Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services.

Recommendations

That Cabinet:-

1.    Endorse the Fostering Rotherham Plan 2023-2028 as a working document, to proceed with ongoing developments in the service.

2.    Endorse the recommendations from the Fostering Elected Members Working Group.

3.    Agree to the proposals in respect of the Fostering and Adoption Panels and delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member, Chief Executive and Assistant Director of Legal Services to amend the Terms of Reference.

4.    Approve three years of continued involvement with South Yorkshire Adoption Agency and delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member, Chief Executive and Assistant Director of Legal Services to ensure arrangements are in place to facilitate the continued involvement.

Consideration was given to the report which had been presented to update Cabinet in respect of the Fostering Rotherham Plan 2023-2028, the Fostering Elected Members Working Group, the Fostering and Adoption Panel and One Adoption South Yorkshire.

The Fostering Rotherham Plan 2023-2028 set out what has been achieved so far within the Service and outlined a number of targets to achieve over the

next five years. These included increasing the net number of foster carers each year, enhancing the diversity of foster carers and the number of bespoke

foster carers, skilled to care for children with disabilities, adolescents, sibling

groups and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Council intended to reduce the use of independent fostering agency carers and promote the resilience and skills of in house foster carers. The Fostering Plan detailed how the goals would be achieved and continue to improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery in Fostering Rotherham.

Paragraph 2.4 of the report detailed the Elected Members Fostering Working Group which had been established in March 2023 and concluded in January 2024. The Working Group supported and endorsed the Fostering Rotherham Plan and the new fees and allowances which had been approved by Cabinet in November 2023. Other key recommendations from the group included:

·       Celebrating Fostering Families throughout the year.

·       Elected Members to champion Fostering Rotherham and for foster carers and those leaving care to know the details of their Ward Councillor.

·       Maximising the reach of communications and advertising in order to increase recruitment of Foster Carers, including from a diverse background, representative of our community in Rotherham.

·       Maximising the diversity of the workforce in Children and Young People’s Services and to improve diversity of Foster Carers to reflect the demographic in Rotherham.

The Working Group also recommended additional areas of work outside of the fostering service:

·       Strengthen the placement choice for children in order to provide strong placement matches.

·       Tasking the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board to establish a subgroup in the new municipal year to further the work around diversity within the workforce and foster carers and understand further the over representation of ethnic minority children in the Council’s care.

It was proposed that in the new municipal year, Fostering and Adoption Panels would be conducted without Cabinet Members as panel members. The Portfolio holder would be able to observe Fostering and Adoption Panels without participating in panel recommendations. Fostering and Adoption, including panel functions, would be reported into the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board to ensure continued scrutiny and oversight. The number of Elected Members on the Panel would be increased, where their involvement and oversight would have a greater impact on a wider range of children in care.

Regional Adoption Agencies (RAA) were a requirement set by the Government. Rotherham must be part of such an agency and would need to identify another RAA to join before it could serve notice on One Adoption South Yorkshire. There were geographical and partnership advantages to belonging to One Adoption South Yorkshire for the Local Authority, children and prospective adopters and it was proposed that this arrangement continue for a further three years.

During the meeting the Cabinet Member and Strategic Director thanked all those that had been involved in the Elected Member Working Group and noted that all political parties had been invited to join.

Resolved:-

That Cabinet:-

1.    Endorse the Fostering Rotherham Plan 2023-2028 as a working document, to proceed with ongoing developments in the service.

2.    Endorse the recommendations from the Fostering Elected Members Working Group.

3.    Agree to the proposals in respect of the Fostering and Adoption Panels and delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member, Chief Executive and Assistant Director of Legal Services to amend the Terms of Reference.

4.    Approve three years of continued involvement with South Yorkshire Adoption Agency and delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member, Chief Executive and Assistant Director of Legal Services to ensure arrangements are in place to facilitate the continued involvement.