Fosterlink Diagnostic Report
London Borough of Bexley
3rd June 2024
This page left intentionally blank for pagination.
Issue and Revision Record
Revision
A 03/06/2024 M Whiting K Yong C Holland H Warwick First Issue
Document reference:
Information class: Standard
This document is issued for the party which commissioned it and for specific purposes connected with the abovecaptioned project only. It should not be relied upon by any other party or used for any other purpose.
We accept no responsibility for the consequences of this document being relied upon by any other party, or being used for any other purpose, or containing any error or omission which is due to an error or omission in data supplied to us by other parties.
This document contains confidential information and proprietary intellectual property. It should not be shown to other parties without consent from us and from the party which commissioned it.
Executive summary
The Fosterlink Service project has been commissioned by the Department for Education in response to the ‘Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’ (2022) and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) markets study, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ (2022). This project is being delivered by Mott MacDonald, in partnership with Coram, on behalf of the Department for Education.
The need for this project stems from a national shortage of suitable foster carers to meet the growing population of children in care. Data indicates that only a small proportion of enquiries lead to an application to become a foster carer.
The aim of this project is to offer in-depth, diagnostic support to local authority fostering service providers across England that specifically focuses on recruitment and approval practices. The diagnostic support will provide bespoke recommendations for improvement to local authorities, alongside building a robust evidence base on which to share good practice nationally.
The diagnostic support process for each local authority includes:
● a review of the most recent Ofsted reports
● an analysis of their fostering website
● a mystery shopper call to the Local Authority fostering telephone number
● a virtual site visit, taking place across two days
Fosterlink Adviser, Michelle Whiting, carried out a diagnostic visit to the London Borough of Bexley on 18th and 19th April 2024
During the site visit, a series of meetings were held with a variety of individuals. These included existing and prospective foster carers, panel representatives, and staff members such as social workers, recruitment officers, marketing and communications personnel, administrators, and fostering managers.
As part of this visit, time was spent with foster carers to better understand their experiences with the Local Authority during their enquiry and application process and discussed the support they received from the service in the lead up to the assessment. Conversation also covered whether current carers are involved in the recruitment of new carers and identified any changes to the recruitment approach over the past year.
Meetings with staff and panel representatives were primarily focused on discussing the assessment process and the preparations leading up to presenting assessments to the panel. The holistic approach ensured a thorough understanding of the entire process and enabled the adviser to feed back to fostering managers at the end of the visit process.
The following report details the findings and recommendations from the visit.
1.1 Key findings
● Bexley has managed to go against current national trends and is expanding the numbers of foster carers.
● Bexley has made significant changes to its fostering and placement service in the last 18 months, setting up a dedicated Recruitment and Assessment team and separating mainstream and connected carer assessments to ensure timescales are met for both.
● Bexley has a proactive and very visible senior leadership team and though some are very new, they take time to meet regularly with their foster carers.
● Many of the managers and social workers are former foster carers.
● The whole service, including recruitment, meet regularly with foster carers through training and events.
● This means that the service has a deep understanding of their foster carers and the needs of the children they care for.
● The service and its tenacious service manager use this information, research, and analysis to continually improve and develop the service.
● This had led to a significant improvement in recruitment, satisfaction and loyalty from Bexley foster carers despite lower pay scales and the additional cost pressures of residing in Greater London.
year Target (Inhouse Fostering and Host and Support)
(With Host and Support)
How has Bexley achieved this?
● Bexley recognises that fostering must move on from the traditional nuclear family and actively promote “How can we help you to foster?” in their materials.
● Bexley are willing to use the same practical methods of managing the school / employment balance – such as breakfast clubs – as other families and utilise their Fostering together, to work with foster families to find appropriate solutions which meet individual children’s needs.
● Bexley recognise that “it takes a village to raise a child.” They are moving away from the traditional individual foster family model to their “Fostering Together” model.
● Utilising learning from ‘Mockingbird’ it has created an experienced hub with one foster family supporting between 7 and 9 other foster families offering respite, transport, support, and activities for their hub.
● This has proved to be so successful and popular with carers that they are now moving away from Buddy schemes, feeling that the support of a group of carers is more effective.
● Most new carers opt to join a hub and Bexley are setting up their fifth hub in 18 months.
● During that time there has only been one child in a hub placement whose needs have required a planned move.
● At the other end of the spectrum Bexley have also developed a Host and Support scheme (an enhanced Supported Lodgings scheme) that support young people assessed as ready to work towards independence. This enables Bexley to maximise their fostering resource safely and effectively according to need. The Host and Support scheme has proved popular with people in employment who do not feel ready to foster. Some Host and Support carers will move on to become foster carers.
● In terms of recruitment Bexley has taken a community approach. Most of the recruitment activity is low or no cost working closely with the council, partners, and local businesses to put up banners, posters and flyers advertising Bexley fostering. “You can’t go anywhere in Bexley without seeing Bexley Fostering” (foster carer).
● The adverts and the newly updated website are bright and colourful really getting over the message of the joy of fostering and the Bexley fostering community. This is obtained with well-chosen imagery of actual Bexley foster carers and (birth) children or non-identifiable images of children in care.
● The recruitment team take photographs and videos at every support event (of which there are many) using a camera they bought on Amazon.
● They use their contacts, and a local radio station provides free advertising, which they also use on their website.
● Bexley put an emphasis on awareness raising, putting on several fun events such as ‘find the Bexley Bear’ and inviting the public to Easter egg hunts in the park. 40 local businesses supported their find the Bexley Bear campaign during Fostering Fortnight. The service also did a walk to promote awareness.
● Enquiries are dealt with promptly and assessments are well within the 6-month time scale.
● Transferring foster carers are assessed much quicker, usually within 6 weeks.
● Foster carers who have left to go to other agencies often return despite lower payments “Once Bexley fostering gets its hands on you, they don’t let go” (foster carer).
● Bexley makes the most of being a small, compact borough. The fostering service’s recruitment, assessment, support, and placement teams work mainly in the office rather than at home. This facilitates close communication which supports matching and support and is felt by the foster carers who know and are known by most staff.
● Bexley’s main recruitment tool is word of mouth but the referral scheme £500 of vouchers is lower than most LAs’ (around £1,000) and below that of IFAs (£3,000+). In the last 3 years only three referral payments were made.
● A payment would be more valued by foster carers than vouchers meaning Bexley will get more referrals at the same rate as their neighbouring LAs. As the payment is made at the point a referral is approved and Bexley is quick to place children following approval, the referral amount will be covered in that first month as the child will not go to an IFA.
● Bexley seems to have found a formula that works for them. They have now reached the point where they are having to slow assessments of both foster carers and host and support due to assessor capacity and capacity for ongoing supervision and support. This has been exacerbated by staff cuts in the service.
● The service has identified children that could stepdown from expensive residential settings and be cared for within a hub, with some additional specialist support.
● The most effect form of recruitment is through word of mouth. Bexley carers are well trained and supported to care for children. The feedback from carers and through the diagnostic and from carers returning to the service is that one of Bexley’s greatest selling (and retention) points is Bexley’s relationship and support for its foster carers. It should be noted that many local authorities are losing more foster carers than they are recruiting.
1.2 Recommendations
1. Bexley is at a point where they have insufficient resource to continue with timely assessments of new foster carers. There should be thought given as to whether the council wishes to continue to expand the fostering service, bearing in mind that if supply does exceed demand other councils may want to purchase any excess foster carers.
2. Most support and training is delivered in-house, in addition to caseloads that are at least average for LAs and above that of IFAs. This seems to be work currently, but further pressures would need to be managed carefully in terms of the impact on foster carer support and satisfaction which is hard won and easily lost.
3. It is recommended that Bexley consider setting up a pilot project where savings, made from stepping children down from residential, are reinvested in the service to enable it to continue to grow the mainstream hubs, host and support in this year, and thereafter consider developing other schemes such an emergency foster carer scheme to help prevent children being placed in IFA and residential placements from the outset. In doing this it is recommended that the project considers the flow of children and the capacity required at each point of the fostering service
4. Bexley to consider becoming a Foster Friendly Council and toencourage partners and local business to become Foster Friendly
5. Fostering website needs to be more agile to maximise identified trends in recruitment or stories in the media.
6. Refine recruitment analysis to better understand which triggers drive web traffic and applications see section 2.4.
7. On the basis that this would cover its own costs within a month of payment, it is recommended that Bexley changes its referral scheme to pay in cash rather than vouchers, at a rate competitive with neighbouring boroughs. It is also suggested to open the referral scheme to staff and staff from partner agencies as well as foster carers, as most foster carers are employed in caring professions such as health, education, housing etc.
8. Enquiry touch points should be tested a minimum of every 6 months.
9. Bexley’s foster carers can care for more complex children because of the support offered by the hub and the training given to foster carers. It is suggested that this is developed further with foster carers trained to deliver or co-deliver specialist training such as KEEP.
10. Communicate Bexley’s unique selling points to the whole organisation so that children’s social workers and other council staff can promote the advantages of fostering for Bexley.
1.3 Areas of good practice
● Philosophy of ‘How can we help you to foster?’ which is leading to more carers
● Fostering Together scheme
● Website and publicity materials (local and joyous)
● Businesslike approach with low cost and effective marketing campaigns
2 Local Authority Context
Judged as Outstanding overall by Ofsted in February 2023, the inspection found that the LA has clear strategic direction, strong partnerships, and good political and corporate support for children's services. Leaders have maintained good service between last inspection in 2018, despite increased demand following the pandemic. Children and carer are typically well matched.
DfE data for 2022/23 indicated there were 265 children in care on 31 March 2023, with 128 children entering care that year. Overall, the LA had a population of around 57,187.
3 Marketing and recruitment
3.1 General findings
The LA believes it is recruiting as many carers as it can. This year it exceeded its recruitment target.
Recruitment target
house fostering / Host and support
When using a search engine (Google) the LA fostering website was second in the list of search results. Fostering information is contained within the LA’s website - it is easily navigated and has a warm, welcoming feel to it, with lots of information.
There is comprehensive events information (each event has details about what would be covered during the event). A minor point about events is that the website says 'join us online' when some events are in person. Events are held during the week, from 6.30-8pm. Upon revisiting the website on the date of the mystery shopper call, it was noted that a Christmas radio advert was still on the homepage.
The LA reports that it has held 27 information events in the past twelve months, with 30% being held in person. Events are held during the week in the afternoon or evenings.
The LA has also run in-community recruitment events, with pop-up stalls in high streets and at community events. They also do themed events, recruitment activities with foster carers, coffee mornings, appreciation events, church events, partnership with local business, recruitment campaigns, Radio advertisements and interviews.
The resource allocation to recruitment activity is reported as follows:
The LA’s survey indicates that £0 is spent on recruitment and £0 is spent on assessment.
3.2 Strengths
● Bexley’s local and joyous imagery
● Social media and website content.
● Bexley maximises its fostering presence placing banners and adverts in key spots at low cost utilising council buildings, play areas and roundabouts.
3.3
Areas for improvement
● The referral scheme could be maximised
3.4 Recommendations
● Maximise the referral scheme, as per themain recommendations
● A link to the fostering booklet could be added to website and clearer information about the process and payments.
4 Initial enquiry handling
4.1
General findings
For the mystery shopping exercise, there was no greeting to indicate the caller had reached the fostering team. The call went straight into hold music and was interspersed with a message to say, 'your call will be answered in the order that it was received'. The call rang for over 5 minutes before being answered. When they did get through the line (at their end) was very poor, but the person spoken to said they could hear ok.
The caller said they had some questions about fostering and was asked for their name and phone number for a callback. The enquirer said they were in between meetings and would call back when convenient. They were then asked what questions they had and were given the answers. They asked about the fostering process and explained that they were in the early stages of moving. The person advised they could make an enquiry at any time and did not have to have moved, as things like background checks could be started. The enquirer asked about events and whether the online and in person events followed the same format. They were advised that they did and to contact the LA again to register to attend.
The caller was provided with the information they asked for but did not feel as welcomed as they had with calls to other LAs.
Between 23 March 2023 and 26 March 2024 the LA had 156 first contacts, an average of thirteen contacts per month. Most initial contacts were made via the website form (68, 44%), 35 (22%) were made in person, 29 (19%) by phone and 8 (5%) via email.
Two of the enquiries came from someone already approved by an IFA, one of whom has since been approved by the LA.
4.2
Strengths
● The service understands that time is of the essence in responding to enquiries.
● Newly approved foster carers said that their initial enquiry was very quickly followed up with an Initial visit.
● The website is attractive and information including events is easily found on the website and on Facebook.
● There are a good range of events and times.
● The service carefully monitors the number and source of contacts using this to shape its recruitment activity.
● Enquiries have risen in the last year, as shown in the below graph:
4.3 Areas for improvement
● The mystery shopper did not get the warm response the service and foster carers discussed.
● An information event on the website would be helpful.
4.4
Recommendations
● It is suggested that Bexley also analyse web traffic, enquiries, initial visits against events and other changes in recruitment over time. This will give rich information as to which events or changes are generating enquiries.
● Similarly reverse interviewing foster carers approved in the last 2 years and being more forensic going forward when completing the motivation to foster section of the assessment will help the service understand which recruitment activities are having an impact (most people say they have considered for years, but it is what triggered them to look at the website that should be determined)
● Test touch points a minimum of every 6 months to check enquiries are getting the response you expect.
● The website could have a section that could be quickly changed by the service to reflect any trends in recruitment they pick up, issues in the public domain or a newly identified lead. For example, a flurry of transfer enquiries or the current story line in ‘Beyond Paradise’ where the leads are being approved as foster carers. This will also help keep the website fresh.
5 Keeping warm
5.1 General findings
The LA aims to provide personalised, regular communication to stay in touch with enquirers who are not ready to proceed.
The process for keeping in touch with enquirers who are not yet ready to be assessed involves monthly keeping in touch emails, invitations to events and call backs.
5.2 Strengths
● The service uses Liquid Logic to track enquirers.
● The service has a specific newsletter which it sends to enquirers.
● This enables the service to send personal invitations to events.
5.3 Areas for improvement
● None found.
5.4 Recommendations
● Consider if there is a system to automatically generate some standard nurturing emails to people who are not yet ready to proceed.
6 Progressing enquiries
6.1 General findings
The LA thinks it provides clear information to enquirers, offering assistance where they can progress them to application.
The steps for progressing an enquiry are reported as:
1. Attend enquiry.
2. Conversation with non-social work team member/ conversation with social worker/ conversation with foster carer in 10 days
3. Attend information event in 10 days.
4. Initial home visit in 5 days
5. Application submitted.
6. Attend Skills to Foster training in 42 days.
7. Management decision to provide application form to enquirer in 1 day.
8. Assessing social worker allocated in 5 days.
From the data provided, so far 58 (37%) of the 156 enquiries progressed to an initial home visit, with the IHV conducted an average of 38 days after the initial contact; 48 (31%) have led to an application being submitted; and 10 (6%) have gone on to be approved.
6.2 Strengths
● The service and foster carers report that the timescale from enquiry to initial visit is fast and dependent on the availability of the applicant.
6.3 Areas for improvement
● None found
6.4 Recommendations
● Analysis of why enquirers drop out of the process to identify the barriers to fostering.
7 Application, allocation, assessment and preparation
7.1
General findings
● The LA states that it completes assessments with no unnecessary delays, providing high quality support (e.g. mentors/ buddies) and training to applicants throughout their assessment.
● The LA aims to allocate an assessing social worker within 10 days of the application and expects a full time assessing social worker to be able to complete 10 assessments a year.
● The fostering service has two FTE of permanent assessing social workers. In addition, one assessment has been completed by ISWs in the past three years.
● From the data provided, of the 48 applications submitted, six have since been withdrawn: three were not ready to proceed despite submitting an application, two were not approved to progress from Stage 1 and one withdrew during Stage 1.
● 34 assessments were allocated to in-house staff, no data was provided for the other fourteen cases. Fifteen cases were allocated within the target of 10 days following the application.
● 10 of the assessments have been completed, all resulting an approval to foster. On average the approval was granted 126 days after the application to be assessed, with seven completed within 6 months.
● The supervising social worker are introduced to applicants, with a positive recommendation, prior to panel and will usually attend panel with the assessing social worker to facilitate a smooth handover.
● All the approved carers had a child placed with them. Most within a month None have resigned to date.
7.2
Strengths
● To date, assessing social workers have been allocated faster than the 5 days but the service is now having to slow down because of capacity. A few assessments have been completed by Bexley social workers working as independents.
7.3
Areas for improvement
● The service has identified a capacity issue which will impact assessment timescales and may lead to applicants leaving the process if not addressed, as delay in assessment may lead applicants to go to other LAs or IFAs
● A 3-day ‘Skills to Foster’ course runs every 8 to 10 weeks on a Thursday, Friday and Monday. This mandatory training could be more accessible for people in employment. Where necessary, assessing social workers will do bespoke training, but this is not the best use of resources.
7.4 Recommendations
● Consider delivering Skills to Foster via 6 modules on a rolling programme so that each module can be accessed day, evening, or weekend.
● Conduct six-monthly analysis of why applicants drop out of the process.
8 Panel process
8.1
General findings
● The LA thinks it fully prepares applicants for panel, ensuring they are familiar with the room, who is on the panel and the types of questions they might be asked. Panels are usually monthly but more recently demand because of the rise in assessments has required an additional panel every two months. Panels are face to face. There is an experienced panel chair and vice chair. The panel advisor has been in post for a year and has dedicated business support who produces the minutes within two working days of the panel.
● There is a small central list with five active members who will shortly be joined by a care experienced panel member. The central list includes a councillor and is diverse in terms of professional experience including fostering and gender. The additional panels have not led to quoracy issues.
● Papers for pane are issued in good time. The panel runs from 9.30am to 3pm and hears around four to six substantive cases. The panel hears foster care approvals, first and third reviews, changes of approval, standards of care and LADDO cases. The Host and Support approvals are considered at a separate panel. There have been no IRM appeals for mainstream assessments in the last few years.
● The panel feels that the quality of Form F assessments has improved. This has been helped by the business meeting held in February between the panel and the fostering service management where they considered panel expectations, how to deal with evidence and concerns in panel reports. They are planning to continue this on a quarterly basis and include social workers in one of these meetings.
● Panel feeds back to social workers and team managers on the quality of reports but there is no formal quality assurance process. There has been little feedback on applicants’ and social workers’ experience of panel. There was no published panel report last year (regulation). The service should provide the data on number of panel types of cases heard etc and the panel provide a commentary This is the opportunity for panel to give detailed feedback on the quality of the service and consider development issues.
● There is some variation in how the panels are chaired. One chair gives applicants a ‘heads up ‘on the questions before they go in the other explains panel will need to deal with any outstanding issues. Questions and who will ask them, are agreed with the panel in advance.
● Foster carers say that panel does their best to put them at their ease. But one carer who had an inexperienced social worker was given incorrect information about panel process. They would have liked some written information.
● There is no waiting room for panel. There are some chairs in a cold corridor, so they tend to wait in the adjoining café. This means that there is no confidential area for the chair to either prepare or feedback to applicants after panel. The usual practise is that unless there are concerns, panel feed back to applicants in the meeting without breaking for discussion.
● There is one Agency Decision Maker (ADM) who makes decisions within timescales following the panel on the practise is in their absence for the decisions to go to their line manager. This is not compliant with the regulations.
● Form F assessments are always heard on the panel date which is planned at the outset of the assessment except where the medical information is not available. Bexley pay for the
medical assessments to be completed by a private company because of the difficulty and delays in trying to get the NHS General Practitioners to complete medicals. There is one Medical Advisor (MA) and delays occur in their absence or where they struggle to get further information from specialist consultants.
8.2 Strengths
● Panel is experienced and run well.
● Panel engages with the service to support best practice
8.3
Areas for improvement
● Implementation of QA system.
● Panel reports to be produced annually and published with fostering service annual report. Progress formally reviewed at 6 months.
● ADM / MA are both points of potential delay.
● No standard panel information given to applicants ahead of attending
● Confidential area for applicants to wait
8.4
Recommendations
● Panel to continue the quarterly meetings with foster service managers and include social workers in some.
● Panel to introduce a QA format to assess the fostering services work It is suggested that a traffic light system will enable trend information to be collated over the year.
● Develop a process for panel feedback from applicants, foster carers, and the social workers. A traffic light system will enable trend information to be collated over the year.
● Panel to produce an annual report and complete a review progress on actions at six months.
● Panel to produce a booklet which can be given to applicants.
● Find a confidential area to share information with applicants.
● Appoint a second ADM
● Have an agreed contingency plan to cover Medical Advisor absence.
9 Management
9.1
General findings
The LA currently pays a skills-based fee on £183 to newly approved mainstream carers who do not have any previous relevant experience. Below is a summary of the allowances it pays:
These allowances have since been raised effective from 1/4/24.
Foster carers also benefit from free children's events, free foster carers’ events, annual appreciation event, children activities groups, extra allowances, thank you payments, training in specialism and a referral scheme.
Foster carers feel very valued by the fostering service but less so by children’s social workers where there is higher turnover, who do not always understand their role and do not always communicate with them well. Examples were given where key safeguarding information was not shared and of foster carers not being routinely invited to key meetings.
9.2
Strengths
● The progress of applicants through the process is tracked from the outset through the Liquid Logic System. Most applicants are approved well within the six-month time scale. Any performance issues are quickly picked up and managed. Foster carers transferring from another agency can be assessed in as little as six weeks, providing the Form F and references are made available.
● There is a wide range of training available. Most of the face-to-face training is delivered by the fostering service and there is an online bespoke Fostering offer from Kate Cairns. Foster carers can also access Bexley online training.
● In addition to the Hub support there are regular events, social coffee mornings and opportunities to meet senior managers. A monthly fostering newsletter keeps foster carers up to date with new training offers, freebies and discounts etc.
● Staff are highly motivated and eager to develop the service.
● Many staff are former foster carers and the commitment to foster carers and children permeates through the service.
● The service is diverse and culturally aware.
● The ethnicity of carers reflects that of the children entering the care system.
● A variety of festivals are celebrated in numerous ways. The service recently ran a workshop and materials on black hair and skin care where foster carers shared knowledge and tips.
● The service is well managed and produces a monthly performance report.
9.3 Areas for improvement
● The team is relatively new, and the service is working to continuously develop and refine the assessment process. The team manager is working on a refined version of the Form F assessment, detailing the sessions, tools, content, and homework for each to standardise improvements further.
● The payment system is not competitive compared with neighbouring LAs.
● The monthly performance report does not include recruitment or financial information and is not linked to targets.
9.4
Recommendations
● Training programme explaining the role of foster carers and clear expectations, possibly a code of conduct, for children’s social workers
● Complete the standardisation process of the Form F and other assessments.
● Review level of foster carer payments.
● Consider including financial and recruitment information on the fostering performance dashboard.
10 Data sources and references
● Ofsted fostering survey
● Ofsted inspection reports
● DfE looked after children statistical release
● Fosterlink data survey
● Fosterlink fieldwork.