Agenda and minutes

Apologies for  absence were received from Cllr Brabazon.

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.

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 the notes and actions arising from the informal meeting 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 attached  as  Appendix  A to the minutes).

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 08^th October 2012 and  the Joint meeting held on the 29th October 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 08^th October were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

 In relation to the services to boroughs offered by the 18 Project  there was a need to add in  Enfield borough.

 In reference to the  new framework agreement on Foster care recruitment   this was being worked on with the North London Strategic Alliance  and not the North London Fostering Consortium as  put in the minutes. It was agreed  that the minutes be amended to reflect this.

In relation to a report on Housing Benefit reforms, an early report  setting out the anticipated issues had been completed by Phil Harris and shared at the LSCB meeting .  [A Cabinet report  on this issues was also expected in the first quarter of the new year  As part of the consultation process on the report  Corporate Parenting Advisory  Committee may wish to look at this report and comment on the  areas impacting on  children and  young  people  in care and care leavers  - Cllr  Waters  and Libby  to consider this suggestion before inclusion in the minutes.

The  minutes of the joint meeting with Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee  held on the 29^th October 2012 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

I

 To consider the work plan and  other issues arising from the minutes.

 At the previous meeting, there had been a discussion about the disparate performance in foster care recruitment compared to other local authorities and the Chair continued to be concerned about this issue. It  was noted that a  bi annual report from the  Fostering service on their progress and activities  would be available in January 2013 and  this could be distributed to Members  of the Committee in advance of the next meeting.

 The Committee to consider and endorse this policy in December 2012  with a view to informing the development of a clear policy statement on how best to secure permanent placements for children within the care system. Report to follow

 The Committee had previously considered an early version of the permanency policy at their September meeting. Following this meeting research had been distributed to Committee members on the permanency options of adoption, special guardianship and long term foster care placements. This was to assist Members in structuring lines of enquiry to form a view on the proposed permanency policy.

 Since consideration of the earlier draft, some legal context had also been added to the explanation of the permanency options of adoption, special guardianship and long term foster care which gave members a better understanding of the council’s legal role for the care of the child/young person in their care.

The assessment method for sibling groups was set out which  was according to the number of children  in their sibling group and their age and gave an idea to the committee of the type of thinking involved in planning permanency options and how each child’s need is considered.

This policy would next go to Cabinet in June 2013 for agreement and it would need to contain the endorsement of  the Corporate Parenting Committee about early permamancy planning. Adoption and Special Guardianship were the preferred options for permanency as they were most likely to provide a stable home and future for the child beyond the age of 18. The Committee were asked  to provide their direction on the proposed approaches to the  adoption of sibling groups  and  level of importance given  to  the finding of  ethnic matches  for children  where adoption was the  best permanency option.

 In response to how much influence this Committee could have on the  process of adoption, it was explained  that ultimately the process of adoption was governed by a legal framework but Members  could provide officers with the steer about the   priority for adoption.   In considering  the approach set out ,members  sought an understanding on  number of cases where the plans for adoption had changed because of   difficulties with finding an ethnically matched family or keeping a sibling groups together.  It was explained that the number was small. However, the committee could help with endorsing  and encouraging the examination of adoption as a permanency option at the outset from when a child/young person is identified as not being safe to stay at home(usually at the Core Assessment stage).This would adoption as an option to be explored from an early stage alongside other permanency options.

The Committee considered paragraph 7.5 of the report on planning for permanence and assessment of sibling groups.  The Committee agreed the wording of this  and  felt it could be emphasised that siblings who are looked after should be placed together whenever possible although it was recognised that in some cases this will not be appropriate.

 In relation to ethnically matching children to families ,it was explained that  the service were not holding out for exact ethnics matches for children needing adoption .  They were considering  how the adopted child will feel as they get older and so  trying to  broadly  ethnically match  as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 200.

This report is a review of progress made by the Children in Care Service in relation to service development including the issues previously addressed through the Looked After Children Action Plan. Report to follow

 The  Committee considered the progress made by the Children in Care service in relation to service development . Significant improvements had been made following an  implementation of  a permanent  staffing structure  which had made  good impact on in terms of  the progression on casework, stability  and building relationships with service users.  A brief description was provided  of the of the teams which make up the Children in Care service ,the services they are provided  and the  agencies that they worked with. The Committee remarked on the good progress made by the teams with  increasing the number of special guardianships  and children returning home to families.

The Committee to consider information on the  transition process for young people leaving care. Report to follow

The Committee noted that the Leaving in Care service were working with 327 young people who have  left care , 70 of whom were former unaccompanied minors, 50  of whom were young parents . The Committee noted that work will begin on a pathway plan for a young person in care at 16  and continues until the  young person  has permanently left the care of the council.  Reviews of the plan  will take place every 6 months. There is currently a lot of endevor to ensure   that accommodation for the care leaver is suitable. Also, young people will be nominated to the Housing service for permanant placements once they reach the age of 18 and are living in the borough.  The support needs of care leavers was discussed and how unaccompanied minors will face even  more difficult options if their status in the country is unconfirmed. The impact of the new welfare benefit reforms on care leavers was not widely understood by all local authorities as this had not yet been set out by  the Government. For example,  they were not set out as a vulnerable group and  it was unknown  whether payments for rents  can still be made directly to the landlord for care leavers.  The Head of Leaving Care would be meeting with Housing  services to discuss further the benefit changes and will continue to  work with young people on budgeting and give advice on the benefits that they can claim.  They were also working with the local jobcentres to identify employment opportunities for care leavers.

 Members of the Committee also asked that care leavers are informed about the availability of their local  ward councillor to speak to about issues such as   help with finding employment or accessing benefits.

The Head of Leaving Care  highlighted the gap in the provision for young people that have significant support needs but do not meet the thresholds for adult services. Although support to care leavers should stop at the age of 21 if the young person is not in education or  training, in reality some support continues as  often young people will be unsure where to go  in their local community to get support and will revert back to seeking help form the leaving care service. This situation was challenging as support workers had increased case work loads. However the service were trying to help young people become established in their local communities  and seek support of local services  . The Committee  found it reassuring that these young people were no turned away  by the service. Indeed  Edward Timpson MP, had   recently highlighted Haringey’s leaving care service as an example to follow. The   Chair also illustrated  examples she had seen  of the  help  the  Leaving Care service provides care leavers that are going to university which was reassuring and demonstrated the practical aspects of  how the council’s  undertakes its corporate parenting role.

 As discussed in the previous informal meeting the views of Aspire and other representatives of  children in care and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 202.

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

 The Committee considered performance information and trends for measures relating to looked after children.  The Committee commented  on the good progress made across all performance indicators  since the last meeting in October.

The number of children  looked after was coming down and the aim was to get  this  figure in line with statistical neighbouring boroughs.  To deliver  this would mean investing  in support  to children and young people  that were on the cusp of care. The Scrutiny Panel for children and young people were due to look at the  savings profile for the service and would consider the strategy of bring down the numbers of children in care and re-investing the savings  in early help to families.

At the joint meeting in October, it was agreed to provide a report back to the  December meeting of Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee  advising  on the process and risk assessments in place for children in care taking unauthorised leave from their placements and  also for children missing from care. Report to Follow

 At the joint meeting between the Corporate Parenting Committee and Children’s Safeguarding Committee, in October, Members had requested a report explaining the process and risk assessments in place for children in care taking unauthorised leave from their placements and missing from care.

 The  Committee commented that this was a  very useful report  which  set out the  various definitions of ‘missing’ actions for when children go missing,  figures for missing episodes in the last calendar year  and information about the research being undertaken to find out the factors  for young people  going missing from care.

Clarification was sought on where evidence is sought to enable a social worker to complete a visit after the missing episode.  In response, it was noted that there is a requirement to visit looked after children on a monthly basis and currently this performance stands at 99% of visits completed. The social worker will, as part of the visit, be aware of missing episodes and   discuss and record the issues which would have triggered the missing episode.  Members were assured that there was a tight recording process in place for reporting children and young people missing from care and this information was also considered at a high level meeting between the Cabinet Member for Children and Director for Children’s services on a weekly basis.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of items13, 14,15 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,  and 3: namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.   Also information relating to the financial  or business affairs of any particular person(including the authority holding that information).

The  press and public were excluded from the meeting for consideration of items 13,14 and 15  as they contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the local Government Act 1985):paras 1,2 and 3 : namely information relating to  any individual , and information relating to financial or business affairs of any particular person(including the authority holding that information)

To consider the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 08^th October 2012.

 The exempt minutes of the 8^th October  2012 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

This report sets out the progress made with  the implementation of the OFSTED action plan for a council children’s home. Report to follow

The Committee considered the progress made on the implementation of the OFSTED action plan for Haslemere Short break Centre.

The Children’s Home Improvement Board had been established and would meet twice a month.  The membership included two parents and a foster carer was expected to attend the next meeting.  16 permanent staff had been recruited and a further seven staff were also due to be employed. There had been significant support from the council’s Human Resources team to allow the posts to be filled as quickly as possible and for the centre to be on track to open in the New Year.

There were clear procedures in place for staff to follow in their care of the young people at the  centre and the  Head of Disabilities demonstrated to  members how new files would look . These were easily identifiable and would keep in an easy to reach locations.   Parents would need to sign in medication when dropping off their children at the centre. There had also been good support for induction and training by the Whittington Health Trust.

 The appointed centre manager currently works at the Sixth Form Centre and will already be a familiar face to the children and young people using the short break centre.

Whilst the centre was closed, families were given personal budgets for interim provision and overall parents had found this flexibility quite useful because it had allowed them to do extra curricular activities such as visiting family, and having days out as a family.

 A  Christmas party was arranged for young people on the 15^th December and a young people’s guide for the centre had been developed. The issues highlighted in the OFSTED inspection had all been addressed.

Members were pleased with the speedy progress made with the opening of the centre and actions completed to meet the recommendations arising from the OFSTED review.

The Committee to consider proposals on a format and new arrangements for undertaking Regulation 33 and 34 visits and monitoring .Report to follow

The Committee considered a report on the   proposed format  for regulation 33 visits .This set out the  legislative responsibilities the council has for  completing these visits  together with OFSTED’s reporting stipulations . There  were  proposals  on how  to change the existing  format of visits.

The Committee noted that the current reporting format used for visits was geared towards  adolescents in the council’s residential homes  and meeting the requirements  of the every child matters  programme. Therefore,  this  would need to be amended so that  the emphasis was on monitoring the range of experiences available to the young person,  stimulating opportunities,  creating an environment  that helps  in the creation of peer relationships and builds  strong community links. This would be in addition to  checking the physical condition  of the home and  the young people’s personal experience of the centre.

Arrangements for Regulation 33 visits would be re-commissioned . A specialist worker would  accompany councillors and council officers  on the visits  to help communicate  effectively with  young people . The new template would need to meet the requirements of  OFSTED and once the visit was completed and recorded  the centre manager would have 5 working days to  respond and send the report to OFSTED. It was imperative that this information was compiled and sent to OFSTED each month on time.

There were currently 7 councillors trained to undertake regulation 33 visits. Training would be provided to support the development of expertise and increase the pool of Members available.

Members suggested that the visits take place at weekend and evenings when the centre was most in use.

The Committee endorsed the proposed  new format for  regulation 33 visits as set out in  section 4 of the enclosed report.

Date of next meeting: 19^th February 2013

There were no items of urgent business.