Decision details

Lancashire's Care Leavers Report

Decision Maker: Corporate Parenting Board

Decision status: For Determination

Is Key decision?: No

Purpose:

Report to support the transformation of Lancashire's Leaving Care Service to better meet the needs of the children that Lancashire has Corporate Parenting responsibility for.

Decisions:

Shaeda Alam, Corporate Parenting Consultant presented the Care Leavers Report to the Board which, following the Ofsted Inspection in 2015, identified the need to improve support to care leavers in Lancashire.  This report was to provide an update on how the Lancashire Care Leavers Service had been adapted to improve the offer to care leavers since then and to make recommendations for further improvement.

 

The Lancashire Corporate Parenting Strategy 2018-2022 makes clear the Council's ambition for children and young people who were looked after and this ambition extended to young people who were also leaving care. 

 

The existing Leaving Care Service needs reforming to meet this ambition.  After engaging with Care Leavers in a variety of ways including face to face interviews and a questionnaire, and through undertaking a review of the Leaving Care Service this report presented a number of options for improvement.

 

The report also gave a summary of the key findings and Appendix 'A' detailed where the service was now, changes that needed to be made, what was required to deliver the change, how it would be measured and the outcomes.

 

The Board were also informed that there were going to be three Care Leaver Hubs which would be accessible to care leavers in the localities North, Central and East which would be up and running by December where young people could access help, advice and support, not just from the Council but from partners also.

 

The Corporate Parenting Board would hold to account the Care Leavers Service and the Improvement Plan and would request regular reports to the Board.

 

Resolved:  That the Corporate Parenting Board:

 

i)  Adopted a revised approach to support care leavers in Lancashire that realised the ambitions set out within the Corporate Parenting Strategy.

ii)  Supported the redesign of the Leaving Care Service.

iii)  Supported the actions set out within 'Appendix A' of the report attached to the agenda to address the key messages emerging from the service review and consultation with care leavers.

 

Divisions Affected: (All Divisions);

Contact: Barbara Bath, Head of Service Adoption, Fostering, Adoption & Residential YOT Email: Barbara.Bath@lancashire.gov.uk Tel: 01772 535491.

Report author: Barbara Bath

Date of decision: 17/09/2019

Decided at meeting: 17/09/2019 - Corporate Parenting Board

Accompanying Documents: