Agenda item

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.

The County Councillors present highlighted a number of areas of their recent work.

Councillor Henig reported on a visit to a prison in Lancashire and a very good scheme in place where a father in prison is videoed reading a book for their children. The video is then sent, along with the book, to the children so they can follow it while their father reads it.

Councillor Henig also advised that the report of the Lancashire Fairness Commission had now been completed, and suggested that the young people present might be interested to read it.

She also reported that the Lancashire Book of the year award shortlist had now been announced. This was a book award chosen entirely by young people, and the winner would be announced at a ceremony in June. She had also attended a drama event at the Grand Theatre in Lancaster organised by "Northern beat", which presented dramas for young people around the theme "Pride and prejudices".

Several Councillors spoke about their involvement in the election campaign.

Councillor Prynn advised that she had reported her CSE concerns to the LSCB and police. She had not yet received a response from the Police, and will be following that up to make sure the concerns have been received.

Councillor Prynn had also had direct approaches from young people on two issues – the use of restraint and issue on leaving care. She had requested the Young Inspectors to look into the first and will be looking into the second issue further to see what support mechanisms could be put in place. It was felt that the approaches made were a positive sign that young people would approach councillors when they had a problem.

The Education Scrutiny Committee had met and considered the relatively poor performance of Children Looked After at school, particularly at GCSE.  Councillor Prynn attended the committee meeting to put forward her concerns and explain why attainment may be low.  She stressed how everyone must have high expectations of our children looked after and do everything possible to raise their attainment.  CC Prynn suggested a number of recommendations.  These were accepted by the Committee and have now been passed to relevant officers.

Councillor Prynn said that she had been considering ways to enhance the work of the Board and to help it gain better recognition. She suggested that a new logo for the Board might help, along with possibly a new "mission statement" to explain what it did. Councillor Prynn asked Hannah Peake and LINX to give this some thought.  Cllr Prynn also mentioned that she would contact Democratic Services and Governance Officers to check the legalities of any possible changes.

Amongst other activities, Councillor Prynn stated that she was in the process of organising a meeting with a representative of UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire) about working with Children Looked After and has attended a conference at which people from Cambridge University talked about a programme they are running to get more Children Looked After into university. Councillor Prynn has also been looking at innovative work carried out elsewhere in relation to careers advice.

Finally, Councillor Prynn reported that a pilot scheme was being looked into in order to give all CLAs an email address that they would carry with them throughout their time in care and beyond. It was hoped that this would help to make sure that the Council was able to keep in touch with care leavers.