Councillor calls for more recognition for kinship carers

Richard Youle, Local democracy reporter

Carers who take in and look after young relatives to prevent them going into foster or residential care deserve more recognition, a councillor has said.

Cllr Mandy Evans from Swansea, said it could be “heart-wrenching” when a family member took in a young relative, which she referred to as kinship caring. “Not enough recognition is given to them,” she said at a council committee meeting. “That’s what I hear in the communities.”

The numbers

Swansea Council had 93 “connected carers” last March. Connected carers are a relative, friend or other person connected to a child who are assessed and approved as a foster carer for that child. The council also had 132 mainstream foster carers who look after children who aren’t known to them.

Cllr Evans said she used to sit on a fostering panel and described the role as emotionally draining. The work done by foster carers, she said, was very valuable. “No matter what funding we get it will never be enough, it will never ever be enough,” she told the social care and tackling poverty service transformation committee.

Cllr Evans said when she sat on the panel the foster carer training was excellent, but she felt more emphasis should have been put on how fostering would impact carers’ lives. “There were instances where the carers weren’t quite prepared for what was coming their way, and then they just stood away,” she said.

Head of child and family services, Julie Davies, said the council provided in-house support for foster and connected carers, brought them together for coffee, and had also held a celebration event for them. She said: “We’re very keen to hear people’s feedback.”

Like all local authorities Swansea has some looked-after children and young people – 487 at the end of March last year, according to a report before the committee, compared to 566 four years previously. The council uses private and independent fostering agencies as well as in-house foster carers. The council has estimated it would need to recruit an extra 60 foster carers over the next three years to be self-sufficient in this area.

Ms Davies said the authority was trying different ways of recruiting foster carers, including a dedicated Facebook page, and said it has been receiving more enquiries.

A small proportion of Swansea’s looked-after children – 33 as of last March – are cared for in children’s residential homes, which are mostly private and independent settings rather than council-run. Ms Davies said most of these young people were in residential homes in Swansea, while some were in settings in Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend and Carmarthenshire.

Lacking capacity

The council only has capacity to look after four young people in its two residential homes but aims to increase capacity to 25 in the next four years. It will mean buying suitable properties and recruiting care staff. This focus on increasing in-house fostering and residential care provision is being driven by proposed Welsh Government legislation to eliminate profit from the care of children.

The committee report said young people receiving care have shared their views and what matters most to them in a series of podcasts. Being able to mix with others with similar experiences was one example of what mattered.

Another option for children in care who only need support, for young care leavers and for young people at risk of homelessness is supported accommodation. As it sounds, this is accommodation where support is given to help young people develop independence while keeping them safe in a homely environment.

The committee report also said that all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children aged under 18 were considered looked-after children. Swansea, it said, could have up to 46 of these young people at any given time. The report added that a lack of accommodation for unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people aged over 18 was a “significant issue” in Swansea.