Agenda item

RECEIVED a report updating the Committee on the Draft Corporate Parenting Strategy & Vision, from the Director of Children’s Services. The report and accompanying draft Corporate Parenting Strategy & action plan was included in the agenda pack (pages 23 to 42). 

NOTED that

• The report was brought to the Committee following discussion at a previous meeting  around developing a strategy document that set out how the Council and its partner agencies would act as responsible parents for children and young people who were either in care or where leaving care but entitled to support.

• The document was very much an early draft and was brought to the committee for discussion and comments.

• One key aspect of the strategy was to articulate what the Council’s ambition was in terms of corporate parenting and what also outcomes the Council wanted to achieve in relation children and young people who were looked after by the Local Authority. The earlier discussion with Aspire had emphasised that the Council needed to be able to give clear direction of what its service offer was as part of the process of redeveloping Aspire.

• The next steps involved developing a concrete pledge of what the young people could expect from the Council as corporate parents This was considered to be a two way process and Aspire were expected to contribute to, and hold the Committee to account based on what this service offer/pledge was. 

• The Committee commented that the draft strategy was a very detailed comprehensive document and raised concerns that it might be difficult to keep the action plan up to date.  Officers responded that the document was an initial draft and that there would be some scope for developing a more high level action plan based on a number of key areas, possibly to sit beside the comprehensive list. Cllr Berryman advised that having an explicit list of the different actions and outcomes was very useful in terms of understanding the remit of the Council’s role as corporate parent as a whole. 

• The Committee suggested that the action plan should reference what the targets or relevant regulations were for each of the provisions. The Committee also queried whether officer input and role should also be contained in the action plan. Officers acknowledged that many aspects of this would be covered in the responsibility and timescale sections of the action plan. The Chair advocated that wherever possible the document should remain children focused.

• The Committee considered who the target audience was for the strategy and also commented that the report seemed to have a number of pieces of jargon within it that might detract from its accessibility. The top of page 5 of the report was singled out as an example. The Director of Children’s Services acknowledged that there would likely be different versions targeted to different audiences. The AD Safeguarding agreed and suggested that a young person’s version of the strategy should be specifically developed.

• The Committee requested that some further thought be given to promulgating the role of Aspire in the report, and potentially listing examples of what had been achieved with Aspire.

• The Chair requested that information be brought back to the next Committee about the number of care leavers the Council was responsible for and what was done to support them. The Committee also requested that the report put this information in the context of what the Local Authority’s responsibilities were in terms of providing support.

Action: Dominic Porter-Moore/Emma Cummergen