Councillor admits there is “no shortcut” available to address the problem, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

An office block, photographed from the ground looking up — Barnet Council’s Colindale offices (Credit – Barnet Council)

Foster carers in Barnet could be given free parking and lower council tax bills in a bid to address falling numbers of carers in the borough.

The recommendations were presented to Barnet Council’s cabinet on Tuesday (24th), following a report from the local authority’s fostering task and finish group.

The report noted government figures showing a 7% decrease in fostering households nationally since 2021.

Councillor Tony Vourou, who led the work, said its proposed measures could help Barnet address the shortage.

The Labour representative for Brunswick Park noted that fewer than 10% of those who apply to be foster carers are eventually accepted, in a process that can take years.

He said strict vetting standards are causing “a blockage in the system”, but are necessary and need to be upheld.

“There’s no shortcuts to this,” he said.

Addressing cabinet, Cllr Vourou said the local authority had been reaching its target of recruiting 15 new families per year – but still had 40% of current fosterers around the age of 60 and heading to retirement.

“In the next four or five years, we know that we’re going to lose some of them, and we have to keep recruiting,” he said.

Cllr Vourou argued Barnet should be proud of being a diverse community, but noted this makes fostering provision more complicated, with some fosterers only wanting to foster children of their faith or their culture.

“Nothing wrong with that,” he said, “but, obviously, you may have a family that’s willing to foster somebody but the children don’t match.”

This means there are currently some foster families in borough with no children, he explained.

The council’s report also found that, across the UK, the decline in the number of foster carers has been attributed to several factors, including the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and loss of available accommodation through biological children staying in their parent’s homes for longer.

It also said these national issues are being exasperated by an overall increase in the numbers of children living in care.

“You have to remember we’re a borough of over 400,000 people with many, many difficulties,” Cllr Vourou said.

“I honestly don’t think it’s Barnet’s fault,” he continued, adding that the council’s staff are doing “a tremendous job” in difficult circumstances.

In response the cabinet agreed to a number of recommendations, including exploring the idea of introducing free parking permits for foster carers and incentivising through council tax reductions.

The local authority will also establish a new role of ‘fostering champion’ to be taken on by a councillor.

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