Agenda item

Young People and Barnardos

To receive feedback on the work our young people have been doing including the Performance Report.

Young Inspectors Update

Feedback on Performance Report

Care Leavers

Feedback on ASDAN Project – Jane Hylton

What LINX Have Been Doing

LINX tabled a detailed account of what they had been doing since the last CPB meeting on 2 February 2017 and this is attached to these minutes.

Young Inspectors Update

A visit had been carried out to Barnardo's Fostering Agency and the report had been circulated to the Manager and LCC.  Further details can be found in the attached presentation.  Young Inspectors carry out inspections in fostering agencies, LCC residential and private residential establishments and their aim is for LINX to carry out six and POWAR to undertake four visits per year.

Fran Ashcroft, Private Residential representative stated that they had been inspected and following comments from the Young Inspectors were revising their booklets and found the inspection very useful indeed.

Amanda Hatton requested to visit a Young Inspectors meeting.

Actions:  i)  Young Inspector's Team to invite Amanda Hatton to a future meeting.

ii)  Sam Gorton to send previous Young Inspector's reports to Amanda Hatton.

Feedback on Performance Report

Comments from young people on the Performance Report were detailed in the attached presentation.

With regards children missing from care and the statistics recorded on LCS (LiquidLogic Children's System), Amanda Hatton explained that the reason for recording this on LCS was that all figures regarding children in care were in one place and issues can be triggered from recorded information.  Statistics from LCS were reviewed every week by Amanda Hatton so any issues raised could be dealt with immediately.

In relation to 14% of CLA achieving 5 A*-C grades in GCSE's, young people commented that 'more support was needed for young people at this stage'.  CC Prynn commented that the Board was going to look again at Pupil Premium as there was a concern nationally on how it was being spent.  It was noted that foster carers need to be better informed on how pupil premium should and could be spent.  Also CLA are taken out of school to have meetings with Social Workers, IROs etc and this should be avoided.  Meetings should be held where the young person wants to meet and this will also help with engagement from them.

Actions:  i)  Roxanne McAllister and Cath Brooks to feed back to Locality Managers about concerns young people have raised regarding review meetings being held in school.

ii)  Sam Gorton to invite Audrey Swann to the next CPB meeting to give an update on educational achievements and Pupil Premium for CLA.

Suitable accommodation will never be 100% as some young people are on remand, in prison or hospital.  Some young people are homeless also but this is only a very small number and the reason for this is that they live chaotic lifestyles and do not want to engage with Services. LCC still monitor homeless young people until 21 years old and know if they are in touch with services/charities.  Data had also improved significantly, which made services more confident in tracking young people.

CC Prynn raised concern that young people in secure settings were supposed to receive a visit from their Social Worker every two months and this was not happening.

Action:  Roxanne McAllister agreed to follow this up with all localities and feedback to CC Prynn on visits that were and were not taking place in secure settings.

Amanda Hatton would become the Chair of the Supported Accommodation Learning Offer (SALO) Board within the next few months and one of the projects they are currently looking at is called Project Search which will be a 12 month work placement in various settings which will allow a young person to be ready to start work following the placement.  This has a high success rate nationally and LCC's Programme Office are looking too start this around the middle of May, so this will help with the NEET figures for care leavers.

Information on financial support for care leavers wishing to go to University was available in the new Rights and Entitlements leaflet.  Further work needed to be carried out to encourage care leavers to attend University and offer support/guidance to them from other care leavers who were already attending.

ASDAN – Living Independently Short Course Pilot

Jane Hylton, LCC informed the Board about the accredited course which enabled young people to be better prepared for living independently and to be able to make informed decisions about where they lived, the type of accommodation and to have the resilience and knowledge for a successful transition to independence.  Currently there were three pilots being run in Lancashire – one with a foster carer, one in residential care at Crestmoor and a group work one with Barnardo's/Personal Adviser.  The course could be adapted to individual needs as identified in the pathway plan and could be used informally over a period of time.

For the group work, young people spoke about their module on healthy/not healthy food choices and that they had to plan four different types of healthy two course meals for under £5 per head and then make it for 15 people which would then be used as an evaluation, which is then accredited and can be used in the future when looking to find employment/housing.

Asma Pandor and James Smith attended from Crestmoor to inform the Board on how they had adapted their module and gave examples eg crosswords, word searches, all with key words young people needed to be aware of.  They were very positive about the pilot and spoke about how young people were enjoying undertaking it.

It was felt that Parent and Child placements would find this a useful too also and also at Sure Start Centres, especially around the parenting module.

Young people felt that it should not just be for care leavers but for every young person as they all need to learn about basic life skills which are taught in school.

The Board agreed that this should be a requirement for all Care Leavers and foster carers both in-house and private and that training would be required also on ASDAN. 

There should be a tick box on LCS to say that a young person had undertaken the course and ASDAN had been discussed at their review meetings.

The project needs to be agreed at LCC's Senior Management Team (SMT), so this can be rolled out to all CLA who are preparing to leave care.  If approved at SMT then it should also be introduced to the Lancashire Association of Secondary Headteachers (LASH). 

Action:  Tony Morrissey to present a report on ASDAN – Living Independently Short Course to SMT as soon as possible and that CPB recommend that SMT approve it.

Two young people attended the launch of a report by The Prince's Trust summarising the findings of the Young Researchers' work as part of The Trust's From Care to Independence (FC2I) Project.  The report can be found here.

LINX then showed part of a film (from 13-17 mins) called From Care to Chaos.  A link to the film can be found here. 

The Board requested that statistics on Care Leavers who are 'staying put' be shared with the Board.  It was also felt that more training was required for foster carers on understanding the Staying Put Policy and with private foster carers also.

The Board also asked as to whether information on the Staying Put Policy is given to new foster carers.

Actions:  i)  Amanda Hatton to request statistics on Care Leavers who are using the Staying Put Policy and feedback to the Board.

ii)  Lynsey Evans agreed to clarify as to whether information on the Staying Put Policy is given to new foster carers.