Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Children and Young People's Services.

Recommendations:

That approval be given to make the following changes to improve the financial offer for Foster Carers to support retention and recruitment of Foster Carers:

1. To change the service model to provide a financial package for foster carers based on the needs of the child/ young person as well as the skills of the foster carer

2. To make the following changes to the fees and allowances that foster carers receive:

a)    100% of skills payment to be paid for all children placed

b)    Increase to foster carer mileage rate from 40p per mile to align to employee rates, currently 45 pence per mile

c)    Agreement to the revised Day Care payment

d)    Uplift of the skills payments aligned to the annual inflationary uplift in the national fostering maintenance allowance

e)    Agreement to the complex care payment allowance e.g., for Step down to Foster Care and Emergency Foster Care for Teenagers in crisis

f)      Agreement to the Enhanced payment allowance e.g., Children with complex behaviour and/ or health needs

Consideration was given to the report which sought to improve the care experience for children in Rotherham by ensuring that, wherever possible, they were looked after in a foster family environment. This meant children could be cared for and stay connected closer to their families, schools, communities, and services that know them best. In the spirit of this ambition, to retain existing foster carers and recruit new ones, the Council’s Children and Young People’s Services (CYPS) was seeking approval to revise and increase its ‘offer’ for foster carers regarding the fees and allowances that they received.

In order to make the Council more competitive in the foster carer market and encourage foster carers to join, stay and offer more children a family home, benchmarking activity had been completed. The Council’s digital marketing was provided by an independent marketing agency who regularly analysed the market. This benchmarking activity, described in full in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2, highlighted that when compared to an Independent Fostering Agency or other local authorities, the Rotherham’s offer was less competitive in relation to payments linked to mileage, third and subsequent placements and enhanced fees when supporting complex young people.

Currently, the Council’s skills payment was paid at 100% for the first and second placement then at 50% for third and subsequent payments. Benchmarking identified a range between £50 and £102.10 for skill level 1 and 2, between £86.71 and £277.76 for skill level 3 and between £112.21 and £468.48 for skill level 4. The feedback from foster carers identified 3 existing fostering families who would consider extending their approval if the full skills payment was offered for a third child. Appendix 5 detailed analysis of foster carer allowances and explained how the skills payments were allocated and included regional benchmarking associated with skills payments and feedback from foster carers.

The proposed uplift position was to pay 100% of the skills payment for the third plus child. This would be £100.00 at level 1, £125.00 at level 2, £175.00 at level 3 and £360.00 at level 4. Currently 8 children were placed as a third or fourth in-house fostering placement. Implementing this proposal would increase the cost of these placements by circa £87.50 per week per child. For the 8 children this equated to £36.4k per annum.

3 additional carers had been identified to date, who would be willing to take an additional child subject to the new payment offer. Against a standard IFA placement this would save £81k per annum for 3 placements.

It was also proposed that the foster carers’ milage rate be increased from 40p per mile to 45p per mile. This was in line with the rate received by Council employees. The rate for day care would also increase with the rate depending on the age of the child as per paragraph 2.5 of the report. A Complex Care Payment and Enhanced Payment would also be introduced.

This report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process. The Board fully supported the recommendations but asked that an annual review of the achievements of the Fostering Service be undertaken, including a report on the impact and outcomes of the changes to fostering fees and allowances.

Resolved:

That approval be given to make the following changes to improve the financial offer for Foster Carers to support retention and recruitment of Foster Carers:

1.    To change the service model to provide a financial package for foster carers based on the needs of the child/young person as well as the skills of the foster carer.

2.    To make the following changes to the fees and allowances that foster carers receive:

a)    100% of skills payment to be paid for all children placed

b)    Increase to foster carer mileage rate from 40p per mile to align to employee rates, currently 45 pence per mile

c)    Agreement to the revised Day Care payment

d)    Uplift of the skills payments aligned to the annual inflationary uplift in the national fostering maintenance allowance

e)    Agreement to the complex care payment allowance e.g., for Step down to Foster Care and Emergency Foster Care for Teenagers in crisis

f)      Agreement to the Enhanced payment allowance e.g., Children with complex behaviour and/ or health needs

3.    That an annual review of the achievements of the Fostering Service be undertaken, including a report on the impact and outcomes of the changes to fostering fees and allowances.