Matters arising
Minutes:
Update on Director of Children Services planned meeting with judiciary to discuss delays in court care proceedings: it was updated that this meeting was scheduled to go ahead today.
Development work on dealing with the issues of isolation faced by young people leaving care: agreed that this be added to the agenda for the March meeting of the Committee.
Regular update on Foster Care Consortium joint working: it was updated that the scope had been extended to a North London Fostering and Adoption consortium covering 5 boroughs. The primary focus remained recruitment of foster carers through a collective advertising approach including the use of Facebook etc to direct people to the dedicated consortium website at www.fosteringnorthlondon.co.uk for further information. Other prospective avenues being investigated were hosting coffee morning information sessions in conjunction with Starbucks and running an advert in the Metro newspaper. A series of information sessions were also scheduled to run within the boroughs within the next few months and the Communications Team at the Council was continuing work to improve the website and future campaigns. Confirmation was provided that prospective carers could make contact through both the Council and the consortium websites. Members emphasised that it would be useful in the future to be able to compare expressions of interest for fostering received directly by the Council and the Consortium and also examine conversion rates from enquiries to approval.
In response to a query, it was confirmed that an additional future area of work for the Consortium would be foster carer and agency rates, with a dedicated post in place to examine the variability of fees charged across the boroughs with a view to achieving greater parity. The Committee requested an update on this piece of work once completed.
Assurances were sought on the commitment of boroughs to the Consortium approach. It was confirmed that a Memorandum of Understanding was in place and financial contributions provided by each borough. Work was also underway to set objectives and success criteria for the Consortium to allow progress monitoring. A business plan for improving the Council’s fostering service was also being developed including identification of targets and timescales.
Opportunities for cross borough initiative with LB Waltham Forest on service delivery: it was updated that a collective piece of work was underway with six other North/North East London boroughs on the procurement of supported lodging accommodation. A new tender would be issued as part of the project within the next few months with a view to a new contract being in place by the end of spring. The Committee emphasised the importance of quantifying the savings to be realised from this piece of work. It was confirmed that more mainstream housing procurement for Looked After Children (LACs) would be through Strategic and Community Housing service.
Young and In Care Council: the young people on the Council had expressed interest in introducing a mentoring scheme once the body was more established. They were also interested in working with CPAC (Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee) ... view the full minutes text for item 49