Agenda and minutes

Date of next meeting: 6 July 2010

It was agreed that the next meeting receive details of the number and location of children placed in homes outside of the borough.

The Chair thanked everyone for their hard work and attendance throughout the year.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING: 6 JULY 2010

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Cllr

C Harris who was substituted by Cllr Amin. 

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 9 below. New items of exempt business will be dealt with at item 15 below.

There were no items of urgent business.

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.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2010.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2010 be agreed as an accurate record.

Leaflet setting out mechanisms by which CiC can raise concerns/make complaints: Although no comments had been made by Members on the revised leaflet, Cllr Allison agreed to meet with the Deputy Director to discuss concerns that she had.

Housing allocated to Care Leavers: Members requested that this information be sent out with the minutes of this meeting.

Pregnancies amongst CiC: As ofMarch 2010 there were 18 young mothers and a further 6 pregnancies (aged over 16) and 1 Under 16 who was pregnant, but had subsequently had a termination. It was agreed that a report be presented to a future meeting setting out the strategies in place to support teenage parents.

Stocktaking Event: Officers to confirm the date of this event.

Adoption and Fostering Panel: Following concerns raised officers agreed to investigate whether medical information from Health was always available to the Panel’s Health Adviser.

To provide an update on foster carer recruitment and retention throughout 2009-10 and set out future reporting proposals for 2010-11 and beyond.

The Committee was provided with an update on foster carer recruitment and retention throughout 2009-10 and set out future reporting proposals for 2010- 11 and beyond.

It was accepted that in order to meet both the outcomes for children and as a key part of the budget management strategy there was a need to improve the pool of good quality foster carers, especially  as there was a high drop out rate. There was also a need for a greater variety of carers. It was noted that although Haringey was in an adoption consortium with four other boroughs it was not considered likely to be so successful for fostering as the boroughs were competing with each other for carers.

Details of the recruitment process including the advertising campaign and the information meetings held for prospective households was noted, together with the key stages that a prospective carer had to  pass before approval. During the current year it was proposed to arrange sessions for prospective carers to hear from existing carers and to meet   some young people who had or were in foster care to talk about their experiences and what they wanted from a foster carer. As part of the improvements being made to the recruitment process it was planned that there would be information days held at community centres, places of worship, schools and the Tottenham Carnival.

It was agreed that the Committee would be regularly informed of the processes that an applicant had to pass through before being approved as a foster carer, and the reasons why carers left the service at any stage of the process. It was also important that systems were in place for monitoring the quality of the placements. Currently this was achieved through visiting the child and through link workers supporting and supervising carers.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.

2. That the Committee receive regular updates with detailed numbers of those going through the various stages of the recruitment process (including how the prospective carer heard about the opportunity), those leaving the service and the reasons, systems in place for monitoring quality and details of the information days to be organised. 

To consider specified performance data for CiC.

The Committee considered a report setting out the February performance monitoring data in relation to CiC within the Children and Families service.

The number of children in care had continued to rise and stood at 560 as at the end of February. Details of the number of children who went missing during February were noted. Also the Committee were advised that only 5 CiC did not have an allocated social worker at the end of February. The number of cases reviewed in the required timescales was noted, together with the number of adoptions and special guardianship orders made in the year to date.

As requested at the previous meeting Members received a breakdown by age of the number of CIC who had received health assessments and dental checks over the previous 12 months. Members expressed concern over the low numbers of 6-10 year olds who had an up to date health assessment and dental check.

In response to a previous request the Committee was advised that of the 247 over 10 year olds in care, 28 had offended of which 9 lived in Haringey. It was noted that more analysis was needed in order to provide details of those that had re-offended. Although there had been difficulties in the past with obtaining accurate data this had now been addressed.  It was pleasing to note that there were no live ASBO’s involving children in care. Members were concerned that information needed to be available on the offending records of CiC, whether or not they were living in the borough. It was important that this was recorded on Frameworki.

Members noted that the figures for NI61 – CiC adopted to date was likely to have been affected by the increased volume of care proceedings going to court and consequent pressures on court time.

RESOLVED:

1. That the next meeting receive a report with case examples of both in and out of borough placements and how the children and young people’s service worked with the Youth offending service.
2. That the next meeting receive a report on the offending and re-offending records of CiC
3. That  officers confirm the reasons for the lower than expected figures for CiC being adopted.
4. That the next meeting receive a report on the number of young people leaving care in education, training or employment.

To receive a powerpoint presentation on the quality of practice audits.

The Deputy Director gave a presentation on the new comprehensive quality audit which had been implemented in order to ensure that improvements in the quality of social work practice continued.   The first set of audits focusing on quality of practice were completed in October 2009 and had been carried out monthly thereafter. A random sample of cases had been selected across 10 sections of Children and families. More specific themed audits would also be carried out periodically where a need was identified. Heads of Service were responsible for follow up actions on any audits that were rated as inadequate and a sample of these were re-audited on a quarterly basis and notified to the Assistant and Deputy Directors. It was noted that there were occasions when the service did not agree with an auditors inadequate findings.

A summary of the number of cases audited, overall ratings and section ratings was noted. Although it would appear that there was a drop in standards in February 2010 it was noted that the number of cases audited was considerably less.

The programme for the coming year there was to be a mixture of continuing with auditing random cases and themed audits. For April a themed audit would be carried out involving households living with domestic violence.

Members noted that OFSTED welcomed the audit tool and that it was seen as an example of good working practice.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee be kept informed of any themed audits involving children in care.

To consider any items admitted under 2 above.

There were no new items of urgent business.

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

RESOLVED:

That as items 13 to 14 contained exempt information (as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government 1972; namely information likely to reveal the identity of an individual, and information relating to any individual) members of the press and public should be excluded from the remainder of the meeting.

To provide some case examples of children who have been missing from care and the responses made by the service to them.

In response to the previous meeting a report was presented on the systems in place to monitor children who went missing from care. There was a monthly performance management group that routinely looked at all episodes of children that had been reported as missing in the previous month.

Examples of specific individual cases and action taken was given. It was noted that where possible the authority tried to avoid locating children a long distance away, but there were occasions when this was beneficial.

RESOLVED:

1.      That details regarding a recent unaccompanied asylum seeker who went missing be provided to Members.

2.      That a further report be presented setting out anonymised Care Plans setting out details of support given.

To provide an update on recruitment at Muswell House.

The Committee was updated on progress with regard to the current staffing structure and recruitment to  posts at Muswell House.

It was noted that all posts had been recruited to and CRB checks were in the process of being completed. It was hoped that all the staff would be in post and trained by the end of April.

Tavistock had also recruited into the 1.5 posts and their staff should also commence by the end of the month.

RESOLVED:

That a further report be presented to the Committee in due course once the new structure had time to embed.

To receive details of recent Regulation 33 visits to Muswell House Adolescent Unit and Haringey Park.

The Committee were provided with inspection reports from Regulation 33 visits undertaken during January and February 2010 to Muswell House Adolescent unit and Haringey Park children’s homes.

It was noted that, in future the visits would be undertaken by a Panel consisting of a young person, a member of staff from the Commissioning and Placement team and two Councillors. Visits would take place at times when young people were likely to be present. It was also suggested that in future reports should include details of action taken by the Manager of the homes and that inconsistencies between homes should be ironed out.

RESOLVED:

That the inspection reports for Muswell House and Haringey Park Children’s Homes be noted and that future reports would include details of action taken by home Managers.

To provide a verbal update on safeguarding issues pertinant to the remit of the Committee.

There were no new cases reported.

There were none.

It was agreed that the next meeting receive details of the number and location of children placed in homes outside of the borough.

The Chair thanked everyone for their hard work and attendance throughout the year.

DATE OF NEXT MEETING: 6 JULY 2010