Children homes and kinship

The ICHA “State of the Sector” survey 9 Spring 2023 reported record levels of demand for children’s homes, particularly for children and young people with increasingly complex needs leading to the independent sector that often struggles to keep pace. Regionally, there has been 5% increase in the number of external residential placements since September 2023 to a total of 1454.

Although all regions had an increase in the number of children’s homes this year, these are not evenly distributed across England. The Northwest accounts for a quarter of all children’s homes and almost a quarter of all places and data from the Ofsted Social Care Providers list, indicates a 14% increase in the number of Children’s Residential Homes in the Northwest in September 2023, more significant growth than seen in previous years. As a result, a significant proportion of the sufficiency in the Northwest is utilised by local authorities from out with the region.

Equally more homes are not operating to full capacity usually due to caring for young people with more complex needs, new homes being smaller in occupancy levels and difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff across the sector.

Significant rises in the average prices paid by authorities in residential and supported accommodation have continued with providers charging more or requesting multiple fees creating voids due to the complex needs, coupled with of one young person. This impacts on overall provider numbers as well as putting additional cost pressures on local authority budgets.

There are four mainstream children’s homes and two edge of care homes across Cumbria. These continue to be available to both Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness Councils following local government reform, with the oversight being hosted by Cumberland. We currently have:

one 6 bedded children’s home in Barrow in Furness which cares for young people aged 8 to 17 years. The home was last inspected in August 2023 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Good
one 4 bedded children’s home in Kendel which cares for young people aged 8 to 17 years. The home was last inspected in October 2023 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Good
one 6 bedded children’s home in Whitehaven which cares for young people aged 8 to 17 years. The home was last inspected in October 2023 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Good
one 4 bedded children’s home in Penrith which cares for young people aged 8 to 17 years. The home was last inspected in October 2023 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Good
one 4 bedded children’s home in Kendel which cares for young people aged 8 to 17 years. The home was last inspected in October 2023 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Requires Improvement
one 5 bedded children’s home in Carlise which offers outreach and respite care and works with families to stop children becoming cared for. It also supports rehabilitation home and supporting potential breakdown of fostering arrangements. The home was last inspected in July 2022 and received an overall rating by Ofsted of Requires Improvement

There are 46 Independent Children's Homes owned by 7 different organisations in the Cumberland footprint who can collectively provide care and accommodation for up to 78 young people, however 33 of them only offer accommodation for a short period of assessment.

All of these homes are registered to provide care and accommodation for children with EBD, .3 can take children with an LD and 2 are single sex occupancy only. 3 are linked to a school and can only be utilised if also utilising the school (15 beds) - 2 of which are the LD and 2 of which are the single gender (boys) 18 of these have not yet been inspected by OFSTED, all others were inspected in 2023 to 2024:

23 are rated as good
5 are rated as requires Improvement

There are 34 Independent Children's Homes owned by 12 different organisations in the Westmorland and Furness footprint who can collectively provide care and accommodation for up to 76 young people, however 16 of these places only offer accommodation for a short period of assessment.

All of which are registered to provide care and accommodation for children with EBD, .2 can take children with an LD and 3 are single gender occupancy only. 1 is linked to a school (8 beds).

12 of these have not yet been inspected by OFSTED, all others were inspected in 2023 to 2024:

1 was rated Outstanding
17 are rated as Good
3 are rated as Requires Improvement
1 is rated as Inadequate

The Investment in Residential Care Accommodation Transformation Project has been established by Cumberland Council to oversee and drive the transformation and Investment in Residential Care Accommodation across Cumberland. The project will:

develop a clear vision and strategic direction for the future approach to Residential Care Accommodation for Cumberland Council
develop an operating model which forecasts the need for future service provision through analysis of existing children (need), patterns of geographical future demand (future need) and evaluation of different models of service delivery (internal-external)
produce a Childrens Residential Care Strategy with an accompanied Service Asset Management Plan
review the current in house provision

Improving sufficiency through:

develop a clear vision and strategic direction for the future approach to Residential Care Accommodation for Cumberland Council underpinned through its in-house operating model
produce a Childrens Residential Care Strategy for in house children’s residential care with an accompanied Service Asset Management Plan and growth plan which ensures occupancy rates are maximised
explore capital funding opportunities to develop more in house children’s homes
develop a recruitment and retention strategy for the residential work force which includes a succession planning strategy for workforce development
strengthen and broker a closer relationship with Cumberland’s providers to increase access to local homes, embedding a Cumberland first approach. We want to build relationships with local providers to forge community networks for our children and keep them close as it is essential to our plan and transformation and is good practice for our children to have strong relationships
stimulate the market for external providers to partner with Cumberland to offer local children’s homes which meet the need of our children and young people
review our residential offer to strengthen targeted edge of care and return home time scales and sustainability
ensuring homes are situated in the right parts areas linking the principles of staying close and meaningful independence preparation, return to parent care and communities support and engagement developing long lasting networks

Kindship

We know that children and young people often have better outcomes in life when they remain within their family and friends’ network and for most of our children and young people, they tell us that this is the most important thing for them. Cumberland’s Kinship team work hard to ensure that our kinship carers receive the right support, training, and access to services to help them care for the children and young people with whom they already have a family bond. By ensuring we are focused in the right areas we will ensure that cared for children and young people are, where it is safe to do so with their families. Our sufficiency approach to kinship care is evidenced in our lifelong links approach, which continues to explore how children and young people can stay connected with their families and through our reunification plans, ensuring we never say never regarding whether a child or young person will be able to return home to their family if the are cared for outside of the family home.

Improve sufficiency through:

implement our no detriment policy which will look to move foster carers across to kinship carers, maintaining levels of support but whilst recognising the child / young person is not subject to the statutory involvement aligned with being cared for
review the quality of the wider support offer to ensure kinship carers are supported to meet the needs of the children and young people in their care and unplanned moves are reduced
increase the number of kinship carers, keeping cared for children and young people in their family networks

swilson Wed, 26/06/2024 - 11:16