Foster care must be commissioned on a level playing field
Issue date: 24 January 2012
Fostering Ambitions: Reforming the foster care system in England and Wales, published today by Policy Exchange, recommends that 'the commissioning of foster care should move towards operating on a level playing field' to improve the lives of the 41,100 children living in foster care in England.
Although independent and voluntary sector fostering providers (IFPs) now care for 13,670 children, up from 12,940 in 2010, the report recognises the inherent conflict of interest in local authorities acting as both commissioners and providers of fostering services. The financial models used for local authority and IFP care are not the same, neither are the outcome measures comparable. Many local authorities prioritise in-house foster carers over external provision, often on the basis of costings, rather than meeting the needs of the child. Furthermore, children can be moved by local authorities from stable IFP placements to in-house carers for financial reasons, impacting on the stability of care that is so vital to children who have already experienced much instability in their lives.
Harvey Gallagher, Chief Executive of the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers (NAFP), said 'We agree wholeheartedly that there should be a level playing field for the commissioning of foster care between local authorities and independent fostering providers (IFPs). It is only when this is in place that local authorities will be able to select the best placement to meet a child's needs. The myriad of commissioning arrangements around the country have not enabled this to happen. We are now calling on government to take the lead in ensuring that a level playing field develops so that no more children are moved from stable IFP placements on the basis of flawed financial decisions alone.'
The report also calls for the splitting of the purchaser and provider functions of local authorities. It suggests hat this would require the commissioning team to be institutionally separate from the local authority placement team, either in a Chinese-walled environment, or in a completely separate commissioning body.
