Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings to watch them in person at any of the venues across the County. Publicly accessible meetings held in County Hall will be webcast, which means they are available to be watched live or recorded on our website. Please see our webcasting notice here. The Committee may, in certain circumstances, resolve to hold part of the meeting in private. If this is the case, you will be required to leave the meeting.
PDF 121 KBVenue: Committee Room 'C' - The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions
Contact: Sam Gorton Tel: 01772 532471 email: sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk
| No. | Item |
|---|---|
|
Introductions and Apologies County Councillor Prynn
To note who is attending and any apologies for absence. Minutes: All were welcomed to the meeting and apologies were received and noted from County Councillor Dorothy Lord, Debbie Ross, Diane Booth, Lynsey Evans, Mark Twiname, Audrey Swann and Debbie Duffell.
|
|
|
Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 8 September 2016 County Councillor Prynn
To agree for accuracy the notes of the meeting and receive any matters arising. Minutes: The minutes were agreed as an accurate record and there were no matters arising from them.
|
|
|
What our Elected Members have been doing (15 mins) County Councillor Prynn and other Elected Members
To note feedback from work undertaken by the Chair of the Board and our Elected Members as part of their role on the CPB, including Member visits carried out since the last meeting. Minutes: CC Prynn
Attended an activity day at Preston North End Football Club for prospective adoptive parents where they were presented with packs on children who are awaiting adoption. CC Prynn raised some points with Tony Morrissey who will discuss with Children's Social Care.
Working with officers around commissioning Mental Health Services and more specifically with vulnerable groups. CC Prynn has fed back to officers what services children looked after and care leavers receive especially around post-traumatic stress disorder, attachment and isolation issues and that they need to listen to those young people who use the services.
Children's Services Scrutiny Committee (CSSC) have been looking at strategies to attract more foster carers and CC Prynn has suggested to the CSSC Chair that it may be an idea for the CPB to be involved in this, particularly with regards to promoting the fostering of teenagers.
Action: CPB to work jointly with CSSC with regards to work on fostering campaigns. Sam Gorton to send an email to the Chair of CSSC, County Councillor Gina Dowding stating that the CPB would like to be involved with work on fostering campaigns, suggesting that the CPB and LINX do a piece of work on trying to attract more people to foster teenagers (a group which is considered more difficult to find foster placements for).
CC Prynn, Brindle and Beavers are going to visit supported accommodation around the County for 16/17 year olds as these are a particularly vulnerable group of care leavers.
It was noted that a letter had been received recently from a former care leaver praising the support he had received from social care, especially Darren Tahir and his team. It stated that they had been instrumental in his success and that he had recently trained and become a solicitor.
|
|
|
Peer to Peer Mentoring (30 mins) Tom Redfearn, Children's Society
To receive feedback. Minutes: Tom Redfearn, Kirsten Naude and Rob Dickinson from The Children's Society (TCS) were welcomed to the meeting talk about a proposal that is being piloted called "Financial Peer-to-Peer Mentoring.
The proposed model is delivered in four phases as detailed in the PowerPoint presentation attached to these minutes and the organisational outcome from the pilot is that "Families are less likely to fall into debt and families are able to manage in difficult financial situations". It is crucial that care leavers learn about money matters.
The potential next steps is to aim to develop financial resourcefulness in vulnerable young people and help them to manage their finances, debt and financial opportunities.
Lancashire's CPB can get involved with this with their care leavers and pilot this scheme.
It was noted that Callum had carried out some work with TCS on raising awareness around debt and helped to create a leaflet for this to help other care leavers.
Action: CC Prynn, Tony Morrissey and Jane Hylton to speak to Rob/Kirsten/Tom outside of the meeting and see how Lancashire can become involved and tailor the scheme to appropriately to Lancashire's requirements. This work would also involve care leavers too to get their thoughts on the scheme.
Tom, Kirsten and Rob were thanked for attending the Board meeting.
|
|
|
LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) (60 mins) Young People, Barnardos, Hannah Peake/Jane Hylton/Marcus Devaney (LCC)
To receive feedback on the work our young people have been doing including:
Performance Report Young Inspectors Update Rights and Entitlements Guide for Care Leavers Additional documents:
Minutes: What LINX have been doing
LINX gave a detailed account of what they had been doing since 8 September 2016. Details can be found on the PowerPoint attached.
The Board congratulated the young people on all the amazing work they had carried out and the awards they had won. The Board are very grateful and the young people are a credit to Lancashire.
National Leaving Care Benchmark
Kieran then spoke about the National Leaving Care Benchmark that he and Natasha attended in Chelsea where they met with other care leavers from around the Country to work on a project called "Show Me That I Matter". They discussed what Lancashire had been doing and created a poster. They have now been invited to another National event in York with Social Work Managers.
Kieran has also been working on the preparation for independence pack.
Performance Report
LINX provided the Board with feedback from the Performance Report. Their comments are attached on the Powerpoint included with these minutes. They were impressed with the work the Virtual Head and her team had done on raising educational targets and the change in Key Stage 4 stats especially as these are changing and schools are measured on progress not just results now.
Mental Health
LINX have been looking at mental health in their groups and the Board engaged in a quiz as attached to these minutes.
Main points raised were that LINX would like a leaflet for LINX and Foster Carers to include information on topics such as:
Self-esteem Self-harm Stress Trust issues Depression
Also details on where help can be accessed from.
Takeover November
Concerns were raised with regards obtaining permissions for young people to come out of school to take part on takeover events – Barnardo's are having to try to overcome numerous barriers which has been really frustrating and upsetting for some young people as they have not been able to get involved.
Kirsty Clarke from The Children's Society echoed the same challenges with regards contacting social workers.
Action: Tony Morrissey to discuss the issues further with Barnardo's and The Children's Society outside the meeting.
Rights and Entitlements for CLA and Care Leavers
Marcus Devaney and Jane Hilton gave a demonstration on a new work in progress website which will benefit CLA and Care Leavers in knowing what their rights and entitlements are.
The Board felt that this was the way forward instead of having to search around Lancashire County Council and other external websites to try and find information out. A simple completion of an e-form will take them directly to the information they require and because it is electronic it will be easier to update and ensure correct information is available real time.
The next stage in the process is to discuss this further with ICT and Communication to develop it further.
Marcus agreed to attend a LINX meeting and talk further with them about what they want from the website.
Marcus and Jane agreed to come back to the ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
|
|
Update on what Personal Adviser Hubs Do and the Role of a Personal Adviser (15 mins) Jane Hylton, Children's Social Care, LCC
To receive an update. Minutes: It was agreed that Jane would come back to the next meeting as there was not enough time left to discuss the item.
Action: Sam to put on the agenda for the next meeting in February 2017.
|
|
|
Any Other Business County Councillor Prynn
To receive any other business.
Minutes: Service 6 Bid
CC Prynn reported that the bid was nearly complete and will then be submitted.
Action: Kris and Jane Hylton to liaise further about Service 6 work outside the meeting.
Respite Care
CC Prynn also reported that Louise Taylor approached the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee to suggest looking at a project to introduce respite care for families in crisis where children are at risk of going into care. Such respite would be provided by willing volunteers in the community. CC Prynn stated that she had mentioned at the same meeting that care leavers could also benefit from such a scheme where identified ‘community mentors’ in each county division could support care leavers. Would there be a role for each County Councillor in this?
Action: CC Prynn to ask Sam to invite Louise to a future CPB meeting to talk about this and whether this project could be adapted to provide community mentors for care leavers across Lancashire.
|
|
|
Meeting Schedule 2017 County Councillor Prynn
To note the dates of the meetings for 2017.
Minutes: The meeting schedule for 2017 was noted.
|
|
|
Date and Time of Next Meeting County Councillor Prynn
Thursday, 2 February 2017 at 6.00pm (refreshments served from 5.30pm) in the Duke of Lancaster Room – Cabinet Room 'C', County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RJ. Minutes: Thursday, 2 February 2017 at 6.00pm (refreshments served from 5.30pm in the Duke of Lancaster Room – Cabinet Room 'C', County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RJ.
|
|
|
Update on Activity Day To note the report from the event which took place on Monday, 26 September 2016. Minutes: This item was for information only. Any queries arising from this, please email georgine.lee@lancashire.gov.uk. |
|
|
To note the LSCB Annual Report. Additional documents: Minutes: This item was for information only. Any queries arising from this, please email jane.booth@lancashire.gov.uk.
|