Foster care recruitment in 'much better place'

Foster care recruitment is in a "much better place" than it has been in a "long time", the assistant director of the Isle of Man's family placement service has said.

It follows recent Inspections carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) registration and inspection team on the Manx Care service in November and December.

The service was found to meet all five of the inspection criteria which were that it was safe, well-led, effective, caring and responsive.

Julie Gibney, assistant director for children and families said while the team was still looking for more foster carers, it was in the process of assessing six new families to join the current cohort of 30.

While there has been a similar number of foster carers for some time, the service had not recruited new families, until a recent drop in its cohort due to individuals retiring.

Ms Gibney said the service needed to be in a position where there were "more options" when a child came into care, so they could be "properly matched" with a family.

There are currently 89 children in care on the island, however, that figure also includes those in residential care.

The inspections found enquiries about becoming a foster parent had "significantly increased" and there were plans in place to raise awareness and "diversify approaches to reach more people with knowledge of fostering".

There had been progress in the number of permanent staff for the service, which had grown from three to 11.

But there may be a need for increased staffing with the implementation of new adoption legislation, the development of the adoption fund and the independent placement agency, the review said.

The inspection also found that private fostering had been underdeveloped and clear performance indicators of the service was "not fully evidenced".

Ms Gibney said private fostering arrangements - where a family agrees for a child to be under the care of someone who is not a close relative - were "not always recognised" but the team was launching an awareness campaign.

Where the service was when it was launched in 2018 to now was "unrecognisable", she added.

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