Issue - meetings

RECEIVED a report from the Director of Children’s Services setting out the role of councillors in respect of looked after children as corporate parents.  Report included in the agenda pack (pages 5 to 6). 

NOTED in response to the discussion:

• The Committee sought assurances around care leavers and some of the challenges faced in terms of the Council maintaining contact with care leavers. Officers acknowledged these concerns, particularly in the 22-25 age group and advised that there were a number of reasons why contact was difficult to maintain. This included instances where those young people did not want to be found, such as in the case of failed asylum applications. In some instances, officers had only a name and a last known address to work from.
• In response to further discussion on care leavers, officers advised that the majority of care leavers did want to maintain some form of contact with the Council. It was suggested that this reflected favourably on the service. Following a change in policy last year, the Council kept files open on care leavers after they turned 21 as the default position and this had helped the service to keep in contact with more care leavers. Officers advised that this had some resource implications which were being worked through.

AGREED to note the report.