A councillor has suggested giving foster carers free council tax in order to encourage more to sign up.
Cllr Cherry Povall made the suggestion for a complete or partial reduction in council tax for those fostering during a review of children’s services at Wirral Council during a committee meeting on March 7.
This comes as Wirral Council is trying to encourage people to become foster parents through a publicity campaign.
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The local authority has a target to increase the number of children fostered in family homes due to the high costs involved in children’s homes and it was a key saving passed in the recent budget for 2023 to 24.
Councillor Cherry Povall at the meeting said she first made the suggestion two years ago and pointed to statistics that showed 21% of the children looked after by the council going to independent agencies.
Cllr Povall said that council-supported foster carers were “as rare as hen’s teeth,” adding: “We need to see what we can do that’s going to put us in a better position than these agencies. That’s the issue.”
Officers praised the idea and said it was something they were looking into. Councillors were also told there had been an uplift in people contacting the service after the recent campaign but the results wouldn’t be seen until people go through an assessment process.
At the meeting, councillors also discussed worrying figures showing increasing numbers of social workers leaving the council in recent years with 31 so far this year. At the same time the number of new staff coming in has struggled to keep up.
While some staff leaving has been offset by the new starters as well as agency staff according to the council, the main reason for people leaving was pay whether that was to other councils or agencies.
Simone White, director of Children’s Services, said it wasn’t just about pay. She said: “We know it’s not just the agency bit that is challenging, we know that it’s workloads, we know it’s getting people into social care” adding: “Pay on its own won’t keep social workers with us.”
She also said some people weren’t able to train to become social workers because of the cost of taking time off work.
Senior officers said they were aiming to keep the caseloads of social workers manageable with the vast majority of case workers dealing with around 18 children or below. However the highest figure was a staff member managing 30 cases though other councils see figures far higher, the committee were told.
Ms White said reducing workloads also included managing paperwork for inspections better, adding: “What social workers will tell you is none of them came to the job just to sit at a machine and at the least that is what they are doing.”
Councillors were also updated on the setting up of two new children’s homes on the Wirral through a new partnership project. The project has been in the pipeline for three years.
The partnership with community interest company We Are Juno to set up two children’s homes on the Wirral was praised by councillors for providing children with a caring environment and high quality accommodation.
After planning permission was granted on a second home despite neighbour objections, it is expected for both homes to be open by October 2023 with the first opening next month.
Ms White thanked councillors for “having some faith” in the partnership which she said is now being copied by other councils in the Liverpool City Region.
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