Milton Keynes Council: Failures in management at fostering service

Former Milton Keynes Council carers claim they felt "emotionally bullied" and "mistreated"

Failures in management and a lack of support to carers have been found in a fostering service, according to documents seen by the BBC.

Former Milton Keynes Council foster carers have previously told the BBC they felt "emotionally bullied" and "mistreated" by the service.

A review has found the service had "not provided adequate support or supervision to some foster carers".

The council said it was "sorry that we didn't always get it right".

Last year, an inspection of the authority's children's services by Ofsted found "shortfalls" in the fostering service had "existed for too long without effective action being taken".

This year, the Local Government Ombudsman has upheld two complaints from foster carers against the council.

One of those carers told the BBC she was referred inappropriately to safeguarding and felt "intimidated" in meetings.

Following that report another former carer, Claire O'Sullivan, said she felt she had no choice but to leave the service.

Claire O'Sullivan fostered with Milton Keynes Council on and off since 2002

The BBC has now seen a report into the lessons learned from fostering complaints by the council's head of quality assurance and safeguarding, Sophie Marshall, completed in April.

Her report found that support for foster carers through supervision was "inadequate", there was "a failing in management oversight which led to a lack of challenge around the service being provided to foster carers".

"This was compounded further by managers not having access to the performance information that was needed to effectively track and manage social work visits", the report added.

It also raised "concerns with management oversight continue into managing allegations, where there was a lack of follow up between meetings, leading to actions not being completed and drift in many of the outcomes".

The report also said: "The theme which has run through all areas of the review is a lack of timeliness in response and support.

"This is something that needs to be addressed immediately to ensure that foster carers needs are being met and minimise the need for further compliant [sic]."

Milton Keynes Council said it was "sorry that we didn't always get it right for our dedicated foster carers"

Two months later, a separate quality assurance review said "a core theme that evidently has impacted the challenges the service, and therefore the service foster carers have experienced, is the inconsistent evidence of line management and head of service oversight".

The review also found:

• Communication within the service had "not historically been strong", which was "exacerbated by staff changes and inconsistency in information to foster carers"

• Social workers need "upskilling in managing difficult conversations"

• Processes for escalation or how to make a complaint needed to be more widely available to carers.

The council said: "We're sorry that we didn't always get it right for our dedicated foster carers.

"Since these reviews, we've put a robust improvement plan in place. This is already leading to more consistent communication and support.

"We will keep looking hard at how we can continue to do better."