Legal storm as flagship fostering service axed
A COUPLE who won a landmark ruling that secured enhanced pay packets for foster families has told of their shock after being told they would lose their jobs just four months later.
James and Christine Johnstone said they were speaking with their lawyers after Glasgow City Council announced the closure of a flagship foster service at the centre of a pay dispute that resulted in some foster carers winning the right to be treated as council employees.
The council is to tell the city’s health and social care Integration Joint Board (IJB) that the intensive Treatment Foster Care (TFC) service was failing and provided poor value for money.
It is insisting the decision has nothing to do with the tribunal which ruled against the council in August.
The Johnstones, one of nine TFC families who looked after some of Glasgow’s most troubled children, said they were shocked by the council’s decision to cut the service.
In a statement they said: “We are surprised at this turn of events after the tribunal victory and are consulting with our lawyer regarding the implications.”
Glasgow is currently appealing the decision, which applies to the Johnstones and another nine current foster families and five more who have left the TFC service.
The service was launched nine years ago, offering intensive health and social care support to carers prepared to take on the care of children who had exhausted other fostering options and had a high level of care needs, behavioural problems, and had suffered repeated moves or violent or traumatic upbringings. Most were on the verge of having to be taken into secure care.
The couple raised employment tribunal claims seeking compensation in part for what they alleged was unlawful deduction of wages. It was argued that carers were not recognised as workers or employees and were denied rights such as protection from unfair dismissal and protection for whistleblowing.
However, in a briefing prepared for the IJB’s meeting next Wednesday, the council’s chief social work officer Susanne Millar said a review of the service had been carried out which had shown it was not working.
Glasgow is appealing the Johnstones’ Employment Tribunal victory but while it does so they have continued to be paid £2,461 every 28 days, the equivalent of £30,762 a year, Ms Millar says.
A spokesman for Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership said: “A wholesale review of treatment foster care (TFC) has indicated that the service has failed to deliver the results we had hoped for.
“The review identified that the outcomes from the service do not justify the expense of the delivering the service.
“In the circumstances, as we seek to ensure services are effective and provide value for money, it is appropriate to recommend that the service is discontinued.”