Ms Kate Duggan:

As part of informing this plan the CEO referenced for foster care that we are finalising, we engaged not only with foster carers but also with various stakeholders such as academics and relevant departmental officials. Foster carers were very clear that they really believe in foster care as a placement option for children and can see the benefits of it. They were positive about our assessment process and the training provided, and where there was consistency with the social worker, they were very positive about their experience. The challenges very much related to the turnover of staff, an issue Mr. Gloster will speak to later in the context of recruitment and retention. Where there is a change in a young child's social worker, that causes disruption to both the child and the foster carer. There is also the lack of access to therapeutic supports we have just described. Moreover, if we are trying to promote and retain foster carers, the model of the different types of supports they need to sustain a placement is the key, especially if a child is having some significant difficulties. A further issue relates to the lack of a standardised approach to payments, which we have referenced.

Those engagements concluded in February and we immediately sent out some direction to the system, particularly regarding the payment of medical expenses associated with assessment, to ensure some clarity and consistency was brought to that. Foster carers also talked about not being adequately involved in care planning for the young people in their care and, again, that was inconsistent. In some areas it was more positive, while in others it was not. We are very committed to ensuring that will become a much more consistent approach to care planning such that foster carers will be seen as partners in care planning for the children.

We have talked about the fostering allowance. On permanency planning, it is very much foster carers' wish that where it is understood a child will be in care for a longer period, that be recognised early on and that we look to more permanency planning regarding a placement for the child. As will be seen in that plan, we are, as an agency, significantly looking to address our approach to permanency planning for all children and young people in our care.