Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC
To receive a progress update from the four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups since the last Board meeting.
Minutes:
Lasting Homes Priority
Janice Laing, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with an update on the Lasting Homes priority (on behalf of Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC) who met on 4 May 2022 and included from Lancashire County Council, CC Kay (Corporate Parenting Board Priority Lead), CC Clarke (Chair of Corporate Parenting Board), Brendan Lee (Head of Permanence Service), Roxanne McAllister and Amanda Barbour (Senior Managers, Permanence Service) and Andreas Feldhaar (Practice Development Lead, Permanence Service). CC Gibson Kay (Corporate Parenting Board Priority Lead) sent apologies due to illness.
The Board were informed that:
· Invites had been sent to District Housing Authorities and Registered Providers at Head of Service/Director level on 17 March 2022 and followed up again on 26 and 27 April 2022.
· Five out of the 12 districts in Lancashire attended (Lancaster, Chorley, South Ribble, Pendle and West Lancashire).
· One Head of Housing attending (Lancaster), four districts delegated attendance to other managers.
· Five out of the 10 invited Registered Providers attended (Key on behalf of Progress Housing, Great Places, Community Gateway, Onward Homes and Together Housing).
· Two Directors attended; three registered providers delegated attendance to other managers.
· Most apologies were only sent within days of the event by districts and registered providers.
· The agenda for the meeting included:
Ø Corporate Parenting (what it means)
Ø Joint Housing Protocol for Lancashire's Care Leavers
Ø What Lancashire's young people in care have to say about their future home
Ø Messages and commitments to Lancashire's Care Leavers.
· Following the meeting, the next steps were that:
Ø Leaving Care Lasting Home Panel to be set up to improve early and joint planning.
Ø Information sharing process between Leaving Care and Registered Providers to be confirmed to improve tenancy support for care leavers.
Ø Corporate Parenting Board to consider follow up with Chief Executives and Lead Members of district councils regarding attendance and future commitment.
Some of the messages and commitments were shared with the Board, which included:
· I will make sure that this conversation will continue in Chorley, and I will highlight the need for focus on this work.
· The importance of the voice of young people and how we can do much more even while acknowledging the challenges for ourselves as partners.
· I will review our processes to try and make them easier to understand wherever possible.
· A greater understanding of the housing issues facing young people.
Onward Homes will work with Lancashire County Council and the local authorities to ensure access to their homes is as stress free as possible.
· Making sure we have a fit for purpose process in place for 16 /17year olds to access tenancies.
Following the presentation CC Kay highlighted that the meeting had gone well and that it was useful to hear from everyone present what their offer was to Lancashire's young people. Going forwards the Priority Leads also want to meet with building companies to make them aware of the difficulties young people face when leaving care in Lancashire, whilst ensuring that they feel safe, comfortable and if possible, support them until they are 25 years of age. It was also suggested that inter-generational housing could also be an option, where young people live in a community where older people are, so they can support each other.
Elected members requested that senior officers provide the information on the issues that the Service were faced with and this would then be shared with the 84 County Councillors and request that they each speak to their District counterparts and request that they look at their housing policies and look to change them if required.
CC Swarbrick also offered to do a session with young people on housing and work that is done in the districts around this.
Achieving Permanence Priority
Janice Laing, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with a brief update on the Achieving Permanence Priority and informed them that a meeting had taken place at the end of April with Jen Robertshaw (Permanence Service, LCC), CC Clarke (Corporate Parenting Priority Lead) and Janice Laing to talk through what permanence means, and outlined some of the projects that are being delivered in the Permanence Service alongside some of the barriers to permanence, which included availability of foster homes for children and young people, particularly teenagers and those with behavioural challenges and large groups of siblings. Next steps were that a request has been made to CC Clarke in terms of what he can do to help the service overcome some of those barriers and what County Councillors can offer in terms of offering challenge around this. The Board also noted that there were agencies and providers that were waiting planning and regulation decisions to open residential homes and there was currently a backlog of planning permission, which CC Clarke said he would raise with Councillors/officers in districts where this happening. It was also noted that the negative public perception needed to change with regards to young people in care and that this was the responsibility of the Corporate Parenting Board.
Also, the Permanence Service has delivered on two pieces of work which the Board approved at its meeting on 13 January 2022 were:
i) Life Story Work Policy and Procedure has been signed off and has now been launched at an event on 25 April 2022 and the policy is being rolled out across the Council.
ii) Lasting Homes Panel Process is also now in place and the Panel held its first meeting on 9 May 2022, with others planned over the next few weeks.
Resolved: That the Corporate Parenting Board:
i) Noted the update.
ii) Requested that officers liaise with Councillors and provide them with information that can be passed on to County Councillors to share with District counterparts for the Lasting Homes priority.