Summary: The Council was at fault for the support it offered Mrs B while she privately fostered a child. It delayed her financial support and the child’s support plan. And it failed to do a safeguarding investigation after saying it would. It has agreed to apologise to Mrs B and will pay her a symbolic financial remedy to recognise her injustice. It will also take steps to improve its service.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs B, was a private foster carer for her daughter’s schoolfriend (whom I refer to as C). Mrs B complains about how the Council handled C’s case.
2. Mrs B says:
• She did not get enough support to deal with C’s issues (such as self-harm) or with his parents (who were abusive to her).
• The Council failed to provide her with adequate financial support and went back on its word to help her financially.
• She suffered distress from the lack of support, and a financial injustice from the costs of looking after C.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
5. Under our information sharing agreement, we will share this decision with the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

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What I have and have not investigated

6. I have investigated Mrs B’s complaints about matters which, in her view, caused her a direct injustice.
7. I have not made findings on C’s injustice or recommended any remedies for him. This is because he is no longer in Mrs B’s care, and I have no consent from him to consider a complaint.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered:
• Information from Mrs B and the Council.
• Relevant guidance, legislation and policy.
• The Ombudsman’s guidance on remedies.
9. Mrs B and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

The Council’s responsibilities

Private fostering definition

10. A private fostering arrangement is one that is made without a council’s involvement for the care of a child under the age of 16 by someone other than a parent or close relative. (The Council’s private fostering policy)
11. Private fostering may include when a teenager has temporarily broken ties with their parents and is staying with a friend’s family. (The Council’s private fostering policy)
12. Parental consent is not needed for a private fostering arrangement. If a child’s parents do not consent, it is for them – not the Council – to exercise their parental responsibility and arrange for the child to return home. (The Council’s private fostering policy)

The beginning of the arrangement

13. A council must visit where a privately fostered child is being looked after and satisfy itself that the arrangement is suitable. This must be within seven days of hearing about the arrangement. (The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005, Regulation 7(1))
14. During a council’s initial visit, it must check the financial arrangements for the child are working, and that the carer is in receipt of all the correct advice. It should provide basic advice to carers on access to child benefit and other benefits. (Statutory guidance, ‘Children Act 1989: private fostering’)

Ongoing support

15. A privately fostered child’s parents also remain financially responsible for them (The Council’s private fostering policy). However, if such financial arrangements are not satisfactory, a council can consider providing financial support to a carer under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (if it decides the child is ‘in need’ of support). (Statutory guidance, ‘Children Act 1989: private fostering’)
16. If the child is ‘in need’, their support needs may be assessed by a social worker. I refer to these assessments as ‘section 17 assessments’. (Statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’)
17. Private fostering arrangements should not be permanent or long-term. There must be planning for a child’s permanence from the start of the arrangement. If the child is ‘in need’, the planning and review process will be used to consider the child’s permanence plans as well. (The Council’s private fostering policy)

Safeguarding

18. If a council has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is at risk of significant harm, it should arrange a strategy discussion. This discussion should involve, as a minimum, a social worker, a health practitioner and the Police. (Statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’)
19. If, following the strategy discussion, the Council continues to suspect that the child is at risk of suffering significant harm, it should conduct a safeguarding investigation. This investigation takes place under section 47 of the Children Act and is routinely referred to as a ‘section 47’. (Statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’)
20. If the section 47 substantiates the council’s concerns, it should arrange an initial child protection conference. This conference brings together and analyses – in a multi-agency setting – all relevant information, and it plans how best to ensure the child’s safety and welfare. (Statutory guidance, ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’)

What happened

Referral

21. In early July 2022, a neighbouring authority told the Council that C had moved into its area with his friend and her mother – Mrs B. The Council asked the neighbouring authority to assess him instead.
22. A fortnight later, the Council changed its mind and decided to conduct a private fostering assessment. But it continued to refuse to do a section 17 assessment, saying this was the neighbouring authority’s responsibility.
23. The Council spoke to C’s parents, who did not consent to the private fostering arrangement. They had recently moved abroad and wanted C to join them there. They would not provide financial support to Mrs B.
24. The Council sought legal advice. I have seen the advice, which set out suggestions for how the Council should approach C’s case. But the Council did not follow the advice.
25. The Council also decided it would not, in fact, conduct a private fostering assessment because it had no consent from C’s parents.
26. In early September, the Council reviewed its approach and agreed to conduct both private fostering and section 17 assessments.

Assessments

27. The Council visited Mrs B and had no concerns. However, it did note that she needed financial support. It also advised her to claim child benefit.
28. The Council completed its section 17 assessment. It noted that C’s future was uncertain, and Mrs B was experiencing emotional and financial pressure. It decided to support C under a ‘child in need’ plan, and to get legal advice.
29. The Council then completed its private fostering assessment. It noted that both Mrs B and C needed a high level of emotional and practical support. It said it needed to arrange a legal planning meeting and a child protection conference.

Safeguarding

30. In late October, the Council held what it referred to as a strategy meeting (although there was no Police attendance). It agreed to:
• Seek legal advice.
• Provide financial support to Mrs B.
• Do a section 47 into the risk C faced, with a view to holding an initial child protection conference.
31. The Council noted that, “Financial and [child protection] status will give [C] and [Mrs B] the message we are addressing issues that have been known and in drift since July 2022”.
32. In November, Mrs B told the Council that there had been no section 47, no child protection conference and no reimbursement of her expenses. She said she was struggling financially and emotionally.
33. The Council did not complete a section 47 or hold a child protection conference. It recorded that it would arrange a new strategy meeting and take C’s case to ‘legal panel’. But neither happened.
34. The Council did seek legal advice, which I have seen, and which provided recommendations on how the Council could protect C. The Council did not act on the recommendations.
35. The Council also made a series of recommendations to its legal panel on how it could protect C and support Mrs B. Again, none of these recommendations were acted on (and the panel did not take place).

Ongoing support

36. In late 2022, Mrs B asked the Council to reimburse her for what she had spent looking after C. She requested payments of £558 and £132. The Council made these payments, respectively, in January and September 2023.
37. The Council agreed ongoing financial support of £100 a week. Mrs B received these payments between September 2022 and February 2023. After that, the payments changed to £400 a month.
38. In January 2023 C turned 16, and therefore his private fostering arrangement ended. But he remained, from the Council’s perspective, a ‘child in need’.
39. The Council met with its legal team and agreed a series of actions to support C. It completed all the agreed actions.
40. The Council met with Mrs B in March. It agreed to provide a £100 clothing grant, and to help her buy a bed. It did both of these things.
41. The Council arranged C’s first ‘child in need’ meeting at the end of March. However, there is no evidence of this meeting or any associated support plan.
42. Mrs B then asked to be reimbursed for £998 she had spent on birthday and Christmas presents for C. But the Council refused. It said it had access to a range of providers of Christmas presents and therefore did not need to pay for them.
43. Mrs B also asked for her monthly payments to increase from £400 to £560, and she explained why. But the Council did not agree the increase, and I have seen no explanation for the refusal.
44. Later in 2023, while Mrs B was pursuing a complaint against the Council, she provided a spreadsheet with several thousand pounds’ worth of expenditure on it. She said the costs were incurred looking after C. Much of the expenditure was not brought to the Council’s attention at the time the money was spent.

My findings

The beginning of the private fostering arrangement

45. After finding out about the potential private fostering arrangement, the Council spoke to Mrs B, and C’s parents, without significant delay.
46. However, the initial statutory visit did not take place for almost two months.
47. There were two reasons for the delay. The first was that the Council considered the neighbouring authority to be responsible for C.
48. Although the Council sought legal advice on this point, it did not follow the advice for over a month. I have seen no explanation for this delay.
49. The second reason for the delay was that the Council did not consider the arrangement to be ‘private fostering’ because there was no parental consent.
50. However, the Council’s own policy says parental consent is not always needed for a private fostering placement. There is no evidence that the Council considered its policy at the time.
51. For these reasons, I have found that the Council was at fault for the delay to the initial private fostering visit. And this caused Mrs B an injustice. For two months she felt she was not getting the right support. This likely caused her distress. The Council should now take action to address this personal injustice.
52. It is also likely that the delay caused a corresponding delay to Mrs B’s financial support. I will discuss this in more detail below.

Financial support

53. Almost as soon as C moved in with Mrs B, the Council was aware that his parents would provide no financial support (as they did not consent to the arrangement).
54. Belatedly (because of the two-month delay to the initial private fostering visit), the Council agreed to help Mrs B. She received £100 a week from September 2022, and £400 a month from February 2023.
55. The level of financial support was at the Council’s discretion, and was justified in C’s records, so I will not criticise the Council for it.
56. However, the Council should provide a financial remedy to Mrs B to recognise that its support was delayed by the initial private fostering visit, which was also late (as I have set out above).
57. Although Mrs B asked for an increase to her monthly payments in May 2023, the Council’s next (and final) payment – the following month – did not change. The Council did not consider Mrs B’s request or give a reason for its refusal.
58. This was fault by the Council, and it could, potentially, have caused Mrs B a financial injustice. The Council should take action to address this.
59. Mrs B says she incurred additional costs on top of the day-to-day expenses covered by her allowance. Although not all of these costs were brought to the Council’s attention at the time, she did ask it for four different payments.
60. Three of those payments were reimbursed by the Council. But another (for Christmas presents) was not. The Council refused to reimburse it, and explained why. This was for the Council to decide, not the Ombudsman, so I have found no fault in the refusal – however unreasonable Mrs B may feel it was.

C’s ‘child in need’ plan

61. Once the Council had accepted a duty to assess whether C was a child in need of support, it had responsibilities to him (and, in effect, to Mrs B, who had claimed she needed help to meet his needs).
62. The Council completed an assessment which identified that financial and emotional pressure on Mrs B was a risk to the private fostering arrangement. It decided there should be a support plan. But no support plan was made for six months afterwards.
63. This was a significant delay, for which the Council was at fault.
64. As I have set out above, the Council was providing support during this period (irrespective of the lack of support plan). But it should, nonetheless, take action to address Mrs B’s injustice from the lack of a plan.

Safeguarding

65. In late 2022, the Council agreed to do a section 47 investigation, with a view to holding an initial child protection conference.
66. However, it held a strategy meeting without Police involvement, and then did not either do the section 47 or hold the conference. This was fault by the Council, and it likely caused Mrs B distress, which the Council should take action to address.
67. The Council sought legal advice in 2022 on how to protect C, but did not follow this advice. It also planned to take the case to its ‘legal panel’ but did not do so. Nothing came of the recommendations the Council intended to make to its panel.
68. This was fault by the Council. And, although it did not necessarily cause Mrs B a direct injustice, the Council should take steps to improve its service.
69. In early 2023 the Council met with C’s parents and, separately, with its legal team. It agreed to do several things to support and protect him. It did all of them.
70. This means there was no fault in the steps the Council took to protect C from early 2023 onwards.

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Agreed actions

71. The Council has agreed to apologise to Mrs B for a delay to her financial support and for its failure to put either support or safeguarding plans in place for C.
72. The Council has also agreed to make the following payments to Mrs B:
• £800 to recognise the delay to its initial private fostering visit, and the likely associated delay to her financial support.
• £100 to recognise its failure to consider her request for a higher allowance.
• £250 to recognise that it failed to put a support plan in place for C for six months, which likely caused her distress.
73. The Council will make the above apology and payments within a month.
74. Within two months, the Council has agreed to:
• Review what its private fostering policy says on parental consent, in line with regulations, case law and any legal advice it may have received or may receive, to ensure it is satisfied with what the policy says.
• Send us an action plan which sets out how it will avoid similar failings in future. This plan should address the delay to the initial private fostering visit, the delay to C’s support plan, and the Council’s failure to take safeguarding action.
75. The Council will provide us with evidence it has done these things.

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Final decision

76. The Council was at fault, and Mrs B suffered an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman