Charity cancels landmark deal to deliver fostering and adoption services for Peterborough council
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
A 10-year contract for a charity to run a council's permanency service, including fostering and adoption, has been cancelled after just three years following steep losses.
Tact Fostering and Adoption was chosen to run Peterborough City Council’s service in 2016 as part of a deal worth £126m, which the charity descibed as “the greatest strategic initiative ever undertaken by Tact”.
However, the 2018/19 annual report and accounts, published this week, states that the charity had terminated the contract on 25 October last year after taking legal advice.
“Local authority funding pressures made it uneconomic provide this service,” the report says adding that Tact had previously given notice to end the deal in early March 2021.
Under the contract, Tact also undertook responsibility for supporting special guardianship carers across the city.
The partnership, which saw 36 council staff transfer to Tact, was also planned to develop new services for children and young people, including support for those returning home from care, the council said.
The service launched in April 2017 and was expected to deliver savings of £1m a year once fully established.
Tact’s 2018/19 accounts show that at the end of the last financial year it had made a loss of £923,000. Accounts for the previous financial year show the charity had a deficit of £2.27m.
The near £2.3m deficit was “as a result of investment in: (i) Peterborough Permanency Service; (ii) Tact’s new expansion service and (iii) an impairment to our property portfolio,” the report states.
It adds that savings from the contract with Peterborough Council were expected to begin this year, the third year of the deal.
However, the 2018/19 annual report and accounts details how in November 2018 Peterborough Council took back control of its “out-house” permanency service, leaving Tact to focus on the “in-house” provision.
Minutes from a meeting of Peterborough Council’s children and education scrutiny committee on 11 September 2019 says “a mutual decision was taken to terminate the contract”.
It reads: “Positive outcomes of the Tact partnership included training and the level of support provided to foster carers. There had however been an increase in children in care numbers and a decrease in placement availability which resulted in a very challenging market. Tact experienced difficulties trying to develop the service within this environment and the mutual decision was taken to terminate the contract.”
In a joint statement, Tact and Peterborough Council confirmed that the permanency service has transferred back to the council after Tact served notice on the contract.
A Peterborough Council spokesperson said: “We are grateful to Tact for the contribution they made to the operation of the permanency service. We will maintain the best practice developed by Tact in relation to the support and training provided to all of our carers so that vulnerable children continue to experience the best quality care and support.”
Tact chief executive Andy Elvin said: “It has been a privilege to work with our excellent staff, foster, adoptive and kinship carers in Peterborough and all of our fantastic children.”
The statement added: “Both organisations have gained a great deal of knowledge from working together to deliver the permanency service”.