Issue - meetings

To consider a draft policy setting out the Council’s approach to addressing the key issues that impact upon the achievement of permanent care arrangements for children.

The Committee considered a draft permanency policy document developed to steer the securing of permanent care arrangements for CiC, in particular ensuring permanency planning was considered as soon as the child was taken into care to facilitate timely and appropriate decision making. Although the policy would primarily operate as a social work framework for officers, it would also set out the roles and responsibilities of Councillors in this regard. In light of this, the Committee now had the opportunity to define the role they wished to take as corporate parents in this area including providing informed challenge and a local policy steer required as part of the transition of the service towards excellence. This would include providing input on significant issues going forward such as the use of Special Guardianship Orders, trans-racial adoptions etc. The policy would ultimately be submitted for approval by Cabinet once the Committee had provided input.

The Committee agreed their input into the policy needed to be considered a priority going forward for further exploration and as such, it was agreed that a proposed framework would be circulated proposing a way for the Committee to provide informed input into the policy and to resolve their role in this area. The Committee also asked officers to develop a routemap of a typical child through the care process including key milestones that should be met, in order to assist Members in developing their understanding of the process.