The Committee received the final report of the Task and Finish Group who conducted a Scrutiny Review of the Fostering Service. Councillor Flude, as Chairman of the group explained the main thrust behind the recommendations.
It was reported that throughout the review it had become clear that Cheshire East had some excellent staff working in the Fostering & Adoption Services and that the new systems being put in place would reap some notable benefits in the future. Having said this, the Group did identify some gaps after an extensive research process, particularly after benchmarking against other well performing authorities and it was hoped that the service could take the relevant recommendations on board to supplement the good work already going on.
Attention was also drawn to the fact that the Group had carried out the review in a very short time scale. Considering the complexity of the topic, it was impossible to cover all the issues in a sufficient amount of detail. With this in mind, the Group had made a number of recommendations for other Task and Finish reviews to ‘branch off’ from this review in the future.
In considering the report, a number of amendments were suggested for the recommendations.
An additional recommendation was also suggested. This was as follows: That a Task and Finish Review be established to examine the 16 plus service for cared for children.
The Chairman wished to acknowledge the work of the group in producing an excellent and comprehensive report. Thanks were also extended to Julie Lewis for her support and expertise.
RESOLVED –
a) That the report of the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group be welcomed and supported.
b) That the recommendations of the Group, following the amendments below, be endorsed, and referred to the Cabinet for consideration and necessary action, and that the Cabinet be invited initially to comment on the details of the recommendations.
· Recommendation 11.1 – that ‘Fostering & Adoption’ be substituted for ‘Cared for Children’
· Recommendation 11.7 – that the word ‘investigated’ be added
· Recommendation 11.11 – that the phrase ‘explore web-based opportunities’ be added
· Recommendation 11.15 – that the sentence ‘the possibility of reciprocal relationships with adjacent authorities be explored in terms of respite facilities – particularly for Cheshire East children placed out-of-Borough’ be added.
· Recommendations 11.16, 11.17 and 11.18 – that the specification of working alongside the Cheshire Foster Carer Association be removed as certain services were still subject to a tendering process. With regards to Recommendation 11.18, the recognition that the Cheshire Foster Carer Association had ran an awards night remained whilst not committing that this would be necessarily be a future policy.
· Recommendation 11.20 – that this be changed to ‘That foster carers be provided with the contact details of their local Councillors’
· That recommendation 11.34 – ‘That a Task and Finish Review be established to examine the 16 plus service for cared for children – be added.