Care experienced and young people’s sufficiency strategy 2025-2027

Purpose

The statutory guidance on securing sufficient accommodation for looked after children (2010) requires local authorities to take steps to secure, so far as reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation within the authority’s area which meets the needs of its children in care, whose circumstances are such that it would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with accommodation (‘the sufficiency duty’).

This document sets out the strategic intentions of North Lincolnshire Council in fulfilling our sufficiency duty (S.22 Children Act 1989) towards children in care and care leavers. Securing sufficient accommodation that provides the best care, promotes self-confidence, resilience and emotional well-being for children in care and care leavers is vital in achieving the best possible outcomes for this vulnerable group.

The introduction of statute and Home Office transfer expectations including the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking and Refugee Children (UASC) transfer scheme (Immigration Act 2016), the Concordat on Children in Custody and the local offer to care leavers (Children and Social Work Act 2017) has placed additional duties on councils to provide services and accommodation to those children who need it.

North Lincolnshire Council’s sufficiency strategy is based upon thorough knowledge of our children in care and care leavers and what we need to have available to enable strong and safe communities through an approach embedded in One Council, One Family, One Place.

The sufficiency duty applies in respect of all children who enter the council’s care under the 1989 Act.

Vision and principles

North Lincolnshire’s One Family Approach creates a system where children, young people, and families receive integrated help and support through strong local partnerships. Our ambition and belief is for every child to thrive in their family, achieve in school, and flourish in their community.

We want children to grow up in safe, stable, loving homes with access to opportunities that enable them to succeed. The One Family Approach Partnership 2025 – 2029 sets out how we promote independence, participation, and access to help through local networks and online resources.

Guided by One Council, One Family, One Place, and a commitment to strong, safe communities, our shared vision is expressed through the Care Experienced Children and Young Peoples Plan, which incorporates and responds to the Children and Young People’s Promise. Central to this is equality, diversity, and inclusion—upholding values of opportunity, excellence, self-responsibility, and integrity.

We have high aspirations for our children and young people. By working with families and communities, using their strengths and voices, and making the best decisions through the fewest, most effective interventions, we aim to deliver positive outcomes. Where care is needed, we work towards ensuring children remain in North Lincolnshire, close to home and communities that protects their rights and maximises life chances.

The Sufficiency Strategy reflects our long-standing political and corporate commitment to children with care experience, underpinned by investment in local family based care.

Our responsibilities and commitments

Under Section 22C of the Children’s Act 1989, we have a duty to provide sufficient, locally based care that keeps children and young people close to their families, communities, and education.

Our approach prioritises family-based care wherever possible, promoting strong relationships and permanence, and offers a flexible home finding options tailored to individual needs, including those of children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and unaccompanied young people. We listen to the voices of children and care leavers, support and train carers, and aim for stability through a ‘no moves’ approach.

Where residential care is necessary, we will ensure stability and plan for transition to family life or independence. This commitment is underpinned by strong corporate parenting, robust care planning, and a growing fostering community, complemented by our own residential and staying close provisions to support successful transitions into adulthood.

We also continue to develop links with external agencies to support us with meeting individual children’s needs. Where children are living with external providers, these arrangements are subject to close scrutiny and continual oversight of arrangements through our own commissioning mechanisms and the White Rose Framework.

Sufficiency to achieve the best outcomes

To enable children to achieve the best outcomes possible within their own families and local communities, or within a suitable care environment we will ensure sufficiency for care experienced children and young people that:

• Builds upon on our ambition and belief that children should live with their own or extended family wherever possible.
• Where children come into the care of the Council, we try and reunite children with their families in a timely supportive way using a holistic and strengths based approach to build confidence and family network capacity.
• Where children are unable to return home we will advocate for family-based care to build positive relationships with relatives and trusted adults.
• Carries out timely and detailed assessments of prospective carers (including family and friends – Kinship carers, supported lodgings providers and adopters) to ensure their suitability and to ascertain the level of training, advice and support the carers need to meet child(ren)s needs.
• Aspires to a ‘no moves’ approach for all children who are in care with a clear intent that they will remain in their foster family home or with kinship or connected persons for as long as they need to.
• Ensures there is place based choice and flexibility of placement options that enables children who enter care to live in a family setting where they feel cared for, valued and where their needs are fully met for as long as is needed.
• Ensures that we listen to, hear and learn from the voice of children in care and care leavers and this supports us in shaping services
• We provide excellent support and training to all North Lincolnshire carers including to children who foster to maintain stability within the family home.
• Where a child or young person’s identified needs are best met within residential care, this will be within our own homes, providing the best possible care to support the child and we will work the relevant professionals to provide them with stability for when they are ready for family life either with their birth or extended family or with a foster family or to move into adulthood.
• Our young people will have a choice of supported accommodation and Staying Close options available to them when they leave care.
• Continues to achieve timely permanence for children and young people who do enter care.

The needs of our children and young people

• As at 1 January 2025 the child in care population was 216, an increase from 205 at the end of March 2024
• We have small numbers of children living with external providers. At this time, there are 6 children living with carers that are not North Lincolnshire carers
• The largest group of children in our care are those aged 10 – 15 years of age. On 31/03/2024 there were 71 children age 10-15, this was closely followed by 69 children aged 16+. These figures have remained stable at January 2025
• We are caring for 16 unaccompanied asylum seeking children. This remains a stable number of children across 2023/2024
• The number of Care Leavers has risen over recent years, with a further small increase since the end of 2023/24 to 114 by the beginning of January 2025
• The proportion of children in care living with Kinship/ connected persons (family or friend foster carers) has risen over the last year, from 32 as at 31/03/24 (15% of the care population) to 49 children at the beginning of January 2025 (23%)
• At January 2025, 83% of children in care live with foster carers or are placed for adoption with 99% of children in foster care living with North Lincolnshire approved carers

Our provision and areas of focus:

Edge of Care: We work collaboratively across the CMARS partnership to support parents and families as part of our Family Help offer to ensure that families receive the right support at the right time.

Short Breaks: We continue to provide our short breaks service which supports children in the community with an identified need and children in our care. We work closely with the Children’s Disability Service to identify children who need short breaks and support with matching foster carers.

Kinship Care Offer: Recognising the importance of relationships and continuity that family and friends provide as connected carers through our kinship offer. We work collaboratively with our kinship carers and will look to strengthen this service over the coming year.

Recruitment & Retention of Foster Carers: We have continued to notice an upward trend in terms of recruiting foster carers compared to previous years. We will continue to build on this with our fostering community to understand what works well and how we can continually improve our offer to our carers. We take pride in our relationship based approaches and we are always looking for carers specially for older children, siblings and children with additional needs. We offer a great package of support, a range of activities and a generous financial package.

Fostering Community: we work as a team with our fostering community. We hold bi-monthly meetings with our management team and our carers. Our Foster Care Association holds regular coffee mornings for our carers to attend. We have a comprehensive training calendar consisting of both online and face to face learning. Additionally we hold a regular range of activities throughout the year including family activities, events and days out.

Improving Stability and Permanence: In line with our ethos of maintaining relationships, we ensure that family support meetings take place to consider the types of support children, young people and carers might need if relationships become strained. We are strengthening oversight of permanence and stability through our Stable Loving Homes meetings.

Children’s Homes: North Lincolnshire Council has one multi-build children’s home providing care for a small number of children. Our home is graded as Good, which assures that children and young people are receiving a good level of support.

Adoption: North Lincolnshire is part of Family Adoption Links and provides adoption services across the area. This includes recruitment of adopters, matching of children and providing post-adoption support.

Supported Lodgings: We have a small community of supported lodgings providers who are available to support children over 16 who may wish to move on from fostering or where children present as homeless.

Supported Accommodation: We have developed a supported accommodation service our young people making the transition from care. This service is registered with Ofsted and allows our young people to stay close to home.

Delivering the Sufficiency Strategy 2025 – 2027

Our Sufficiency Strategy focuses on our continued need to:

• Strengthen our edge of care offer
• Consider and build upon our Kinship Care offer
• Continue to recruit and recognise our community of foster carers, supported lodgings providers and adopters
• Review our fostering and children’s homes provisions
• Continued focus on stability, permanence and the importance of relationships