Number of looked-after children placed outside borough due to pandemic

A number of looked-after children in Caerphilly County Borough have been put in temporary placements outside the area due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a council social services scrutiny committee meeting, the council’s assistant director for children’s services, Gareth Jenkins, said there had been six extra looked-after children placed outside the county since the coronavirus pandemic started.

This was due to independent fostering agencies closing their doors to new children to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

The committee heard that there are currently 18 looked-after children in out-of-county placements, after Councillor Ann Gair raised the question.

Mr Jenkins said: “This doesn’t mean they’re necessarily far away from Caerphilly. Of those 18, 12 of them are in a ten mile radius of Caerphilly, so we maintain their schools and maintain their contact with their family.

“That seems like a high number but six of those are directly related to Covid.

“At the early stages of lockdown the independent fostering agencies closed their doors effectively and wouldn’t take any children from any local authority.

“So, for some of those children they would ordinarily have gone into foster care, but we weren’t able to find a foster placement for them.

“They ended up having to go into residential care.”

Mr Jenkins said it can be disruptive to move children once they have been placed in that care, but all six would be brought back to the county borough.

Some would be moving with support; some would return to their family and some would be returned to foster care within the county.