Foster scheme for children with complex needs proves a success
Janaki Mahadevan
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A specialist fostering programme for children with challenging behaviour has saved councils money despite initial problems.
Research due to be published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) today (26 February) reveals the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care programme has helped reduce the level of intervention that children need in the long run.
The initiative combines training in behaviour management for foster carers and birth or adoptive parents with support from mental health, education and social services.
In May last year, CYP Now reported that councils were having trouble accessing the scheme (CYP Now, Children in Care: the Way Ahead, May 2008).
However, nine months on, Andrew Christie, director of children's services at Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council, said: "It has proved to be a real success story. It has delivered on its promised outcomes and we have now placed a number of children with very complex needs, moving them from a high-cost placement into foster homes."
Baroness Delyth Morgan, junior children's minister, added: "Not only did the cost of the place in the programme compare favourably with the costs for children in independent provision, but the average cost for those who left fell from £1,117 per week to £392 as the programme enabled them to move to less intensive provision."
Multidimensional treatment foster care was first used in the US. Since it started in 2003, 150 young people have entered the pilot run by the DCSF for children with challenging behaviour and complex needs. Of these, 33 left the scheme before three months.
More than half of the young people accessing the scheme have successfully moved back into family or foster placements or are living independently.
Of those who completed the scheme, nearly half entered it with criminal convictions. Of these, 13 per cent received a further caution or conviction. Violent behaviour in this group reduced from 75 to 46 per cent.
There are currently six sites piloting the programme for three- to six-year-olds in England and eight sites developing it for seven- to 11-year-olds.
