Matters arising
Minutes:
Members of the Committee considered the matters arising report and noted the following:
The Corporate Parenting Strategy
This was due to be considered by the Scrutiny Panel, for Corporate Parenting, and would return to this Committee for final consideration on the 19th April 2011.
Update on the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Service planned meeting with the Judiciary to discuss delays in court care proceedings. A briefing note from the Director of Children and Young people’s service on his meeting with Judge Altman was attached for information.
A report on the development work on dealing with issues of isolation faced by young people leaving care. This report would follow to Committee in April 19th 2011.
Regular Update on North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium
The Committee noted that the North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium had met last week and they had agreed to look at their development plans for the next financial year. This would include: exploring how the boroughs can share foster carers, share training opportunities for foster carers, examine the differences in allowances for Fostercare. The Committee noted that there was a dedicated post working for the North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium. This post holder would, among other work duties, be examining the spend of each member borough on Foster care providers and how a joint procurement process could be delivered. A work programme for the Consortium would be ready for consideration by this Committee after May 2011.
It was noted that the North London Adoption and Fostering consortium website routed visitors to the Council’s webpage for fostering and that this was still showing out of date information. It was agreed that the Head of Children’s Commissioning and Placements consider the statistical information held and update as required.
The Committee enquired about the Council’s response to the Government’s new initiative on Adoption which indicated allowing children to be based with families not from their same ethnic background. The Committee were advised that the initiative still advocated the best interest of the child as a priority which was what the Council followed in decision making on adoption. Placing a child with the same ethnic family was part of considering the best interests of the child and it could sometimes be the case that there were not exact racial matches made when choosing parents for adopted children.
CPAC attending a Young and in Care Council - It was noted that a joint meeting between the Corporate Parenting Committee and the Young and in Care Council would be progressed.
Totals Respect Training -The Committee noted that the weekend dates for the Total Respect training were not going ahead. The previously arranged training dates of the 19th and 20th April with a follow up session on the 02 August were available for members of the Committee to participate in.
Registration certificate for manager at Coppetts Road .The Committee were informed that there was frequent contact with OFSTED to ensure that they had received and ... view the full minutes text for item 64