Agenda item

Support to Care Leavers

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Peter Knowles, Senior Manager Children's Services, and, Jane Hylton, Leading Care Manager Children's Services, to the meeting. They presented a report which outlined what social, emotional and practical support was provided to care leavers and what action had been taken following the Ofsted inspection in September/October 2015 which found services to care leavers to be inadequate. It outlined the change in service delivery with the development of a discrete service for care leavers and provided an outline of ongoing work to continue to improve services to care leavers. The report also provided information on improved performance against national performance indicators and again outlined plans in place for continued improvement and the role of the local authority as corporate parents and how it was exercising this function.

 

It was acknowledged prior to the Ofsted inspection by Children's Social Care Management Team that services to care leavers needed improving. As a result it engaged in Phase 2 of the New Belongings Programme in March 2015 with this concluding in March 2016.

 

The New Belongings Programme set out 5 core components to achieve its aims in improving services and outcomes to care leavers:

 

1.  Survey local care leavers to understand to understand priorities of improvement – a questionnaire had been sent out and 101 care leavers had completed it highlighting improvements needed such as better preparation for leaving care, information on Rights and Entitlements, better access to their leaving care workers Personal Advisors (PAs) and support.

 

2.  Conduct a review of the role of Personal Advisors – 3 Professional Personal Advisor (PPA) teams had been created in the North, Central and the East.

 

3.  Establish a forum of care leavers to help the authority in shaping decisions about changes to services.

 

4.  Prepare and plan for improvement based on understanding of local needs gained from the three previous steps.

 

5.  Obtain the support of senior leadership.

 

The methodology behind the New Belongings Programme was involving care leavers to improve the service.

 

Members of the Committee were invited to comment and raise questions and a summary of the discussion is set out below:

 

·  The reason for Fylde and Wyre being chosen as the pilot for the Care Leavers Scheme was as the area displayed the most challenges. Staff turnaround was greater in the area and overall practice was not as strong as other areas.

·  The Government was proposing this year to keep all care cases open until the age of 25 was reached. At the moment statutorily a case would be closed at the age of 21 unless the person had gone to university. If this proposal went ahead there was a potential projection of 450 young people to work with over the next 3 years. Over 5 years the projected number was around 700 young people.

 

·  Regarding the three localities, the East had the highest demand. In response to the question around the number of BME care leavers Committee was informed that the numbers of BME young people was not that high.

 

·  Members stated that there needed to be an equality of work across the County and a consistency of support.

 

·  It was pointed out that the Employment Support Team was not managed by Children Social Care, their role was to get young people within the County involved in education and employment training. The Employment Support Team was a LCC function and was funded by Early Help.

 

·  Foster carers had an important role in supporting care leavers. It was vital to give more encouragement to foster parents.

 

 

Resolved: The Committee noted the actions taken since the Ofsted inspection and the improvements made. It furthermore agreed its commitment to the care leavers pledge and their role as corporate parents in promoting the welfare of care leavers.

 

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