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 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 Angela Epps, Caroline Waldron, Lynda Pearson, Stephen Young and Rachel Blundell.

 

County Councillor Carl Crompton was in attendance for County Councillor Julie Gibson and Andy Smith was replacing Barbara Bath for this meeting.

 

County Councillor Jayne Rear was replacing County Councillor Phillippa Williamson as a Board member.

 

Catherine the adoption representative had resigned from the Board and a replacement was being sought.

 

The Chair congratulated Jane Hylton who had recently won an award at the PROUD celebration event.

 

2.

Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 28 March 2019 pdf icon PDF 319 KB

County Councillor Brown

 

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

Minutes:

Resolved:  That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 March 2019 were agreed as a correct record.

 

County Councillor Brown informed the Board that following the last meeting and the discussions on housing, he had contacted Onward Homes in Ribble Valley re social housing for care leavers.  Their response was forwarded to Barbara Bath and Rachel Blundell for reference.

 

3.

Getting to Good Plan

Andy Smith, Safeguarding, Inspection and Audit

 

To receive an update on the Getting to Good Plan.

 

Minutes:

Andy Smith, Safeguarding, Inspection and Audit Team updated the Board on the progress of the Getting to Good Plan.

 

In 2018 the Authority moved from a rating of Inadequate to Requires Improvement on the journey to being Good.  Lots of work had and was being undertaken.

 

A Getting to Good Board had been set up which the Corporate Parenting Board links in to along with the Operational Board - Permanence and Children in our Care.

 

Children's Services had recently undergone a Peer Review around Permanence and a Joint Targeted Area Inspection.

 

Following this 11 recommendations were made and key issues were as following:

 

·  Children Looked After Plans

·  Leaving Care - Challenges for Managers and Independent Reviewing Officers

·  Plans not progressing

·  If things are not happening, young people can challenge them

·  Permanence and Planning

·  Data

 

The focus for improvement was not just for the local authority, it also included other agencies such as health.  Good partnership working was needed to enable purposeful practice and that the needs of the young person was met all the way through the system.

 

There were currently 142 actions on the plan which are all RAG rated.

 

In permanence planning, and the Authority's corporate responsibility there should be no drift and delay.  There should be a clear plan for permanence.  This needs to be strengthened and Teams need to be a lot better at this.  The Peer Challenge was taking place w/c 20 May 2019 and were looking at corporate responsibilities for children in care and care leavers.

 

The Permanence Policy had been rewritten.

 

Challenges the Service face were recognising the change of Social Workers and the impact this had on young people.  The teams try to minimise this as much as possible.  Another was the caseloads that Social Workers have which are around 25-28 per worker.  Retention of staff and agency staff was also a big issue.

 

The number of children looked after going off child protection plans was increasing which has a significant effect on social workers caseloads.

 


4.

Education, Employment and Training

LINX

 

LINX to inform the Board how they feel supported in their education, employment and training which includes Personal and Educational Plans.

 

Minutes:

LINX presented this item to the Board and had distributed around the room posters of their journeys through education and beyond if applicable.  Members were then asked to look at the young people's journeys and then produce their own and compare them with the young peoples.

 

Following this exercise and discussion, the Board agreed that our young people's experiences in education should not be any different to its corporate parents' educational journeys.

 

Audrey Swann, Headteacher for Vulnerable and Challenging Groups, Education, Quality and Performance gave a presentation on Promoting the Education of Children Looked After in Lancashire to the Board.

 

Audrey reported on the results from last year for all Key Stages.

 

At Key Stage 1: age 7, children in our care achieved better than the national average in Reading, Writing and Science, however did not do so well in Maths.  There was a gap between children who are in care and those who are not, however, results were going in the right direction.  These results have been compared with the rest of the County and previous years in Lancashire.  When children move schools, Maths attainments tends to suffer more and this was also the case if a child misses a number of weeks of school also.

 

At Key Stage 2: age 11, children in our care did better than the national average in Writing, Maths and Reading Writing and Maths together.  An improvement was needed on Reading.  Results were much better than the previous year.

 

At Key Stage 4: age 16, children looked after achieved better results than the last four years with average Attainment 8 scores rising by 3.4% and these were very close to the national average.  More of our young people achieved Grade 4 and above in English (25%) and Maths (18.5%).  This was a good significant rise, however there was still a gap between attainments for children in care and those who were not in care.

 

At Key Stage 5: age 17/18, 12 of our young people achieved Level 3 qualifications with four achieving distinctions.  84% of our year 13 young people achieved at least one qualification.

 

Higher Education – the number of our young people going on to university had increased from 32 (April 2017) to 54 (March 2019).  This figure still needs to increase, especially with the number of care leavers in Lancashire (approximately 900) who are aged 16-25.  Care leavers are supported with higher education up to the age of 25.

 

Audrey informed the Board what was happening next:

 

·  Attachment aware schools – whole school training for up to 84 schools over the next two years – this will raise awareness, understanding and knowledge  of adverse childhood experiences such as separation and the impact on children. It will also help school staff to provide the appropriate support for the pupils affected.

·  Empower Academy, Key Stage 4 Conference.

·  Home reading project.

·  New Personal Education Plans (PEPs) – pupil voice a priority.

·  On line learning tool for all our children, young people and their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Protection from Harm and Risk of Exploitation and Permanence and Planning

Chris Coyle, Children's Social Care

 

To receive information on what the Council is doing for young people in care and care leavers in protecting them from harm and risk of exploitation and permanence and planning and working with the Police on a joint protocol and early action work.  Also, to inform the Board on the In Care out of Trouble agenda.

Minutes:

This report was deferred due to apologies from the presenter and will come back to the Board at a future meeting.

 

6.

LINX/Care Leavers Forum Update

LINX

 

To receive an update on key topics since the last Corporate Parenting Board meeting.

Minutes:

The Board received an update from LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) and the Care Leaver's Forum on what they had been involved with since the last Corporate Parenting Board meeting:

 

·  Virtual Schools Peer Review

·  Social Workers Academy

·  Annual Review meeting for Barnardo's participation

·  PROUD Awards

·  Care Leavers Network Journey in Glasgow

·  All Party Parliamentary Group to discuss personal advisors (PAs) and knife crime

·  Care Leavers Forum

·  LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council)

·  Interviewed for the Council's Director of Children's Social Care

 

7.

Corporate Parenting Board Strategy Action Plan pdf icon PDF 349 KB

Andy Smith, Safeguarding, Inspection and Audit

 

To receive and update on the Corporate Parenting Board Action Plan.

 

Minutes:

The Board discussed the Action Plan.  It was felt that there needed to be names against objectives as to who was leading on each objective and following each Board meeting, the plan should be updated and be a working document for the Board to refer to.  It was agreed that:

 

Resolved:  That a sub-committee look at the Action Plan and that County Councillor Ian Brown would take this forward and speak to Barbara Bath, Gavin Redhead and Edwina Grant about it.

 

8.

Any Other Business

County Councillor Brown

 

To receive any other business.

 

Minutes:

Mind of My Own

 

Gavin Redhead reminded the Board that Mind of My Own was a commissioned tool and still had two years left.  The Board were asked to encourage young people to sign up to the tool and get an account.  If anybody requires a booklet or training, these are still available.

 

9.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

County Councillor Brown

 

The date and time of the next meeting is as follows:

 

Wednesday, 24 July 2019 at 1.30pm at Hothersall Lodge Outdoor Education Centre, Hothersall Lane, Hothersall, Longridge, PR3 2XB.

 

Minutes:

The next meeting will be held at Hothersall Lodge Outdoor Education Centre, Longridge on Wednesday, 24 July 2019 at 1.30pm and young people are looking at issues that are top priority and will bring it to the next agenda setting meeting.  Gavin Readhead will work with the young people and Barnardo's for this meeting.