Over the summer, the new Health and Social Care Committee in Wales launched a consultation to seek views on priorities for the next Senedd term, including; workforce planning and service sustainability, including improving pay, terms and conditions for the social care workforce.
In our response, we highlighted the need for greater investment in fostering allowances to ensure they cover the full costs of caring for a child. We called for national monitoring of compliance with the National Minimum Allowance (NMA), a statutory duty to uprate allowances annually as is the case in Scotland, and the introduction of an allowance for post-18 arrangements. We also noted that the previous Welsh Government’s consultation on changes to the Part 6 Code of Practice was a missed opportunity to harmonise both fees and allowances in line with our recommended rates.
We also raised that while the previous Welsh Government recognised the potential benefits of a national register for foster carers following their consultation on improving fostering services, there has been no further update on whether or how it will be implemented. We highlighted that a national register could strengthen safeguarding measures, improve the collection of national data on foster carer availability, and support better matching and information sharing between fostering services and fostering sufficiency. In turn, this could help reduce placement breakdowns, reduce out of area placements and improve stability for children and young people. It could also make it easier for foster carers to transfer smoothly between services when needed.