Minutes:
EMPIRE
The Panel learned that EMPIRE received a personal achievement by being shortlisted for the Children and Young People’s Services Awards as the 2020 finalists. This was a very big achievement for EMPIRE who were proud about their journey. The Chair acknowledged the fantastic work from EMPIRE, which was a testament to their work and involvement at the Corporate Parenting Panel.
FOSTER CARERS
The Chair of Foster Carers provided an update to report how foster carers managed during the pandemic and national lockdown. The Panel heard that since the pandemic and national lockdown, foster carers had experienced difficulty in maintaining the upkeep on the looked after children’s education.
On behalf of the foster carers, they commended the support from Virtual School with providing laptops and ensuring that every child was able to access work online. It was acknowledged that some vulnerable children could not attend school which affected their mental health as well as other matters.
Foster carers had described the challenging time for them and the foster children, as visits from social workers had stopped.
Further light was shared on the notion that foster carers became teachers overnight as a result of this, and supporting children looked after with schoolwork, homework, virtual lessons, teaching various subjects in order to assist and encourage the children and other requests made by social workers and schools on a daily basis.
It was said that the excellent school report by Virtual School was due to the commitment and dedication made by foster carers.
Foster carers also highlighted during annual reviews that there was often negative and unhelpful comments left unchallenged by managers.
Foster carers also shared that there was growth in positive relationships between foster carers and looked after children during the pandemic and national lockdown.
Officers in response have commended the hard work by foster carers during the pandemic and national lockdown to support looked after children by focusing on education and the balancing with other talents that young people were engaged in. Additionally, officers acknowledged the complaints made by foster carers and had requested to look into the matter further.
The Chair had requested for examples of the kind of the learning from the first national lockdown versus the second national lockdown to review the support carers had, particularly around the element of being a teacher, and to know what the service was doing to support carers in the most difficult tasks in teaching children.
A Member of EMPIRE empathised with the foster carer’s role in supporting children, and having a relationship with their foster child and the service, and shared their personal experience in living in foster care. The young person further highlighted that children would make mistakes and would have to learn from their mistakes to minimise rebellion. Another Member of EMPIRE shared that the routine in the household had disrupted, which made things difficult during the national lockdown.
A Member of the Panel acknowledged the feelings expressed by foster carers and enquired of a possible change in the relationship between foster parents and the departments, where it was possible that the service did not meet their needs the way they should have done, which needed to be reviewed more closely. It was further suggested that a direct summary from foster carers detailing their unhappiness was to be reported to the Panel. The Chair requested for a direct summary and reflection to come from a wider range of foster carers for the Panel to hear, in addition to receive the voices of young people who also struggled and found it difficult during the national lockdown; in contrast, to also receive a positive summary of cases that had a positive effect.