Relational Contracting Between Local Authorities and Independent Fostering Providers: Lessons in Conducting Business for Child Welfare Managers

Sellick, Clive

doi:10.1080/09649060600973749

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Inter-sector partners were describing this collaboration as 'relational contracting' (Sellick, 2006b) In their examination of the purchase and provision of children's day care and fostering services, Petrie and Wilson (1999) define the elements of relational contracting as:…”

Section: Partners or Procured?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Singleton local authorities would contract with no more than two or three IFPs for the provision of placements for children. These were often children for whom the local authority had experienced considerable difficulties in finding their own foster carers, such as older children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (Sellick, 2006b). Study respondents from both sectors gave many practical illustrations of relational contracting and all emphasised the importance of smallscale networks of local authorities and IFPs for effective commissioning.…”

Section: Partners or Procured?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flexible and often unwritten and informal partnership agreements between singleton agencies worked well. Staff spoke to one another at all levels and solved problems together when children and foster carers were experiencing difficulties of one sort or another (Sellick, 2006b).…”

Section: Partners or Procured?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Independent Fostering Providers: Predators or Pioneers, Partners or Procured?

Sellick

2011

Adoption & Fostering

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The development of foster care as the placement of choice for children in care in Britain has been encouraged both in policy and practice. This has been accompanied by the severe reduction in residential care facilities for children and young people and the crisis in recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers of local authority approved and registered foster carers. The result has been a steady growth in the number of independent fostering providers (IFPs) and the increasing proportion of looked after children placed with their agencies' foster carers. In the past 20 years or so, the independent sector has become a major provider of placements and related children's services and this has presented local authorities with considerable cost. During this time, collaboration between local authority commissioners and independent fostering providers has gone through many different phases. By examining a series of linked studies between 1997 and 2010, Clive Sellick explores how the experiences and views of social workers, managers and foster carers have influenced the identities of the IFPs, the working relationships and organisational arrangements which have developed between staff and carers of both sectors and the impact of related policy throughout the New Labour era (1997–2010) in the UK.

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Section: Partners or Procured?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Partners or Procured?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Independent Fostering Providers: Predators or Pioneers, Partners or Procured?

Sellick

2011

Adoption & Fostering

Self Cite

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“…The current landscape appears to have the same emphasis on education, but within an anti‐welfare narrative which encourages a shift and reformation in service provision towards self‐reliance (Mooney and Neal ; Jacobs and Manzi ). Coupled with this, there has also been a significant move towards business models of practice with the clearly articulated priority of saving money and protecting budgets (Sellick ). These models of practice have been further encouraged by an externally enforced framework of targets, inspection regimes, performance assessment and market style contracts which fail to recognize the diversity of service users, instead promoting the development of homogenous, limited provision and constrictive eligibility criteria (Dickens ).…”

Section: Commentary On Politics Of General Welfare Service Provisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Planning for Support Services for Children with a Parent or Close Relative in Prison

Leeson

Morgan

2013

Soc Policy Adm

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It has long been recognized that children with a parent or close relative in prison are more likely to experience educational difficulties, emotional distress, family breakdown and a substantial reduction in family income (Boswell 2002;Smith et al. 2007;Morgan et al. 2013b;Morgan and Gill 2013). Consequently, children with a parent in prison are more likely to require support from statutory services, especially education and social care. However, statutory support for this group of children is sparse, and children of prisoners tend not to be identified as a priority group. The demand on local authorities to spend their limited budgets wisely means tough decisions have to be made. These decisions are not taken in a vacuum: they are taken in a context of local need, consumer representation, central and local politics; underpinned by the values and attitudes of individual members as well as by the ethos or culture of the local authority itself. In this article we apply Axford's typology (2009) of the different cultures which underpin local authority service provision to data from a research study carried out in 2011 in one local authority which explored support provision in schools for children of prisoners. We examine the contradictions and gaps within the local authority's attempts to synergize the different modules of service delivery into a coherent pattern of provision, and we explore how changes in strategic culture might lead to improvements being made in terms of service delivery to this group of 'vulnerable' children.

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“…Sellick's study of inter‐sector commissioning in foster care echoed this approach with one local authority commissioner commenting that an IFP manager ‘has to make money and I have to try to save it. But we compromise a lot, we really do, if there's an issue we tend to meet each other pretty much half way’ (Sellick 2006b: 119).…”

Section: The Experience Of Purchasing Adult Welfare Services In the Ukmentioning

confidence: 99%

Privatising Foster Care: The UK Experience within an International Context

Sellick

2011

Soc Policy Adm

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Foster placements for children in care in the UK are being increasingly provided by nongovernmental organizations. However, although local authorities are purchasing almost one third of their required placements from these external agencies, the UK has not yet followed the examples of other English speaking countries. In parts of the USA and Australia all fostering and other child welfare services have been wholly outsourced or transferred from the public to private and non-profit organizations. A number of these initiatives have been independently evaluated and some of their findings resonate with what seems to be happening in the UK. This article explores these but also other factors which appear to distinguish the policy and practice of foster care in the UK from those of the USA and Australia. Using theory related to the privatization of welfare and relevant domestic and international research, the article examines the development of external commissioning of foster care in Britain. In the light of changing law, ideology and policy, the article concludes by speculating on how the future of fostering and wider child welfare provision in the UK may look, at a time of political change and economic austerity.

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Relational Contracting Between Local Authorities and Independent Fostering Providers: Lessons in Conducting Business for Child Welfare Managers

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Independent Fostering Providers: Predators or Pioneers, Partners or Procured?

Independent Fostering Providers: Predators or Pioneers, Partners or Procured?

Strategic Planning for Support Services for Children with a Parent or Close Relative in Prison

Privatising Foster Care: The UK Experience within an International Context

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