Public reports pack Wednesday 22-Jul-2015 19.00 Council

Page 732.26 Lambeth has 25 care leavers in staying put arrangements. Of the young people instaying put arrangements 12 are with ‘in house’ carers and 13 are with cares fromindependent fostering agencies2.27 During the 2015 Ofsted inspections Ofsted stated: “Local authority foster placementsoverall are of good quality….Inspectors met with 10 foster carers, who ranged inexperience from six months to 21 years and who had a range of ages of children inplacement. The foster carers were generally very positive about the service theyreceived from their supervising social workers… The number of foster carers in theservice has increased marginally in recent years.”2.28 Previously there were some instability in staffing within the fostering team anduncertainty about whether the local authority intended to outsource this service whichresulted in a lack of progress and development. As a result the team had focused ontrying to retain foster carers rather than recruiting more carers.2.29 Now the decision has been made to keep the team in-house, the immediate priority is torecruit more in-house and the service has hired an officer to lead on the recruitmentcampaign. Lambeth Fostering Service has set a target to recruit 35 new carers in2015/16.2.30 The Fostering Teams provide a range of services including; permanent and long-termfoster carers, short term foster carers, remand foster carers, parent and child placementsand short breaks for carers. There is also an established procedure in place to ensurethat children looked after are carefully matched from when the placement is first made.2.31 Lambeth has a wide array of continuous professional development and trainingopportunities for foster carers. Alongside a monthly support group which is open to allnew and established carers, every Foster Carer has a supervising social worker.2.32 Service users continue to be involved in inducting and training foster carers and will alsobe a part of the recruitment process.Independent Review Service; Listening to the voice of children and young people2.33 The appointment of an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) is a legal requirementunder Section 118 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. IROs make an importantcontribution to the goal of significantly improving outcomes for looked after children.Their primary focus is to quality assure the care planning process for each child, toensure that his/her wishes and feelings are given full consideration and to regularlymonitor and follow up between review meetings.2.34 In 2014 the National Children’s Bureau published research entitled: ‘The Role of theIndependent Reviewing Officers (IRO) in England’ it provides information and findings inregard to the affectivity of IRO services and outlines a number of importantrecommendations, some of which are:Overseeing the care plans of individual children and using a variety of ways frompersuasion to overt challenge to make sure a child’s needs are met7