Foster and kinship carers will be encouraged to take part in talks to help reduce the number of Glasgow’s disadvantaged children and young people living in care.
There are currently 687 children and young people in care, a reduction of 726 since 2016.
The number of young people “placed” out with the city has also dropped from 789 in 2016 to 389 in March 2023 allowing children to remain close to family, school and friends.
READ MORE: Glasgow set for funding to help cut the number of children living in care
During Thursday's city administration committee a council officer confirmed that ongoing discussions were taking place between the council and Registered Social Landlords (RSL) and carers.
It comes as the local authority accepted around £19 million for its Glasgow’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF) to help reduce the number of children and young people living in care.
In 2021/22 the Scottish Government’s £500 million WFWF was established to transform the way that family support is delivered and to ensure “person-centred holistic support” was made available to help those in need from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The WFWF aims to improve family wellbeing, reduce inequalities between the most and least disadvantaged communities, reduce the number of families needing crisis intervention and reduce the number of children and young people living away from their families.
During the meeting councillor Martha Wardrop said: “I was just wondering where we were at in terms of discussions with housing providers as part of this programme development.
“Are housing associations, foster carers and kinship carers engaged in any way?”
A council officer confirmed that they had had a session with RSL (Registered Social Landlords) to discuss homelessness and they would continue to engage with carers as well.
They said: “We had a recent foster care summit in which we spoke to them about the transformational agenda within Glasgow.
“We are picking up further conversations again with our kinship carers groups which was a bit disrupted during Covid.”
There has been an 82% increase in the number of health visitors across the city, from 150 in 2016 to 249 in 2023 and an 82% reduction in the admissions of children under 5 into care since 2016 from 105 to 19 in 2022.
Organisations successful in securing WFWF will be expected to address any barriers experienced by children, young people and families with “protected characteristics” – including but not limited to age, disability, race or religion.
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