One of the things that occasionally frustrates me is the lack of effort that goes into placement referrals versus the amount of effort and scrutiny that goes into Looked After Review or Child Protection Conference reports for instance. A lot of Local Authorities don’t even have line managers scrutinise placement referrals.

Some of those meeting reports are forgotten about within days of the review or conference, but the referral for a placement search, and the placement it produces is probably one of the biggest opportunities to make a real difference in a child’s life. The services I’ve worked in however often think about it as a box to tick – and often to copy and paste from whatever report they last wrote – rather than an opportunity to thoughtfully put across a child’s needs, wishes and personality to thousands of potential loving homes (and yes – I know that’s not the whole story with foster care, but there are genuinely some amazing families out there).

As long as I’ve been in placements, the lack of information and attention to placement searching has been an issue. Dare I say it – I feel like we’re unlikely to see any improvement here until Local Authorities have to report on the timeliness of placement referrals, searches, and information that has been transferred to agencies.

This is horrific. Children in care are not a commodity to choose like a toy from a warehouse shop front.

As usual zero focus on retention just more recruitment.