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Contact: Samantha Gorton Tel: 01772 532471 email: sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk
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Introductions and Apologies County Councillor Clarke
To note who is attending and any apologies for absence. Minutes: All were welcomed to the meeting and apologies were received from Liz Donnelly Nelson, Graham Lindley, Kirsty Byrne, Caroline Waldron, Audrey Swann, Stephen Young, Brian Wood and Maureen Huddleston.
It was noted that Jenny Donnelly was attending on behalf of Rebecca McGeown, Lancashire 0-19, Virgin Care Ltd.
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Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 13 January 2022 County Councillor Clarke
To agree for accuracy the notes of the meeting and receive any matters arising. Minutes: Resolved: That the minutes were agreed as an accurate record and there were no matters arising from them.
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Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2026, Draft Promise and Objectives Andreas Feldhaar, Jane Hylton, Ralph Rushworth, Permanence Service, LCC
To review the Lancashire Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2026 and the draft Lancashire Promise, and to note the objectives outlined.
Additional documents:
Minutes: Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council presented the Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2026, Draft Promise and Objectives and reiterated the importance of the role of a Corporate Parent.
The Board were asked to work in groups to discuss what they thought a good Corporate Parent should be and the characteristics they felt were really important to have. The Board were reminded of the Corporate Parenting Principles which is legislation and states what is important when acting as a Corporate Parent (details of the principles, can be found documented in the presentation attached). Following the discussion, feedback was given from each of the groups and a copy of the responses is provided in the minutes. A summary of some of the responses were:
· Support, think and plan for our young people · Children are the centre of thinking · Caring · Physical, emotional and wellbeing · Aspirations for our young people · Thoughtful · Engaging · Holistic understanding of care experienced young people · Life skills · Helping young people on the journey, when moving into independence
The Corporate Parenting Principles apply to Corporate Parents and are a statutory duty that have to be fulfilled. The Corporate Parenting role applies to any employee of Lancashire County Council including Elected Members and the principles are non-negotiable if you are in that role and does not matter whether you work directly with care experienced young people or not. The legislation also identifies relevant partners ie health, education, police and criminal justice. The principles do not apply to those relevant partners as a statutory duty, however relevant partners should be open to those principles and Corporate Parents, should encourage them to follow the principles. It is also the responsibility of a Corporate Parent to encourage services and businesses in the community, to commit to those principles and apply them in their actions, to enable a growing corporate family for young people.
The Board carried out another exercise to review the revised Corporate Parenting Promise that had been originally created with young people in 2018. The promise was built on the Corporate Parenting Principles and what it means to Board members and ensure, that in their role, colleagues' roles within their services, can commit and keep to the promise. It was noted that this would be followed up in the coming weeks. Feedback from the groups on their promise to young people, were shared with Board members and a copy of the comments are attached to the minutes.
The current Corporate Parenting Strategy runs from 2018-2022 and has been in the process of being reviewed since June 2021. The Board were presented with the draft amendments that had been made to that strategy and these had been circulated with the agenda. The eight new objectives reflected the four Corporate Parenting priorities, and the Board were asked to review the proposed objectives to ensure they reflected the four priorities and that they were the right objectives for the Board for the next four years. It was noted that the young people had also reviewed the ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
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Update from the Four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC
To receive a progress update from the four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups since the last Board meeting.
Minutes: Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council gave an update on the four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups and the progress that has been made so far:
i) Achieving Permanence – Aim is to promote the importance of permanence across the corporate family.
Progress so far was that County Councillor Stephen Clarke (and County Councillor Ash Sutcliffe) had met with Paul McIntyre, Head of Service for Fostering, Adoption and Residential, Mandy Williams, Head of Service for Family Safeguarding. A review of the Corporate Parenting Board membership had also taken place.
Next steps were, that meetings have been arranged for County Councillors Clarke and Sutcliffe with the Head of Service for Safeguarding, Inspection and Audit (16 March 2022), Head of Service for Front Door, Assessment and Adolescent Services (FAAS) on 22 March 2022 and that a meeting would also be arranged with the Service Managers of Permanence and Children in our Care.
ii) Improving sufficiency to provide the right home at the right place – Aim is currently to improve access to lasting homes for young people leaving care by holding a county meeting with district councils and selected registered providers.
Progress so far was that contact details had been confirmed, an agenda had been confirmed and the date set, and venue booked.
The next steps are for invites to be sent out on 18 March 2022, planning meetings to be held on 30 March 2022 and 27 April 2922 with the meeting for Lasting Homes for Lancashire's Care Leavers, County Meeting with district councils and selected registered providers taking place on 4 May 2022.
It was also noted that it was the first time in over two years that the Housing Policy was no longer in a draft format and that it had been circulated to the districts, accompanied by a letter signed by County Councillors Kay and Gibson. County Councillor Gibson also reiterated that as part of this priority group they were keen to ensure that the voice of the young people was heard and that they were involved in the County meeting. It was confirmed that this would be in the form of a video from young people who wished to express their requirements on their future homes.
iii) Improving social, physical, emotional and mental health support and outcomes – Aim is to support the escalation process to access emotional and mental health support.
Progress so far was to explore referral pathways and provisions across Lancashire, identifying complexity of emotional wellbeing and mental health provisions for young people in care and leaving care.
Next steps were for officers to identify the escalation process and feedback issues at its next priority group meeting which would be held in April/May 2022.
It was noted that Caroline Waldron had requested that one of the Board meetings be health focused and interactive.
It was also confirmed that the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provision was available up to the age of 19 years now.
In terms of mental health support ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Front Door, Assessment and Adolescent Services Chris Coyle, Front Door, Assessment and Adolescent Services (FAAS)
To receive a presentation about the work undertaken in Front Door, Assessment and Adolescent Services (FAAS). Minutes: Chris Coyle, Front Door Assessment and Adolescent Services (FAAS), Lancashire County Council provided an overview of the service to the Board. A presentation had been circulated with the agenda where further information can be found.
The Board were informed that Corporate Parenting was not something that happens in one part of Children's Services, it should start at the "Front Door". It was noted that there are approximately 8,000-10,000 requests for support a year via the "Front Door" in Lancashire, which is people asking for support in all sorts of different areas. From those requests, approximately 2,000-3,000, convert to a child/family requiring a social work assessment. There is a real focus that is driven by the Leadership Team within Lancashire County Council to make sure that children and families are treated in the same way and that there are high regards to care and high levels of aspirations for those children and families who are requesting support.
The Board were informed that a Peer Review had recently been undertaken by Manchester City Council on the Front Door Service around the culture and language and reported that there was some really good collaborative work with colleagues from the Police and Health etc, however it was raised that the language used around children and families could be better and this will now be developed across all Children's Services in Lancashire.
The Board were informed that social care assessments are carried out by the Duty Assessment Teams who are based across Lancashire and their aim is to work 'with' children and families, not 'at', to look at what support is best for them and how their needs can be best met, either within Children's Social Care or with a partner agency. The Authority is developing a "warm hands approach" in how children and families are warmly handed over to those who are best placed to support them.
Another area of work is around Adolescent Services of which there are two elements:
i) Child and Youth Justice Services (formerly Youth Offending Team), again, language has been changed as the former name had implications that youths offended, and discussions had been held with young people currently in that service, around renaming it from the Youth Offending Team and they chose the new service title of Child and Youth Justice.
The aim of the service is to prevent and divert young people from being known to the service in the first place. If young people do end up being known to the service, then it is how they are supported and ensure they are not repeat contacts. The In Care and Out of Trouble workstream, that has been set up in Lancashire following Lord Laming's review of children looked after within the Youth Justice Services has seen significant progress since its' introduction, in terms of reducing the number of children that have come into contact with the service.
ii) Contextual Safeguarding Teams included the Exploitation Team who support children at risk of criminal and/or sexual exploitation ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Participation Team Update 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 a piece of work conducted by young people about:
i) Supporting the recruitment and retention process for social workers in Children's Social Care. ii) Why it is good for a social worker to work with young people in Lancashire. Minutes: Young people from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) and April Rankin and Adam Riley, Participation Team, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Lancashire County Council presented to the Board a piece of work on what makes a good social worker.
The Board were requested to participate in an activity using Mentimeter and to answer the following question:
What do you think makes a good social worker?
The results were presented to the Board in the form of a word cloud and is attached to the minutes.
The young people then presented to the Board what they felt made a good social worker and again the responses can be found in the presentation attached to the minutes, with the following responses being highlighted:
Engaging – young people felt that this was important to them as it can help create a bond with their social worker and to help build trust. The felt that engaging and fun are also important to when planning to have meetings outside as this gets them out of the house.
They also felt that being honest with was important as social workers make decisions about their future and young people would like to know the truth about things - the good and the bad.
Other words that stood out from the results from the question asked of young people what they thought made a good social worker was:
· Understanding · Inclusive · Consistent · Caring · Non-judgmental · Reliable
The young people then spoke about how the topic of transition between workers could be approached, how to effectively implement a positive transition and gave they ideas for the future. Young people felt that:
· If a new worker was being introduced to them, eg a social worker or a personal advisor, they should be mindful to inform the young people of this change at an appropriate time. · This could be in either an informal or formal setting, dependent on the relationship and the young people, however it was felt that getting the setting right, could affect how the young people are feeling before they are told and if they are already anxious in the environment, news of getting a new worker could make them more anxious and upset. · Giving children and young people enough notice of the transition was also important so they did not feel like they had not been taken into consideration and that this would make them feel valued and able to feel prepared. · A good guide for the time frame is 4 to 8 weeks, ensuring that in this period of time young people get the chance to meet and get to know both their new worker. There has also been positive feedback that it helps young people, if both the new and old worker are there when we meet young people. · An idea that young people proposed would be to share with them a 'pen profile' of workers so young people could read about them on paper before they meet in person. · Another idea was that if a ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Any Other Business County Councillor Clarke
To receive any other business.
Minutes: FYP (For You Page) Newsletter
The editorial group need 100 care experienced young people between the ages of 14 and 25 to subscribe to the newsletter for 6 months and as an incentive, the first young people who subscribe and evaluate every newsletter, a one-off payment will be made of £25.
Resolved: That members of the Board were encouraged to sign up to the newsletter and to share the link within their teams/services with both professionals and care experienced young people. The link to register for the newsletter is:http://eepurl.com/hVC2nT. |
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Date and Time of Next Meeting County Councillor Clarke
Wednesday, 11 May 2022, 6pm, County Hall, Preston. Minutes: Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 6pm in Savoy Suite 2, The Exchange, County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RJ. |