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

Abstract

Policy developments since 1997 have changed the nature of foster care placements and related educational and therapeutic services. A succession of initiatives aimed at improving placement quality, choice and stability for children and their foster families has had two major impacts. The first is the significant expansion of independent fostering providers (IFPs) alongside local authority fostering agencies. The second has been the change in attitude and working arrangements between staff and managers in both these sectors as they adjust to the government's commissioning agenda for the mixed economy of foster care provision. Although the first area has received some research scrutiny, the second area has not. In the absence of a relevant social work literature base this article explores a series of legal and policy studies of ‘relational contracting’ alongside a recent study of working arrangements between local authority and IFP managers. It concludes that there are lessons to be learnt for fostering agencies from these studies of contracting and the practice of trust.

Keywords:

• Relational Contracting
• Foster Care
• Commissioning Foster Care Services