Agenda item

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

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 appears that the DWP still do not have special dispensations or single points of contact (SPOC) for care leavers.

The Children's Society are doing a piece of work on Sanctions and requested that any care leaver willing to share their experiences to speak to Kirsty Clarke.

Following discussions a number of points had been raised:

·  Care leavers need to be offered financial education

·  Further work needs to take place between LCC and DWP (Helen Collinson) especially around single point of contact (SPOC) and investigate further when issues arise and discuss with that particular benefits office.  They also need to see the video included in the presentation.

Actions:  i)  Sam Gorton to invite Helen Collinson from DWP to the next Board meeting in April.

ii)  Young people were asked to write down and share with Jane Hylton/Tony Morrissey what they would like a Personal Advisor to do.

Once again the young people were thanked for their detailed update to the Board on all the activities they had been involved in.