‘Significant challenge’ for council moving to not for profit care system says report

Anthony Lewis, local democracy reporter

A local authority is expected to face a “significant challenge” attempting to move to a full not for profit care system, a new report has said.

The Welsh Government has committed to eliminating private profit from the care of looked after children during the next Senedd term but a report to Merthyr Tydfil Council’s social services committee on Tuesday, November 5, said that moving to a full not for profit system of care was a “significant challenge.”

Numbers

Merthyr Tydfil currently has 38 children placed with independent fostering agencies out of 182 looked after children, meaning approximately 20% is in non Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil placements, but the county borough does now have a two-bedroom children’s home registered with Care Inspectorate Wales.

The committee report said that, according to the current policy, and if no exemptions were made by the Welsh Government, Merthyr Tydfil would need to provide in-house or not for profit placements for these children.

Merthyr Tydfil currently has 14 young people in out of authority residential placements, meaning nearly 8% of the Merthyr Tydfil children looked after population is in out-of-authority residential placements.

The committee report said that to bring all these children back into in-house provision would be a “significant challenge” because of their individual needs and matching considerations.

Developments

The report also said many of these children had been in placements for a number of years and were settled.

The report said: “Consideration regarding their well-being and needs must be considered before planning any moves from their homes.

“The placement types and numbers of children in placements changes on a weekly basis and therefore planning is challenging.

“To develop a single property to provide regulated care for even a small number of children is time consuming and costly.

“In Merthyr Tydfil, although children’s services are developing new provision,
we are unable to develop and resource enough provision to meet current needs.”

“Internal residential care is not a cheaper option than most external residential care provision and therefore developing our own services is unlikely to significantly reduce budgets.”

Placements

The report said that if the council was unable to place these children within not for profit or in-house placements it was likely that Merthyr Tydfil would need to use Operating Without Registration (OWR) placements.

These are not regulated, they are staffed by agency staff, and they leave the local authority at risk including potential prosecution of senior officers, the report said.

At the time the report was written, the council has one OWR which is in the process of being registered with Care Inspectorate Wales.

The report also said there were only a finite number of people who were able, willing and available within Merthyr Tydfil to become foster carers for Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil which meant that there were limits on being able to place children within the definition of the not for profit agenda.

The council said there was a gap of approximately 35 placements in internal provision to meet demand for children with primary care and support plans for foster care.

Carers

The report said that Foster Wales Merthyr Tydfil continued to advertise, recruit and retain carers but there were not enough carers available to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children.

The council is continuing to promote the use of Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) for children who have been in foster care and are settled to enable them to remain with their carers.

The council has been awarded grant money to build provision under the terms and conditions of eliminating profit but it is unclear whether this grant will
continue in 2025 and 2026, the report said

This grant enables the council to develop residential provision, invest in the recruitment of foster carers and ensure family intervention services are robust enough so that families can remain together and children do not come
into the care system.

Projects

In Merthyr Tydfil the report said that the council needed to develop its in house residential care and continue to work to proactively recruit and support foster carers.

But it added that there was still a need to use external residential and fostering care through “for profit” agencies and that moving to a full not for profit system of care was a “significant challenge.”

The numbers of children who are looked after in Merthyr Tydfil has decreased from 198 in April, 2024, but the level of need and complexity continues to significantly increase and the pressures on children’s services in terms of both demand and risk management are said to be “substantial.”

Officers are now working on a programme of how the council moves from the current position to the required 2026/27 position.

There are projects in motion which include the development and registration of a two-bedroom children home development of Thomas Town House (The Flowers) site into regional accommodation and short breaks scheme for children with disabilities as well as continuing to work with both regional and national Foster Wales on recruiting and retaining foster carers.

There is a focus on a local recruitment plan using adverts on roundabouts, flyers and local campaigns and on wellbeing and support to keep carers and prevent placement breakdown.

The report also said that officers had been working on looking at
individualised plans for all children currently in “for profit” placements with strategies to work towards not-for-profit placements within the required time scales.

The report also added that social care housing availability for care leavers was a pressure that was impacting on them moving on.