Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Berryman, Councillor Morris, Lisa Redfern and  Elaine Redding.

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 or 13 below.

There were no items of urgent business submitted.

 There were no declarations of interest put forward.

To agree the main actions arising from the meeting with Aspire.

 CPAC agreed for the following  requests from Aspire to be taken forward:

·         Templates used by social workers to assess care, education, job, and training requirements to have a frontend focus on child’s/young person  in care’s views, wishes and feelings.

·         A mechanism in the assorted  Children’s plans and templates for accountability.

·          Information on how PPG[Pupil Premium Grant]is spent on young people in care and if they are involved, with the school, in the decision making of how this money is spent on them.

·          A less formal process for raising concerns with the council

·         More time to be able to  move from accommodation and more information about  Temporary Accomodation when in University

Aspire would be working on draft Haringey Pledge and this would also come back to the next CPAC /Aspire joint meeting in September.

 The terms of reference were noted with no recommended changes put forward to Cabinet.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 6^th March 2014 and Joint  Committee meeting on the 6^th March.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 6^th March were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

 To consider the agenda plan.

 CPAC noted that young people in care can begin to bid for permanent accommodation form the age of 17.5.There are also tenancy workshops  facilitated by the council to prepare  young people leaving care to live independently , these are held on a quarterly basis.  The Committee further noted the types of accommodation available  to young people leaving care and  the availability of a support  worker.

 To receive a presentation from the Interim Assistant Director for Children’s Services.

The AD for Children’s Services provided Corporate Parenting Committee Members with:

an overview of how the Children’s Services worked

 the vision for the service and

outcomes for families being worked to.

The Committee further learned about which  wards had a higher ratio  of children and young people living in them, where there were high levels of need, the statutory responsibilities of the service to children and young people, the management team details, the service areas covered by the children’s service, and the councillor’s role as a corporate parent.

Some of the key objectives also outlined were:

·         Keeping children and young people in care Haringey by recruiting internal foster carers in the borough

·         Maintaining and exceeding the adoption timescales

·         Early help and prevention

·         Outstanding for all

·         Delivering the Haringey 54K Transformation programme

The presentation was noted.

There will be a presentation from the Interim Assistant Director of the Children’s Service on the recent OFSTED inspection report into services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after, care leavers and review of the effectiveness of the LSCB.

The Committee considered an overview of the recent Ofsted inspection of the services for children in need of help, and protection , looked after children and care leavers and the review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board. They noted the key findings of the inspection , the areas of strength, areas of challenge and the next steps for the service.

The Committee agreed to receive the Ofsted improvement plan.

This report provides an analysis of the performance data and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to looked after children on behalf of the Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee.

The Committee considered an analysis of the performance data and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to looked after children.

In response to Member questions the following information was noted:

·         Children and young people in care will be visited by Haringey social workers at their placement what ever the distance.One of the reasons why a child/young person maybe be placed at a distance from the borough, could be due to living with a family member, outside of London, in a kinship carer placement. Generally, the Children’s Service will be striving to place children and young people in the borough and there are currently 20 new foster carer assessments being taken forward to meet this service objective.

·         There were no children’s residential homes managed by the council  but there was one respite centre for disabled children which did receive Regulation 33 visits.

·         There were 64 adoptions and special guardianship orders in the year exceeding the target by a third. There were also no breakdowns in the placements which was also attributed to officer’s use of imaginative ways to find good quality placements. Officer were also maintaining their efforts and focus on keeping siblings together.

·         The Committee noted that for the first 3 years of an adoption there will be a support package provided by the council and this would continue  until the child reaches 18. Members further noted that if an adopted child has special needs then there is also access to financial support which can continue to above the age of 18.

CPAC further sought understanding about how foster care placements are chosen for children/young people in care and information about the work on ensuring the stability of a placement. Noted that the Children’s Service will try to achieve a placement where the needs of the child are best met and there is careful consideration given to the ethnicity of the child when making the placement. The fostering recruitment team will also focus on finding foster carers from all sections of the community. CPAC members asked that the next report contain information about ethnic background of children in foster care placements to give assurance about the suitability of matches.

Further information was provided about the ways that a child/ young person will come into the care of the council apart from a care order. Members noted that this could be due to the following conditions:

·         Where a parent has independently given up parental responsibility for the child/young person. This could be, if the parent can no longer cope with the child/ young person and come into the care of the council  or have  an illness and do have family support to care for the child

·         Young people in remand services

·         Children that have come to the attention of the council from being on child protection plans

·         Unaccompanied minors.

CPAC further noted that the service was working on improving the completion of initial child assessments within the 10 days. There was focus on getting the required strategy meetings organised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 306.

As per item 2.

 None

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of items 12 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.  

Not required

As per item 2.

None

Date of next meeting Monday  22 September 6.30pm

 A  Committee Member asked about the process of notifying  members  of Serious Case Reviews being worked on concerning the borough,  and when members would be advised that  a  review was to be published. The Chair advised that  the council followed the guidelines established by the LSCB which  ensured the protection of the child and family members was at the heart of  actions going forward and this also  included  protecting the child’s identity  by not  informing  the public and Council members of a review until publication.