled.  He informed Members that one complaint relating to the agency had not been upheld and that he did not know the outcome of the other complaint.  The Chair requested that this information be shared with the Committee, ensuring that it did not reveal the identity of those involved.

Decisions

1.            To note that the Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services will review the information in the six-month Adoption Counts report and determine the most appropriate way to share this information with the Committee.

2.            To request that the outcome of the complaint relating to Adoption Counts be shared with the Committee.