Fostering Service Statement of Purpose

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council recognises the invaluable role that foster carers play in providing quality placements for looked after children. Fostering is a very rewarding experience, but also a challenging one. Good quality supervision, training and support is essential in ensuring foster carers maintain high standards of care and provide children with the safe, stable, healthy and nurturing environments which they need to develop and thrive. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council is committed to supporting foster carers financially, practically and emotionally to carry out their role. 

Responsibility for the support and supervision of approved foster carers lies with the Post Approval - Connected Carer Team or Post Approval - Mainstream Team. Each foster carer for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council will be allocated a named, suitably qualified supervising social worker to support them in carrying out the fostering task. When placing children with foster carers, the child's social worker is responsible for ensuring that the foster carers receive sufficient information about the child, their family and situation, as well as involving carers in the planning and consultation process. Children's Social Workers should ensure that they too also support the foster carer by visiting regularly and maintaining effective communication.

The allocated supervising social worker will supervise the work of the foster carer regularly and will identify and support with training and development needs. The usual minimum frequency for supervision is every six weeks, however, many foster carers have a much higher level of contact than this. In certain situations, the supervision frequency may be less than 6 weekly; this is usually in respect of those foster carers who have limited respite arrangements or where a permanent foster care arrangement has been identified as needing less supervision. 

In addition to the support provided by supervising social workers, the Family Placement Team facilitate bi-monthly support groups for mainstream and connected carers, as well as celebration and social events. Additionally foster carers have access to a caravan at Haggerston Castle, allowing them short breaks and the provision of Tees Active Leisure Cards gives opportunities for foster carers and children in our care to use the Council's leisure facilities at a reduced rate.

Regular fostering workshops are provided for foster carers and the Fostering Service has implemented the Training, Support and Development Standards for Foster Care in relation to foster care induction, training and development. In addition to this in-house training and development, other training opportunities are available through Workforce Development, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Safeguarding Children's Partnership as well as links with other fostering agencies and external providers.

All foster carers who are approved by Stockton Fostering Service have their approval reviewed at least once per year. The review will be conducted by an Independent Reviewing Officer and will involve a meeting with the foster carers. The review is also used as a means of giving foster carers the chance to give some feedback on the service they receive from the department. All annual reviews are submitted to the Agency Decision Maker for a decision in respect of ongoing suitability. Where annual reviews are presented to fostering panel for recommendation prior to Agency Decision Maker, the foster carer is invited and encouraged to attend.

Complaints and commendations

All service users, including children, foster carers and birth families can utilise the Local Authority's Customer Feedback and Complaints Procedure.

Information about how to make a complaint is given to every prospective foster carer. The Children's Guide, which is given to all children who are looked after by the local authority, includes details of how to make a complaint. Read the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council Customer feedback and complaints policy.

Complaints are dealt with in four stages:

Early resolution

Early resolution is an opportunity for the Council to put things right and agree to undertaking actions which will lead to a complaint being resolved within a short time period, usually within five working days. A person can make their complaint over the telephone, by e-mail, in writing or in person to a member of staff. Where a complaint is received by the Information Governance Team the complainant will be contacted by an officer from Children's Services within five working days to better understand their dissatisfaction and attempt to find an early resolution to their complaint. Should it not be possible to resolve the issue at this stage, the complainant can request that the complaint is considered at Stage 1 (Investigation). The complainant will need to provide reasons they remain dissatisfied and what the desired outcome is. This will be given consideration to determine if it is appropriate for further investigation at Stage 1. The Council recommends that complainants submit their requests for consideration of their complaint at Stage 1 within 20 working days of being notified of the outcome of early resolution.

Stage 1 (Investigation)

Where complaints progress to Stage 1, the investigating officer will undertake a full investigation into the complaint, consider the complaint and seek to find possible solutions. An advocate can be provided to assist a child making a complaint and any adult can refer themselves to the Advocacy Service at the Citizens Advice Bureau if required. A written response explaining the outcome is sent to the complainant within 25 working days.

Stage 2 (Review)

If a complainant is not satisfied at the end of Stage 1, they can choose to have the complaint reviewed. Requests for complaints to be reviewed at Stage 2 must include the reasons for the request to progress to the next stage and also the desired outcome. The Council recommends that complainants submit their requests for consideration of their complaint at Stage 2 within 20 working days of receiving the complaint response. A Stage 2 officer will be appointed who will undertake a further investigation and response in writing within 20 working days.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) reviews the way that the Council has responded to complaints. The LGSCO will only investigate your complaint once you have completed the Council's complaints procedure, if you have been referred the LGSCO early or if your complaint takes more than 12 weeks to receive a response. You can make a complaint to the LGSCO for free and complaints are investigated independently.

Visit the LGCSO website for more information about how to make a complaint or to find out about its remit.

Monitoring and evaluating the service

Service leads and the Children's Service's Fostering Panel consider matters relating to the placement of children. It is the responsibility of service leads to agree a decision in respect of a child needing to come into our care, whilst Fostering Panel considers the appropriateness of matches for long term placements as well as suitability to foster. The Fostering Panel is chaired independently and consists of internal and external members; the quality and timeliness of work is monitored by the Fostering Panel and reported to the Agency Decision Maker (Assistant Director) on a 6 monthly basis. The Fostering Panel considers themes from suitability to foster assessments as well as the foster carers' annual reviews and long-term fostering matches. The Fostering Panel and service report is shared annually at Corporate Parenting Board.

The Fostering Service is inspected by Ofsted as part of the Local Authority Inspection of Local Authority Children's Services and the reports of these inspections are available to the general public on the Ofsted website.

Monitoring and evaluating the Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide

The Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide are reviewed at least annually by the Family Placement Registered Manager and the Service Managers - Fieldwork and Assessment Lead, Looked After Children and Resources.

It is recognised that the Fostering Service is ever developing and changes to the Statement of Purpose may need to be made more frequently. Therefore, the Statement of Purpose will also need to be reviewed as and when changes take place.

Distribution of Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide

Staff

The documents will be made available to staff.

All staff will be made aware of the documents via staff and management meetings, the intranet and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council website. The responsibility for dissemination of the Statement of Purpose lies with the Family Placement Registered Manager.

Ofsted inspection

Ofsted will receive a copy of the Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide each time they inspect the service or when major changes have taken place. The responsibility for distribution will be with the Family Placement Registered Manager.

Children

The Children's Guide will make children aware of the Statement of Purpose and will include a summary of the information within it. All children at the point of being looked after will receive a copy of the Children's Guide. It is the responsibility of child's social worker to ensure that they are given the Children's Guide.

Foster carers

Foster carers will be informed of the Statement of Purpose and Children's Guide throughout the preparation and approval procedure. The Foster Carers' Handbook will refer to the documents and the way in which foster carers may access the Statement of Purpose. 

Parents

The Parents' Information Pack will refer to the Statement of Purpose and the way in which they may access it. It is the child's social worker's responsibility to ensure the parent is given a Parent Information Pack. The Statement of Purpose can also be accessed via the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council website.