Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received for Councillor Lane.

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Head of Legal Services

There were no declarations of interests.

The Committee is asked to approve the minutes of the Corporate Parenting Panel Meeting held on 15 June 2016.

The minutes of the Corporate Parenting Panel meeting held on 15 June 2016 were approved as a true and accurate record.

For the Committee to determine its priorities, and approve the draft work programme for formal and informal meetings.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care introduced the report which outlined the Committee’s terms of Reference and draft Work Programme for 2016/17.

Key issues highlighted:

• A planning meeting was to be held to design the format of informal Corporate Parenting Committee meetings.  Members were invited to attend or send comments to the proposed format; and
• Corporate Parenting Champion membership nominations would sought

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• The items scheduled on the work programme were annual reports and information reports such as NYAS, which would be reported to Committee and scheduled accordingly once the information was available.

RECOMMENDATION

To make a consequential constitutional update to the Committees terms of reference to change the statement ‘will include’ four foster carers to attend Corporate Parenting Committee meetings as co-opted members, to ‘may include up to’.

AGREED ACTION

The Committee:

• Approved priorities and work programme; and
• Would send their interest for Corporate Parenting Champion positions to the Democratic Services Officer.

It was agreed that agenda item nine, Missing and Child Sexual Exploitation Update Report would be discussed next. 

For the Committee to Note

The Head of Service (First Response Team) introduced the report to the Committee, which provided an update in respect of the current situation of children and young people who go missing and children and young people who were vulnerable to child sexual exploitation (CSE).  The Head of Service advised Members about the monthly multi agency meetings held by organisations such as the police, youth and localities and various other professionals organisations to discuss the issues around children that go missing and Children and Young People’s Advocacy Service (NYAS).

The Head of Service (First Response Team) responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• Chelsea’s choice was a nationally respected programme, which delivered awareness in regards to  CSE issues in formats such as drama.    Most schools were signed up to the Chelsea’s Choice programme;
• A holistic approach was taken in regards to LA professionals trained and skilled in CSE issues in various other teams rather than a creation of one team to undertake the safeguarding responsibility;
• Recent OfSTED inspections highlighted that that where some LAs had dedicated teams for CSE there had been an impact in the loss of resources in other areas for looked after children.  The CSE safeguarding responsibility was undertaken as part of the LA’s day to day business, which had been an effective tool; 
• Where the LA was concerned about a CSE risk, extended resources would be allocated appropriately; and
• Members raised concerns over the statistics outlined in 4.8 and 4.6 of the report in relation to children that go missing break down.

The Committee: noted the report.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social       Care provided an update to Members on the recent meetings and forthcoming events on behalf of CiCC. Members were also informed that all the CiCC would not attend the formal public meetings and that there would be more interaction with CiCC representatives at the informal meetings.

The key points included:

• The Paston Café facility was well attend by young people;
• A Care leavers forum was recently held;
• Summer activities had been planned, which was also aimed to attract new CiCC members;
• The Mind of My Own (MoMO) application, which provided CiC with the ability to raise any concern about the care they had received, had been successful; Concern statements raised by CiC through the MoMO application would be directed to an Independent Person to investigate;
• There were four key event dates set for CiCC, which Members had been welcome to attend; and 
• It was intended that CiCC would put forward recommendations over how the informal meetings Corporate Parenting Committee could be formatted.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social       Care responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• There were no patterns emerging from the 14 statements raised by CiC through the MoMO application and it was intended that the concerns for care raised would be included in a future NYAS report in order to highlight any trends to Members;
• The CiCC preferred to attend the informal Corporate Parenting Committee (CPC) meetings at the Town Hall, however consideration over which room to use would require review; and
• Members commented that an informal dress code should be considered for informal CPC meetings as well as a cinema seating style.

The Committee: noted the update.

The Head of Fostering and Adoption Service introduced the report which provided an update on the recent activities and meetings of the Foster Carer Forum.

The key points included:

• Forum meetings;
• Summer activities that the CiC attended;
• Nine assessments had been completed for new foster carers; and
• A Gala event had been organised, which members were welcome to attend. 

The Committee: noted the report.

For the Committee to Note.

The Head of Fostering and Adoption Service introduced the Children in Care leavers strategy to Members of the Committee, which provided a detailed overview of the services and priorities the LA aimed to deliver to Children in Care.

The Head of Fostering and Adoption Service responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• The 34% of Care Leavers (CL) not in education had been a high figure, however, this had been due to the age that the CL had been taken into care. Traumatic live experiences as well as a change of placement for a CL would cause unsettled education.  The LA aimed to improve the not in education figure by increasing the number of apprenticeships offered through the Council and with local businesses; 
• There were courses operated through Peterborough Regional College in order to engage with CL not in education in order to explore their needs and to provide an informal training environment;  
• The bullet point in the report in relation to age 16 -18 CiC had been misleading and the statement required some expansion as to the amount of time children had been in care; 
• There had been a small cohort of CLs that were unable to take up any training as they were difficult to engage with; 
• The CL team had been successful in the reduction of NEET figures, however there had been little success in targeting particular groups; 
• There had been some very disabled young people that could not work due to their condition and these were included in the NEET figures; 
• The LAs strategy was to promote local foster placements and there was a recruitment drive to expand the numbers;
• Some CiC needed to be placed out of the Peterborough area such as for CSE risks and other vulnerable groups;
• A progress report on the Permanency Service, which would manage foster placements would be provided to the Committee at the next meeting;
• A CiC would never be relocated out of a foster placement for financial reasons; 
• Care placements for CiC with extended family members had been explored and was usually an informal arrangement.  An extended family placement was made by the arrangement of a special guardianship order, which was similar to adoption; and
• A special guardianship plan for a CiC would be produced, which would detail the requirements over birth parent visits, it would also include details of support arrangements required. 

Committee Members congratulated the care service on their recent downward trend success for NEET.

The Committee: noted the report.

For the Committee to Note.

The Designated Nurse for Children in Care presented the report to Members, which outlined the arrangements for health checks and the health passport for Children in Care (CiC) and Children in Need (CiN).

Key points explained included:

• CiC that were consulted agreed that they would prefer the term Personal Health Summary to be used rather than Health Passport, which had been accommodated;
• The Health Passport would include details of doctors, dentists and any clinics relevant to the CiC health history as a separate detachable document within the pack;
• Routine Screening for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B & C and Tuberculosis was implemented for young people entering the country from abroad that were considered to be at risk; and
• A copy of the Personal Health Summary would be held by the General Practitioner. Tuberculosis

The Designated Nurse for Children in Care responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• Over 900 children from other countries entering the United Kingdom (UK) were waiting health assessments in Kent and the LA could not check status and progress of each case due to insufficient resources. However, a past survey had illustrated that over half of those CiC screened had serious diseases. Females were also questioned to raise awareness and detect whether Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) had been inflicted on them and support would be provided to those affected;
• Health implications of family members and travelling companions as well as the wider issue of general public safety had been considered for those entering the UK;
• Some LAs experienced issues with a higher number of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK and Peterborough was one of these. The Government quota had been 0.07% of the population which had amounted to a figure in the top twenties;
• When older children become adults the LA would be required to take on further CiC;
• Consideration was given for support services to address the emotional wellbeing of unaccompanied children both at the time of arrival to the UK and ongoing given the traumatic experiences;
• The timescales of health visits highlighted at 5.1 of the report had been an outstanding issue which was addressed and had shown an improvement; and
• All health assessments were completed within 20 days of children coming into care. However, the statistics also included children who arrived in care that had left before the 20 day health assessments deadline, which influenced the statistics in a negative way.

Members commented that all agencies would benefit from the information contained within the Health Passport and highly commended the work.

AGREED ACTION

The Committee: noted the report.

For the Committee to Note.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care introduced the report to Committee Members, which outlined the following key points:

• Information in relation to placements for CiC was 371 in June which had been higher than usual;
• The accuracy of children in care performance data at June 2016;
• The Children in Care Board were exploring ways to improve dental health care with the aim to improve performance. Consideration would be given to the recording of information, the availability of dentists and the willingness of children attend appointments; and
• The Ofsted Action Plan July 2016 which was progressing.

The Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care responded to comments and questions raised by Members. In summary responses included:

• Practice workshops were delivered when felt necessary and a recent workshop held had covered chronologies’ in children’s health records;
• The profile and ethnicity trend was discussed with reference to the breakdown on page 97 of the report with the most significant increase being with Asian children and an increase in children of ages 5-9 years and16-17 years old; and
• The majority of CiC had been absorbed within in house foster placements as opposed to external agencies which placed less pressure on LA budgets.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee: noted the report.