Dawn Bowden, Minister for Children and Social Care
I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit Northern Ireland on 3rd February to visit their Step-Up Step-Down (SUSD) project and learn more about the successful pioneering approach which is helping to reduce the number of children entering care. I was also accompanied by the Chief Social Care Officer for Wales, Albert Heaney.
SUSD offers support to families on the edge of care, supporting the bonds and capacities of families, rather than removing children from birth parents and placing them in foster care. Targeted, intensive support is provided to the family to avoid their children entering the care system.
The Fostering Network in Northern Ireland hosted a showcase of its SUSD programme in Belfast, where I was given the opportunity to meet the families who have benefited from the project, specialist foster carers, statutory services and Fostering Network project staff. I was also joined by Northern Ireland Health Minister Mike Nesbitt for part of the event who reflected on the project’s achievement in helping families gain confidence and form more secure relationships enabling them to stay together.
SUSD operates in partnership with local authority services and has already seen great success in Northern Ireland. Between 2016 and 2023, SUSD supported 183 children with 95% remaining with their parents rather than coming into care. 109 parents and carers have also been supported in that time.
At its heart are specialist, highly trained family support foster carers, who provide time limited, preventative support to up to four families at any one time. The programme gives parents the support of a foster carer who can ‘step up’ if the family needs additional support and ‘step down’ when parents are in a better place to support their children.
The concept of SUSD fits within our work to transform children’s services in Wales by supporting children to remain with their families where possible. I am therefore pleased that alongside funding from the KPMG Foundation, the Welsh Government has provided £879,000 to the Fostering Network over a three-year period to pilot the SUSD programme within Pembrokeshire and Powys local authority areas in Wales.
Although in the early stages of implementation, these pilots in Wales are progressing positively. I look forward to continuing to learn from the experiences of those involved in SUSD in Northern Ireland, reflecting upon the good practice in place and the excellent outcomes that have been achieved for families who have accessed this provision as we continue to adapt and develop our provision in Wales.
I would like to extend my thanks to our Northern Ireland colleagues who offered such a warm welcome during our visit. I would also like to commend the families for sharing their personal stories with us. It was invaluable to see first-hand, the flexible, nurturing and trauma informed approach that is offered to vulnerable families through the SUSD project.