Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Allison, Brabazon and Stennett. Cllrs Hare, Peacock and Egan respectively attended in their absence.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 17 July 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 July 2012 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

The Committee were updated that the report requested at the last meeting on the transition of care leavers would be deferred to the October Committee meeting and which would permit the inclusion of half year statistical information to provide greater context to discussions. The report would also include details of proposals to expand the remit of the virtual school to provide support for the 16 plus age group. 

The Deputy Director provided a short overview of the Council’s approach to the naturalisation of CiC (Children in Care) following queries raised by the Committee at the last meeting. Following legal advice, the Council had adopted an approach to seek to secure a child’s immigration status prior to them reaching their majority which was in line with other authorities. As the majority of unaccompanied minors in this cohort had indefinite leave to remain status anyway, the Council would not routinely actively seek to support any applications for naturalisation but would consider any requests on a case by case basis. The overriding premise was that young people should be encouraged to make their own decision about naturalisation once they reached their majority in recognition of the significance of the decision.

 To consider performance data for looked after children as at the end of July 2012 including quarterly adoption scorecard.

The Committee considered a new format performance report centred on monitoring against an agreed set of measures relating to CiC with accompanying service and performance comments provided for context. It was intended that the new format would facilitate the monitoring of long term trends and benchmarking with other authorities.

It was updated that the number of CiC in Haringey remained on a downward trajectory although still remained significantly higher than the statistical neighbour average. The service were continuing efforts to support this reduction through division of the CiC population into defined cohorts to allow performance to be examined in greater detail and to identify any underlying trends or issues.  

The Committee queried the process for the setting of Haringey performance targets and whether in some instances they were challenging enough, such as the 95% target for CiC visits. Officers advised that Haringey specific targets were developed based on a series of principles including performance in the last year and that of statistical neighbour authorities and the resource provision of the service. A commitment was however made for a review of these targets by the CYPS Senior Management Team in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Children as part of the transformational journey of the service toward excellence and determining what an outstanding service would look like.

With regards to the ongoing IT issue that continued to impact on the performance monitoring of CiC case reviews within required timescales, efforts were continuing to seek a resolution with the IT system provider. In the interim, local monitoring arrangements had been put in place. It was anticipated that an accurate performance figure would be reported to the next Committee meeting. 

With regards to the performance data provided for CiC visits, further clarification was requested within the comments box of future reports on the variance in timescales imposed for visits. 

The Committee extended their praise for the new format of the performance report and its ease of reading.

To receive a report on performance of the service over the last 12 months and details of key service improvements in place.

The Committee considered the annual performance report on the fostering service setting out the structure, aims and duties of the service as well as performance data from the last twelve months.

The Committee expressed concern over the relatively low number of foster carers recruited from the last publicity campaign. It was confirmed that although the campaign was on course to meet its target for the recruitment of 47 new carers over a three year period, the number of current carers deregistering remained of continuing concern and it was agreed that the Council needed to be more ambitious with regards to recruitment. The Committee discussed the inherent difficulties in trying to achieve a balance between not discouraging prospective carers but also being upfront about the strict eligibility criteria in place related to the needs of the child such as restrictions in most instances on carers being in full time work.  

It was advised that in an effort to retain focus on increasing recruitment, the proposed restructure of the service would facilitate this through reconfiguring the service into two teams to provide separation between the two distinct functions of the service: the recruitment and assessment of carers and supporting foster carers. It was agreed that the Committee would receive an update report on the restructure and new arrangements in six months time.

The Committee suggested a number of other avenues that could be explored by officers to increase recruitment of carers including promotion at Area Committees, the opportunity for a more targeted approach aimed at the Turkish community and the feasibility of including fostering information in the annual Council Tax leaflet sent to borough residents. The Committee also discussed the approach to promoting the financial support provided to foster careers, particularly in recognition of the current economic climate. It was advised that the communications team had undertaken detailed focus group research for the last recruitment campaign including the financial inducements for fostering. In consideration of the findings of this exercise, it had been determined to provide details of the financial support available within the fostering adoption leaflet sent out to prospective carers but not on wider publicity material such as posters.

To consider a draft policy setting out the Council’s approach to addressing the key issues that impact upon the achievement of permanent care arrangements for children.

The Committee considered a draft permanency policy document developed to steer the securing of permanent care arrangements for CiC, in particular ensuring permanency planning was considered as soon as the child was taken into care to facilitate timely and appropriate decision making. Although the policy would primarily operate as a social work framework for officers, it would also set out the roles and responsibilities of Councillors in this regard. In light of this, the Committee now had the opportunity to define the role they wished to take as corporate parents in this area including providing informed challenge and a local policy steer required as part of the transition of the service towards excellence. This would include providing input on significant issues going forward such as the use of Special Guardianship Orders, trans-racial adoptions etc. The policy would ultimately be submitted for approval by Cabinet once the Committee had provided input.

The Committee agreed their input into the policy needed to be considered a priority going forward for further exploration and as such, it was agreed that a proposed framework would be circulated proposing a way for the Committee to provide informed input into the policy and to resolve their role in this area. The Committee also asked officers to develop a routemap of a typical child through the care process including key milestones that should be met, in order to assist Members in developing their understanding of the process.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of items 10 and 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 & 3 namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual. 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 the following items as they 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), paras1 & 2, namely information relating to any individual and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

To consider the costs and outcomes of the fostering service marketing strategy and marketing plans for past and future years.

The Committee considered the marketing strategy for the recruitment of foster carers including underpinning fostering activity plans and marketing activity plans and associated objectives. The importance of the collaborative working approach as part of North London Fostering consortium was emphasised which as well as increasing methods of public engagement, also provided the opportunity for future benchmarking of the service.

The Committee noted the strategy and plans.

The Committee received a verbal update on the findings of a recent Ofsted inspection of the Council’s short stay children’s home. Assurances were provided that the issues raised did not relate to the safeguarding of children and that the inspection report and accompanying action plan would be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee for consideration. It was also agreed that the Regulation 33 inspection reports for the home would be regularly reported up to the Committee, with Members who had previously attended the training invited to take part in inspections.

8 October 2012, 6.30pm

8 October 2012