Aims to meet future need for looked-after children
Consultation closed: 18 August 2019
The aims of this strategy are to:
- directly provide or commission sufficient local accommodation to meet the needs of looked-after children and young people. Also, where children’s needs are such that they are placed out of Central Bedfordshire, to be able to commission individual placements from quality-assured providers on a national basis
- deliver high-quality placements that offer safe and stable homes and contribute to looked-after children and young people achieving positive outcomes.
- ensure value for money, balancing cost-effectiveness with quality and minimising the need for placement changes and high-intensity provision.
How this will be achieved
- transforming our fostering service so that we can grow and maintain our pool of in-house foster carers, especially those who can foster children with more complex needs
- developing better arrangements for commissioning foster placements from independent fostering agencies (IFAs), while maximising use of foster carers who work directly for us to meet our aspiration to place 70% of fostered children in-house
- ensuring that residential provision is sufficient and meets the local need
- quickly commissioning the right support that meets the individual needs of a 16+ young person for semi-independent placements (we will select the right support from providers who have already met our robust quality criteria)
- implementing standard contractual arrangements for paying for one-off placements (e.g. parent and child units) that ensure quality, value for money and compliance
- working with children, young people, parents (where appropriate), carers, practitioners and providers to develop accommodation provision that meets children’s needs and can contribute to improved outcomes and which enables them to achieve their aspirations as they move towards adulthood