Agenda item

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, LCC

To receive a progress update from the four Corporate Parenting Board Priority Groups since the last Board meeting.

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council provided the Board with an update which included the Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2026 and the Service Plan, which had been circulated with the agenda to members, prior to the meeting.

The Board were reminded that the four priorities governed the improvement outcomes for Lancashire's children and young people in care and care leavers.  The eight objectives and four priorities also informed the new Corporate Parenting Strategy 2022-2026 and the Permanence Service Plan 2022-2026.  The Strategy is now live and can be accessed via the following link https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/council/strategies-policies-plans/children-education-and-families/corporate-parenting-strategy/.

The Board noted that in terms of the four priorities a detailed plan has been developed to look at each of the priority areas and how they are progressing and outlined were some key deliverables that are currently being worked on or have been delivered:

Achieving Permanence

·  Care Leaver Covenant - this work has progressed, and a report has been presented to the Education and Children's Social Care Senior Management Team and the Executive Director for Education and Children's Services and the next step is to embed the Covenant within the Council.  A further update will be reported to the Board when available.

·  Revised Life Story work that previously came to the Board has now been completely rolled out.

·  Care Leavers Week will take place in October and an update will be given later in the meeting.

·  PROUD Awards are also going to take place again in 2023 and a further update will be given later in the meeting.

Improving sufficiency to provide the right home at the right place

·  Lasting Homes Process and Panels have now been embedded in practice.

·  National House project in Preston has seen its first young people join the project.  It is a long-term project, and each year there will be another group of young people joining.

·  Joint Housing Protocol for Care Leavers was launched in May.

·  There will be Lasting Homes Panels for Leaving Care with a slightly different focus and from age 16 years, will embark on the housing pathway for young people and will include housing partners.  They are not completely rolled out yet across the County, however, this work is in progress.

·  The Staying Put Policy is also going to be revised as there have been changes in terms of the fostering allowances and how fostering operates, therefore it is essential that the policy is aligned to these changes.

·  The National Guidance for Unregulated Placements and Supported Accommodation for 16 to 18 year olds needs to be presented at a future Board meeting as provisions could impact on what is available for 16 to 18 year olds. Ongoing work in terms of the Covenant would hopefully improve the housing provisions for young people in Lancashire.

Improving social, physical, emotional and mental health support and outcomes

·  A scoping exercise had previously been carried out with leisure centres in Lancashire for the Local Offer and it was noted that this is going to be reviewed again and also to request that young people can bring a friend along also for free or at a discounted rate.

·  An independent living programme is also at its final stages before being rolled out through a phased implementation over a two-year period.

·  Ask Jan has already been rolled out, which is a service that offers general advice and emotional well-being support to care leavers 18 to 25 years old. It has a lot of different services where young people can be referred for a minimal cost for an annual subscription, and then the young person can access all their services for free for a 12-month period.

·  A partnership meeting will be convened in the near future with Heads of Services to look at the health provision for looked after children and care leavers and their pathways

Improving Education, Employment and Training Opportunities and Outcomes

·  A lot of work in the Service Plan for this priority is for 2023 and this is so it is aligned to the academic year to be able to embed it once young people have started school.

·  In terms of the access to school and college, the aim is to ensure that where young people live, does not interfere with access to school, which can sometimes be difficult when they move homes or when they would benefit from a particular school, however, they cannot access it and there are barriers. Therefore further work needs to be done on looking at barriers and the data sharing arrangements for those children of mandatory school age that are actually not in school and this piece of work will be shared when available at a future Board meeting as it is the responsibility of everyone as a corporate parent and along with partners to look at, review, support and look for solutions for these children to enable them to access school and receive the support they need.

·  Digital Access Guarantee is an area of work from the Permanence Service's perspective, to commit to ensuring that young people have online access, either via Wi-Fi or data if required.  It is important as an Authority to consider how the Council can work with partners to embed a digital access guarantee for all our children, regardless of which provision they live in when they are 16 and 17 years old to make sure that the provider offer is consistent.

Resolved:  That the Board noted the update.