Agenda and minutes

 There were no apologies for absence put forward.

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 14&16 below.

 There were no items of urgent business put forward.

 There were no declarations of interest put forward.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 27^th June 2013.

Reference was made to CPAC244, final paragraph, and it was  agreed  that the Health Team had put forward a business case for recruiting an additional nurse  and  not a doctor , as stated in the minutes ,to help with further improving the rate of assessments. Agreed that the minutes be amended accordingly.

Agreed that the particular the concerns put forward by Aspire about  housing issues being faced  by care leavers and young parents who are being given poor quality housing are taken forward. It was agreed to Invite Denise Gandy to the next meeting with Aspire  in December. The Head of Children in Care  was aware of the issues  being faced by care leavers and  there was ongoing work with housing to procure  a better quality standard of semi independent accommodation . Getting better quality housing for  young care leavers that are parents  was a priority and a meeting was booked with Legal services and Housing  to look at how the issues for young parents can be addressed . The Committee were assured that  there was a co-operative relationship with Housing. There was also report due to the next CPAC meeting on the 19^th  December on the Housing  of care leavers  which would  provide information in response to Committee Member’s concerns.

This report sets out performance data and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to looked after children. Section 2 provides an overall assessment of performance in the service and performance highlights. Appendix 1 provides a series of tables and graphs for each of these measures, grouped by topic, showing monthly data, performance against target, long term trends and benchmarking where applicable. It also contains performance and service comments for each area to provide context.

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

The Committee  noted the following highlights:

·        The number of children in care was declining at a steady level.  There was also a good number of children moving in with relatives rather than foster carers.

·        A child that had been in long term foster care had been adopted by the foster parents and  this was a good success story.

·        As  of last week, there were no children missing from care.

·        Good percentage of adoption and special guardianship orders.

Members asked if there could be more up to date performance information considered at future meetings as  the performance figures considered were for the end of July .

Members questioned the definition of suitable accommodation[Op147] as following the discussions with Aspire it was felt  necessary to look more closely at this performance area and   understand  what is  meant by safe, suitable and secure and  make sure this correlates  with the understanding the young person has about the accommodation. Members noted that at seventeen and a half there are tenancy workshops for care leavers to attend and get a good understanding of the accommodation options and their responsibilities as tenants.  It was clarified that care leavers do get priority in the housing bidding system and this had been made clear to the Head of Housing Support and Options.  There was a requirement for the care leavers to attend the tenancy workshops  and Members noted more work  was being completed on securing better  semi independent accommodation . There was also  a meeting between the interim Director for Children Services  and  the Housing Improvement manager  to  discuss private rented opportunities and whether the potential to  procure large  properties as accommodation  to be shared by care leavers.

Noted that there was a  report due to the next meeting  in December about housing for care leavers and   this should include the work on:

Ø  finding suitable accommodation for care leavers.

Ø  Update on the work to  procure better accommodation ,

Ø  the work with RSLs ,

Ø  support being given to young care leavers who are parents

Aspire had offered to complete inspections of properties and this was being considered.

As below

The report will update Members on the progress and results for Children in Care at the end of Reception, Key Stages 1, and 2 and 4.

The Committee considered the report on LAC attainment and the report on the   post 16 support of LAC together. As of September 2013 young people leaving Year 11 will be required to remain in Education, Employment or Training (ETE) until the end of the academic year in which they are 17, in 2015 this will increase to 18. Members noted the education and employment pathway being followed by the 53 looked after children at year 12 and also considered the progress and results for Children in Care at the end of Reception, Key Stages1, and 2 and 4, and Haringey’s   Undergraduates/Graduates and new University entrants.

 The key points noted by the Committee were:

·        The Virtual School were continuing to work with young people not achieving good results at key stage 4 and encouraging them to stay on in school.

·        The criteria for attainment at key stage 4 had changed and a level 4 achievement was required in all areas. There was progress in achieving the required level 4 at Maths and English and the Virtual school would look at the progress being made in the previous year to understand the support that was needed to reach level 4 in these required subject areas.

·        Young people in care were being supported at 16+to stay in education and with some young people this meant encouraging re-engagement in education

·        A strong set of GCSE results for Sep 2013, building on the legacy of previous years.  These young people had benefited from additional input during their time in secondary school and have engaged with study club, libraries meetings, events, made use of online revision help through SAM.  Further Examples of the one to one   support was provided to reassure councillors of the quality of the contact being made by the Virtual school with pupils. It was noted that the Virtual school team will, on occasions and work load permitting, make visits to schools outside the borough being attended by LAC as well to understand the progress being made and speak with teachers if needed.

There was a question about whether Looked after Children are at a disadvantage in the Admission process and clarification sought on the support given to get LAC into a preferred choice of school.  It was noted that the LAC will go through the admissions process in their placement borough and there will be support provided by the Virtual School if there are problems with getting a place at the child’s preferred school. In terms of Faith schools, they had their own admissions criteria. Sometimes it could be more difficult to place LAC in schools if they are at key stage 4 and  in this case there would be further negotiation with schools but this was generally not thought to be a significant problem.

The Pupil Premium Plus grant was explained, and as of April there will be £1,900 per LAC for schools to spend money on.  Committee members felt it would be useful to get a future report on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 260.

To receive an update on the Independent Visitor service and  the chosen provider that will deliver this service.

 At the previous meeting, the Committee had requested an update  on the new provider chosen to take  forward Independent visits the progress being made by them. The Committee noted that there were difficulties in attracting the right people to  provide mentoring and advocacy support for young people in this, essentially, long term role. The  new provider   were working on compiling a diverse  pool of volunteers . The Committee recommended encouraging  people in the borough to volunteer. This could mean targeting  staff, councillors and  getting in touch with  local community groups.

The Committee to comment on an initial draft of the Staying Put Policy.

 The Committee were asked to comment on this draft policy .The service had been working to encourage young people to stay put in their placements at 18 and Foster carers were negotiated some incentives to keep their placements beyond 18.  there was no w a need to create a policy  and  set out the preference which is  to support young people to stay put with their foster care place as this will  lead to better outcomes for them and provide them with some stability.  There was a financial consideration as there would need to be some support given to foster carers to enable this to happen.

Social workers would support the LAC and foster carer coming to an agreement  about living arrangements and what is expected by both parties as this will  provide some independence for the young person and also enable the carer to be able to have some assurance in that there is an understanding of what is expected from the young person.

The Committee noted that there were currently 4 young people participating in stay put arrangements.

The YMCA project, that was funded by the council , is aimed at supporting and housing 16 to 24 year olds who are on the verge of homelessness was mentioned as this had  the similar theme  of helping young people stay in a family environment.  Agreed that the report on accommodation also provide an  update on the placement of young people in this project .  although this  was about  placement of young people , it was a mediation project  and   different to the work of the staying put  policy.  Agreed  it would also be worthwhile to include  an update on  the work with placing  young people who are placed in the care of the council following the Southwark Judgement.

To consider the findings and recommendations arising from the review of the Fostering Service by iMPOWER. Report to follow

The Committee welcomed Varun Sitram and Ebony Hughes from iMPOWER to the meeting.

Following an internal audit of Fostering Service at the beginning of 2013 there were found to be a high level of deficiencies in the service.  This service had not been of a consistent   high quality standard in terms of its outcomes for children and young people and iMPOWER were enlisted in May to carry out a further external review of the service and had   further  carried out some extensive  field work in this area .  The review findings were put forward to Members along with recommendations on the way forward and an implementation plan for the service.  These recommendations were compiled following consultation with key stakeholders, discussion with foster carers and staff.  The main recommendation was to   externalise the recruitment of foster carers to a separate organisation to effectively increase the number of foster carers in the borough and also cover the number of carers leaving the service through retirement.

IMPOWER had examined values and motivation around becoming a foster carer and considered the profiles in Haringey in comparison to similar boroughs and there was an opportunity to increase the number of in house foster carers living in Haringey. The merits of externalising the recruitment and assessment part of the service would allow the process to be completed more expediently and enable the council to better focus on support to the foster carers, once recruited, which would remain with the council. The organisation that would be procured to undertake this recruitment role would have a detailed insight into foster caring and know the target areas for recruiting carers. It was envisaged that if the recommendations were endorsed, the chosen organisation would start work in April 2014.  Between now and April,  there would need to be a strong contract compiled,  ensure there was a robust project plan  and a strong sufficiency and placements strategy in place  to enable the organisation to do their work effectively. The following key actions  would need to be completed  in the coming  6 months: a mapping exercise to  set out the implications  of the externalisation, IT process change , and  the governance system  and  a risk analysis system compiled and  put in place.

Committee members were provided with an example of a comparator borough which had a higher number of foster carers recruited following the   externalisation of the recruitment arm of the service.

 Members of the committee were keen for officers to progress quickly with the procurement process to enable   the increase in foster carers to happen as soon as possible.  They were advised by iMPOWER representatives of the importance of compiling a robust governance process so that there was clarity on the actions that would be taken forward by the chosen organisation and what the responsibilities of the council were.  There was also a need to consider the capacity of the foster care support team and understand if there was enough to deal with the anticipated increase in the number of foster  ...  view the full minutes text for item 263.

This report will provide an update on the development of the Children and Families Quality Assurance Framework, associated activities and documentation.

Report to follow

The Committee noted that the framework had been launched following the collation of findings and research into the current quality assurance methods in place. The framework provides a clear simple structure for collating and sharing information about major areas of concern and good practice. The original framework consists of 11 key areas of quality assurance activity which combined are designed to support the organisation at all levels in understanding areas of concern and need for improvement as well as demonstrating the progress being made. There has been  a Quality Assurance Board in place since April which is chaired by the Interim Director of Children’s Services.  This Board would look at the narratives and statistical information in place to ascertain if the services were below or meeting required standards.

 A list of planned audit areas was provided at appendix 1 and it was explained that there will be qualitative data checks completed each week to understand workings in the associated service areas. Member considered the planned audit areas and wanted to be given more assurance about how, as Members, they were able to know if the required actions were being taken forward and completed in good time. There were some Members that felt the quality assurance report, which is considered by the officer body, should also come forward to this Committee. The Chair asked Members to keep in mind the role and remit of the committee which was responsible for looked after children and some of the audit actions were relating to safeguarding. Also there  would be actions being taken forward that were operational and would be taken forward in business plans, service delivery plans and these were subject to  management and performance monitoring.

Members agreed that there would need to be assurance given to them  that  services were addressing the quality issues, arising from audits , which affected  the welfare  of children in care. As a starting point it was suggested considering the leaflet provided to councillors, a few years, ago about their role as corporate parents. Members could  consider this and provide comments on the  areas they wanted feedback on in relation to the care and welfare of  LAC and care leavers

The Committee to comment  on an initial first draft of the Friends and Family Policy. Report to Follow

The enclosed  policy is designed to demonstrate  the  council’s strong commitment to supporting relatives and family friends who step in to care for children when the child's parents are facing serious difficulties or challenges.

The policy sets out the different situations within which family members and friends may be caring for children and provides information on the support available from the Children and Young People’s Service.

The draft policy was put forward for initial discussion and comment by Members. There would need to be funding made available for extended families taking on  the care of a child, in accordance with the recent  Tower Hamlets Judgement. There was a recognition by the council that they  should make available   training, ongoing development and a support network for family and friends taking on the responsibility of the care for a child.

Legal comments were due to  be added to  the document and there would be explicit  link to government guidance.

 Members initial  comments  on the policy included:

·        The need to advocate the training aspect of the support  to be provided as  this will help with combating fears of isolation.

·        The friend and family caregiver  role was different to the special guardianship role as  this was subject to legal assessment .

Members of the Committee were invited to put forward any further comments to the Deputy Director.

To consider new items of business as per item 2.

None

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of the following items 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.  

Not required

To consider t any new items of exempt business as per item 2.

None

The Joint meeting of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee and Corporate Parenting Committee will be on Tuesday 05^th November 2013 7.00pm Council Chamber.

The next Corporate Parenting meeting will take place on 19^th December 6.30pm.

Next Meeting on Thursday 19^th December 2013 6.30pm