A COUNCIL-RUN fostering service in West Dunbartonshire has been slammed for a second time by inspectors - with staff in charge given just over a month to improve.

The Care Inspectorate turned up at West Dunbartonshire Council’s fostering service last November.

In reports published last week, they found “significant concerns” with the services, which has been labelled as “weak” or “adequate”.

The fostering service was “weak” at supporting people’s wellbeing, and “adequate” in leadership as well as the care and support planned, said inspectors.

They said that despite children and young people having developed a positive relationship with their carers, there was still “great uncertainty” for the future of young people with additional needs that may need support from adult services.

It also highlighted that the long-terms needs and living situations of children in their care were still not met, which was also a concern in their last inspection.

It stated: “ A large percentage of fostered children remain in interim foster placements for many years with no decision taken about what their long-term plan should be. The local authority has introduced a permanence tracking system but the decision making around this should be more robust, with specific timescales for actions and responsibility clearly assigned to improve accountability.

“The local authority need to give consideration to how children’s and adult services can better work together in the interest of young people, to ensure the local authority meets its corporate parenting responsibilities.”

Another concern raised with the watchdog was the lack of involvement in the child’s planning process by foster carers, supervising social workers and young people.

It was noted that “young people rarely attended their own reviews, and no reports are routinely requested from professionals, carers or young people in advance of children’s planning meetings.”

One carer said: “I don’t feel I am kept informed of everything happening with the child. Always the last to know would be the best way to describe it.”

Other carers commented that sometimes it felt that decisions had been made by the child’s social worker and their manager before review meetings took place,

By March, the fostering service must improve the quality and accessibility of planning to ensure stability in children’s lives which was a previous requirement from the last inspections. Also, a previous requirement to ensure that all children in need of permanent foster care have their assessments completed was not achieved so the service now has until March to address it.

A spokesperson for West Dunbartonshire HSCP said: “The inspection identified key areas of improvement over the past year with inspectors noting improvement in leadership and highlighting the very good work of staff .

“While we are pleased the Care Inspectorate found children and young people are loved, respected and supported, work is ongoing to ensure plans for children in care are progressed timeously.”