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 122 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
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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 Julie Gibson, County Councillor Dorothy Lord, County Councillor Lorraine Beavers, Jane Simpson, Mark Twiname, Nicola Bamford, Diane Booth, Amanda Mansfield, Susan Towers and Stela Stansfield.
It was noted that this meeting would be the last for a few members of the Board and CC Prynn wished to thank them all for their hard work and dedication as members and wished them every success in the future.
Angela Epps, Agency Fostering and Susan Towers, Residential Fostering had also finished their term of 12 months representing private providers and CC Prynn thanked them also for their contribution.
For the next 12 months, Fran Ashcroft from Hexagon Care would be the Agency Residential representative and Mark Cartridge from Foster Care Associates would be the Agency Residential representative. The Board welcomed them to their first meeting.
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Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 1 December 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.
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What our Elected Members have been doing (5 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
CC Prynn reported that she had been involved with the shortlisting for the forthcoming PROUD Children Looked After (CLA) and Care Leavers event.
The Board were asked if anybody would like to donate a raffle prize for the event and if so, to ensure that Sam Gorton was informed who would make arrangements for collection. Closing date for donations would be 2 March 2017.
CC Prynn and CC Beavers had recently visited some 16/17 year old care leavers in supported accommodation and carried out an inspection similar to a Regulation 22 visit that happens in residential homes. Reports from these visits had been compiled and sent to Tony Morrissey for action. A young person that CC Prynn had visited had been invited to attend tonight to share his story with the Board, however had sent his apologies just before the meeting. He had turned his life around with the help of his social worker and his story was a huge success and would be invited back to a future meeting.
Action: CC Prynn to invite the young person back to a future meeting to share his success story.
CC Prynn had been contacted by various young people to deal with issues that had arisen since the last Board meeting and she commented she had found this welcoming that young people felt they could approach her and other Elected Members on the Board to help them deal with issues that have arisen.
CC Prynn had also attended an Adoption Exchange Day which encouraged potential adopters to take the next step towards adoption. This was attended by representatives from across the North West and it had been the best attended event so far. Adopters spoke about their experiences of adoption and the event was well received. CC Prynn praised Georgine Lee from Fostering and Adoption Services and her team for organising this event and asked for feedback to be given to a future Board meeting.
Action: Tony Morrissey to feedback to Georgine Lee the praise that CC Prynn had given to her and her team and request feedback to be given to the Board on the day.
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LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) (60 mins) Young People and Barnardos
To receive feedback on the work our young people have been doing including:
Young Inspectors update Feedback on Performance report Care Leaver speaking, invited by Sue Prynn Care leaver discussion with Jane Hylton Benefit entitlements and sanctions Additional documents:
Minutes: What LINX Have Been Doing
LINX tabled a detailed account of what they had been doing since 1 December 2016 and this is attached to these minutes.
Performance Report
Young people raised concerns as detailed in the Powerpoint with regards the missing and absent data in the report. Tony Morrissey stated that the definition is being reviewed by the Police nationally and the young people commented that being late home should not be classed as missing or absent.
With regards education, the Board had done a lot of work on the Pupil Premium to support CLA. CC Prynn asked the young people if they felt that the pupil premium was successful for them or did it need revisiting as a Board. They felt it still needed working on as new members to LINX said they did not know it was available and this was only a small cohort of CLA.
Following discussion it was agreed that as a Board this needed to be investigated further ie look at visiting schools and discuss further with them. CC Prynn agreed to discuss with Audrey Swann, Headteacher, Vulnerable and Looked After Children as this was her area and look at what progress had been made so far and see where the pupil premium was being spent. Schools where pupil premium was being used well could share good practice with other schools.
Blackpool Council provide a list in Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings on what Pupil Premium can be used for, and it was felt that this would be good for Lancashire to adopt. The Board requested that Audrey look into what Blackpool is doing and compare it with Lancashire and see if any areas of good practice could be adopted.
A young person in attendance at the meeting gave her experience on how their pupil premium had been used by attending a trip to Rome and agreed that young people need to be made more aware of what it can be used for.
Actions: i) CC Prynn to discuss further with Audrey Swann on the progress of Pupil Premium and what can be done to target schools that were not using it well.
ii) Tony Morrissey on behalf of the Board to request that Audrey Swann compares what Blackpool Council and Lancashire County Council do in respect of pupil premiums.
Young Inspectors Update
The attached Powerpoint was presented and there were no issues arising from it.
Benefits Entitlements and Sanctions
The Young People conducted a quiz and the answers are in red as attached in the Powerpoint.
One young person raised concerns with being unable to contact their Personal Adviser and others stated that this had been the case also.
The young person then contacted CC Prynn and Mia Leyland (Barnardo's) as they were having issues with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as they had been informed they were having their benefits sanctioned. It was only after CC Prynn and Mia Leyland became involved did the DWP start to listen. It ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Jane Hylton, Children's Social Care, LCC
To receive an update. Minutes: Kieran Danskin and Jane Hylton were welcomed to the meeting. Kieran spoke about his perspective on what his Professional Personal Advisor (PPA) had helped him with as a young care leaver and took the Board through the presentation which is attached to the minutes.
Kieran's PPA had helped him with housing benefits and entitlements, accommodation, employment, education and training, leaving care ISA, preparation for independence and participation in groups ie Children in Care Council.
Kieran reported that through employment he had got involved with various groups including the Young People's Benchmarking Forum which he wished to bring updates to future meetings and the Board agreed they would receive them.
Jane Hylton confirmed that there were monthly meetings held with the PPA teams across Lancashire and they are looking at different approaches being made.
Jane also discussed the Living Independently Booklet which was a short course by ASDAN and informed the Board that Lancashire was going to pilot this and were looking for any foster carers that are willing to be a part of this pilot scheme and Crestmoor Residential Home are looking at the cooking section of the course. Six young people are also needed to pilot the scheme too and it is an accredited certificate too.
The pilot will finish at the end of March and Jane agreed to report back at the April meeting and then hopefully role the programme out across Lancashire.
Actions: i) Jane Hylton to attend a Fostering Forum meeting to discuss the Living Independently Booklet with carers and request them to be part of the pilot scheme.
ii) Kirsty Clarke to send names of young people who are interested in piloting the scheme.
iii) Sam Gorton to ensure a report is given at the April meeting on the ASDAN Living Independently Booklet with a report on the pilot scheme by Jane Hylton.
Discussions have been had with other authorities who are using Facebook for Care Leavers and Leeds City Council have a successful social media account called Clued Up. It was agreed that Jane would contact Leeds City Council and invite them to the next CPB meeting to discuss how they manage their Facebook site and see if Lancashire can adopt it.
Action: Jane Hylton to invite representatives from Leeds City Council to present their Facebook site to the Board at its next meeting.
Kate Baggaley updated the Board on a young person who, through her leaving care worker and staff at Barnardo's had secured some funding for her to go New York with College as part of her course in February 2017. The young person spoke about what the trip entailed and how this would benefit her in the future.
Once again the young people were thanked for their detailed update to the Board on all the activities they had been involved in.
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Care of the Vulnerable Workstream (20 mins) Kelly Taylor, NHS East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissionin Group (CCG)
To receive feedback. Minutes: Kelly Taylor, NHS East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was welcomed to the meeting. Kelly is the lead on improving care for the most vulnerable in Pan Lancashire and CLA and Care Leavers are in this category.
Kelly gave some background on how the Lancashire Transformation Partnership brought together mental health services, CCGs and NHS Health Trusts in Lancashire with schools and many organisations that work with children and young people. Together they wrote a plan last year called "Our Plans for better services – Lancashire Children and Young People's Resilience, Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Transformation Plan 2015-2020. An update to the plan had now also been produced, which details what had been achieved in Year 1, key priorities and how these would be done.
Kelly tabled the CLA – Gold Standards diagram which detailed the components of what a CLA and Care Leaver should receive. Feedback was requested on this document by end of February. A link to the documents can be found here.
The following link is to support staff training with regards to the children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing passports and about me cards.
Action: LINX agreed to feedback to Kelly on the Gold Standards and if any member of the Board wanted to feedback that would be welcome also.
Kate informed the Board that LINX had recently met with Chorley CCG around mental health and invited Kelly to a future LINX meeting.
Kelly distributed a passport Health and Wellbeing card that had been produced which young people own and could take it along to any health or social appointment. The young person can put anything on the card that will make professionals aware of issues, without the young person having to explain it each time, ie if they are challenged in communication, have autism etc. The passports are available from Voluntary Sector organisations and Lynsey Evans, Foster Carer asked if Kelly could send some to the Fostering Service so these could be distributed to Foster Carers.
Action: Kelly Taylor to send Sam some more passports to give to the Fostering Service for distribution.
Kelly was thanked for her presentation to the Board.
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Stephen Martin
To discuss how the CPB considers SEND in its discussions and decisions. Minutes: Stephen Martin, SEND Senior Manager East Lancashire, LCC spoke to the report that was circulated with the agenda.
Stephen informed the Board of the changes that had happened in September 2014 with the Children and Families Act and asked what reports, briefings and information on SEND the Board wished to receive and how frequently they wished to receive it.
Resolved: i) that the Board received further data on how many CLA came into the SEND category and this would be shared with the Board and further discussions would then be had on how as a Board this is taken forward.
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Any Other Business County Councillor Prynn
To receive any other business.
Minutes: There was no other business to report.
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Date and Time of Next Meeting County Councillor Prynn
Thursday, 20 April 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, 20 April 2017 at 6.00pm (refreshments served from 5.30pm) in the Duke of Lancaster Room – Cabinet Room 'C', County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RJ.
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CPB Annual Report to LSCB To note the CPB Annual report that was presented to the Lancashire Safeguarding Children's Board meeting on 13 February 2017.
Minutes: This item was for information only. Any queries arising from this, please email sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk.
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Update on Activity Day To note the report from the event which took place on 5 November 2016. Minutes: This item was for information only. Any queries arising from this, please email georgine.lee@lancahire.gov.uk. |