Staying Put

Under the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010, Planning Transition into Adulthood for Care Leavers Guidance and Government Guidance Staying Put - Arrangements for Care Leavers Aged 18 and Above to Stay on With Their Former Foster Carers (2013), the Local Authority must provide information about extending foster placements post-18.

Staying Put aims to build on and improve the existing arrangements for young people in foster care to remain with their carers after the age of 18 and forms part of the Government’s vision to improve the life chances of children and young people in and leaving care.

Local authorities have a legal duty to support all staying put arrangements, with the only exception being if they consider that the arrangement is not consistent with the young person’s welfare. The statutory guidance refers to these as ‘exceptionally rare circumstances’.

In general, however, staying put arrangements are designed to:

• Ensure that young people can experience a transition to adulthood similar to that of their peers, within a supportive family environment;
• Ensure that young people are not obliged to leave their former foster family before they feel ready to move into greater independence;
• Help care leavers to maximise opportunities for education, employment or training;
• Reduce the likelihood of periods of homelessness;
• Ensure that care leavers develop the necessary emotional and practical skills before they are required to live independently;
• Reduce the likelihood of social exclusion.

There are no eligibility criteria for entering into a staying put arrangement, other than the young person being an ‘eligible child’.

The leaving care needs assessment should identify the timescale required for young people to explore the plan for a young person when they are no longer ‘’cared for’. The process will commence prior to a young person’s 16th birthday.

A meeting will take place as part of the needs assessment to include the foster carer, supervising social worker, the social worker and the young person to establish the viability and likelihood of a ‘Staying Put’ arrangement occurring.

The social worker will inform the Team Manager and Fostering Manager if a Staying Put arrangement has been identified as an option and is being considered by the young person and foster carers.

The Needs Assessment will ordinarily be completed when a young person is aged 16 years 3 months.

The Cared For Review following the completion of the Needs Assessment will discuss the timescales for the arrangement and monitor progress.

A ‘Staying Put’ meeting should identify all the tasks required to extend the fostering arrangement into a ‘staying put’ arrangement and will take place prior to a young person’s 17th birthday.

A further ‘staying put’ meeting will be arranged when the young person reaches the age of 17 years and 6 months, and should ensure any final arrangements and requirements are in place prior to the young person’s 18th birthday.

The outcome of the meeting should provide a report to agree the decision regarding extending a ‘fostering placement’ to a ‘staying put’ arrangement.

A ‘staying put’ written agreement will be drawn up and agreed between the young person, foster carer, supervising social worker and the personal adviser. The agreement should cover the ground rules of the household and other matters which the parties feel are important.

Very careful consideration should be given to any proposal not to support the facilitation or maintenance of a staying put arrangement, and the reasons should be recorded and made clear to the parties concerned.

The needs assessment meeting should consider:

1. Is it likely that the young person will fit the criteria for “Staying Put” when they reach their 18th birthday?;
2. Does the young person and the foster carer/s understand the criteria for, and associated procedures for extending a foster placement into a “Staying Put” arrangement?
3. Does the young person understand their financial and benefit responsibilities associated with remaining in a “Staying Put” arrangement?
4. Does the foster carer/s understand the changes in their funding arrangements associated with a “Staying Put” arrangement?
5. Does the foster carer/s understand the impact of a “Staying Put” arrangement on their welfare benefit income and on their Income Tax and National Insurance responsibilities and liabilities?
6. What is the contingency plan for the young person should the “Staying Put” arrangement not be viable;
7. What is the plan for converting the “Staying Put” arrangement into an Adult Placement (Shared Lives) where the young person has a disability and meets the Adult Services Fair Access to Care (Putting People First) criteria.

Following the young person's 18th birthday, the legal basis on which they occupy the property (former foster home) changes (the legal term is that the young person becomes an 'excluded licensee' lodging in the home) - this should not denote that the young person will be treated differently than they were as a fostered child. In addition, the carer may also become, and be deemed, the young person's landlord/landlady.

The associated change from foster child to adult member of the household, and for the carer from foster carer to Staying Put carer, (technically the young person's landlord) should be carefully and sensitively planned in order to ensure that both young people and the carer/s understand the nature of the arrangement and that the positive aspects of being in foster care are not diminished by the new legal and financial arrangements and terminology.

While Fostering Regulations will no longer legally apply to these arrangements, key standards should continue to govern the expectations of the placement when the young person reaches 18.

These should include in all cases but particularly in cases where there are no foster children living in the carer's home:

• A written set of standards and expectations that make explicit and clear what the implications of the change from being Looked After to being in a Staying Put arrangement, including what the young person and the carer can reasonably expect of each other and of the local authority;
• A system for reviewing and approving the Staying Put arrangement and carer/s to ensure that the arrangement complies with local authority expectations;
• Safeguarding and risk assessment checks on household members and in certain circumstances regular visitors;
• Health and safety requirements (as a minimum this should comply with landlord and licensee/tenant requirements);
• Regular supervision and support, possibly, from their fostering supervising social worker; and
• Opportunities to attend appropriate training.

The Local Authority will need to assess individual circumstances and consider the appropriateness of all of these checks particularly where the young person is the only person placed/living with their carer/s and it is not envisaged that further children will be placed. In circumstances where it is clear that the carer will not be fostering any further children, it may be deemed appropriate to terminate their approval as a foster carer. In situations where it is possible that they may foster again in the future, it would be inappropriate to terminate their approval, given the length of time that re-approval would take. Where a foster carer's approval is terminated, it will be necessary to ensure that the Staying Put arrangement continues to meet appropriate standards.

Safeguarding arrangements will need to be sufficient, including disclosure and barring service checks on over 18 year olds and issues relating to fostered children in households. Where foster children are in placement, the foster carers will need to be returned to the fostering panel due to a change in circumstances as the child/young person Staying Put will have reached adulthood and become an adult member of the fostering household. As such, they will require a valid Disclosure and Barring Service check. To ensure that the check (and possible subsequent risk assessment) is completed by the child/young person's eighteenth birthday the process will need to commence in sufficient time.

Whilst the level of financial support payable will depend upon individual needs and circumstances, former foster carers will be paid an allowance that will cover all reasonable costs of supporting the care leaver to remain living with them. Clear information will be provided to foster carers on the financial support which may be provided for staying put arrangements, in order to help foster carers plan well in advance whether they wish to participate in such arrangements.

When deciding upon the level of financial support payable, careful consideration will have to be given to the impact of the 'staying put' arrangement on the family's financial position. The impact will vary from family to family.

It will be necessary to consider:

• How extending placements will impact on the allowances provided by the Local Authority and whether other funding, e.g. funding for housing related support, will contribute to meeting Staying Put costs;
• Whether additional allowances provided when the child was a foster child to ensure they were embedded in the family will continue, for example holiday allowances, birthday and Christmas/festival allowances;
• Any financial contributions from the young person from their wages, salary, benefits or educational allowances. Depending on their circumstances, young people who remain in a Staying Put arrangement may be able to claim means tested benefits for their personal needs from their eighteenth birthday;
• How the income tax, national insurance and welfare benefits situation of carers may be affected by post-18 payments. Where a young person continues to reside with their former foster carer after their eighteenth birthday on a non-commercial and familial basis, and the child was Looked After immediately prior to their eighteenth birthday, and the payments are made by the local authority to the carer under section 23C of the Children Act 1989 (continuing functions in respect of former relevant children), then the payments are disregarded in calculating the carers' entitlement to means tested benefits. When a commercial arrangement is made, (i.e. any element of the cost of the arrangement comes from a source other than section 23C), the non-section 23C element will be taken into account in the calculation of the carer's own means tested benefit claim;
• Insurance issues including liability and household insurance. Staying Put carers should be provided with information about liability insurance cover in situations where Staying Put young people may make an allegation against a foster child in placement, or against their Staying Put carer/s, or an allegation is made against the Staying Put young person. The majority of foster carers hold public liability insurance.

The local authority will explain to the young person their full entitlements, including how they will provide the young person with their leaving care grant once they move on from a 'staying put' arrangement and live independently.

Living away from the former foster carer's home for temporary periods such as attending higher education courses should not preclude a 'staying put' arrangement. This might include a residential further education institution; undertaking induction training for the armed services or other training or employment programmes that require a young person to live away from home.

The Staying Put framework is aimed at former relevant children who require an extended period with their former foster carer/s due to delayed maturity, vulnerability and/or in order to complete their education or training. Where young people have an on-going cognitive disability and meet the adult services Fair Access to Care Services criteria (Putting People First), foster placements should be converted to Adult Placements/Shared Lives Arrangements when the child reaches their eighteenth birthday. This is important to ensure that both the young person and the carer have a formal regulatory and safeguarding framework that addresses their respective needs.

The purpose of a written agreement should be to clarify, where necessary the ground rules and matters which are important to the parties involved.

Prior to the commencement of the staying put arrangement the social worker will convene a meeting with the foster carer, young person and personal adviser to develop a Living Together Agreement.

The agreement should be incorporated into the young person’s pathway plan.

The responsibility for drawing up the agreement will be with the social worker.

The Living Together Agreement should cover:

• Preparation for independence tasks;
• The financial contribution that the young person will be expected to make to the household, also the management of bank accounts, loans and mobile phone contracts;
• Income and benefits entitlement inclusive of bursaries;
• Friends and partners visiting and staying;
• Staying away for nights/weekends and informing ex- foster carer of movements;
• Education, training and employment activities;
• Health arrangements;
• Move on arrangements;
• Issues relating to younger foster care children in placement, safeguarding, role modelling and time keeping;
• Specific issues to do with the needs of the young person including the management of risk taking behaviours;
• House routines and expectations of the young person in respect of chores, tasks and routines;
• Giving notice of ending the arrangement.

The pathway plan provides a framework for monitoring. The young person’s personal adviser is responsible for co-ordinating the provision of services, and so has a central role in keeping in touch with the young person and monitoring progress, but it is important that they work in a way which does not exclude the staying put carer. This is likely to include regular informal contact with both the young person and the carer, and the appropriate frequency and arrangements should be discussed and agreed. There should be a meeting at least every six months to review the pathway plan.

The local authority has a duty to monitor a staying put arrangement it is likely that the personal adviser will remain best placed to co-ordinate the monitoring and they may feel it necessary to visit the young person more frequently than would otherwise be the case. In the event that the personal adviser or anyone else in contact with the young person has any concerns that they may need safeguarding, they should understand that these would be investigated by adult services if no children are involved.

It is anticipated that the provision of staying put arrangements will assist young people to move on to reside in fully independent living placements in a timely and planned way. However, where there is a risk of a placement ending in an unplanned way e.g. in crisis, a planning meeting will be convened.

The planning meeting should attempt to identify actions which enable the placement to be sustained until a planned move to suitable alternative accommodation can be arranged.

Since staying put arrangements are made through agreement of the young person and their foster carer.  Either is able to bring the arrangement to an end before the young person reaches 21. In the event that the local authority regards the arrangement as not consistent with the young person’s welfare it may withdraw support, but it does not have the legal power to bring the arrangement to an end.

However, good practice would always be to make, and if necessary to end, arrangements by three-way agreement and the personal adviser would have a key role in helping to plan a move to an alternative living arrangement.

 Staying put carers and young people should understand the circumstances in which either might want to consider ending the arrangement, and the implications for both parties should this come about. It may be appropriate to include requirements to give notice in the written agreement covering the arrangement.

As is the case in other families, ceasing to live together does not necessarily cut off ties and commitment, and unless there are good reasons to the contrary the staying put carer should still be helped to support the young person in the new circumstances.

If a young person in a Staying Put arrangement dies up to and including the age of 24, notifications should be made in accordance with the procedure on Death or Serious Injury to a Child (Cared for, Child in Need or Care Leaver Up to and Including the Age of 24).