Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Children, Families and Adults.

Gill Betton, Policy and Strategy Manager and Julie Lewis, Principal Manager Cared for Children, presented a report which sought endorsement from the Committee to the proposed policy for foster carers to access capital funding to expand or maintain existing placements.

Gill continued to expand on and explain the proposed policy noting that it was in line with a recommendation from the Foster Services Task and Finish Review. It was hoped that the policy would help to unblock barriers preventing the Council from recruiting more in-Borough placements and expanding on existing placements. This would then reduce the Council’s reliance on expensive out-of-Borough and private placements.  Gill reported that whilst there was some risk for the Council in pursuing the policy, these had been adequately checked by legal and finance and in summary there was a strong cost benefit to the policy.

A comment was made with regards to bullet point 4 on page 47 of the agenda regarding individuals having to pay tax on a grant. It was asserted that it was unfortunate that people would be left out of the pocket and it was asked whether a solution to this could be found. Gill Betton confirmed that she would look into this further and report back to the Committee.

A discussion was held over the principle of the policy. Councillor Louise Brown suggested that the £250k allocated for the proposed policy would be better spent on recruiting more foster carers rather than extending existing carer’s homes. Councillor Brown also outlined a number of areas in which she felt the policy lacked the requisite legal detail.

Julie Lewis noted that this was not an either/or policy and that the Council would still be attempting to recruit new foster carers. Gill added that the budget for the policy would come from capital funding and therefore could not be used for recruitment. Gill also ensured the Committee that the legal detail did sit behind the policy.

The Chairman stated that the salient point in the proposed policy was that foster carers would have to demonstrate a business case outlining how there would be a substantiated cost benefit to the Council. If this was adhered to, he contended, the risk to the Council would be minimised whilst providing a very clear benefit.

It was also commented that the policy should be kept as simple as possible so that some flexibility would be retained for the officers making the decisions on whether a grant or loan should be provided to an individual.

The Committee voted to endorse the policy. Councillor Louise Brown wished to place on record her objections and that she would have wanted to see more detail on the policy before voting.

RESOLVED –

a)    That the Committee endorse the proposed outline of the policy set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

b)    That the Committee receive an update report six months after the policy implementation.