Councils need the means to deliver foster care support
Derren Hayes
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
A little over two months ago, the Fostering Network called on the government to do the right thing - both morally and economically - by extending financial support to foster carers and in doing so enable children they care for to stay in the placement past their 18th birthday and up to 21 if they so wish.
So credit has to go to the government for listening to the strong arguments put forward by the fostering lobby and acting on them by introducing earlier this month a staying-put duty on councils that will take effect from April 2014.
The £40m three-year funding package to help councils cover the cost of providing three years of additional financial support is, of course, welcome, but questions are already being raised as to whether it accurately reflects the bill heading councils' way. These concerns are understandable. The Department for Education has based its sums for the funding on a three-year staying-put care placement costing £5,400, or an average of £1,800 annually. Contrast this with the government's own analysis of the Staying Put pilots which valued the annual social care cost of placements to be £7,000, or £21,000 over three years.
With the demand for staying-put places anticipated to be between 8,000 and 10,000 over three years, is it any wonder that local authorities are worried by the disparity between the two sets of figures?
Fostering charities seem content that the government sums stack up, but to ensure councils are fully on board with it, ministers must clarify how the figures have been arrived at and reassure them that some of the expected long-term savings from the policy will be passed on.
The values of children’s charities are priceless
At the start of 2013, CYP Now highlighted concerns among the voluntary sector that children's charities were shying away from being overly critical of the government, sometimes putting aside their values in order to protect the state funding they already had, and to win new work and grants.
If a recent survey of Children England members is a barometer of the sector's general health, it would seem that this tactic has not really worked. Almost three-quarters report that reduced statutory funding is the biggest challenge they are facing over the coming year - one in 10 fear for their very survival, while most are hunting for new sources of revenue separate from government contracts.
At this time of year, when people feel extra-generous, the tills of charity shops and collection buckets tend to fill. But Christmas only comes once a year – charities do not want to fall into the same trap as many retailers and become over-reliant on it. Finding a steady, predictable and sustainable flow of income is, of course, the holy grail, but doing that without compromising charities' unique values and critical integrity is equally vital.
