The government’s report references Coram Voice’s Bright Spots programme which aims to improve the wellbeing of children and young people in care by identifying and promoting practices that have a positive influence on them. The report agrees that ‘local authorities should explore routes to make better use of data on the experiences of children and young people’, and that the Government would like to see ‘more determined effort to ensure that children’s voices are used to identify and drive improvements’.
The report outlines the importance of every looked after child knowing about and being able to access the advocacy support they are entitled to and that the Government will ‘work with Coram Voice and other experts to identify gaps in the provision in local advocacy support’.
The report also highlights the work of Coram-i in improving matching and permanence planning for long-term foster care, including piloting Fostering Activity Days.
Dr Carol Homden, CBE, CEO of Coram said:
We welcome this coherent and realistic response to the inquiry and Foster Care in England report.
The onus remains on us all in the sector to use existing and new approaches to ensure we deliver consistent realisation of our ambitions for our most vulnerable children.
The Fostering Better Outcomes report is available to read on the GOV.UK website.