News and updates

Government announces new savings accounts for children in care in the UK

Children who have been in care for more than a year will receive £200 to start a junior ISA savings account, children's minister Tim Loughton has confirmed.

It is estimated that more than 55,000 young people in the UK will benefit from the savings account after the first accounts are opened in early 2012. The government hopes that this will encourage others to contribute to the fund and encourage children to save.

The Department for Education has worked with charities Action for Children and Barnardo’s in developing the scheme. The funds from which, worth £16.7m until 2015, will be accessible on the account holder's 18th birthday. . The government is now also considering how to provide financial education to children in care and their carers.
Welcoming the anouncement, Action for Children chief executive Dame Clare Tickell said: "Not only will the new junior ISA for children in care ease their move to financial independence, but it will help to show these vulnerable children that someone cares, and that someone is planning for their future."

Details of the sheme haven’ yet been piblished, but FosterTalk will update you with further information as it becomes available.

Government outlines proposals for changes to the Vetting and Barring Scheme – England & Wales

Background

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 set out a framework for the scope and operation of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS). Following independent reviews into both the Vetting & Barring Scheme and the Criminal Records Regime (CRR),announced by the coalition government last year, those recommendations which require further legislation have been included in the Protection of Freedoms Bill which is currently passing through Parliament.

These provisions include:

1. scrapping registration and continuous monitoring;
2. scrapping controlled activities;
3. reducing the scope of regulated activity (that is activity, which people on a barred list cannot do);
4. making changes to the criminal records checking process, including the introduction of a new system for the continuous updating and portability of criminal record
5. issuing certificates to the applicant only
6. improving systems for resolving disputes and representations
7. improving the relevancy test the police apply to intelligence and other information
8. merging the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form a new single organisation called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

The new organisation will provide a barring and criminal records disclosure service and will be called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).The date that the new organisation will come into being is planned to be November 2012, (subject to Parliamentary timetabling)

Will similar changes be made in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Justice and criminal records matters are devolved functions and Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate arrangements. Nonetheless, it is important that arrangements across the UK are all in step and there are no gaps in public protection terms. With the agreement of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Bill makes parallel amendments to the vetting and barring scheme in Northern Ireland so that it continues to be aligned with that in England and Wales. Scotland is maintaining its own Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.

Business as usual

In the meantime, it is business as usual at the CRB, AccessNI and the ISA., and all current safeguarding duties and responsibilities still apply. Their websites will be updated with any new information as the situation changes. These website addresses are as follows:

For information relating to the current Disclosure process visit:

www.crb.homeoffice.gov.uk or www.accessni.gov.uk

Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA)

For information relating to referrals and barring decisions:
http://www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk/
FosterTalk will update members on developments as they occur, and you can Have YOUR say on this, or any other topic, on our website at www.fostertalk.org.

Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) Update – England and Wales

As many of you know, the government announced last year it would be withdrawing funding from the CWDC at the end of this financial year (March 2012,) which left the future of the CWDC’s role in supporting training standards and workbooks for foster carers in doubt.

The CWDC have now announced that from April 2012 the Department for Education (DfE) will take on responsibility for the CWDC’s extensive social work programme. This includes their work with foster carers and short break carers, the young people's workforce, those working in residential care and people working with parents and families with multiple and complex needs.

It also includes their activity to support safer recruitment, child poverty and leadership and management for children's services.

Making this announcement, Jane Haywood, Chief Executive, CWDC, said:
"Our commitment to stakeholders remains as strong as ever, as does our commitment to working to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
"I am immensely proud that our core business continues to be recognised and valued by government, employers and the workforce. I am confident the arrangements we have made will ensure this continues for years to come."
For further information on the cwdc visit: www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

Tell Tim

The Department for Education has now launched the new Tell Tim website which will give foster children and Foster Carers a way of communicating direct with Tim Loughton, the Children's Minister. The Minister wants to hear from people in care and those who have recently left, Foster Carers, and all those working with and for children and young people in the care system. The Minister wants to hear what is working well and not so well, how you think things could be made better and what really matters to you so we can put our efforts into things that will make the most difference. Comments to Tell Tim will be considered and will help the Government improve the care system. Updates will be provided on the Children in Care section of the Department website.

www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/families/childrenincare/telltim

The Foster Carers' Charter

The Government has now launched the Foster Carers’ Charter which has been developed with key figures in the fostering and looked after children community including BAAF, the Fostering Network, Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers, Foster Care Associates, the Children’s Rights Director, ADCS, Voice and TACT and foster children across the UK.

The new Charter sets out clear principles on how Foster Carers should be treated, recognises their invaluable work and aims to encourage more people to sign up to be Foster Carers. The Charter is backed up by new slimmed-down fostering regulations and guidance which highlight the important role of Foster Carers in the lives of looked after children. The Charter sets out clear principles of what support should be available and what Foster Carers can expect. For example, to be given the support and development opportunities they need to provide care to the children placed with them, to have proper information about children placed with them, to be treated as a member of the team working with the child and to be involved in the making of key decisions.

The Charter gives Foster Carers and others a tool to challenge their Local Authority or Fostering Service Provider if the Charter commitments are not being honoured, and a mechanism to strive together for continuing improvement in their local service. The Department for Education along with those who have helped develop the Charter to this stage hope that every Local Authority and fostering agency will sign up to the Charter. They particularly want local areas to sign up to the spirit of the Charter and build on and develop it in their own way to reflect the needs of the local community. The Minister wants to hear about what works and what doesn’t and what changes the Government should be considering.

Click here to read the Foster Carers' Charter.

New Fostering and Adoption Regulations, Guidance and National Minimum Standards published March 2011

A newly revised, comprehensive set of regulations and national minimum standards has now been published for adoption and fostering services in England and will come into force on April 1st 2011. New guidance on family and friends fostering has been published and this will also come into force on 1st April.

New guidance on adoption was published in February and is already in force except for the provisions relating to adoption panels which will come into effect on 1st April.

In full, the documents that have now been published include revised guidance to the Children Act 1989 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002, new and amended regulations for fostering services and adoption agencies and new National Minimum Standards for fostering services and adoption. In conjunction with the Care Planning Regulations 2010 which also come into force on 1st April, this set of regulations, guidance and National Minimum Standards will shape the future provision of fostering and adoption and family and friends services.

Links are provided below to all the relevant information:

Protection of Freedoms Bill

In February 2011, the government made the following press announcement regarding the VBS and CRB regimes in England and Wales:

"The government today unveiled plans to scale back the vetting and barring scheme (VBS) and criminal records regime to common-sense levels while ensuring vulnerable groups are appropriately protected.

The proposals, which come after a comprehensive review of the existing system, include:

Merging the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority to form a streamlined new body providing a proportionate barring and criminal records checking service.
A large reduction in the number of positions requiring checks. Only those working closely and regularly with children and vulnerable adults will need them.
Portability of criminal records checks between jobs to cut down on needless bureaucracy.
An end to the requirement for those working or volunteering with vulnerable groups to register with the VBS and then be continuously monitored.
Stopping employers who knowingly request criminal records checks on individuals who are not entitled to them.

The government will also keep the scope of CRB checks under review to ensure that they are not putting people off volunteering."

The government's aim is for the Bill to be completed in early 2012 and to come into force as soon as possible thereafter.

For more information, please visit the Independent Safeguarding Authority or the Criminal Records Bureau.

Have YOUR Say on FosterTalk's Public Forum.

National minimum allowance rates for financial years 2010-11 to 2012-13

The national minimum allowance rates for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 are now available through our national minimum allowances information document.

Independent Review Mechanism for Foster Carers

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) has been extended to cover Foster Carers in England with effect from 1st April 2009. A three year contract has been awarded to BAAF, who also manage the IRM for adopters.

The IRM is a review process conducted by a panel independent of Fostering Service Providers that can be used when Foster Carers do not agree with the recommendation of their agency not to approve them or to de-register them.

The IRM is not an appeals process, and they are not courts or tribunals. The IRM will be able to review recommendations made by the fostering service panel and make recommendations to the agency decision maker. However, the final decision will rest with the agency decision maker as the IRM has no power to direct him or her to change their decision.

There is no cost to the Foster Carer in making an application to the IRM, although they will have to meet their own travel costs to attend the Review. Review Panels will be held in London, Leeds or Birmingham, and an application will be directed to the Panel most suitable to hear the case. The charge for the IRM will be met by the Fostering Service Provider and has been set at £2798.

So if you are;

a Foster Carer who has been recommended for de-registration, or
an applicant who has had your application refused at panel, or
a Foster Carer who has had your terms of approval changed against your wishes…

…you now have two options. You can either apply for a review to the IRM, or you can make representations to your Fostering Service Provider.

Please note: You cannot do both and once one has been used, you cannot then revert to the other option. Please seek advice from FosterTalk before proceeding.

For further information, visit the IRM website.

Have YOUR Say on FosterTalk's Public Forum.

Ministers plan more competition for social care

The government plans to open up children's services to competition as part of its Open Public Services White Paper launched on 12 July.

The government announced it will look to allow voluntary and private organisations to run locally commissioned services such as support for looked-after children and family support, and give children's centres more control over their funding. It has already announced plans to offer personal budgets to all families with special needs.
The local government ombudsman is also to have greater powers to enforce the rights of all those individuals with personal budgets alongside a "zero tolerance" of absolute failure such as vulnerable individuals being abused by their carers. "We will consult on the potential ways to establish zero tolerance of failure on a service-by-service basis".

Other key changes in the White Paper include:

incentivising departments and councils to bring together services such as health and social care support or mental health support for children and young people.
encouraging commissioners to break up contracts into smaller lots giving a range of providers greater opportunities to deliver services.
consulting on a sector-by-sector basis on whether it is appropriate to have an independent body to consider complaints from alternative providers.

The White Paper will be open to consultation until September and the government will set out a programme of work for departments in November. From April 2012, departments will have to publish regular progress reports on how public services have been opened up.

What do you think? Have YOUR say on FosterTalk's Public Forum

For further information visit the open public services website