Chamber and committees

Following the introduction of the new placement limit for foster care placements that came into effect on 29 December 2014 the Scottish Government invited feedback on any issues which may arise from its introduction.

In response to feedback we received and upon further examination of the full intentions behind this recommendation, we are now processing a further amendment to ensure that every aspect of the recommendation is covered and fully realised. This is expected to come into force later this year.

We are also liaising with the Care Inspectorate with a view to collecting data via their annual return on the number of exemptions that local authorities apply for so that we can monitor its effectiveness.

The Scottish Government measures the effectiveness of its policies regarding looked after children in a number of different ways.

The Children’s Social Work Statistics publication, released annually, provides data on a range of areas concerning looked after young people, such as type of placement, eligibility for aftercare, number of children on the Child Protection Register or in secure care, number of secure care units and more, the full list of which can be found on the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubChildrenSocialWork.

The Children’s Social Work Statistics publication also provides information around destinations of young people eligible for aftercare, that is, education, training or employment. This allows us to examine outcomes for care experienced young people as they begin their transition towards independent living. In addition, the data the Scottish Government’s Educational Outcomes for Looked After Children, published annually in June, provides a comparison with the general populace: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/7455.

In considering whether our policies are working for looked after children it is important to listen first and foremost to the views and opinions of care experienced young people. For this reason we announced the root-and-branch Care Review in October last year, which will be driven in partnership with looked after young people. The Review will be Independently led and will seek to take account of the views of a host of individuals and organisations, and through consultation with these groups will identify what works within the care system in Scotland, and what needs to improve.

The Care Review will be supported by the 1000 Voices project, which was launched by Who Cares? Scotland in February 2016 and to which the First Minister has committed. The project will engage with 1000 looked after young people over the course of this Parliament and will provide us with yet another vital opportunity to speak to care experienced young people in order to discover what can be done to improve their life chances.

In meeting our responsibilities towards improving outcomes for looked after young people, we work closely with our grant holders, and with corporate parents, to ensure that they are meeting their objectives and delivering high-quality service. We recognise the expertise of our stakeholders and are sensitive to their views and concerns, working closely with them to inform policy decisions.

The National Review of Foster Care made six recommendations for improvement in foster care: R1, introduce new placement descriptors; R2, consider alternatives to a national foster carer database; R3, introduce a maximum placement limit; R4, develop a learning and development framework; R5, introduce changes to allowances; and R6, discuss the future of fostering fees. Here is a brief summary of progress on each.

Recommendation one- New national foster care placement descriptors and explanatory notes have been agreed and are in the process of being introduced into local authority care planning and data collection systems.

Recommendation two - Introducing alternative options to a national foster carer database were considered by a short life working group to be of little value. it was however thought that there may be scope to re-visit the possibility of a national register of foster carers once other improvements, particularly on learning and development were fully imbedded.

Recommendation three - The Looked After (Scotland) Regulations were amended to introduce a maximum foster care placement limit of 3 children with exemptions available for sibling groups and emergency placements. These came into force on 29 December 2014. We invited feedback from the sector following the limit’s introduction which has resulted in us now processing further amendments to the Regulations to broadening the exemptions. These will come into force later this year.

Recommendation four - Following a consultation during summer 2016 a final National Standard for the learning and development of foster carers has be published by the Scottish Social Services Council on 27 April 2017.

Recommendation five - Research on allowances across the UK has been carried out but a legal challenge in 2015 to Scottish local authorities by the Equality and Human Rights Commission about the need for parity between children living in kinship and foster carer has meant that we have needed to plot a longer term course to revising allowances for children living in both foster and kinship care. We will soon invite representation from across the sector to form a National Review Group to consider a fair system of care allowances.

Recommendation six - Fees for foster caring is a matter for local authorities to take forward and we will raise this with representatives at a meeting this month.

The review of care allowances and the implementation of the learning and development Standard will need to be cognisant of the ambitions of the Independent Review of Care.

Scottish Government funding for drug treatment and support services has historically been routed via health boards, where it is supplemented by additional contributions from the NHS and other statutory partners. From 2017-18 this funding has been provided for onward delegation to Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), which provide the appropriate infrastructure through which to direct investment in community based treatment services, in line with local population needs.

The Scottish Government corresponds regularly with health boards to monitor and review performance with reference to agreed resource budget allocations and the implementation of Local Delivery Plans.

Scotland’s drugs strategy, the Road to Recovery, promotes the needs of the individual, explicitly recognising that a range of drug treatment and support approaches are needed to help people achieve recovery. We have invested over £630 million to tackle problem alcohol and drug use since 2008. The vast majority of that funding has been directed to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), via Health Boards, for investment in local treatment and recovery support services, which includes abstinence-based programmes where appropriate.

Our investment continues to focus on ensuring that treatment is a person-centred and sustained offer. Harm reduction interventions, community support and rehabilitation, prescribed drug treatment, and residential rehabilitation are all components of the treatment services offering provided by ADPs across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has made no assessment of the recruitment and provision of foster families by local authorities but we are aware of estimated national foster carer shortage figures published by the Fostering Network.

Responsibility for the recruitment and provision of sufficient foster families to meet the needs of children and young people who come in to their care, and responsibility for assessing the effectiveness of local recruitment campaigns rests with local authorities.

Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland are currently funded through a three year funding agreement via The Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention (CYPFEIF) and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (ALEC) Fund. The grant letters clearly state that funding levels are subject to review.

The CYPFEIF Board considered recommendations from both policy leads and Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland in arriving at funding allocation for 2017-18. This process is highly competitive and based on AFA's application, a marginal reduction of £5000 was recommended.