Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Alexander. Councillor Solomon attended the meeting in her place.

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 submitted.

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 interests submitted.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 24^th January 2011 and for information purposes to receive the minutes of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee for the meeting held on the 24^th January 2011.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 24^th January 2011 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

Members of the Committee considered the matters arising report and noted the following:

The Corporate Parenting Strategy

This was due to be considered by the Scrutiny Panel, for Corporate Parenting, and would return to this Committee for final consideration on the 19^th April 2011.

Update on the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Service planned meeting with the Judiciary to discuss delays in court care proceedings. A briefing note from the Director of Children and Young people’s service on his meeting with Judge Altman was attached for information.

A report on the development work on dealing with issues of isolation faced by young people leaving care. This report would follow to Committee in April 19^th 2011.

Regular Update on North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium

The Committee noted that the North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium had met last week and they had agreed to look at their development plans for the next financial year. This would include: exploring how the boroughs can share foster carers, share training opportunities for foster carers, examine the differences in allowances for Fostercare. The Committee noted that there was a dedicated post working for the North London Adoption and Fostering Consortium. This post holder would, among other work duties, be examining the spend of each member borough on Foster care providers and how a joint procurement process could be delivered. A work programme for the Consortium would be ready for consideration by this Committee after May 2011.

It was noted that the North London Adoption and Fostering consortium website routed visitors to the Council’s webpage for fostering and that this was still showing out of date information. It was agreed that the Head of Children’s Commissioning and Placements consider the statistical information held and update as required.

The Committee enquired about the Council’s response to the Government’s new initiative on Adoption which indicated allowing children to be based with families not from their same ethnic background. The Committee were advised that the initiative still advocated the best interest of the child as a priority which was what the Council followed in decision making on adoption. Placing a child with the same ethnic family was  part of considering the best interests of the child and it  could sometimes be the case that there were not exact racial matches made when choosing parents for adopted children. 

 CPAC attending a Young and in Care Council - It was noted that a joint meeting between the Corporate Parenting Committee and the Young and in Care Council would be progressed.

Totals Respect Training -The Committee noted that the weekend dates for the Total Respect training were not going ahead. The previously arranged training dates of the 19^th and 20^th April with a follow up session on the 02 August were available for members of the Committee to participate in.

Registration certificate for manager at Coppetts Road .The Committee were informed that there was frequent contact with OFSTED to ensure that they had received and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

Outline proposals to develop a strategy for safeguarding looked after children, young people and care leavers when supporting and enabling  them to access information and communications technology.

The Committee received a report on  the key issues being considered in the development of a strategy for  safeguarding looked after children , young people and care leavers when supporting and enabling them to access IT and communication technology. It was explained to the Committee that, when considering the access to information networks, this was not solely about controlling access within the home but that it was more about creating external knowledge and awareness among carers and parents about these systems and encouraging personal safety of the users.  The Deputy Director for Children and Families set out the initial principles  of the strategy which were:

• Children and young people have the opportunity to use ICT to enhance their learning opportunities , develop ICT skills and communicate in the virtual environment

• Carers provided opportunities to develop their own knowledge and skills in ICT so that they are better able to monitor use of ICT by young people and support their use of it.

• There was the expectation from the Council that Service providers  will need to demonstrate that they can support appropriate access to ICT and have a clear e – safety policy which was more advanced than the standard security programmes and understandable to carers and children.

• Haringey managed services would need to have local e- safety policies which were communicated effectively to foster carers and other support services that were contracted and work with children and young people in care. These policies would need to be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they responded to changes in technology and are able to safeguard users.

Members commented on the initial work completed on the strategy, and sought clarity on the position of schools in this. The Committee advised that it would be worthwhile reminding staff and teachers, of looked after children, of the additional risks attached to vulnerable children and young people accessing social networking sites. It was agreed that this safeguarding element, of access to information technology, be incorporated in the Virtual School policy.

Members remarked on the disparity between section 3 and 4 of the report. Section 3  which communicated that  looked after  children  living in residential settings were not permitted access to technology in their private rooms but  in section 4, which provided  guidance for Foster carers there was no mention of IT access for children  being open or private. It was felt to be a need for the strategy to also keep in mind the mobile access to technology which children and young people in care may have. In response to these points, the Committee were advised that the strategy was only concerned with information technology which is owned or managed by the Council and the Committee agreed that the strategy should make this more explicit. There were however broader issues of how looked after children  and young people are made aware  of the dangers of  internet social networking sites and a need to develop their understanding of what were safe and unsafe situations,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

To provide details of the Council’s progress with the London Pledge.

The Committee noted that the London Pledge was drawn up in 2008, and adopted by the Children’s Trust, to ensure that children and young people in care across London had equal access to the same range of key services and support where they live, go to school, or access employment or training opportunities in London. The report set out the pledge principles and detailed how the Council were meeting these promises. The achievements in the overarching areas were: promises that were made to young people were clear, specialist looked after children nurse team established, and a complaints procedure for looked after children and young people.

When considering the health principles of the pledge, the Committee were informed that a multi agency forum had been established to address health, education and placements needs of LAC.  Individual health assessments were undertaken by Doctors and follow up reviews completed by a designated Children in Care Nurse, Judy Mace, who was also due to attend the next Committee meeting of the Committee on the 19^th April .The joint work of the Council with Tailstock Centre was pointed to as well as the signposting of children and young people to sexual health services as part of this pledge.   An enquiry was made on the attendance of young people at their healthcare meetings and it was reported that, as these meetings were not compulsory, it was usual for young people in care to sometimes not attend these meetings.  In relation to health visits to LAC outside of the borough, it was noted that the designated CiC nurse from the borough would travel to outside borough locations to visit CiC with weekend visits also completed when needed. The Committee agreed that the complaints procedure for children in care should be made available and published online as previously requested.

In the stay safe section of promises to young people, the Committee noted that young people will be consulted on their pathway plans.  There would be contact and liaison, where needed, with the Youth Offending Service in the young persons new placement area.

 The provisions of the Virtual School were highlighted in the section dealing with enjoy and achieve.  In particular their work on intervention at critical learning stages to ensure that children go onto achieve between the ages of 16-19. The 18 projects, which assist young people leaving care, also helped young people access University. The Committee noted that there were 44 care leavers attending University.  The Committee enquired about the support services to them and advised that there were potentially more bursaries available in future for access to with the Frank Butler trust referred to as a potential funding source. The Committee were advised that the Council would issue looked after children with a £2000 bursary that are attending University. There was a team which actively worked on accessing all potential funding sources to offer to care leavers and to improve the attraction of going to University.

In regards to encouraging a positive contribution in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

The report will update the committee on  the Children in Care National Indicators and other key performance information at the end of January 2011. In addition it provides details of outturns for 2010 and targets for 2010/11.

 The Committee noted the performance report and were asked to raise any concerns by email to the Deputy Director of Children’s and Families.

Date of next meeting 19^th April 2011.

 The next meeting was  on Tuesday April 19^th 2011 at 6.30pm. Councillor Peacock’s apologies were noted for this meeting.