Future of foster care: consultation analysis – updated final report

3. Flexible Fostering Approach

Proposals for a flexible fostering approach are set out in Part 5 of the consultation paper.

The proposed seven elements of a flexible fostering approach reflect existing or emerging practices of foster carers, as well as more innovative aspects that may not yet be in place. The intention is to build on the existing skills, experiences and qualities of foster carers, with additional training and support provided where needed. The consultation paper notes that not all elements of the flexible fostering approach will be appropriate for every child. The intention is for foster carers to continue to provide alternative family care, but to build their capacity to adopt additional roles in a broader arena. The different elements proposed are to:

• Deliver high-quality alternative family-based care that provides a positive family experience for infants, children and young people in the foster carer’s own home.
• Build the potential and capacity of existing foster carers to support and facilitate family time^[2] where appropriate.
• Have a role, in some situations, to facilitate reunification with the birth family for children in their care.
• Have a role in supporting families on the edge of care to enable more children to remain at home with their birth family. It is noted that short breaks as part of a Step-Up, Step-Down model can be crucial in enabling this to happen.
• Extend child-centred short break provision to existing foster carers and families.
• Use more experienced foster carers who no longer wish to foster full-time to mentor new foster carers, deliver foster carers’ training and share practice and knowledge.
• Potentially, where appropriate, for a foster carer to stay in a family home, for a short time, to provide immediate support and care at times of family crisis.

Q2. What are your views on the proposed flexible fostering approach?

Almost nine in ten of all respondents provided a comment at Q2. Most prevalent were themes on existing care arrangements, building on foster carer skills, comments on supporting families, positive views of the approach, the importance of an individualised, child-centred approach and comments on the roles of other professionals involved in supporting families. Some also raised points around the short breaks element of the flexible approach, which is considered in the analysis of responses to Q3.

Comments on existing care arrangements

Across the questions, comments were provided that described existing arrangements for the delivery of foster care. These were most prevalent at Q2, where several respondents mentioned this theme, though some also raised it at Q8, Q11, Q13 and Q14 in particular. To avoid repetition, these views have been summarised here.

Many of these comments expressed the view that elements of the flexible fostering approach already existed, with examples provided by respondents. For instance, attendees at an engagement event noted that one local authority offered a ‘blocked bed’ payment to create capacity to facilitate flexible fostering.

“Most elements of the flexible fostering approach outlined already exist across Scotland. Bringing them together in one vision/description of what fostering might look like in Scotland will, in the view of many members, be beneficial to providers helping to put a spotlight on what is possible, and the benefits of this to children and carers, thus, ensuring that the various strands of fostering support are available more widely. Home support services, which this element of the proposed flexible fostering service describes, already exists though in a different form. Though more often applied in situations where a family needs assistance to care for a child with a disability, it does exist as part of family support services for families with other challenges. Agencies are registered as ‘home support’ agencies and employ staff to carry out support functions, including overnight care in some situations. SWS suggest exploration of this approach as part of family support for families in crisis or edges of care is more appropriate.” – Social Work Scotland

Many respondents commented on their own experience of providing foster care, such as a perception that approval processes took too long, explanations of training available or received, setting out motivations for entering and continuing in delivering care and views on foster care providers.

“By all accounts, there are incredible foster carers doing great work to support children and young people, as well as their birth families across the country. Despite this, our discussions revealed the number of challenges inherent in the provision of foster care. We know about foster carers threatening young people with termination of placement, we heard about 28-day notices being handed in for what others may consider ‘normal’ teenage behaviour, and we heard about the difference in support for foster carers between local authority areas.” - Includem

Building on foster carer skills

Recognising and building on foster carer skills was advocated by many respondents. They noted that foster carers undertook a skilled role and that a flexible approach involved a diverse set of skills among foster carers necessitating access to quality training or peer support. This issue is further discussed in Q18.

“Foster carers should receive training and support to give them the knowledge and skills to develop positive relationships with the children they care for. We believe this is also vital to ensuring foster carers are confident in delivering the flexible fostering approach, particularly in providing supporting to birth families, facilitating family time, or strengthening transitions.” - Place2Be

Comments on supporting families

A range of views were provided by several respondents on whether foster carers should work alongside families. Mostly, respondents were positive about this idea, with reasons given that it can help provide continuity of care for children, maintain contact, facilitate reunification within families, and supervise family contact.

However, some raised cautions, such as possible clashes in culture or parenting styles between parents and foster carers or questioning how this role would be possible for foster carers given other responsibilities. One organisation felt it was unclear how the flexible approach would be perceived by families and highlighted that it can be difficult for professionals to explain to families how decisions have been made in a way that makes sense to everyone involved and avoids coming across as too punitive, harsh or critical.

Concerns were also raised by several respondents about foster carers staying in parental homes. These views are incorporated into the analysis of Q3.

Maintaining sibling relationships was a recurring theme among the children and young people who contributed to the Who Cares? Scotland engagement report. Key considerations in this area were ensuring a gradual approach to any sibling reunification, that an appropriate venue and activities were important in fostering good relationships, and that young people should have a say in their wider relationships.

Support for a flexible fostering approach

Several respondents at Q2 and several at Q3 expressed positive views on the proposed flexible fostering approach. Comments highlighted the elements being necessary, offered general support, or suggested the approach was ‘exciting’ or ‘innovative’. Reasons for support included that it could lead to positive outcomes and help to meet the needs of families, support better joint working, offer greater fluidity for carers working with families, and encourage innovation, if it is built on best practice.

Views on the roles of other professionals

The importance of the team around the child was mentioned by several respondents. The need for social workers to have the capacity to assess and support foster carers to adopt a flexible approach was most commonly highlighted. Concerns raised included the ability of social work teams to achieve this given current resource levels, for instance, due to high caseloads or paperwork impacting an ability to undertake relational work. One respondent raised the lack of space in local authority buildings for therapy or training carers as an issue. Others raised concerns about carers taking on roles normally undertaken by others, such as social workers, social work assistants and family support workers, or carers not being treated with respect by other professionals, for instance, CAMHS. CELCIS highlighted interagency approaches it considered useful such as Family Group Decision-Making and NSPCC’s work on establishing a strong team to support reunification.

“Not enough opportunity or time for communication and joined-up working between family placement and Children & Families staff – several workers in both Children & Families and family placement teams raised the need for more joined-up working. Both carers and children need ongoing input from practitioners who understand the challenges and who can provide a framework of support. This is amplified if workers and carers are able to work together in partnership.” – UNISON Scotland

The need for an individualised, child-centred approach

The emphasis on adopting a tailored approach that meets the needs of individual children and young people was supported by several respondents, who reiterated the need for individualised, child-centred approaches. However, a few felt this would be difficult to achieve using the flexible fostering approach, such as when attempting to structure flexible care around a child’s plan or alongside other caring roles or that current practice was not child-centred. The need to ensure carer safety, to balance a flexible approach with other caring responsibilities or to only use the approach with children for whom it is appropriate were recommended by respondents.

“This flexible fostering approach is grounded in relational/secure base values which is crucial in ensuring children's needs are to the forefront and the service can adapt to the ongoing assessment.” - Individual

Perceived risks for foster carers

Several respondents highlighted risks for foster carers associated with the flexible approach or the need for robust risk assessments to enable carers to work in a family home safely. Concerns raised included a lack of regulation of foster carers compared to other professionals, safeguarding or allegation issues and conditions in the family home such as health and safety considerations, hygiene and fire checks.

“Risk – the level of risk involved at the individual and organisational level if a carer is in another person’s house, including the risk of allegations, the carer's own wellbeing. This is a role which other family support/home support or residential professionals would not undertake at the moment except on rare occasions and for very short periods and not on their own. Are we therefore asking something of foster carers in terms of task and risk which we would not ask of other caregivers?” - Social Work Scotland

Concerns about a flexible approach

Several respondents at Q2, as well as some at Q3 and some at Q16, raised concerns over the proposed approach. Views included that it was not realistic in the current climate of resourcing constraints and that associated implementation costs could outweigh benefits, that foster carers were being viewed as a way of filling gaps in provision or that the role encroached on the roles of other professionals or required greater levels of protection, such as insurance. Attendees at an engagement event, representing those in local authority fostering teams, in addition to other respondents, commented that foster carers were unlikely to be available or have the capacity to undertake a flexible role, with carers being expected to take on more responsibilities now compared to the past. One respondent felt the approach did not address inherent procedural complexities of a flexible approach. This included the decision-making that would need to take place, who the decision makers would be, or the intended timescales for any such decision-making. For instance, they noted:

“The ‘no order’ principle of the children’s hearings system is an important one, and as such would be engaged by a flexible fostering approach. However, we are unclear about how the transition between ‘no order’ and the need for a statutory order would work – we have similar questions about the move between section 25 arrangements and a compulsory supervision order.” – Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration

The SCRA further highlighted research that found children were often unaware of the specific legislation or arrangement used for their protection, and that there was no clear route into a section 25 arrangement. Further, children did not have to attend court or Hearings as part of decision-making for a section 25 arrangement, resulting in such orders not being tested in court and a lack of procedural safeguards.

Other themes

Other themes mentioned by some included that it would require recruitment or negatively impact retention of foster carers, perceived changes to the foster carer role such as a flexible approach requiring greater skill level or responsibility for foster carers, and that capacity building within the system would be necessary to ensure a timely response.

“There is concern around the geographical location of the flexible foster carers in relation to the child’s home which could result in significant time for the young person spent travelling and changes to infrastructure would be required in relation to the cross-boundary nature of care arrangements.” – West Lothian Council

Q3. What are your views on the seven different elements in the flexible fostering approach?

Seven in ten respondents left a comment at Q3, most of whom commented on each element separately. As a result, this section addresses each element in turn, ordered by the prevalence of comments. Several respondents also left comments for and against a flexible approach in general, which were included in the analysis at Q2.

Foster carers staying in the family home

Either cautious support or disagreement with the suggestion for foster carers to stay in the family home was raised by many respondents. The benefits of this approach were recognised by some, such as those set out in the consultation paper, at times when immediate support is needed or during family crises. However, it was widely felt that practicalities would need to be addressed, notably how this could be reconciled with other caring responsibilities or to ensure the safety of carers (see ‘Perceived risks for carers’ in Q2). It was suggested that some carers would not wish to stay in family homes, or that certain carers only could be involved in this, such as those specially trained to do so. Attendees at one engagement event noted that there had been concerns about foster carers offering to stay in other foster carers' homes.

Mixed reactions to this proposal were given by children and young people with care experience who contributed to the Who Cares? Scotland report. Discussion raised concerns over family dynamics, for instance, parents becoming more distressed or suspicious of foster carers, logistical challenges, and confusion about roles potentially outweighing perceived benefits. Attendees suggested short break provision could serve as an alternative. However, others felt there could be benefits to the approach, such as having extra support and reassurance, having more consistency, and reducing the need for other transitions, such as changing schools. A majority of children aged 15 and under who contributed to the Who Cares? Scotland report were supportive of this idea.

“It would benefit the child as it would keep them in their local community, at the same school and with their friends, minimising the disruption they experience. We envisage that this would only be used in rare circumstances and that it would require further consideration of both the legal and practical parameters, responsibilities, oversight and regulation to determine if it is a workable aspect of flexible fostering.” - NSPCC Scotland

Supporting families on the edge of care

Many respondents commented on the idea that foster carers could support families on the edge of care. Most expressed a view that this could be useful or that this was already the role of family support workers. Having sufficient capacity within the fostering system or the need to pay carers a retainer to enable them to take on this role when required was emphasised. Other suggestions for making this work included paying foster carers a salary, ensuring a robust plan was in place to support this work or ensuring sufficient support was in place for families. A small number were against this proposal or raised concerns about the risks to which children may be exposed in the family home. Children and young people with care experience who contributed to the Who Cares? Scotland report viewed this proposal more favourably than the one above, as it was perceived as a way to preserve relationships while avoiding disruption associated with changing homes.

Foster carers mentoring or training new carers

This proposal was positively received by many respondents, some of whom described existing initiatives in this area, and the Fostering Network noted that 63% of foster carers surveyed in their 2024 State of the Nations survey rated the support they received from other foster carers as excellent or good. It was felt useful as a way to help retention, to tap into carers’ expertise and knowledge, though determining the quality of input was considered important, given that experience is subjective. Ways this could be implemented included providing training to carers to enable them to undertake this role, for carers to be supported by a lead professional and paying contributing carers.

“Whilst we support the use of high-quality foster carers in supporting new foster carers or kinship carers, we also recognise that a foster carer who has been caring for a number of years may not always have the skill set required to provide therapeutic care. They may have experienced burnout and compassion fatigue or may normalise children's extreme behaviours and mental health difficulties due to repeated experiences. The literature shows this can be a barrier to carers seeking support for children in need. It is essential therefore that foster carers are robustly reviewed before offering mentorship or support.” - University of Glasgow

Extending short break provision

Many respondents at Q3, and some at Q2, commented positively on the proposal for foster carers to receive or provide short breaks. Suggestions were given for how to implement this beyond the existing provision. These included ensuring children, especially young children, were already well-known to the carer providing the break, using carers who solely provided short breaks or using foster carers at the start of their caring journey to build experience, and changing the culture so that it was viewed as acceptable for carers to benefit from a short break or to use terms such as ‘sleepover’, ‘weekend away’ or ‘day out’ to align with the language used by families.

Carers facilitating reunification with parents

Comments about foster carers facilitating the reunification of children with their families were made by many. It was felt that appropriate scaffolds of support or safeguards should be built to facilitate this role through multi-disciplinary working, with sufficient time given to carers to attune to the needs of children and to develop relationships with parents. In the Who Cares? Scotland report, children and young people with care experience emphasised the importance of gradual, natural reunification, with some suggesting trusted adults, though not necessarily foster carers, could provide this role. Cautions were raised that managing complex relationship dynamics can be difficult or that if carers were reticent, this could be reflected in children.

A few raised concerns about foster carers being involved in this way, such as expressing views that other professionals were more suited to this role or that foster carers would not wish to provide this type of input. Two respondents highlighted that foster carers did not have a formal role as foster carers in Continuing Care arrangements, with consequences for remuneration and their changed status in relation to supporting young people.

Carers facilitating family contact time

A range of views were expressed by many respondents about this proposal, from those advocating the approach to others who disagreed that this should be part of the fostering role. Examples of existing practice in this area were given. Perceived benefits included that it could enhance a sense of security or a realistic view of parents among children and encourage greater joint working between social workers and carers - such as when undertaking assessments.

Challenges with this approach were also noted, with views expressed by respondents that:

• Assessments were currently being undertaken by skilled practitioners such as social workers, and if this was expected to be a role of foster carers, it would require them to be upskilled or could change the nature of the relationship with birth families, who may then be less trusting of foster carers.
• Facilitating contact time could be complex, challenging and time-consuming for foster carers, especially when contact time was very regular, such as daily visits, or if foster carers experienced it as distressing, overwhelming and felt unsupported.
• Foster carers' capacity could prevent them from facilitating contact time, such as when contact time involves multiple relatives or if other children live in the foster carer’s home.

Ways to mitigate against these challenges were suggested, such as ensuring contact time was set out in the child’s plan, providing enhanced training and remuneration for foster carers, raising awareness that this is now a foster carer role, using part-time foster carers to facilitate contact time, and working alongside social workers. Training and support to enable foster carers to undertake this role was recommended, for instance, on how to conduct assessments or how to counteract biases or cultural differences. One respondent suggested that the rights of brothers and sisters should be included in this element.

High-quality alternative family-based care

Many respondents supported this proposal, and it was noted that this is already a core function of foster care. In the Who Cares? Scotland report, children and young people with care experience noted the value of foster carers performing this role, and expressed scepticism about proposals that could significantly alter it. To achieve high-quality provision, enhanced training or a national learning framework were recommended. Practice development opportunities were viewed as relevant for assisting carers in overcoming their own adverse childhood experiences, embedding relational models of support, and ensuring children’s needs are met.

“All foster carers have been given training on Trauma Informed Practice and the Nurture Approach. They have monthly reflective supervision, peer support in terms of a Buddy system and access to Support Groups. In terms of therapeutic support, we provide therapeutic input from our current staff group, who have been trained in various therapies, we have a weekly support group for foster children and as mentioned previously we employ a Play therapist and make use of CAMHS.” - North Ayrshire HSCP

Implementation issues

Considerations for the implementation of a flexible fostering approach were given by several respondents, including:

• A potential overlap in the roles of foster carers and other professionals, such as social workers, with a need to define boundaries for where carers should operate.
• How the rights of children would be met, such as undertaking Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments, ensuring their safety, ensuring their views are heard, and they have access to independent advocacy. One respondent suggested that GIRFEC and SHANNARI indicators could be reviewed to ensure that trauma experienced by children with disabilities is addressed.
• The need to consider whether existing foster carers were willing to working directly with birth families, and whether this might discourage new applicants, and the impact the proposals could have when foster carer provision is already insufficient.
• Adding an objective around helping keep siblings together or close to each other.
• Addressing current issues within the system, such as the need for further resourcing, for more family contact or support centres, and focusing on recruitment, retention and improving support for foster carers.

Q4. What implications does a flexible fostering approach have for how fostering is funded and how foster carers are remunerated?

Over three quarters of respondents left a comment at Q4. Most prevalent were themes that foster carers would require further financial support or a change in their role, that more work was needed to explore how a flexible approach would operate or that training and support was needed for foster carers.

Improved remuneration for carers is needed for any enhanced role

Comments were provided by many respondents calling for enhanced conditions of service to reflect changes in the role required to enable the flexible fostering approach. Mainly this involved providing improved financial payments to reflect greater responsibilities, though some felt more investment in support for carers and families was required. A few suggested a range of levels of foster carers could be created, for instance, to reflect different specialisations or to reflect skill levels.

“Funding must be adequate to reflect the complexities of the role, including the requirement for training and the outreach work that form part of these responsibilities. It is clear that we need to explore different solutions in our attempt to recruit foster carers and adequate remuneration is key to ensuring that people feel valued and sufficiently rewarded for such a key role.” - Fox Covert Early Years - City of Edinburgh Council

“A scale of progression based on skills, experience, training etc should be formalised for every local authority.” – CAN

In addition, several respondents suggested specific elements that should be included in remuneration packages or to improve terms and conditions for foster carers. These included making the role salaried, on-call and unsocial hours payments, retainer fees, providing pension contributions, holiday and sick pay and paying insurance coverage. Attendees at one engagement event suggested pro rata payment could be made if holidays are not taken.

More work is needed to identify implications

In order to answer this question, several respondents felt more work was needed. Suggested areas where more consideration was needed included:

• Planning and identification of the total funding required to implement the proposals, considering the number of children requiring care and the nature of their needs.
• How specific elements should be funded, such as how to retain carers for the Step Up, Step Down model or how short breaks would be funded.
• How foster carers can be supported to receive a consistent income, particularly if different elements of care are paid for separately.
• How to ensure remuneration levels present an attractive offer for foster carers.

Additionally, some respondents sought clarification of how the role of a foster carer in a flexible fostering approach would align with family support workers or services, for example, whether terms and conditions would be similar to support practitioners. According to several respondents, the increased complexity of the role implied by the flexible fostering role would have implications for further learning development and support for foster carers. This is discussed further at Q17 and Q18.

Q5. How can the Scottish Government, working with you, support the delivery of the flexible fostering approach?

Four fifths of respondents commented at Q5, with a range of suggestions provided. The most prevalent themes were to provide more resources (see Q36), improve the status and recognition of foster carers (see Q26) and to provide more training and development opportunities (see Q18). Analysis of comments on these issues made at Q5 has, therefore, been incorporated in these other sections.

Promote national consistency

The need for the Scottish Government to promote a consistent fostering approach across Scotland and sectors was advocated by several respondents, two thirds of whom were organisations. This issue is considered further in various questions across the report. Singular views included that the Scottish Government could encourage fostering services to sign up to the Fostering Network’s ‘Keep Connected’ principles, ensure alignment with developments such as The Promise and Children’s Hearings Scotland or lead the way in developing ‘fostering friendly’ policies and legislation.

“In October 2024 Children’s Hearings Scotland was proud to become accredited as a Fostering Friendly employer in a programme run by the Fostering Network to help organisations actively support fostering and foster carer employees. CHS values the contribution that foster carers make to society and would encourage the Scottish Government to take steps to support other organisations in Scotland to become Fostering Friendly employers who recognise the need for flexibility in a person’s working arrangements when they also undertake a fostering role which is crucial to supporting Scotland’s children and young people that are in need of care and protection.” - Children’s Hearings Scotland

Work with and understand carers

The need for the Scottish Government to understand and listen to foster carers was highlighted by some respondents, mainly individuals. Comments were generally brief, but views included that this should occur at a local level and that it should involve listening to carers with considerable experience or those caring for young people. Attendees at one engagement event felt foster carers were not listened, or that their views were not taken seriously, including when video evidence was produced.

“Listen to us…HEAR us…We want the best for our children and will always put them at the forefront of everything we do…We may not have the answers but will be able to share the experiences we have already faced when delivering our fostering role as is today - some of which actually does meet the flexible approach.” - Individual

Provide more support

Views that the Scottish Government should provide more support for foster carers or children were raised, with each theme highlighted by some respondents. Supports the Scottish Government could facilitate for foster carers included IT resources such as helping keep a digital record of life story work, facilitating strong support networks and ensuring other team members in the team around the child offer appropriate support to foster carers. Ensuring the needs of children are met through enhanced support such as therapy, third-sector support and independent advocacy was recommended by some respondents (see also Q36).

“Many of the families and children and young people we work with have had adversarial experiences of statutory services leading to a lack of trust and resentment. Further, statutory services are often associated with scrutiny, preventing foster carers, or children and young people in foster care from speaking openly about their experiences, their worries, as they fear further intervention by the state. The third sector is well placed to support families and individuals in these circumstances.” – Includem

Other themes

Other themes mentioned by some respondents included the need for the Scottish Government to address recruitment and retention, the need to identify and roll out best practice and the need to work with specific groups in developing a flexible approach. Organisations suggested for working alongside the Scottish Government included the Care Inspectorate, COSLA and local authorities, and work with employers to develop ‘fostering friendly’ policies. The need to consider specific aspects was noted by some respondents, with a few highlighting the need to promote the safety of foster carers or a few raising singular considerations, notably addressing housing issues of foster carers, recognising the flexible approach might not be suitable all children and acknowledging a large number of foster carers work as couples.

“Creative funding projects to support foster carers to work in different ways and to test out some of the approaches in Scotland e.g. Step Up Step Down. Properly evaluate the impact of different approaches, robust data around the care experienced community and effectiveness of outcomes and interventions is urgently needed. Scottish Government could share messages about the flexible approach and what it looks like in practice.” - Scottish Adoption and Fostering