Our Message: North Yorkshire’s foster carers call upon the County Council - as the Corporate Parent for care-experienced children in North Yorkshire - to take action to improve the conditions of the foster care system for young people in care. We want to be able to provide the best possible care for young people but this is only possible if the needs and opinions of foster carers are listened to.

The Issues: Foster care workers look after some of the most vulnerable children in our communities, providing them with safe homes and a supportive environment. Currently, the system is failing carers and young people. As the cost of living crisis bites, we are in urgent need of increased support from North Yorkshire Council. In May 2022, we conducted an extensive survey of foster carers in North Yorkshire who told us that;

Only 15% of carers believed that the cost allowance always covered the costs they incur, that was before the cost of living crisis struck in earnest.
Only 7% of carers would recommend to families and friends fostering with North Yorkshire County Council without any reservation.
A quarter of the foster carers surveyed felt that they were usually or always unable to advocate for the children placed with them.
Half of the foster carers surveyed felt they were unable to always advocate fully for the children placed with them.
Less than 1 in 10 foster carers felt their views were given equal consideration to those of the social worker team.
Nearly half of foster carers felt their safety was given little or no weighting in placement decisions.

These issues need to be urgently addressed. They are impacting our ability to provide the best possible care for young people in an environment where we feel safe and respected. Currently, carers are relying on their own funds to subsidise deficits and this is becoming an increasingly untenable position. If there is no action taken we fear skilled and experienced foster carers will leave the service because they are not able to afford to do it either financially or emotionally. This will increase the pressure on remaining carers and placements making it even harder for everyone, not least the children we care passionately about.

The Action that Needs to be Taken:

That is why we are asking the Council to improve conditions for carers, including the following measures:

- Emergency increase in fees and allowances in line with CPI inflation to be moved forward;
- Full financial recompense for uniforms, equipment and all expenditure on school-related activities. A stronger commitment to ring-fence the pupil premium payments made to schools;
- Access to Free school meals for all fostered children;
- Free access to all Council leisure activities for carers and all their children irrespective of the provider of those services;
- A full review of the inflation indices used to review fostering fees, allowances and expenses. In the meantime, the CPI link should be retained;
- Removal of the 100 mile threshold for mileage;
- Introduction of bridging payments between placements for all carers;
- Full training, including refresher training, on all allowances, fees, expenses, paid and unpaid leave and state benefits to ensure that all carers can take full advantage of all approved entitlements. This should include a full explanation of the career structures within the fostering service, enabling carers to move between bandings as their changing circumstances permit;
- Exemption from Council Tax for carer households;
- Union recognition for IWGB Fosters Care Workers Branch.

The Council gets extremely good value for money from its foster carers, we are amongst the most cost-effective in the country. We believe that this will continue to be true even with these changes. These changes will ensure that foster carers are not forced to continue subsidising costs and that care experienced young people will have access to the things that provide them the best possible start in life.

These changes are more urgent than ever as the living cost crisis worsens. The Council should negotiate with IWGB Foster Care Union representatives a fully resourced and timetabled action plan to implement these changes to improve the foster care system for all. North Yorkshire's foster care workers have also created a ‘Manifesto for Change’ , which also sets out our longer-term aspirations. This is a vision for the future of foster care in North Yorkshire that will ensure young people in care can thrive and foster carers are treated with the respect they deserve.