Barking and Dagenham Council's Cabinet has approved a new comprehensive strategy aimed at improving the lives of looked-after children and those at risk of entering care.
The Looked After Children Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2030, agreed at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, outlines plans to ensure the council meets its legal duty to provide sufficient, high-quality placements and support for these vulnerable young people.
The strategy addresses significant challenges, including a reliance on high-cost external placements and a shortage of specialist foster carers. To combat this, the council plans to develop its own local residential provision, with three new children's homes set to provide 17 placements. These homes are expected to be available from early 2028.
Additionally, a joint venture with the NHS is planned for a crisis centre for children with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder. A business case is currently being developed for this short-stay home, which aims to provide stabilization and support to prevent escalation into hospital admission or intensive residential care. This initiative will utilize council-owned land and is dependent on NHSE capital funding and business case approval. The business case has passed its first stage, and NHSE has provided funding to build it.
Councillor Jane Jones, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Education & Schools, presented the strategy, highlighting the substantial financial benefits of investing in in-house provision. She noted that the five most expensive external placements alone cost over £5.75 million annually. The strategy emphasizes a whole-system approach, encompassing prevention, family help, fostering, residential care, complex needs provision, supported accommodation, and care leavers.
Councillor Rubina Siddiqui, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy & Skills, expressed confidence that the strategy would positively impact council services and ensure earlier support for residents.
Preventative Measures and Early Intervention
The strategy aims to expand our prevention and early health provision with an aim to reducing future demand and care costs.
Specific preventative measures include:
- Families First Programme: This offers comprehensive and intensive support to families at risk of entering care, establishing multi-disciplinary Family Help teams, a single assessment and plan for children and families, Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, and integrating Family Group Decision Making.
- Best Start in Life (BSiL): This program focuses on removing barriers and ensuring equitable access to early education and family services, with targeted support for children with SEND, disadvantaged, and vulnerable children. It aims for a coordinated approach across health, education, and family support systems.
- Family Hubs: These hubs offer information, advice, guidance, and support for families, including parenting programs and specialist support for children with SEND.
- Community Money Education and Early Intervention Service: This service provides preventative, community-based financial education and early intervention support to improve residents' financial capability and resilience, reducing escalation into crisis debt.
- Mockingbird Hub model: This model supports foster carers and children by creating an 'extended family' network with structured respite, peer mentoring, and shared learning. It also includes therapeutic input and monthly 'creative clinics' focused on emotional wellbeing.
- Reset model: This pilot program works with children with complex needs who are deprived of liberty and placed in residential settings struggling to meet their needs, aiming to improve outcomes and promote pro-social activities.
- Specialist intervention service: This service provides a rapid response to young people at risk of coming into care, offering restorative intervention and family group conferencing.
- Focus on school connectedness: Recognizing the link between school avoidance and entering care, the Families First program will emphasize wrap-around family help for children at risk of exclusion or poor attendance.
Recruitment and Retention of Foster Carers
The strategy acknowledges a shortage of foster carers with specialist provision
and the need to keep up that recruitment and... keep up that support for our foster carers.
Specific strategies and incentives include:
- Developing a comprehensive business case for enhanced remuneration packages.
- Reviewing and revising recruitment advertising policies.
- Targeting recruitment for Special Guardianship, Connected persons, and Foster carers.
- Developing a specialist Remand Fostering offer, including specialist support and training.
- Developing a new model for providing additional specialist foster carers to support children with SEND (LD/ASD) and those with complex mental health issues.
- Strengthening partnerships, joint commissioning, and working arrangements with education and health.
- Continuing to develop the Mockingbird Family Model arrangements.
- Evaluating and continuing the use of sub-regional frameworks.
- Working with developing Regional Commissioning arrangements around Foster Caring Hubs.
- Undertaking a review of unsuccessful registration applications.
- Undertaking a review of housing supply in the borough regarding foster care.
The report notes that while Barking and Dagenham offers a very good package of support and training,
it is becoming more difficult for us to compete
with neighbouring boroughs that have vastly improved their offer to them, including increasing rates and providing inducements such as full council tax rebates.
Measuring Success
The success of the Looked After Children Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2030 will be measured by:
- Fewer children entering care.
- More local placements and foster carers.
- Improved outcomes for children and young people.
- Reduced reliance on high-cost external placements.
- Elimination of the need to use unregistered placements.
- Increased placement stability and locality.
- Improved timeliness and quality of assessments.
- Positive experience and outcomes for children and families.
- Reduced avoidable demand and care costs.
- Increased in-house fostering capacity.
- Development of specialist foster carers.
- Strengthening of Early Help & Edge of Care services.
- Enhancement of Short Breaks support.
- Improved sufficiency of provision for children with complex needs, disabilities, or experiences of trauma.
- Development of local residential provision.
- Development of a crisis home for children with complex needs.
- Improved outcomes from the Reset model.
- Improved outcomes for children and young people in supported accommodation and semi-independent provision.
- Ensuring care leavers are prioritized for housing.
- Improved collaboration and joint commissioning across health, education, and social care.
- Development of strategic relationships with local providers.
- Improved management of contractual relationships with providers.
- Development of partnerships with the VCFSE sector.
- Participation in and shaping of Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs).
- Development of effective teams around the child.
Financial Investment
The implementation of the strategy involves significant investment. An investment of £10.8 million is being made across the three new children's homes, which is match-funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Local Authority (LBBD) on a 50:50 basis. The development of the crisis centre will utilize council-owned land and NHSE capital funding. The strategy emphasizes that success depends on upfront investment to avoid much higher downstream spending.
The Children Care and Support department has an annual net budget of £67.2m, with £34.6m invested in staffing and £37.5m in placement costs. The Families First Partnership Programme has annual funding of £3.7m in 2026/27.
Read the full Public reports pack for more details.
