Agenda and minutes

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.

Venue: Committee Room 'D' - The Henry Bolingbroke Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Sam Gorton  Tel: 01772 532471 email:  sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions and Apologies

County Councillor Ian Brown

 

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 Stephen Clarke and Amanda Mansfield.

 

2.

Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 14 March 2018 pdf icon PDF 91 KB

County Councillor Ian Brown

 

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

Minutes:

County Councillor Ian Brown informed the Board that the new Executive Director of Growth, Environment, Transport and Community Services, Stephen Young, would be joining the Board as this was something he was involved in at Bolton Council.

 

3.

Corporate Parenting Board Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 60 KB

County Councillor Ian Brown

 

The Board to agree the amended Terms of Reference.

Minutes:

The Board agreed the amended Terms of Reference and were informed that these would be presented to Cabinet for approval on 14 June 2018.

 

CC Brown updated the Board on an email query he had received from a care leaver regarding accommodation provision during the summer when Universities were in recess.  CC Brown contacted Jane Hylton, Lancashire County Council and the situation was resolved and that the care leaver was happy with the outcome.  CC Brown wished to thank Jane for her help with the matter.

 

4.

What LINX Have Been Doing pdf icon PDF 83 KB

LINX, Lancashire's Children in Care Council

 

To note feedback from work undertaken by LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), Performance Report and the Young Inspectors since the last meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

LINX presented the attached PowerPoint to the Board on all the activities they had been involved with since the last meeting in March 2018.

 

The Board were informed that the Include Me 2 Service, Barnardo's were applying for Investors in Children accreditation and that young people had met with the panel.

 

Resolved:  Barnardo's to inform the Board at a future meeting of the outcome of the accreditation, as they were a commissioned service by Lancashire County Council.

 

Three young people from LINX were members of the Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) and a report following their campaign on housing and homelessness would be presented to the Houses of Parliament on 13 June 2018.

 

Young Inspectors Update

 

The attached Powerpoint was presented and there were no issues arising from it.

 

5.

Corporate Parenting Strategy

Peter Knowles, LCC and Young People

 

To receive the draft Corporate Parenting Strategy for comment and agree a workplan for the next 12 months.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Peter Knowles and Roxanne McAllister, Lancashire County Council presented the draft Corporate Parenting Strategy to the Board.

 

The attached PowerPoint explained the seven principles from the Children and Social Work Act 2017 that the strategy is based upon.  From those principles Lancashire have devised the following nine key priorities:

 

Priority 1: Ensure Children can remain safely at home

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that early intervention is provided at the right time to prevent the need for statutory intervention''

 

Priority 2: Care Leaver Local offer

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that all care leavers feel supported and can access a range of service to promote their continued wellbeing into adulthood'.

 

Priority 3: Education, Training and Employment

 

'Our Priority is to close the attainment gap between those children and Young People that the Local Authority cares for and those that are cared for in their own families'.

 

Priority 4: A Suitable Place to live and be cared for

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that the children and Young People we care for have a range of suitable and appropriate accommodation to meet their immediate and long term needs'.

 

Priority 5: Health and Wellbeing

 

'Our Priority is to improve the health and wellbeing of the children and young people we care for'.

 

Priority 6: Money and Financial Support

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that Young People have enough money to provide for their needs whilst in care and after they have left care and ensure that they are supported financially to establish their own homes'.

 

Priority 7: Children are protected from harm and or Risk of Exploitation

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that children are protected from harm and exploitation and ensure that they are provided with support to overcome any pull factors that would lead them to being exploited'.

 

Priority 8: Children in Care and Care leaver celebration

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that the children we looked after and have looked after are recognised for their achievements'.

 

Priority 9: Children and Young People have a voice in the way we deliver our services

 

'Our Priority is to ensure that children and young people are consulted and actively participate in the decisions we make about how we deliver our services'. Nothing about me without me.

 

The Board were then asked to discuss on their tables the priorities and comment on them.  Feedback from the group work is attached.

 

Members were informed that most work had been done on the Health and Wellbeing priority (Priority 5).  Lots of work had been done on the other priorities also, but Priority 5 was the main one.

 

John Readman asked the Board if they felt whether there was a 10th priority which was supporting leisure/play and that children in care/care leavers should enjoy themselves.

 

Resolved:  That the Board agreed there should be a 10th priority and that this should also be incorporated into the revised pledge.

 

The next steps were to recreate the pledge with the help of LINX. A young person  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Care Leaver Local Offer pdf icon PDF 101 KB

Jane Hylton, LCC, Aaron Walmsley-Fishwick and Ralph Rushworth, LCC Apprentices

 

To receive the findings from the care leaver consultation.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Jane Hylton, Lancashire County Council gave feedback on the care leaver local offer consultation 2018 which took place at Lancaster University on 15 February 2018 and was also available online for seven weeks.  Young people were encouraged to complete this either by Social Workers, Personal Advisers, carers, locality care leaver groups, care leaver forum and LINX.

 

The attached PowerPoint which was presented by Aaron Walmsley-Fishwick and Ralph Rushworth was a snapshot of what they felt were the most important quotes from the care leavers under the subject areas of health and wellbeing, accommodation, education, employment and training and participation.

 

For the consultation and feedback to be effective for a meaningful local offer, the information needs to be fed back to Senior Leadership Team, elected members and district Chief Executives.

 

Two care leavers that were working on the local offer have so far presented the findings to the Purposeful Practice Board, attended by the Chief Executive.  This would be further rolled out to the localities.  Apprentices update care leavers on the progress of the local offer via social media, LINX, Care leaver forum and the locality care leaver groups.  Consultation findings have been fed back to the Local Offer Task and Finish group-multi agency representation and production of a young person's friendly animation on 'What is a Care Leaver Local Offer' was due to be finalised by mid-June.  Apprentices would arrange co-design workshops with the locality care leaver groups.

 

It was envisaged that the Local Offer would be published in October 2018, however, the Board were reminded that it would always be evolving with information added to it over time.

 

Various points were raised by members of the Board:

 

i)  There was still a lack of males undertaking the Independent Visitor role and the Children's Society asked that colleagues encourage care leavers to take on this role which would also give them an interest at the weekends.

ii)  Care leavers need more encouragement to study abroad.

iii)  British Heart Foundation was offering care leavers the ability to use their setting up home allowances with them.

iv)  9am-5pm services do not work for care leavers.

v)  Create ASDAN groups and include foster carers.

vi)  Buddy up foster carers with care leavers.

vii)  Look at pre-planning activities for local areas.

County Councillor Ian Brown thanked Aaron and Ralph for their brilliant presentation.

 

7.

Children's Society pdf icon PDF 121 KB

Kirsty Clarke, Children's Rights Society

 

To receive an overview of the Children's Rights Service, common advocacy themes and a reminder on how the referral process works.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Kirsty Clarke from The Children's Society gave a brief overview of the Children's Rights Service, common advocacy themes and a reminder on how the referral process works.  The PowerPoint presented is attached.

 

The Independent Visitor scheme was currently being piloted now up to the age of 25 years. 

 

As reported earlier in the meeting, there was a shortage of male Independent Visitors.  One council asked their Corporate Parenting Board members to refer one person to be an Independent Visitor, however this cannot be Councillors, staff in Social Care or Foster Carers.  If anybody would like further details on becoming an Independent Visitor or know of anybody who would like to be one, to contact Kirsty Clarke, email kirsty.clarke@childrenssociety.org.uk.

 

From 1 August 2018, after lobbying nationally for apprenticeship bursaries, the provider would now get £1000 to be paid to the apprentice.  Arrangements on how this would be paid to the apprentice are still in development.

 

Omar Saddique, Safer Families, Lancashire presented the Safer Families element from the attached PowerPoint.  He informed the Board about the tailored training packages which was raising the awareness of the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Lancashire.  These can be delivered to schools, colleges, universities, community groups and any other organisation that requests training.  If anybody requires any further information then they can contact Omar, email omar.saddique@childrenssociety.org.uk.

 

8.

Staying Put Policy

Barbara Bath, LCC

 

To receive an update on the Staying Put policy and response to a young person's PowerPoint presentation from the March 2018 Board meeting.

Minutes:

Following on from the last meeting held on 14 March 2018, the Fostering Service had been raising further awareness on the Staying Put policy.

 

The attached PowerPoint clarifies the Staying Put policy and that recommendations had been made to Central Government and Ofsted to develop a framework for delivery of an equivalent 'Staying Put' support to be made available for young people in residential care.  For those young people in residential care, young people were encouraged to stay in touch with their residential homes and maintain close relationships.

 

9.

Any Other Business

County Councillor Ian Brown

 

To receive any other business.

 

Minutes:

There was no other business received.

 

10.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

County Councillor Ian Brown

 

Thursday, 26 July 2018 at 1.30pm in Committee Room 'C' - Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.  This is the young person led meeting.

Minutes:

The next scheduled meeting will take place on Thursday, 26 July 2018 at 1.30pm in Committee Room 'C' – Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.  This is the young person led meeting.

11.

Performance Report pdf icon PDF 507 KB

Performance Report for May 2018.

Minutes:

This item was for information.