Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Solomon.

The Chair will consider the admission of late items of urgent business. Late items will be considered under the agenda item they appear. New items will be dealt with at item 11 below.

There were no items of urgent business put forward.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the consideration becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member’ judgement of the public interest.  

 There were no declarations of interest put forward.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 31 January 2012.

The minutes of the 31 January were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

It  was noted that the Fostercare Consortium were currently  discussing the recruitment of specialist foster carers .This would include  specialist carers that were able to care for    young people on remand  and deal with behavioural issues. There were ongoing discussions with the YOS team  about training potential specialist  foster carers .

In light of changes to the youth justice bill, the Chair had recommended   that the committee consider  a report ,at their next meeting in June, about the  support to LAC when they are in custody .It was further agreed  to invite Linda  James YOS manger to attend. The   committee agreed that the report include the number of LAC  in  custody , explain  what the  council will be  responsible for  following changes  to the bill, and include a background of  the  young people’s  routes into care.

 An update  was provided on  safeguarding  the  access of children and young people, in the care of the local authority, to  social networking sites. The committee noted that  there was guidance available to foster carers and residential homes  on being aware  of the  safeguarding issues around  vulnerable children and young people access to   social networking sites.  The  Safeguarding  board were also completing  further work in this area. Historically the council had provided ICT  access to carers through  contracted services  but  this was costly. Currently , as part of the registration process new foster carers would need to provide their own access to ICT.

Completion of PEPs -  Since this action was agreed by Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee in the past,   training programmes had been provided  by the council  on the  completion of PEPS(Personal Education Plans) for looked after children.  Schools were now confident enough to deliver this  programme themselves with the support of Social Workers.

  When discussing the type of training provided by the council to teachers  it was agreed that Attracta Craig to provide Councillor Brabazon with the contact details of Kate Cairns,   a leading professional who has trained teachers in how to support  vulnerable children experiencing trauma.

 Cllr Allison and Wendy Tomlinson agreed  to speak after the meeting to resolve the outstanding issue on the   difference in figures for   number of people making foster care enquiries and attending information sessions.

Following debate on the  use of the pupil  premium  grant and the need to ensure that the required element of the   funding was being  used to support LAC, Cllr Reith  agreed to write to all schools seeking an understanding about how they were spending the pupil premium grant in relation to LAC. It was further agreed that Attracta  Craig  make contact with the school governing body team to discuss   what can be  incorporated into the  Safeguarding Governor’s job description to provide more responsibility for monitoring how  the LAC children element of the Pupil Premium grant is being spent . Alternatively advice could  be sought  on whether this monitoring role can be taken forward by the designated teacher  for LAC at relevant schools.

To consider key performance data concerning looked after children as at the end of February 2012.

OP200 - Cost of Service per looked after child -  Agreed  that  more detailed information on how the service were managing this cost be added to the  forthcoming report to be considered by the committee in June.

OP409 - Foster carer recruitment - Committee requested that the   number of kinship carers recruited be separated out to provide an idea of how many  stranger foster carers( people without a connection to the child/ young person)  were being recruited over the year. Agreed that any  positive news on the efforts to recruit foster carers  should be added.

OP414 – Percentage of Children becoming looked after previously subject to a Child Protection  Plan -  There would be an audit in relation to this area in April which would try an uncover the  main routes  of children  into care  and   look further at  the reasons for children, on a care plan, coming into care.  Agreed that information on the audit findings be added to the commentary.

OP414 percentage of children becoming looked after previously subject to CP plan – Agreed that further   clarification be provided in the minutes on the value attached to this indicator and the total that it is applicable to.

OP389 – Children in care including unaccompanied minors . The  Chair requested a report to the next meeting on the efforts by the service to take children out of care. Previously the Committee had learned about the options being taken forward such as adoption, supervision care, LAC allowed to go home (whilst remaining on care orders) and the committee wanted  reassurance that this work was  having an impact on the number leaving care.  The report  should not include children who were turning 18.   

A committee member recalled that,  in  a previous report to  committee, 80 children were identified by the service as being in care too long and it was  requested that the above report include information on their progress  and a further  update on the number of children currently deemed to be too long in care.  It was further agreed that  issues impacting  on how quickly a child could  leave care such as  delays as a result of  court proceeding should also  be included to provide an understanding of the timescales.

OP386 Children in care cases reviewed on time – All cases had been reviewed but  as some were not done within the set time limit, the target could not be calculated as being met. The delay in completing the visits  and reviewing cases had  been due to   vacancies   in the IRO team. These posts were  in the process of being filled and performance should improve for this indicator.

Agreed overall that there should be exception reports, on the performance figures that had a red status, explaining the activities to address this performance rating.

Agreed  overall that  there should be  increased commentary  attached to the   performance figures  and an indication  of the status  by adding R, A or G to the report  as  they were printed in black and white.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 153.

The Committee will consider a presentation on the Quality Assurance Framework being worked to in Children’s services.

The Committee received a presentation about the quality assurance activity in the Children and Young People’s service.   The service was currently reviewing   all 40 quality assurance activities to understand their reason, use, type, value and intended outcome. This information would be assessed against the principles of quality assurance to understand how much they were being met. The review would aim to instigate change, support development ensure that the chosen strategies of quality assurance could be maintained

Further to considering the presentation the chair advised  that Member’s enquiries should be also be  included as a source for  indicating the quality of service provided.

Following questions from members the following information was provided:

• Engaging users about the service received, was a key part of quality assurance and the review would be mapping out   areas of good practice ,currently in use,  that could be  shared and used as a whole by the service.

• Introduction of viewpoint  will easily allow young people to communicate their views and the services to consider them.

• Developing services to think about the reason why they are collating information and what it will be used for i.e. making information count.

• Information is moved around stakeholders and there  would need  to be more responsibility given to  them  for making changes when required.

•  In future there  will need to be a higher understanding provided of the requirements of  data and  be able to explain to  officers how they contribute to compiling the fuller picture the service needs to go forward to make decisions and compile strategies and policies.

To consider the findings of a basic checklist audit into  looked after children reviews  undertaken by the Independent Review Officers.

• During October to December 2011, the Independent Review  Officers had  repeated an audit  undertaken in the first quarter of 2011-12  using a basic  checklist to carry out a random sample analysis  of looked after children reviews.  The  audit was designed as   quick process  that could provide some immediate data, identify trends and  areas for further investigation. This  report contained  a feedback on  how the areas identified for improvement, from the  previous audits  had been taken forward and  contained information from the most recent audit of LAC reviews. Actions progressed   included:
• discussion of issues at the LAC multi agency meeting,
• meetings between Social Workers and IRO officers to  improve understanding of IRO role, 
• introduction of Children in care workflow( integrated system of working  which brings together required information about a  LAC case to facilitate  required IRO decisions  being made  within timescale).
• Use of court care  plan,
• re-launch of View point , an online questionnaire for children and young people to  communicate their views about their care(younger children will be assisted by  social workers to use this online questionnaire).

Analysis from the recent audit showed that  there were care plans available  but they required updating. There was an awareness exercise to be undertaken  to re-iterate the importance of this document as a planning tool and the committee were assured that the results in this area   would further improve  in the next audit.

 A shorter template would be issued to Social Workers to enable them to complete a court care plan more speedily.

The  Children’s service were  launching Viewpoint and would be strongly advocating its use  at   reviews as it would  enable children/young people  to participate  in  decisions being made about their care.

RESOLVED

That the report be  noted

To receive an update from the Assistant Director for Children and  Families on Adoption and Permanency Activity. To Follow

 The  committee received a verbal update from the  Deputy Director for Children and Families about  Adoption  and the new  action plan  from government to  speed up and instigate more use of  the adoption process.  The government  currently  used data to rank boroughs performance in the speed and number of adoptions being made.   In 2011 Haringey  was  ranked 123 out of 152  boroughs  with an average of 63% of adoptions being made within 12 months  of the  decision to adopt over the previous 3 years.  The committee noted that this figure had already  improved and the council were  currently performing at 75% against the national average of 74%.

 The committee were informed that there would be an introduction of  performance thresholds, set to monitor  the overall  time of the journey through the adoption process.

 All local authorities would be receiving a performance scorecard  to help profile and track progress. The committee were provided with an example of its likely content and would be provided with the  final version  of the score card  when issued by government.

The chair  commented on the need for the service  to monitor  any counter  effects of the  action plan  such as:  a lower  number of    children being placed  in the adoption process  because a placement may not be  found within the set thresholds or  if there  is an increase in placement breakdowns  through the  process being made shorter.  Officers agreed that it would be important to  prioritise  considering all the adoption  case specifics rather than meeting targets.

 The committee noted that the court will in future ratify the care plans rather  than the adoption review panel.  It was felt  that the Adoption panel should continue these  quality assurance measures  with updates on cases  being considered at their meetings  so that  they can continue to provide  independent analysis  on cases going forward.

 The committee  continued to consider  information on the number of children and their age range currently progressing through the adoption process. It was noted that once the family was identified that  the local authority would need to await the Court placement order before placing the child with the family. The family would then  need to place the adoption order.

RESOLVED

That the adoption update and sample scorecard be emailed to all committee members after the meeting.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of items ### as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985): paras 1 & 2: namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.   

The press and public were excluded from the meeting for consideration of the following  as it contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985): paras 1 & 2: namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.  

This report discusses the recommendations made as a result of Regulation 33 visits to  Haringey Children’s Home in January and February 2012.

The report discussed the recommendations arising from the regulation 33 visits made in  January and February 2012 to the two council run  children’s homes.

 Members  asked  about how plans were progressing to relocate the remaining 8 young people  residing in the children’s homes following their  expected closure in July.  The committee noted that there were plans to move the  young people to either foster care placements or  semi independent  living  accommodation   in the coming three weeks. The committee requested  that a written  update be provided  on their situation   as part of  the matters arising report  to be considered  in the  exempt part of the agenda at the next meeting.

Date of next meeting  11^th June 6.30pm -  This is subject to member agreement  when the council diary  is considered at full Council in May.

Joint meeting  with Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee

22 March 2012 7.00pm.

The items on the agenda   for the joint meeting are:

1)     Presentation on the MASH( Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub)

2)     Performance report  with information on both LAC and Safeguarding

3)     Family Intervention Project

 It was agreed that all tabled papers to members of  the committee be circulated. The agenda plan of items for 2012/13 was attached to  the matters arising report  for members  to comment on and return any suggested changes to the clerk.