Future of foster care: consultation

Part 6: Recruitment Of Foster Carers

The Promise set out that, “Foster carers must be provided with the support they need to develop nurturing, compassionate and loving relationships with the children in their care. This requires practical and emotional support, as well as financial support in the form of allowances”.

In accordance with Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, each local authority and relevant health board, working collaboratively with a range of organisations under a Children’s Services Planning Partnership area, must produce a Children’s Services Plan for every three-year period for the local authority area. These plans should detail how the children’s services will meet the needs of the local population. The definition of ‘children’s service’ means any service provided wholly or mainly to, or for the benefit of, children generally or children with particular needs (for example, looked after children in foster care placements).

Registered fostering services in Scotland, including local authorities, are responsible for recruiting and supporting foster carers. We recognise that different services will provide different types of support depending on local needs, the child or young person, and their foster carers. There is some fantastic work happening on the ground and we want to continue to encourage local strategies. However, as indicated earlier, there is a shortage of foster carers. Therefore, we want to develop, at a national level, a clear ‘offer’ to foster carers across Scotland designed to facilitate recruitment and retention of foster carers. A national approach to some aspects of recruitment and support for foster carers will support our vision of foster care and our flexible fostering model, as well as bringing more equity and opportunity to the foster care community across the country.

This ‘offer’ includes national action to recruit more foster carers. It also includes key areas of practical and financial help which will support local authorities to deliver and create the right conditions, so they can better deliver The Promise through our vision for foster care.

Recruitment of foster carers is key to the success and development of local authority fostering and meeting the needs and rights of children and young people. There are significant recruitment and retention challenges within fostering and also the wider children’s service workforce. Our approach to recruitment, some of which is currently underway, is based on significant engagement over the course of 18 months with key stakeholders and those who represent foster carers. It has five key parts , which are:

• A national recruitment campaign funded by the Scottish Government;
• Targeted national recruitment approaches to recruit diverse foster carers;
• Working with local authorities to develop joint national and local communications including developing a national toolkit for local authorities to use locally;
• Creation of a Foster Scotland brand; and
• Ensuring our online presence is up to date, clear and easy to navigate ensuring that prospective foster carers and current foster carers can find all the information they need easily and quickly.

We are confident that a national campaign should help deliver the following outcomes:

• Increase the number of foster carers recruited in Scotland.
• Contribute to increasing the value and recognition of foster carers and reducing the number of foster carers that retire or de-register.
• Increase the diversity of foster carers in Scotland which will allow for better matching (both locally and according to needs), including Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.
• Contribute to reducing foster care placement breakdown by having better supported foster carers, allowing for stronger matches and increased placement suitability, and reducing moves for children and young people.
• Support better outcomes for children and young people in care, for example enabling more children to be in a family-based care setting in their own community, and therefore contributing towards the delivery of The Promise by 2030.
• Raise public awareness of foster care, and to help build understanding of the care system.

Local authorities already do local recruitment, and our approach will be to support and complement the local recruitment and take an evidence-based approach to what we know works for recruiting foster carers. We will, therefore, continue to work with local authorities, foster carers and stakeholders to inform our national campaign. We will also learn from what has worked elsewhere. For example, the Welsh Government have created an organisation called Foster Wales which aims to raise the profile and understanding of fostering in Wales, involving close collaboration between central and local government in Wales.

Proposals on financial and practical help for foster carers is set out in the next section.

Questions

What are your views on the ‘offer’ described above?

What more can the Scottish Government and local authorities do to recruit foster carers? Please explain your answer. You may wish to share successes and challenges of recruitment of foster carers in your response.