Most vulnerable Inverclyde children 'failed' by foster care

Greenock West councillor James Daisley spoke out at a meeting of the area's social work and social care panel following a critical Care Inspectorate report which exposed problems in the area's fostering service.

A recent unannounced visit by inspectors led to Inverclyde HSCP's fostering service being graded only 'adequate' for its support for people's wellbeing, its leadership and its care support planning, with bosses ordered to make improvements by strict deadlines.

Councillor Daisley said he had spoken to a number of foster carers whose concerns were echoed in the inspection report.

He says foster carers feel 'undervalued' while there is a poor culture within social work of conflict, which is having an impact on children in foster care.

Councillor Daisley highlighted cases where children have successive social workers, babies are left in temporary foster care for up to two years, and transport is not arranged because of conflict between social work teams.

In response to the inspection report, HSCP bosses promised an action plan would be coming to the next panel meeting.

Councillor Daisley told the panel: "Firstly, to me, this seems quite a concerning report.

"I have been speaking to people within the fostering care community in Inverclyde, and they have a number of pieces of feedback which directly correlate to elements within the report.

"Coming from them one says 'no child has ever come to us with a social worker and left with the same social worker'."

Councillor Daisley also cited other feedback from foster carers.

He told the meeting one carer had said: "[Staff] keep leaving, going off sick or being moved. The service is severely understaffed and staff are under trained.

"Kids in Inverclyde are in the system too long. Processes don't work: for example, a child might have come as a newborn, the plan is to be moved on, back with parents or moved on for adoption within six months, and the child is still with that foster carer at the age of two.

"Elements of leadership lack urgency. The biggest issue is staff levels, with up to 40 cases for one individual.

"The service is trying to recruit but at least in one case, when a staff member comes from another area, they don't last long because of the nature of the service in Inverclyde is disorganised, or because of conflict within different teams."

Councillor Daisley said foster carers had informed him they were leaving due to a lack of support, and told the panel some said they had never received any support from the authority in the area at all.

He added: "One foster carer told me that every single foster carer in Inverclyde feels undervalued.

"There is a mistrust and lack of communication between certain teams. The biggest issue is a lack of communication on basic things.

"If a child was meant to be picked up from school, no one had ordered a taxi back from the first team. When mentioned to the second team, it is a blame on the first team, rather than a solution.

"This is common knowledge within the fostering community, and a daily experience for foster carers."

The Care Inspectorate report said: "We found that divisions and a poor culture of collaborative working between the service and the practice social work team have had an impact on outcomes."

Councillor Daisley added: "Could a reasonable person say that these services are failing our most vulnerable children, our foster parents as well, on a huge level due to conflict between teams and people not getting on?

"That is a cultural thing, and that to me is simply unacceptable."

His SNP colleague Pam Armstrong added that the inspection report was 'simply not good enough', and that an action plan needed to be put in place.

The area's adoption service was graded 'adequate' for its support for people's wellbeing and its leadership, and 'good' for its care and support planning.

The continuing care service was graded 'good' for its support for people's wellbeing and leadership, and 'very good' for its planning of care and support.

Chief officer Kate Rocks told the panel the inspection report was 'disappointing', and she was aware the service needed modernising.

She said: "A number of improvement actions were already under way within the service. However an improvement plan which reflects the report findings is being developed to support further improvement activity.

"A service development and improvement plan was being taken forward prior to inspection.

"The areas for improvement identified through the inspection process have now been added to this plan, and revised timescales for completion are being developed to monitor progress as part of the service’s improvement and quality assurance journey."

Jonathan Hinds, head of children, families and justice, renewed the promise of an action plan to tackle the concerns raised by the watchdog.