Agenda and minutes

County Councillor Clarke

To note who is attending and any apologies for absence.

All were welcomed to the meeting and apologies were received from County Councillor Scott Smith, Graham Lindley, Julie Dawkins, Nicola Bamford, Stephen Young, Neil Drummond and Jo Swords.

Caroline Waldron was attending on behalf of Kirsty Byrne and Helen Hargreaves, Clinical Commissioning Groups.

County Councillor Clarke

To agree for accuracy the notes of the meeting and receive any matters arising.

Resolved:  That the minutes were agreed as an accurate record and there were no matters arising from them.

Janice Laing, Permanence Service and Tonya Harrison, Children in Care and Leaving Care Service, LCC

To receive an update on the new Lasting Homes Panel which has replaced the Permanence Panel.

Janice Laing and Tonya Harrison, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided a brief overview on the Lasting Homes Panel, setting out key expectations and principles around the function and purpose of the new Panel which has replaced the Permanence Panel as the process for ratifying a child's home as permanent.  The purpose of this item was to share awareness with the Board and its' corporate parenting partners of what is being done now, what was done previously and for the Board to ratify that the Protocol can be progressed.

The Lasting Home Panel Protocol document that was shared with the agenda, prior to the meeting is intended as a guide for social workers and managers.  It will help define the pathways for inclusion of children and young people and their carers in Lancashire children's permanence process and make clear the decision-making points and roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders.  The document also, provided further details on the:

·  Role of Lasting Home Panel

·  Scope of Panel

·  Difference between Permanence Panel and the new Lasting Home Panel

·  Membership and Governance

·  Roles and Responsibilities of the Children in our Care Service

A presentation was also given to the Board on the 'Lasting Home' Permanence Panel Redesign and this was attached to the agenda.  This detailed further information on:

·  Project Aim: Evaluate the Current Permanence Panel

·  Our Journey of Consultation

·  'Lasting Home' Panel Redesign

·  Lasting Home Panel Process

·  Lasting Home Panel Children's Guide

·  Lasting Home Panel Teens Guide

·  The Complete Package

Following the presentation, the Board raised the following questions/points:

It was noted that one of the areas, on the Teens Guide around considering Post 18 accommodation options, is links in to one of the key priorities of the Corporate Parenting Board, "Improving sufficiency and providing the right homes in the right places at the right time" and that County Councillors Gibson and Kay were leading on and they felt it would be useful to link in with the officers involved with the Lasting Homes Panel to ensure that the process is as seamless as possible and that the young people feel completely involved in that journey and the importance of a forever home for the young people.

It was highlighted that the partners involved in both the Permanence Panel and the new Lasting Homes Panel, felt that the new panel was a lot clearer, and they felt that they had more of a role and can contribute to something that is more positive and the involvement of the young people is key to this.

The role of the Corporate Parenting Board in this process is to challenge the Panel on a regular basis on indicators such as how many plans have been ratified throughout the process, how is the process going and feedback on how it is linking in with the four key priorities of the Board.

Resolved:  That the Corporate Parenting Board ratified the process of the Lasting Homes Panel (page 50 of the agenda pack) and agreed to scrutinise its' performance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Young people from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), April Rankin and Adam Riley, Participation Team, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, LCC

To receive an update on what the Participation Team have been doing with LINX since the last meeting.

Georgia, Mary, Chloe and Emma from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), April Ranking and Adam Riley, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with an update from the Care Leavers Forum.  The young people gave an update on what the Forum will be focusing on over the next few months.  Further details can be found in the presentation which is attached to these minutes on:

·  Our agenda

·  Education

It was noted that the Forum would like to:

·  Look at education and how it can be more supportive to children and young people

·  Continue to be involved with fostering and adoption and continue to work with the interview panels.

·  Focus on how to find and secure a job and would like more help and support with writing a CV and developing interview skills.

·  Get more mental health support in Lancashire that is easily accessible and good quality as the waiting lists for mental health support can be extensive.

·  For meetings, such as Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings and Children Looked After (CLA) meetings to not interfere with lessons, as this takes valuable time away from their education.

·  Have more support and discussions about finance skills and how young people need to be supported with them. Young people need more of an understanding and support around the importance of saving money and how this can affect a person's finances.

One of the young people presenting at this Board was also attending the Education and Children Services Committee on 18 January 2022 representing children in care.

Young people have recently had a meeting with Fostering and Adoption to ensure that more youth voices are used in the marketing for this service. Young people will be involved in updating panel questions for new foster carers, working on updating marketing materials and social media as well as supporting the service in making videos for training purposes and sharing young people's stories.

Following work on interview panels, young people shared that it had built their confidence, by asking questions of the interviewees and that they had also given feedback too and helped to shape the questions for different job roles.  They have also learnt what the different roles are and do and know that they are having their voices and opinions heard which makes a difference by influencing the service.  They also shared that by taking part in the interview process, it enabled them to meet new people and also hear other's views and opinions.  Young people also felt able to share both positives and improvements for the interviews which ensures that the processes are kept updated and gives the opportunity to make new links and networks by meeting senior staff members and other staff members from different services within the Council, which then gives them a more in-depth knowledge of how the Council works.

Young people would also like to look at a project similar to the Ask Angela Campaign to ensure children in care and care leavers feel safe  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC

To receive a progress update from the four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups since the last Board meeting.

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided a verbal update to the Board on the four priority groups which are:

i)  Achieving permanence.

ii)  Improved sufficiency providing the right homes at the right places at the right time.

iii)  Improving physical, social, emotional and mental health support and outcomes.

iv)  Improving education, employment and training opportunities and outcomes.

Following, the last Board meeting in November 2021 where elected members agreed to be champions for the four priority groups, initial meetings with three out of the four priority groups have taken place which gave an opportunity to have an in-depth conversation of the specific subject each member was involved with.

Improved sufficiency providing the right homes at the right places at the right time" – Champions County Councillors Kay and Gibson

The Board were informed that the proposal for this priority is for Children in our Care (CIOC) to link in with the Commissioning Team and Fostering Service, to look at the demand and opportunities in the context of the Sufficiency Strategy.  With regards to Care Leavers, the intention is to provide some political support by setting up a Corporate Parents meeting with Senior Officers and Directors from the District Housing Authorities in April 2022 and the focus will be to:

i)  Look at the allocations and provisions of homes for Care Leavers and to hold the Authorities accountable in their corporate parenting roles.

ii)  Look at the strategic development of the housing stock in their districts to meet the needs of Lancashire's Care Leavers in the future.

It was noted for that meeting with the District Housing Authorities, the views of young people will be required and to have them present at the meeting.

Improving physical, social, emotional and mental health support and outcomes – Champions County Councillors Sutcliffe and Swarbrick

The first task for this group from the Permanence Service will be to map out the service provision across Lancashire, for physical, social, emotional and mental health at the different tiers and levels and will link in with partners, to get the information together, starting with the more complexed provisions and then filtering down for the more preventative provisions at District levels and linking in with the current review of the mental health provisions that are currently commissioned from within the Permanence Service, to get an understanding of what the outcomes are and how far it has progressed, where the gaps and challenges are.  Political support will be used to strengthen the partnership working to make services accessible and ensure the quality of support provided.

Improving education, employment and training opportunities and outcomes – Champions County Councillors Couperthwaite and Smith

Whilst there is already a lot of information and data with regards to education, employment and training (EET) of Children Looked After and Care Leavers, it is proposed to link back in with the Virtual School and to have a more in-depth understanding about how children and young people move through the key stages, what outcomes there are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Janice Laing, Permanence Service, LCC

To discuss a refresh of Life Story work.

Janice Laing, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council presented the Life Story work to the Board and provided a brief overview of the work.  The Board were also presented with the revised policy and procedure.  It was requested that the Board ratify the Life Story Work Revised Policy and Procedures to enable them to be rolled out across the County.

The Board received a presentation (attached to the minutes) which provided further details on:

·  Reviewing Life Story Work

·  What is Life Story Work

·  Core Elements of Life Story Work

·  Revised Policy and Procedure

The Board went into breakout rooms to consider the following questions:

Q1:  What do they think a non-Looked After child in a ‘typical’ home might need to understand their life story?

Q2:  What do they think our Looked After children and Care Experienced young people need to understand their life story?

In the breakout rooms the Board were also asked to note that as part of implementing the revised policy, a Launch Event was being planned, that aims to inspire and motivate the workforce, and were asked to discuss this also in their groups, for views and ideas on the Launch Event, so this can be achieved.

Following the discussions in the breakout rooms, feedback was received, and further details of this feedback can be found in the document attached to the minutes.

County Councillor Swarbrick offered to seek some funding for the launch event.

The Board also noted that a copy of the Life Story book was kept, either in hard copy format or electronic format.

Young people also commented that they would like to be involved in the Launch Event.

Resolved:  The Board agreed to ratify and sign off of Life Story Work Policy and Procedure.

County Councillor Clarke

To receive any other business.

A request was made to the Board with regards to Looked After Children and Leaving Care Team Managers and Social Workers (particularly in the Looked After Teams) observing the Board, so they have insight as to what is being discussed and agreed.

Resolved:  That the Board agreed that observers from the Looked After Children and Leaving Care Teams can attend the Board.

County Councillor Clarke

Tuesday, 15 March 2022 at 6pm, format to be confirmed.

Tuesday, 15 March 2022 at 6pm, format to be confirmed.