Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

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.

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 confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2011 as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2011 were agreed as an accurate record subject to the following amendment to the minute for the performance management item:

‘This would of course be following an assessment and section 20 agreement Placement with Parents Agreement agreed by the Deputy Director of Children and Families’.

To discuss any matters arising.

A brief update was given on joint working under the North London Fostering and Adoption Consortium which was progressing well including the running of an advertising campaign to recruit new foster carers. Boroughs in the consortium were now also sharing foster carers which Haringey in particular was benefiting from in reducing the need to go to the external market.

The Committee were updated on a separate but parallel work stream under the North London Strategic Alliance partnership, membership of which included the majority of boroughs in the area. This work was focussed on the category management of children services costs including benchmarking fostering and residential placement costs across the piece with a view to informing future collective negotiations on price. To this end, boroughs in the Alliance had each contributed to funding a procurement specialist to lead on this work over a two year period. The post would be hosted by Haringey with an interim appointed until permanent recruitment was possible. Feedback on this work would be provided to the Committee in due course. 

It was agreed that the analysis of outcomes from fostering week activities would be circulated to Committee members.

To consider a report summarising performance against Children in Care National Indicators during 2010/11.

The Committee considered the above report summarising the performance outturns for Children in Care (CiC) national indicators for 2010/11. The current version of the report included a number of new outcome measures such as analysis of the length of time children remained looked after in Haringey to enable challenge and further consideration of the support services provided.

The Committee discussed the format of the current performance reports as concerns were expressed on the value of looking at performance data in isolation of ‘the bigger picture’ and that more value could be derived from the Committee gaining greater understanding of underlying trends and the key plans of the service to address these. It was also felt that in general more detailed narratives should be provided within the reports to accompany performance data to help further develop the understanding of the Committee. The Deputy Director responded by proposing the trial of a new format for future reports based on RAG (red amber green) status assessments to make information more accessible and underlying trends more apparent.

The level of Looked after Children (LACs) in Haringey remained of continuing concern for the Committee and it was agreed that providing the trend line in the next performance report would be useful. This would then enable the Committee to then look at inter-relationships such as the length of time children remain in care which had a knock on effect on the overall number in the system. The Committee were also assured that this would remain an ongoing focus for the service particularly in light of the findings of the Munro Review of Child Protection. The Council’s strategy for early intervention and thresholds of care would be revisited as part of a planned service redesign once the new Children’s Services director had taken up post in November. The Committee stated that it would be useful for a brief outline diagram to be produced identifying the key work streams for the service going forward.

In relation to the stability of LAC placements, the Dep. Director proposed that suitably anonymised casework scenarios could be provided to assist the Committee in developing their understanding of the complex reasons underpinning placement move decisions.

The Committee requested in future reports that a further breakdown be provided under the analysis of reasons for children ceasing to be in care section for the ‘other reason’ category as this figure was large in comparison to the other categories listed.

The Committee also requested that a narrative be provided to underpin the statement made within the report that the largest proportion of children coming into care were the under ones, and in particular baby boys.

The Committee were advised that a low number of Haringey LAC had been involved in recent rioting across London. 

The Committee noted the report.

To receive the outcome of the Rapid Health Needs Assessment for looked After Children requested by Ofsted.

The Committee considered a report on the outcomes of a rapid health needs assessment for LAC following on from recommendations from a recent joint Ofsted and Care Quality Council inspection. Confirmation was provided that the three specific health recommendations arising from the inspection had been completed within timescale. As part of this, a health assessment based on a workshop session with ten young people had been carried out at which they shared their experiences of health and health services. It was caveated that comments arising from the session referred back to the previous system of health assessments carried out by GPs as opposed to the new Children in Care (CiC) nursing team introduced in January 2011.

The Committee expressed concern on some of the results from the assessment which identified that the particular group of young people questioned felt that there was a lack of preparation for leaving care and that they had received little or no information on health issues. There were also concerns that the recommendations arising from the assessment were not explicit enough and that further assurances were required on the arrangements for monitoring implementation of these recommendations. It was confirmed that implementation would be under the remit of the LAC multi-agency group with activity to be captured in the multi-agency LAC Action Plan, performance of which was subject to monitoring by the Committee. It was also confirmed that the recommendations would be translated into more tangible actions under the Plan and strengthened.

To receive a briefing note updating the Committee on progress being made with respect to improving the support offered to young people leaving Care.

An update was provided on the work underway to address potential issues of isolation facing young people leaving care, particularly those for whom established support networks were not in place. This was following on from a request made at a previous meeting that consideration be given to extending peer mentoring and independent visitors schemes.

A pilot exercise was planned with a third sector organisation to provide adult mentors for an initial group of 10 young people leaving care and also to develop peer mentors for young people under the age of 17. A local organisation Embrace had been identified to run and also fund the pilot which would be focussed on those individuals particularly at risk of isolation such as those entering care via the Southwark judgement. A funding application would then be submitted to roll out the pilot if successful.

A second organisation, KIS, which aimed to help people into employment, enterprise and education had offered to run independent living training for young people leaving care through tailored workshops covering employment, housing, budgeting etc. The training would also offer the opportunity for the young person to gain accreditation. Again, this would require additional funding for wider roll out in the future. Work was also underway to develop a checklist of areas foster carers should be covering with their charges as part of preparation for leaving care. 

The Committee sought reassurance on the process and quality assurance arrangements in place for selecting third sector organisations to work with. It was requested that details of the process and safeguards in place be circulated to the Committee. It was also agreed that the Committee would receive a progress report back on the mentoring scheme in due course in line with the organisation’s evaluation process.

An update was provided on the independent visitor scheme which had now been transferred and incorporated into the existing advocacy contract held with Barnado’s. Initially this would consist of work with 10 Independent Visitors with an additional funding bid required to expand the scheme in the future.

The report was noted.

To consider a report setting out the 2010/11 academic results of Children in Care.

The Committee considered a report setting out the academic results for summer 2011 for Haringey’s CiC who had been looked after for over 12 months. Overall, results had been generally good and frequently exceeded predictions for attainment set by the Family Fischer Trust, the national measure used to predict levels of progress. The Committee recognised the value added by the additional support offered where required to CiC to support their educational attainment through school based and local health and education services.

Invitations were circulated to Committee members to the Education Achievement Awards for CiC on 13 October at Tottenham Hotspurs football ground. Unfortunately invites had not been received by all Committee members so it was agreed that the distribution be double checked and the email invite also resent.

The report was noted.

To receive the Looked After Children Action Plan 2011/12.

The Committee received an update on progress against the LAC Action Plan 2011-12 as part of the implementation of the Corporate Parenting Strategy. It was advised that some information gaps remained outstanding due to staff leave over the summer period. It was verbally updated that Leisure Services were scoping with future service providers the inclusion of LAC alongside other concessionary groups in obtaining discounts at Haringey leisure centres. 

The report was noted.

To receive the Children’s Service Looked After Service Action Plan.

The Committee received an update on the Looked After Service Action Plan which was focussed on areas such as the delivery of care plans. The Committee agreed the importance of continuing to monitor progress against the Action Plan but requested in the future that actual numbers be added to the report to provide the Committee with an idea of volume to give a context to considerations and allow clear monitoring of outcomes. 

The report was noted.

To discuss the joint meeting on 11 October 2011.

The Committee discussed proposed agenda items for the next joint meeting with the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Advisory Committee scheduled for 11 October, 7pm in the Council Chamber.

The Committee agreed the inclusion of an item on children missing from care and from home including details of the scrutiny review underway on this specific topic. The Safeguarding Committee had proposed consideration of the Safeguarding and LAC Plan milestone report but the Committee considered it would be more valuable to receive a report on the key recommendations arising from the Munro Review and how these would be used to inform the reshaping of the service. This would also link into the early intervention and support element of service reconfiguration plans to allow the Committees to have greater understanding of the wider picture and of the end to end service.

It was considered that the two items proposed were substantial and would constitute a full agenda.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of Item 13 as it contains 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 item 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.

To receive details of Regulation 33 inspections made to Haringey’s residential homes.

The Committee received an update on Regulation 33 visits to Haringey Park and Coppetts Road children’s homes in the June – August 2011 period. As requested, the reports now included information on occupancy rates at both homes. As a result of capacity issues, a visit was not undertaken to Haringey Park in August although the required 12 visits per year to each home would still be completed and that the September visit had already been carried out.

Work would be progressed to continue the use and re-recruitment of young inspectors to participate in the Reg. 33 visit process.

An update would be provided at the next meeting on refurbishment of the kitchen at Haringey Park, work which had now been completed at Coppetts Road. It was intended that the new configuration would promote the independence of young people by providing an area they could use to cook in.

It was confirmed that staff at both homes had now completed restraint training centred on behaviour management and de-escalation techniques. Work was underway with the Organisational Development team to sustain the training going forward.

Confirmation was provided that the young people at both homes had been issued with SAN log ons and that a programme was being developed to train staff.

The young people’s phone at Coppetts Road was being decommissioned with residents able to use mobiles or phones in the staff offices.

The report was noted.

To raise any items of AOB and to note the dates of future meetings set out below:

Ø      27 October 2011

Ø      13 December 2011

Ø      31 January 2012

Ø      19 March 2012

It was agreed that the planned Committee meeting on 27 October be cancelled owing to the joint meeting with the Safeguarding Committee set for 11 October. The Committee would instead have a short meeting from 6pm on 11 October to consider the minutes of the last meeting and also the awaited publication of results from the recent Ofsted inspections of both the fostering and the adoption services before the start of the joint meeting at 7pm. If available, the inspection reports would be circulated in advance to the Committee to focus discussions at the meeting on the accompanying recommendations.