Councillors have hailed the work of Hartlepool’s fostering team which is aiming to find 20 new carers over the coming year amid recruitment “challenges”.

It comes as Hartlepool Borough Council chiefs stressed the authority continues to have “one of the highest” rates of children in care.

At the end of March 2023 the council had 321 children in its care, which was  7% up on the previous year and has “continued to rise” since.

Officers added the “greatest challenge” their fostering service encounters is recruiting sufficient numbers of carers to meet the individual needs of children and young people.

They stressed this is a “national and multi-faceted issue” and noted a target has been set for 2024/25 to recruit and approve a minimum of 20 new fostering households.

In total 16 new foster carer households were approved in 2023/24, made up of three mainstream carers and 13 connected carers, who are individuals already known to the young person, such as a relative.

Meanwhile 18 initial enquiries were obtained and 15 screening visits completed by the local authority’s fostering team, up from seven and six respectively the previous year.

Council chiefs also stressed keeping young people in the town is key, and they reported the percentage of looked after children placed more than 20 miles outside the local authority is 10%.

This is below the national average of 17% and in line with the North East rate of 10%.

The updates came at the latest meeting of the children’s services committee, where staff involved in Hartlepool’s fostering service were praised for the work they provide.

Councillor Brenda Harrison, council leader, stressed the team places the needs of young people at the centre of their work.

She added: “Anything that’s decided, any decisions that are made, it all surrounds that young person and I think that’s really why we have a children’s services that is outstanding, and it has been so for some time.

“The people working within it are not geared by looking good, they are actually geared by looking after our looked after children particularly.”

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It comes after the council’s children’s services department received an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted in May.

In total Hartlepool has 139 fostering households who provide up to 265 possible placements, with 194 children in placement as of the end of March.

Anyone interested in finding out more about becoming a foster carer can visit https://www.fosterwithnortheast.org.uk/ or call  0800 917 7771.