Agenda item

The Annual Report of the Fostering Service, Statement of Purpose & Croydon Foster Carer’s Association report is attached.

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Annual Report of the Fostering Service 2021/22, which provided an overview of the management and outcomes of the service. The Panel received a short presentation overview from the Service Manager, Brian Amos.

In brief, the Panel heard:

Statement of Purpose:

The Statement of Purpose document was prescribed by Fostering Services Regulations since 2011 and it had set out the Fostering Agency Services’ aims and objectives, services, and facilities that it would provide.

Foster carer recruitment:

In relation to the foster carer recruitment, the Interim Manager for Fostering Assessment and Recruitment, Anna Bangerter, and Marketing Officer for Fostering, Chloe Gardner, shared that the service was brought back in-house, providing a very good performance given the difficult time for fostering recruitment. 80% of the budget was moved to online due to the covid-19 pandemic, and included Facebook advertising, geographical targeted online articles, Google display network, banner advertising to name a few.

The new experienced team continued to target marketing areas and intelligent prospecting, which included remarketing, search marketing and contextual remarketing targeting online interests.

Experienced assessment process – Feedback from Newly Foster Carers

The Panel heard feedback from guest speakers who were newly approved foster carers, in relation to their experience of the assessment and panel process being approved.

Guest speakers Mohammed and Farhana shared that they had started their process before the covid-19 pandemic, which delayed their assessment. They persevered and completed their assessment in 2021. They found the process and procedure complicated and thorough and had helpful staff to help with the process. The newly foster carers were happy with Croydon.

Guest speakers Paul and Gloria were recently approved in February and had a good experience during the application process, which was thorough, long, and extensive, though it had opened conversations and they had seen the end reward. The experience had helped them to open as an individual, and they found the service very helpful and supportive. The foster carers appreciated their role in preparation to support young person.

Key elements of mentoring and work and services within Foster Care

In relation to the mentoring service support, Mentors Pearl Earle and Susan Simpson, informed the Panel that the purpose of mentoring was to provide support to newly approved foster carers and also provide support during their journey. Mentees would be met once a week during the first three months and fortnightly during the latter three months of a six-month period where comments would be feedback to recruitment or training team and providing space for mentoring. Enhanced mentoring was also provided to connected carers who would enter the fostering service via a different route, this helped facilitate a change in the mindset of expectations versus reality and supported specific needs with the provision of peer support. Mentoring also pushed for the mentees to take part in other organisations and training. Mentees benefited from loyal and experienced carers by being part of the mentoring programme.

Panel Members welcomed the presentation which provided a good insight to the mentoring service and the fostering recruitment. It was also refreshing to hear of the challenging experiences in the voices of foster carers which had helped understand processes. Further, the progress of the project of the Muslim community developing was also welcomed.

In response to queries raised by the Panel, the Interim Manager for Fostering Assessment and Recruitment and the Marketing Officer for Fostering clarified the following:

-                  In relation to further projects and whether there was progress of recruiting foster carers within other parts of the community, officers responded that there was a staff member within the team who was delegated to do community work and had visited schools, faith groups and community groups to build relationships, where in return strong candidates were put forward.

At 5:50pm, Councillor Maddie Henson left the meeting.

-                  In relation to the question around the voices of care experienced young people taken into consideration within the recruitment of foster carers to ensure the right foster carers were sought, officers informed that they use the feedback from the annual review from care experienced children which were incorporated into the three-day skills-to-fostering course being delivered. The specification was warranted as the care experienced young people’s experience would help provide the qualities in what would make a good foster carer with the feedback used for the recruitment process. EMPIRE highlighted that they had done a lot of work around this and would liaise with officers, further highlighted that they had previously involvement in the skills-to-fostering training and requested for care experienced young people to have a role as paid staff on the panel, which was welcomed.

The Panel RESOLVED to:

1.               Note the evaluation of the Fostering Service as set out in the Annual Report including the CFCA’s report;

2.               Approve the Statement of Purpose 22/23; and

3.               Endorse the key priorities for development in 22/23 as set out in this report.

The Chair thanked the officers their report and the guest speakers for their comments and shared experience. Further comments from Panel Members thanked the Service Manager for the improvements in the fostering service which had made a very huge difference today.

At 6:30pm Councillor Mike Bonello left the meeting.