Agenda and minutes

 Apologies 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 for consideration.

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.

Prior to the  start of the meeting the  Committee  will have met with Aspire, a youth led project group of  Young people that are currently in the care  of the council .The young people  will have put  forward  their vision and priorities as a group .  As Corporate parents the committee will agree actions  arising from this discussion to be taken forward by Children’s Services and  monitored by the Committee  over the year.

 The  Committee agreed that a that the notes and actions arising from the informal meeting held with Aspire between 6.30-7.30pm be compiled and  distributed to  Members of the Committee and Aspire .  It was agreed that the actions  be added to the formal minutes to allow the committee to monitor and  progress the agreed actions. (These are included below) It was  also agreed to invite Aspire to the  start of the next Corporate Parenting meeting on 04^th December 2012.

Actions

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 04 September 2012.

 The minutes of the 04^th September were agreed as an accurate record.   The discussion relating to adoption  and  action to provide a letter on the outcome of the adoption diagnostic were omitted from the notes. However, the letter from MP Edward Timpson was  tabled for Committee Members to  consider .

 The Committee asked that it would be useful for the  Performance report to  distinguish and explain the indicators which were locally set and those with were nationally required.

This report sets out performance data and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to looked after children.

The Committee were asked to consider performance figures and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to looked after children to the year up to August 2012.

OP457 (Number of Looked after Children who ceased to be looked after who had been looked after less than a month) The performance in this area  was markedly better than this time last year. This  change was associated with the use of targeted intervention and  change in emphasis to   managing risk and getting  early  help to families  One  example of this  was  targeting youth service resources to help young people in families  that are at risk of going into care.

OP389 (Children in care including unaccompanied asylum seeking children)

The numbers of children in care were steadily reducing with the safety of children and young people still a paramount to this strategy.  The Director of Children’s services  was factoring the impact that the housing and council tax benefit  changes would have on families  as the pressure increases on household budgets and there were plans to mitigate  against the risks posed by the benefits reforms.  Reports close to these matters had been compiled for the LSCB and it was agreed to supply Cllr Brabazon with   this information after the meeting.

HY32 (Percentage of Children placed in Haringey provision) The committee heard about the initiatives to broaden the range of foster carers available to the council. This was though training carers to increase their range of abilities. The Head of Commissioning and Placements was confident that the service was better at matching children and young people to foster carers to ensure that placements were stable  and sustained.  With regards to  the number of Young people and children placed outside of the borough and those placed in the borough by other local authorities, the Director for Children’s services was starting a dialogue with private residential providers to ensure that Haringey children are prioritised for private  placements available in the borough to enable them to stay local as far as possible.

Some Members expressed frustration at the perceived  lack of improvement to the number of foster carers recruited in the borough and  performance  relating to reducing the number of Looked after children placed outside of the borough which was still felt, despite improvements, to be high.  These members continued to question whether past actions agreed by the committee in relation to these areas had been followed through. 

Understanding was sought on whether there was an inherent problem with the  internal processes followed by the service and why the council  was different to other local authorities,  In response to these concerns, The Head of Commissioning and Placements  advised of the increase  in the use of independent  foster carers  and a few placements had been made this way. Also a new framework agreement was being worked on by  North London Fostering Consortium and the Head of Commissioning and  would look further at how this agreement can still  better facilitate the placement of children with foster carers in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 188.

Members to consider  information on the progress and results for Children in Care at the end of Reception, Key Stages 1, and 2 and 4.

The Head of the Virtual School introduced the report which reported on the progress and results for Children in Care at the end of Reception, Key Stages 1 and 2 and 4, Undergraduates and graduates and new university entrants.   The Head of the Virtual School had also invited John Lewis, the Head of Highgate School and the lead for the Chrysalis Accelerator Intervention programme for Looked after Children along with Alex White Community Development Manager at Tottenham Hotspur to talk about their work with Looked after Children and young people.

The Virtual School consisted of a head teacher, a small number of teachers and an Education Welfare officer.  The development of the Virtual school     had arisen in respond and changes the low levels of aspiration being seen in young people in care and also of their carers working with them.  The progress set out in the attached report was a summary of the work of the Virtual school team over the past 12 months. It was important to note that the Virtual school was driven by policy and research to help plan and develop children and young peoples learning and respond to their different circumstances.

 John Lewis, Head of Highgate Independent school, addressed the meeting   and spoke about the work of the Chrysalis Accelerator Programme for looked after children an intervention programme which had been co-developed by Highgate School and Future Foundation in partnership with the virtual heads of Enfield, Barnet and Camden to raise aspirations, attainment and confidence leading to successful applications to higher education and into work.  The committee learned about the ethos, aims and   what was hoped to be achieved with young people. The programme started for young people from year 6 and supported them through to year 10. They were also invited to summer school at Highgate School.  During the programme   there were  initiatives to develop  confidence , support  young people’s transitions periods in their  teenage age years, promote the benefit of extracurricular activities, improve skills in numeric and literacy, support self development  and  personal responsibility for  learning. The Virtual school was essential in facilitating the attendance of children and young people at the events organised by Chrysalis. At a   recent event at Highgate School, there were 4 young people attending from Haringey out of 25. This was a significant achievement keeping in mind that this is an area and environment which the young people will not be used to.

The committee commended the work of the project and felt this was a key initiative to be part of, as a council, to support raising the achievement and aspiration of young people in care.  The committee voiced their commitment and support to the project and endorsed its aims and development.

 The Chair invited Alex White, Community Development manager at Tottenham Hotspur Foundation to speak about the eighteen projects, aimed at providing 121 mentoring support and signposting for identified young people in care and care leavers living in Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 189.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of items 10&11 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 items as they contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the local government Act 1972(as amended by Section 12Aof 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 Committee to consider exempt information pertaining to  item 8.

As per CPAC    

This report sets out the action taken following the recent OFSTED report on a council children’s home.

The committee considered the action plan relating to the findings of a recent Ofsted inspection of the council’s short stay children’s home.

Date of next meeting  04^th December 2012 6.30pm

Joint meeting with Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee on 29 October 2012 7.30pm.

The Director of Children’s Services would distribute to Committee Members, by email, research collated on permanency options for them to  consider and comment before the December meeting when the Permanency strategy is considered.