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 Bev Williams, Liz Donnelly-Nelson, Lynsey Evans, Stephen Young, Audrey Swann, Dr Nicola Bamford, Gina Power, Jo Swords and Kirsty Clarke.

Caroline Waldron was attendong 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.

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 information on what the Participation team have been doing and what is their offer.

Mary and Georgia from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), April Rankin and Adam Riley, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with a revised presentation which can be found attached to the minutes and provided further insight on Participation including:

·  What is Participation?

·  What are the aims?

·  Meet the Staff Team

·  Lancashire Youth Council

·  What has Lancashire Youth Council been up to?

·  POWAR Send Forum

·  What has POWAR been up to?

·  LINX Children in Care Council (CICC) and Care Leaver Forum (CLF)

·  What has CICC and CLF been up to?

·  Working alongside

·  Upskilling to teach additional skills

·  Locations

An update was received on what LINX (Children in Care Council) (CICC) and the Care Leaver Forum (CLF) had been doing from July 2021 to the present, which included online sessions which had now moved to a hybrid model as well as face to face, to better facilitate the needs of young people.  To date there had been 191 engagements with 50 unique young people.  The sessions included the summer events and care leaver week activities which were a huge success with 21 care experienced young people attending the summer involvement Zoom sessions and 28 care experienced young people attending the summer involvement activity day sessions. The age range of the young people that attended were between 8 and 25.  Care leavers week also saw 55 engagements of whom 23 were unique young people to the Service.

It was noted that the young people have been committed to their role in these groups and have been taking part in extra meetings and sessions such as interview panels for social workers,  facilitating interviews for the youth policy strategic lead role and are currently working with Children's Social Care managers to interview senior social workers where the young people's marks are equal to the managers.

An important aspect of the Children in Care Council (CICC) and Care Leavers Forum (CLF) is to ensure that Lancashire's looked after children and care leavers, are making changes which helps other children and young people.  There are opportunities to attend meetings and work with other children looked after forums across the North West, as well as working with local groups, Social Workers, Targeted Youth Support Workers, Personal Advisors, Managers and Heads of Service.

One of the ways in which young people can make change is through Young Inspectors, and a training day was recently delivered for all members to become young inspectors who will then inspect services for cared for children and young people.  Other young people from Lancashire's  wider participation groups also attended the training, to plan for visits to SEN schools, and Child and Family Wellbeing provisions.

Members on the groups have also taken part in consultations where the feedback received is imperative.  This included the Family Safeguarding booklet, fostering and adoption, what's it like to be supported by Children's Social Care and the summer involvement and recruitment event with the aim being to share the outcomes and reports with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Amanda Barbour, Looked After Children and Leaving Care Service, LCC/Caroline Waldron, East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group

To receive an update on the pilot.

Amanda Barbour, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council and Caroline Waldron Safeguarding and Looked After Children, East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) gave an update on the Rossendale Dental Pilot which commenced on 20 September 2021 and came about from an approach that was made by a Dental Practice within Rossendale raising concerns that not many children had returned for dental checks after the Covid pandemic.  An opportunity was identified for some collaboration between Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Children's Social Care and Dental Practices.  It is a six month pilot, and an evaluation will commence in January 2022 as a mid-point.  The pilot follows on from a report that had previously been presented to the Board where they were informed that Dental assessment data was at its lowest.  Since that report, it was confirmed that the dental assessment data had significantly improved, particularly since the pilot had commenced.

The presentation attached to the minutes provided an overview on:

The beginnings – how the pilot came about

Some interesting facts about dentists

What are the aims and objectives of the pilot?

How the pilot will meet these aims and objectives

Where is the pilot happening? Who with? When?

Next steps

A full bespoke training package has been produced by the Enhanced Child Looked After Team and this has been delivered to the Dentists and young people have been involved in that and there has been lots of social media communications around what children/young people think needs to be delivered in terms of training to Dentists, ie what they think Dentists need to know.  There is also an option for Dentists to provide a virtual tour which will help those young people, particularly those with anxiety around attending in an attempt to break down some of the barriers and is a key element in the pilot scheme.

It is hoped that following the six month pilot scheme in Rossendale, it will be rolled out across Lancashire and South Cumbria and in order to do that a Post Graduate Dental Research student from UCLAN and NHSE/I has been enlisted and will formally evaluate the pilot.  Feedback will be requested from children and young people and a number of ways to gather the information has been devised.  This will be formalised in a formal review after six months of the pilot and any improvements required will be addressed prior to rolling this out across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Following the presentation, it was queried as to whether there was quantitative as well as qualitative outcomes that were being looked at in the six month timeframe.  It was noted that it would be quantifiably measured by the performance that will be monitored on a weekly basis in terms of the uptake of Dental Health Assessments for all children, however a bespoke dashboard has been developed just for the purpose of the Rossendale Dental Pilot.  Current figures showed that there had been a slight increase since starting in September 2021.  In the Rossendale footprint in August 2021  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Young People from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) Brian Wood, April Rankin and Adam Riley, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, LCC

To receive consultation and evaluation feedback from young people, supported by the Child and Family Wellbeing Service, LCC.

Young people from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council, Brian Wood, April Rankin and Adam Riley, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Lancashire County Council provided an update to the Board on the Summer Involvement Report 2021 which was attached to the agenda and can be found here.

The report contained further details and Mary and Georgia, LINX (Children in Care Council) representatives, who attended the sessions, provided an update to the Board:

·  Summary

·  Uptake and planning

·  Zoom sessions

·  Borwick Hall Outdoor session

·  Hothersall Lodge Outdoor session

·  Anderton Centre Outdoor session

·  Impact and staff feedback

A short video from young people was presented to the Board on the summer activities and it was proposed that these would be shared on social media.

After the event, it was noted that it had impacted each young person differently and that they had taken away something different from their time during the activities.  Some young people stated that they would like to get involved in more outdoor activity type sessions and some expressed an interest in the youth offer and this has resulted in an increase of children and young people attending the Children in Care Council (CICC) and Care Leavers Forum (CLF).  Positive feedback had also been received from carers.

Feedback from young people and staff will now be evaluated in preparation for the events for Summer 2022.

Resolved:  That the Board noted the update.

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC

To have an open discussion in order to enable the Board to identify and agree, how it can impact and make a difference to the lives of our children and young people.

Brendan Lee, Children in Care and Care Leavers, and Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council outlined to the Board that various meetings had taken place prior to the Board with the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Board along with the Cabinet Member for Children and Families, the Board's Lead Officer and the Director of Children's Services on the four priorities that Board will be involved in going forwards.

The Board was asked to launch a piece of work for all care leavers (16-25 years of age) to have a taster day/week at work, across the board from 1 April 2022.  Planning for this will need to commence as soon as possible and will be a pilot for Lancashire and regular updates need to be provided for the Board and will require a Lead Officer to co-ordinate this with the support of members of the Corporate Parenting Board.

The corporate parenting principles and its role and responsibility to support young people in care and care leavers, were again reiterated and the Board were reminded of the four partnership priorities.  Following discussions it was agreed that the Champion leads for each priority area were as follows:

i)  Achieving permanence - County Councillor Stephen Clarke

ii)  Improving sufficiency, providing the right homes at the right place at the right time - County Councillors Julie Gibson and Andrea Kay

iii)  Improving physical, social emotional and mental health support and outcomes - County Councillors Rupert Swarbrick and Ash Sutcliffe

iv)  Improving education, employment and training opportunities and outcomes - County Councillors Jeff Couperthwaite and Scott Smith

It was suggested that consultation events with wider partners, where young people can hold them to account would also be a good opportunity in progressing the key priorities.

The Board were also informed that NHS England are currently piloting schemes in acute hospitals to provide care leaver work provision in three locations, Salford, Liverpool and Blackpool and the plan is to roll this out wider which will include Lancashire hospitals and will offer young people an opportunity to work and seek employment in the NHS.

Resolved:  That Brendan Lee and Andreas Feldhaar will contact the leads for each priority to commence work and will set up virtual meetings to outline what is required from Elected Members.

Young People from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), Brian Wood, Child and Family Wellbeing Service and Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC

To receive a joint update from the Child and Family Wellbeing Service and the Permanence Service.

Young people from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), Brian Wood, Child and Family Wellbeing Service and Moya McKinney, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with an update on the Care Leavers week that had been held in November 2021 which provided lots of opportunities for care leavers to join in various events.  There was some disappointment in terms of the numbers of young people who attended the events which was due to a number of reasons, ie planning and due to restrictions of Covid and timescales.  There was an introductory event with Councillors and Senior Officers where young people shared their stories and journeys.  There were also a number of craft and cooking events and a walking event with staff and young people which was hugely successful and has been arranged again and took place today.  The week ended with a celebration event for a number of achievements for care leavers.  The Board also noted that staff in the Service felt that they had made very strong connections with young people who wanted to come to the events, however, were unable to for a number of reasons, however contact has continued with those young people and it was hoped that they would join the groups (LINX and POWAR) and would be supported and encouraged by the Permanence and Child and Family Wellbeing Services to play an active part in the groups in enabling them to have their voice heard.

A questionnaire has been extended to all care leavers asking them what kind of activities they might want to be organised on a regular basis for a range of topics, ie football, netball, dance.

The Board were informed that there were plans to have a number of these events going forwards, and that it was not just limited to Care Leaver Week and there will also be recruitment days throughout the year too as well as the Summer Activity Days where preparation has already commenced.

April Rankin, Child and Family Wellbeing Service and Georgia and Mary (LINX) presented a video and an overview of their experience from Care Leavers Week and what they had been involved with and how they felt that it had made a difference to their confidence and also getting to meet new people.

A big thank you was expressed to Georgia and Mary who had given up their time to prepare the presentations and deliver them to the Board.

Resolved:  That the Board noted the update and were encouraged with the continued work that was happening with care leavers and opportunities to get them involved more.

County Councillor Clarke

To note the schedule of meetings for 2022/2023.  Further details can be found in the link.

Resolved:  That the Board noted the timetable of meetings for 2022/2023.

County Councillor Clarke

To receive any other business.

County Councillor Clarke

Thursday, 13 January 2022 at 6pm, format to be confirmed.

Thursday, 13 January 2022 at 6pm, format to be agreed.