Issue - meetings

At the request of members, this briefing sets out the issues relating to placement sufficiency for Children in our Care, and the plans to address these through the work of the Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Children’s Services Sufficiency Programme which launched in 2024.

The Assistant Director for Children and Young People Services introduced the report to the Panel and highlighted the following areas.

·  228 Children in Care

·  Three children are currently in residential care as a result of there being no suitable, available foster placements. The Alternative Care team continue to actively search for a suitable foster carer for these children and remains a key priority for the team.

·  The Sufficiency Programme Board was established in Quarter 3 of 2025/26 to provide governance in addressing four key areas of sufficiency in children’s services: fostering, residential children’s homes, provision for disabled children and accommodation for young people aged over years.

Fostering

·  The project aims to review the existing cohort of children and young people in foster care to understand their needs and their reasons for being in foster care. It will also review existing foster care provision, including geographical location, costs, accessibility, needs it can meet, capacity and availability of carers. Finally, it will look at the current offer to foster carers, how this offer compares across our neighbouring authorities and how this could be maximised to improve recruitment and retention.

·  The project will use this analysis to forecast needs for foster care in the future, and will support, if indicated, the delivery of a business case to further support the recruitment of in-house foster carers for looked after children in B&NES. It will also develop a policy, process and business case for housing alterations for foster carers, to increase the number of children and young people they can support.

Residential Children’s Home

·  This workstream aims to review the existing cohort of children and young people in residential care to understand their needs and their reasons for being in residential care. It will also review the existing residential care provision, including geographical location, costs, accessibility, needs it can meet, capacity and available free capacity.

·  The workstream will use this analysis to forecast projected needs for residential care, and will support, if indicated, the delivery of a business case to develop and deliver in-house residential capacity for children in care in B&NES.

Resources for disabled children

·  This workstream focuses on ensuring that disabled children and their families have access to appropriate, high?quality short breaks and direct payment support. Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Children Act 1989 and the Breaks for Carers of Disabled Children Regulations (2011) to provide a sufficient short breaks offer for eligible families. A strategic needs assessment will be completed over the next six weeks to set out the current position in B&NES and identify future requirements.

16+ support and care leavers accommodation

·  This workstream aims to review the existing cohort of children and young people aged 16 years plus, to understand their needs and equalities profile. It will also review 16+ accommodation provision, including geographical location, costs, accessibility, needs it can meet, capacity and available spaces. The workstream will consider improvements in recruitment and retention of supported lodgings carers. Finally, it will look at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98