Looked After Children’s Accommodation
Sufficiency Statement and Strategy
Dec 2013 – Dec 2014
1
Table of Contents
Introduction
Review of Current Provision
In house Foster Care
Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs)
Residential Provision
Local Support Services
Current Placement Types
Supported Lodgings
Need Assessment
Trends National and Local
Snapshot of current need
Looked After Children Commissioning Priorities 2014
Review
2
1. Introduction
In 2010 central government published statutory guidance in respect of s22(g) of the
Children Act (1989). This requires local authorities to take steps to secure, as far as
reasonably practicable sufficient accommodation for looked after children within the local
authority area. The 20Statutary guidance required that from April 2010 local authorities
should include the plans for securing sufficient accommodation in their relevant
commissioning strategies. In addition, from 2011 local authorities are required to ensure
there is sufficient accommodation to meet the needs and demands of children who need to
be looked after.
A key priority of the Northumberland Children and Young People’s Plan 2011 – 2014 is
that “all children and young people are living in safe and secure environments”.
This position statement sets out the range of accommodation provision that has been
developed to provide for the needs of children who need to be looked after by the local
authority. The statement should be read in conjunction with the various service plans and
strategies that set out the detailed plans for commissioning services. These include
Children and Young People Plan 2011-14
The Safeguarding and Looked After Service Plan,
The Looked After Children and Commissioning Strategy
Permanency Strategy
Care Leavers Strategy
Staying Put Policy
Prevention Strategy
Northumberland County Council fulfils its sufficiency duty through a combination of direct
provision of fostering and residential children homes provision and strategically
commissioning of independent providers for fostering, residential homes and supported
accommodation.
The Council has an expectation that all its directly provided provision for looked after
children are judged by Ofsted to be Good or Outstanding. All County Council fostering,
adoption and residential services were judged as Good or better.
Northumberland seeks to use its in-house fostering and residential provision in the first
instance and to only commission placements from alternative providers that are similarly
judged Good or Outstanding.
As at 31st October 2013 72% of looked after children are placed within Northumberland.
2. Review of Current Provision
2.1 Support to families to prevent the need for accommodation
Northumberland County Council provides, commissions and works in partnership with
others, in delivering family support services that support families and reduce the risk of
them requiring accommodation. Priorities for these penetrative interventions are detailed in
the Children’s Services Commissioning and Prevention Strategies.
3
2.1 Northumberland Family Placement Service
Northumberland Family Placement Service has been undertaking a modernisation
programme including re-structuring to best meet the challenges of providing sufficient
quality foster carers and provide timely and sustainable permanency arrangements.
The service recruits, assesses, supervises and supports approved Foster Carers, including
Connected Persons (friends and family) carers that enable children to remain within their
wider family networks and communities. The service also promotes sufficiency of
accommodation through promoting appropriate permanency for children through
assessment of Special Guardians, child permanence planning and family finding and
through the recruitment and support of adoptive families.
As at March 2013 Northumberland County Council had 251 foster carers within 169
households providing 221 in house foster care placements. Of the 251 foster carers 246
(98%) are White British, 4 (1.5%) are White Any other background and 1 (0.3%) are Mixed
ethnicity. Northumberland’s population is predominantly white and the fostering population
reflects the demography of the population of the County. Recruiting carers for black and
ethnic minority background is therefore challenging, however, efforts are made to place
children from BME backgrounds with appropriate carers and carers are supported to
ensure that the cultural needs of young people are met. Northumberland is a large rural
county and resources are made available to ensure that young people maintain their
previous school attendance where appropriate despite the geographical challenges.
Of the 221 foster placements 24 are matched long term placements, 120 are time limited
placements, 76 are family and friends placements.
Relative and Friends Foster carers play an important role in providing accommodation for
looked after children. They do so often in unplanned circumstances and have particular
challenges and needs if they are to achieve positive outcomes. The policy and procedures
for the temporary approval, assessment and support of friend and family carers has been
reviewed. This clarifies when a child is looked after by the local authority, the expectations
upon connected persons as foster carers and the arrangements for their assessment and
support.
2.2 Independent Fostering Agencies (IFA’s)
Northumberland County Council strategically commissions and works in partnership with
independent fostering agencies as a part of its sufficiency strategy.
Though the majority of children are fostered with Northumberland carers and there has
been a small net increase in foster carers recruited, there has been a significant increase
in the placement of children with independent agency foster carers in 2013. Though the
Council will continue to priorities the recruitment of more of its own foster carers as a
central part of its sufficiency strategy, the commissioning of Independent Fostering Agency
provision is likely to remain an important element of providing sufficient quality foster
placements.
4
Seven local authorities (Northumberland, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside,
Northumberland, Gateshead, Durham and Sunderland) collaborated to establish a
framework of “approved” IFA’s with effect from April 2011. In addition to achieving
efficiencies on placement price, local authorities also benefit from shared quality
monitoring arrangements. As of October 2013, 90 young people were placed with IFA’s.
39 out of 90 = 43% of children placed in IFA within Northumberland.
2.3 Staying Put
Northumberland has established Staying Put arrangements that enable young people to
remain with their Northumberland foster carers beyond their 18th birthday.
Equality of opportunity will be promoted regardless of whether a young person is placed
with an “in house” placement or a commissioned placement via an Independent Fostering
agency. There are 11 young people in Staying Put arrangements as of December 2013.
2.4 Residential Provision
Northumberland County Council directly provides five residential children’s homes (both
open and secure). These are, Coanwood Drive, Kestrel House, Thornbrae and the national
secure service Kyloe House (Willow and Alder Units). Northumberland County Council
also offers a short break service for children with disabilities, Barndale short break care. All
NCC Children’s Homes are currently rated as Outstanding and Good. These children’s
homes provide a range of provision for young people aged between 8 and 18 including
long term placements and respite care. All homes are supported through partnerships with
Health, Education and Social care services. Thornbrae is able to offer younger children a
specific package of support to prepare them to move in to foster care placements.
There is currently a proposal for the further development of the smaller community home
model to build on in house residential capacity; including provision for children diagnosed
with autism.
Six authorities in the North East region have created an approved list consisting of
providers offering Children’s residential care to ensure there is a clear strategic
commissioning and management of out of county residential placements. NCC
commissions beds from the approved list when necessary.
2.5 Permanence
Ensuring children and young people have the opportunity to enjoy family life as a
permanent family member and no longer be looked after is a core objective of the Council.
Ensuring that there are sufficient adopters and Special Guardians able and supported to
provide this permanence is central to achieving this outcome.
There were 19 children adopted in 2011-12 and 22 adopted in 2012-13, while the number
of Special Guardianship Orders granted rose from 7 in 2011-12 to 17 in 2012-13.
5
The Adoption Reform Grant has been used to meet the challenge of recruiting more
adopters for local and national need and to enable the Council to meet the challenges of
the Public Law Outline.
Providing timely permanence for looked after young people not only promotes the welfare
of the children concerned but also supports sufficiency of placements for looked after
children.
The adoption reforms also present greater opportunity to support sufficiency of placements
through changes to the Care Planning and review Regulations from April 2014 that will
enable prospective adopters to foster for adoption.
Northumberland commissioned on an individual needs basis 3 adopters assessed by other
agencies in 2013. The potential to commission on a more strategic basis is being
considered for 2014-15.
2.6 Supported Lodgings
Northumberland have developed an accommodation framework to create increased
choices for young people who require supported accommodation and supported living pre
and post 18. In addition a number of carers are able to convert to supported lodgings
providers when looked after children turn 18 to ensure the placement can continue. This
provides stability for young people and helps to ensure access to education, training and
employment opportunities as well as maintaining community links. These arrangements
are supported by Children’s Services as part of the young person’s pathway plan, including
the provision of financial support where necessary
In addition funding has been identified to work in partnership with Barnardos to provide
crash pad provision for older children who require short term accommodation but who do
not wish to become looked after or are over the age of 18.
2.7 Moving On Project
In response to the needs of young people who are leaving care, custody or residential drug
rehabilitation provision Northumberland has developed its own supported housing project.
The project has been developed by Children’s services to provide stable, high quality
provision for a small but significant group of children who as a result of their behaviours
are unlikely to be able to access or sustain mainstream housing. The service has
successfully accessed funding from the National Treatment Agency and mainstream
council funding to purchase six properties across the South East of the County. This
provides young people with stable accommodation where support services can be
delivered to address assessed needs.
6
2.8 Short Break Care Services
Community based short break services, including for disabled children are provided
through our Family Support Service. In House residential short breaks services are
provided at Barndale School and by commissioned independent organisations. Access to
Direct Payments for families is continuing to be developed.
2.9 LAC Support Services
Support Services for Looked After Children include
An Education Support for Looked After Children’s (ESLAC) team that provides support
across both fostering and residential placements. ESLAC work closely with the child’s
social worker and the education provider.
The Northumberland Young People’s Service (NYPS), a specialist CYP mental health
service
Community Support Team that supports children in foster placements.
Psychological Services – Educational Psychologists that support young people and
residential homes.
A dedicated Clinical Psychologist for LAC for younger children and pathway to other CYP
services to support young people and carers.
A dedicated looked after children’s health team including a designated doctor and two
nursing staff who coordinate and undertake all looked after children’s health assessments.
A dedicated 16+ Team (Leaving Care) that ensures pathway plans and appropriate
packages of support are developed for all ‘Relevant’ young people.
Independent Reviewing Officer’s who support the care planning process for all looked after
children.
A Participation Team who ensure looked after children are able to express their wishes
and views and contribute to service planning.
Adoption Reform Grant Funding has been used to support a Care Proceedings and
Review Action Plan Team to improve permanency planning arrangements.
7
2.10 Current Looked After Children (LAC) Profile
Numbers of children in the looked after system.
Northumberland’s looked after population has been lower than the national average for
each of the past five years, but it has increased in the last 18 months, and is now close to
the national level. Latest figure at the end of December 2013 show a reduction to 323
however this has increased to 326 in March 2014. The numbers entering and leaving care
in the last year are shown alongside one another below.
8
A higher number of babies have entered the LAC system in the last year, along with
relatively high numbers of 10-15 year olds, whereas the number leaving the care system in
these age groups have been low. Such demand for placements has put the capacity of
adoptive carers and in house foster carers under pressure, and has resulted in the need to
use relatively costly Independent Fostering Agency placements more. This increasing
need is best reflected by comparing as a ratio the in house foster carer capacity with the
usage of the independent sector:
The figure above demonstrate that the proportion at the end of quarter 2 (September 2013)
was less than 2:1, whereas the target was to achieve a ration of more than 4:1. It is
anticipated that 11 IFA placements will cease in the next year due to the young people
reaching 18; the recruitment campaign for foster carers has seen 7 prospective carers go
on the training and it is anticipated they will become NCC foster carers in January; 33
children are on placement orders awaiting adoption, 10 of whom are in IFA placements,
and work is being undertaken to commission the voluntary sector to secure a number of
adopters within the next 6 months so that these children can be adopted and the NCC
placements they are currently in can therefore be freed up.
Placement stability remains good despite an increase in the overall number of LAC.
A contributory factor has been the relatively high number of adoptions and special
guardianship orders granted over the year, which have resulted in carers being freed up as
well as securing permanency for those children for whom it is the
plan.
Northumberland’s Children’s Support Team has worked with 814 children during the period
October 2012 to September 2013 who were either returning home as part of a
rehabilitation plan or were at risk of becoming looked after by the Council. This number
has been increasing during the past three years and the team have been successful in
helping ninety percent of these children remain at home following this intensive
intervention. It is anticipated that this level of demand on the service will continue. This
approach has supported Northumberland’s broader commitment to early identification of
children with emerging vulnerabilities so that appropriate support can be provided as well
as ensuring appropriate re-unification of children whenever this is consistent with their
assessed needs.
9
Between 2007 and 2011 the numbers of children who left the looked after system was
greater than the numbers entering in each year (with the exception of 2009 when 109
children entered the system and 95 were discharged). This pattern changed in 2013, and
resulted in the steady increase up to September 2013.
At the end of October 2013, Northumberland had 117 children placed with NCC (non
family) foster carers and a further 90 children placed in independent fostering placements
– this compares with 35 at March 2012. The need for additional adoptive carers is
demonstrated in the indicators reported monthly on the Children’s Services dashboard. It
shows that the average number of days between a child entering care and moving in with
the adoptive family has increased from 654 in July 2013 to 708 by the end of September
2013.
Age profile of Northumberland’s looked after children.
The age group where there has been the greatest increase has been babies/children aged
below 1, followed by young people aged between thirteen and fifteen (27%). This pattern is
consistent with the recent research Ages of Concern (2011) that identifies small babies
and adolescents as the two main groups of children who are at greatest risk of significant
harm and non-accidental death. Earlier identification of unborn babies at risk of harm, with
a regional agreement to refer in to social care at 16 weeks and a subsequent increase in
the numbers of under 1’s in the looked after system.
Location of children who have become looked after.
Based upon the home postcode of the child before they entered the looked after system it
is possible to look at the numbers of children by geographical area who are looked after at
any particular time.
This analysis shows that over the course of 2013, between 2007 and 2011 almost half
(47%) of children coming into the looked after system were from the area covered by the
Wansbeck team, followed by Blyth (18%), Cramlington (12%), then Tynedale and Berwick
teams (8% respectively) followed by Alnwick (7%). This pattern matches closely with the
levels of deprivation across Northumberland and is used to determine the allocation of
resources.
10
Residential care homes are used for those children who are unable to have their needs
met in family placements. At the end Of October, 3% of the LAC population were placed in
NCC residential homes and 5% in independent sector residential provision, equating to 10
and 17, respectively.
Legal status and placement type
Since September 2011, the number of children who were accommodated at the request of
their parents (Section 20 Children Act 1989) has increased, whilst the number of children
subject of care orders has remained steady. The numbers on interim care orders have
reduced whilst the numbers on full care orders have remained stable. The number on
placement orders has risen significantly over the period, more than doubling from 23 to 56.
Of particular interest in the last 18 months, influenced by the Care Planning Regulations
and judicial challenges, has been the use of voluntary accommodation with relative carers.
Children Leaving Care
There are approximately 135 children who are receiving leaving care support each year.
All eligible and relevant young people are allocated a qualified social worker and will have
a needs assessment and pathway plan setting out the support they will receive to support
the transition to adulthood. No young person will be discharged from the looked after
system unless this is consistent with their assessed needs and during the past five years a
significant amount of work has been undertaken to increase the accommodation choices
available to young people. This has enabled the service to end the practice of placing
young people in inappropriate accommodation such as bed and breakfast provision, and
all care leavers are assessed as being placed in suitable accommodation and over 80%
are now placed in employment, education or training, a major improvement on previous
years.
11
Children placed with Relative Carers
Northumberland has seen an increase in the number of children placed with relative and
friend carers either as looked after children or subject to a Special Guardianship Order.
These children are supported either through the looked after children procedures or
through the Kinship Care policy. This policy provides details of the support available to
carers where they look after children as an alternative to them being in the looked after
system. The Kinship Care Policy ensures relative or family carers are not disadvantaged
as a result of caring for the child without the need for a full care order.
Education provision for LAC
Looked after children require specific packages of tailored support to support a move
towards achieving their full academic potential. This goes hand in hand with the need for
stable placements that provide them with easy access to other support services such as
health services that encourage their well-being. Whilst education achievement for LAC
has been improving over the last 5 years, at Key stage 2 in particular, there remains the
need for all schools to be aware of any LAC on their school role and to work with the
Council to identify effective interventions, just as important in schools where there are only
1 or 2 LAC as it is for those where there are the greatest numbers, such as the
Northumberland Church of England Academy.
12
3. Needs Assessment
Needs assessment underpins all commissioning activity/service development as detailed
in the Children Services Commissioning Strategy.
3.1 Trends National and Local
In recent years, there has been a considerable national increase in the number of children
accommodated in Northumberland this trend is expected to continue over the next twelve
months. At 31 March 2013, there were 68,110 Looked After children across the country, an
increase of 3.8% from 2011 and nationally, 28,830 children became Looked After during
the 2012/13 year, an increase of 1.5% on the previous year.
The national trend has been associated with a number of factors
A greater focus on child safety since the death of Baby P resulting in increasing number of
Child Protection cases which lead to an increase in Court proceedings and looked after
children.
Older children coming into care with complex needs
The number of infants surviving at birth through improved medical interventions, but with
resultant and significant special needs.
An increase in numbers of unaccompanied asylum seekers
Changes in guidance and regulations regarding Local Authority responsibilities towards
homeless young people aged 16 and 17
In terms of the category of need associated with the LAC in Northumberland in October
2013, 55% were due to abuse or neglect, with 22% due to the family being in acute stress
3.2
Snapshot of current need.
13
4) Looked After Children Commissioning Priorities 2014
There have been some significant achievements and developments over the past two
years that have contributed to improved outcomes for looked after children. These
achievements will provide the basis for future planning and in conjunction with the
participation of young people will be used to identify areas for further service improvement.
The commissioning priorities below will contribute to improving outcomes for all looked
after children and those who have left the looked after system.
Our commissioning intentions are focused around four main areas:
1
Reducing the Number of Children Entering Care
Aim: To support families to care for children and prevent the need to be looked after away
from home.
a)
Supporting Families to Care for Children
The Supporting Families Partnership will play an important role in the Community Budget
Plan however it is important to recognise that the work that is currently undertaken makes
a significant contribution to the preventative agenda. The Supporting Families Partnership
works with a small group of households demonstrating behaviours that are a cause for
concern and will specifically:
•
Provide enhanced support to families to reduce the behaviours that are causing
concern.
•
Work with professional agencies.
•
Help with parenting skills, self-confidence and social skills.
•
Help families to increase school attendance and work with the school to try to get
children back into school following exclusion.
•
Help families get involved in organised activities within Northumberland.
In addition a range of services will be commissioned, (where appropriate with Public
Health), to address the specific issues and wide ranging issues that are symptomatic in the
lead up to family breakdown. This will include but is not exhaustive of:
•
Support for Domestic Violence
•
Support for Drug or Alcohol Misuse
•
Support for Mental Health issues (parent and child)
b)
Children’s Centre Services
A wide range of preventative services are offered on a multi-agency basis from within the
county’s 20 children’s centres targeted at families with children aged 5 and under. This
includes:
•
Healthy living advice
•
Fun activities for all the family
14
•
Family and parenting support
•
Play and childcare
•
Training and employment advice
By providing high quality services that young family’s need, children’s centres across
Northumberland aim to deliver:
•
The best start in life for every child
•
Better opportunities for parents
•
Affordable, good quality childcare, and
•
Stronger and safer families and communities
Service delivery is a combination of:
•
“In house” delivery of core services supplemented by commissioned services for
specialist provision.
•
Commissioned provision of core children’s centre services again supplemented by
commissioned services for specialist provision as appropriate.
Regardless of the delivery mechanism, there is parity of provision across the county
varying only to reflect local need.
(NB Within this area work is underway to better integrate services and reflect Public Health
priorities and as detailed within domains as they specifically relate to children and the
outcomes framework.)
c)
2 Year Old Offer
In line with Department for Education expectation, we will continue to offer free early
education and childcare for up to 15 hours of per week over 38 weeks per year to those
children identified as being most vulnerable. Whilst eligibility is determined by mandatory
DfE benefits criteria the offer locally will recognise those children and families requiring
additional support and for whom a bespoke package of support can be developed in line
with Family Support priorities and Children’s Centre delivery mechanisms. The process
relies upon effective multi-agency working with Health Visitors and an underlying
framework of quality childcare providers commissioned to deliver the offer across the
County.
d)
Short Breaks for Families
A combination of “in house” and commissioned services will provide support for those
families under stress, as well as providing broader experiences and opportunities for
children and young people.
A Support Care service is provided by Northumberland County Council for children and
Young People aged 0 – 18. This is a series of planned Short Breaks and is available
during the day, after school, on evening, weekends, and school holiday periods. The level
of support provided is tailored to a family’s individual need with the aim being to provide
timely support to a family before they reach crisis.
Where the Support Care service is not able to meet a families particular need bespoke
services are then commissioned via a Short Break framework with a view to providing:
Overnight respite
Outreach support
15
Crisis intervention
or a combination of the above.
e)
Therapeutic Support
Working in partnership with health colleagues, therapeutic support will be built around a
child and their family where possible, to help prevent the need for “out of county
placements”. This will assist in allowing children and young people to remain with their
families and communities whilst receiving the specialist support that they need. Examples
of areas where packages of support can be developed include CAMHS, occupational
therapy and speech and language therapy.
2)
Improving the Quality of Placements Offered
Aim: To enhance the life chances for looked after children by providing better opportunities
for children to establish secure, nurturing relationships with consistent adults within their
communities.
a)
Increasing In House Capacity
Foster and Adoption Placements
Following a period of modernization, the Family Placement Service is positioned to provide
quality foster care and where a SHODPA (should be placed for adoption decision) is
made, an adoption placement.
The foster service increased its total bed capacity to around 168 during 2013 and will aim
to build upon this to further increase placement quality and choice. Targeted work will be
undertaken to recruit foster carers in the north and west of the county to enable children
and young people from these areas to be placed as near as possible to their home when
this is consistent with their needs. The aim is to prevent alienation from family and friends
and reduce disruption to education.
Similarly, the adoption service has placed 25 children during 2012.
Despite this Northumberland has seen a significant rise in the number of looked after
children during the last 12 months which has created a level of unprecedented demand.
Family and Friends Placements
The Kinship Care Policy and Procedure has been extended to recognize the role of the
“connected person” and will provide practical and financial support for family and friends
carers where the placement is an alternative to the child being looked after by the local
authority.
Residential Care Placements
Where residential care is required then Northumberland will look to provide this care from
either of its two residential care homes in the first instance. Also any secure children’s
16
welfare beds would be provided by NCC National Secure Children Homes. Short break
services are provided in house or through commissioned placement with framework
providers
Northumberland is seeking a number of strategic partnerships to facilitate market
development of services within the County’s boundary’s, thereby increasing levels of
availability and choice in order to be able to meet need on a localized basis.
b)
Strategic Decision to use Good or Outstanding Placements Only
Where it is not possible to make an appropriate placement with either an “in house” foster
carer or within an “in house” residential care placement then Northumberland has made a
strategic commitment to only use only those settings that hold a minimum Ofsted judgment
of good or outstanding.
Where a requires improvement/satisfactory notification is received after the time of
placement consideration will be given to a planned move, provided that it is in the interests
of the child/young person and in keeping with the stated objectives of the care plan.
c)
Increase Availability of Adoption Placements
Whilst Senior Managers have regularly approved requests to look outside of
Northumberland’s own resources if there have not been any suitable adopters this has
been on a “spot purchase” basis only. In order to ensure that the availability of adoption
placements keeps pace with demand Northumberland is to explore the possibility of a
strategic partnership(s) which will facilitate the block purchase of up to 20 placements by
further developing the inter agency model.
The aim is to ensure that the length of time between a SHODPA and a permanent
placement is kept to minimum thereby securing better outcomes for the child/young
person.
3
Supporting Young People Leaving Care
Aim: To ensure that care leavers are given the same level of care and support their peers
would expect from a reasonable parent and that they are provided with the opportunities
and chances needed to help them move successfully into adulthood.
a)
Development of a “Staying Put” Project
Long term stability for looked after children will be further promoted through the
development of a “Staying Put” project that will enable young people to remain with their
foster carers beyond the age of eighteen. Equality of opportunity will be promoted
regardless of whether a young person is placed with an “in house” placement or a
commissioned placement via an Independent Fostering agency.
b)
Supported Accommodation Framework
The Supported Accommodation Framework will be used to meet the needs of young
carers by offering the following services:
17
•
Supported Lodgings - this service will provide those ready to leave care settings
with a safe and supported environment and the opportunity to develop necessary skills for
living a successful and independent life.
•
Group Accommodation – this service will provide accommodation and intensive
support to prepare young people, who are at significant risk, for independent living as well
as access to education and training.
•
Floating Support – this service will provide accommodation with a number of hours
support, dependent upon individual needs.
•
Mediation – this will facilitate and explore the possibility of the young person
returning to their home with support where this is appropriate.
4
Getting a Better Deal
Aim: To deliver high quality services in an era of diminishing resources.
a)
Approach to Internal Commissioning
Essentially there are 3 opportunities to influence the level of spend across children’s
services and to develop a strategic approach to commissioning.
•
Introduce greater rigour around the decision making process for individual
packages of care and develop trend analysis to better determine strategic need. (Single
agency)
•
Redesign of the governance arrangements around packages of care to reflect the
requirements of the Single plan. (Multi-agency)
•
Review costs of services already spot purchased and renegotiate with providers.
Northumberland aims to develop a Quality Monitoring Framework which seeks to ensure
that the high standards applied to internal review and challenge are applied equally to
external contracts/commissioned services.
b)
Collaborative Commissioning
Northumberland is committed to working alongside neighbouring local authorities to
develop innovative commercial solutions to address common aims and issues. Key areas
of work include:
Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) Framework(NE7)
Seven local authorities (Northumberland, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside,
Northumberland, Gateshead, Durham and Sunderland) collaborated to establish a
framework of “approved” IFA’s with effect from April 2011. This agreement sought to
standardise contracts, price, process, monitoring and evaluation with a list of “approved”
agencies responding to the tender.
Prior to this, IFAs offered a fairly standard service to each Local Authority whilst the terms
and conditions attaching to each contract and the pricing structures varied considerably. In
18
addition to achieving efficiencies on placement price, local authorities also benefit from
shared quality monitoring arrangements.
Whilst a number of IFA’s chose not to participate in this framework, the development
represented a significant advance in managing the market which will be further developed
at contract review.
Residential Care Home Approved List
The success of the IFA framework led to six local authorities, (Northumberland, Newcastle,
North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Northumberland, Gateshead, and Sunderland)
collaborating to develop an approved list for the purchase of placements at residential care
homes. Again this agreement sought to influence price whilst standardising contracts,
process quality monitoring and evaluation.
This is a dynamic list which means that it can be (and is) reopened to allow additional
organisations meeting minimum criteria to be included thereby increasing levels of choice
and competition with a view to driving down price. The list began operating in February
2011 with a full evaluation due at the contract anniversary. As with the IFA arrangement,
local authorities also benefit from shared quality monitoring arrangements.
Special School Arrangements
A scoping exercise is underway to consider developing a collaborative arrangement to the
purchase of both day and residential special school placements. This is likely to be limited
to pre 16 arrangements with post 16 provision being considered under a separate
exercise.
The intention is to extend this exercise widely across the Region with a view to creating
maximum influence within the market place. The aim is to develop a commissioning
solution and implement by September 14. Northumberland is committed to remaining a
key partner.
5. Review
This Sufficiency Statement will be updated on an on going basis ( at least yearly) and will
support the strategic commissioning and delivery of suitable accommodation for all looked
after children in Northumberland. The statement will be cross referenced with relevant
strategic plans and commissioning strategies to ensure the local authority discharges its
duty to looked after children and is able to provide sufficient numbers of placements.
19