Foster carers in East Lothian are signing up to bigger local authorities or private agencies because they offer more support, councillors have been told.
East Lothian Council's head of children's services Judith Tait said the level of support offered by outside bodies had seen a number of local fosterers 'poached'.
And she said attempts to recruit new foster carers through a recent advertising campaign had proved unsuccessful as she said people were "weary" after the pandemic.
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Speaking to the council's audit and governance committee Ms Tait was responding to questions about the number of foster carers in the county who worked for outside bodies.
Councillor Kenny McLeod said he had been surprised when speaking to foster carers he knew who did not work with East Lothian Council but instead were registered with other agencies.
He said: "I look at local kids for local people, as simple as that. How are other authorities coming into East Lothian and using people here for fostering? Why are we not competitive?"
Ms Tait said that while assessments for fosterers across the country were the same, the level of support provided by a private agency or larger local authority was more than a smaller council could provide.
She said: "We have a lot of foster carers who live in East Lothian and work for other foster agencies and local authorities.
"There is a wide range of issues including people's finances and the cost of living crisis.
"We need to support our foster carers as much as possible but we are always at the mercy of them being poached elsewhere."
The committee heard a risk register report from childrens services had placed the lack of foster carers among the highest danger of the council not being able to look after children .
It said: "Internal fostering resources are unable to meet the current demand. External foster placements are considerably more expensive. The addition of new foster carers to the fostering pool is being compromised by the
attrition rate in existing carers.
"Foster care recruitment is a national challenge."
Ms Tait said one of the issues in finding new foster carers or places was the impact of the pandemic on people's lives.
She said: "People are weary, their resilience for taking on extra responsibilities are reduced."
The committee was told that moving forward the foster care team is seeking to increase joint working with the communications team in developing new and innovative ways in encouraging potential foster carers to come forward and implement the fostering improvement plan."
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