Future of foster care: consultation - easy read

Tell us what you think about foster care - Part 2

• Independent Fostering Agencies
• Getting new foster carers
• Keeping the foster carers we have

About this document

This is Part 2 of the consultation about foster care.

Independent Fostering Agencies

In Scotland, most fostering placements are provided by local council foster carers.

Independent fostering agencies provide around 1 in 3 foster placements.

We call these IFAs for short.

There are 25 IFAs in Scotland.

The law says IFAs must be ‘not for profit’ Not for profit means they should not make money.

Their money should be spent to run the organisation and to do its work.

All IFAs are registered with the Care Inspectorate.

IFAs do not have to pay their foster carers the Scottish Recommended Allowance.

IFAs do not have to tell everybody how much they pay foster carers.

If a local authority cannot find a foster carer for a child, they can pay an IFA to find a foster carer.

Then the local council pay the IFA some money.

This could be a different amount of money for different IFAs.

An external IFA placement means that sometimes a child is not placed in their local council area.

This can be very difficult for children and young people.

They cannot stay at the same school and may not be able to see their friends.

Children do not always get placements that meet their needs or are in the right place.

Sometimes it costs local councils a lot to pay IFAs for placements.

Questions

How should IFAs be involved in fostering?

Write or type your answer here:

Should all IFAs be charities? Should there be a limit on how much local councils can pay to IFAs?

Write or type your answer here:

Should IFAs have to tell everybody how much they pay foster carers?

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Should IFAs have to pay their foster carers the Scottish Recommended Allowance?

Write or type your answer here:

What more could be done in Scotland to support local authorities when paying for placements?

Write or type your answer here:

Recruitment – getting new foster carers

We want to develop an offer to foster carers across Scotland.

An offer means things we will give or do.

Our offer to foster carers will help:

• keep the foster carers we have
• encourage people to become foster carers

We want to make sure that foster carers are treated the same in all parts of Scotland.

The offer has 5 parts:

1. A plan to recruit more foster carers, supported by the Scottish Government

2. Ways to make sure we get new foster carers from different backgrounds

3. Working with local councils to develop national and local communications

Communications are the ways to tell people about the plan.

4. Making a Foster Scotland brand

A brand is when an organisation chooses how it wants to be seen – things like friendliness, colours and logo.

5. Making sure our online information is up to date, clear and easy to use

This 5 part offer will help to:

• get more foster carers

• keep more of the foster carers we already have

• get a wider range of foster carers.

This will allow children and young people to get foster carers that can best meet their needs.

• have less foster placements that do not work, by having:

• better support for foster carers
• stronger matches and placements that suit the needs of the child or young person
• less moves for children and young people
• support more children and young people to be in a family-based care in their own community

We will work on this national plan with local councils, fostering organisations and foster carers.

And we will learn from what has worked well in other places.

Questions

What do you think about the ‘offer’ for foster carers described on pages 8 and 9?

Write or type your answer here:

What can the Scottish Government and local authorities do to get more foster carers?

You could tell us about:

• where this has gone well
• what has been difficult about this

Write or type your answer here:

Keeping the foster carers we have

Foster carers must get good support.

This makes sure:

• people want to become foster carers
• we keep the foster carers we already have

Foster carers must be valued.

This means people noticing that foster carers do a good and important job.

Having supported foster carers means that fostered children feel supported too.

Learning new skills and knowledge can help foster carers.

They can learn how to support the needs and trauma of the children and young people they look after.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) wrote The Standard for Foster Care in 2017.

It says what foster carers should learn:

• before they are allowed to foster, and
• when they are fostering.

Foster carers around Scotland get offered different learning depending on where they live.

But across the whole of Scotland, the Scottish Government is:

• making training and resources about trauma informed care

Trauma informed means understanding how trauma can make people feel and behave.

• putting money into the PATHways programme in 2024-25

It gives support to adoptive families, kinship and permanent fostering families.

Questions

Do you know about the SSSC ‘Standard for Foster Care’?

Do you use it?

Write or type your answer here:

Should the Standard for Foster Care be changed?

Should there be a new national learning plan for foster carers?

Write or type your answer here:

What more can the Scottish Government do to support foster carers’ learning?

This could be:

• practical support
• emotional support

Write or type your answer here:

Is extra learning needed to help foster carers work in a flexible way?

Write or type your answer here:

This is the end of Part 2.

Now please answer Part 3.