Agenda and minutes

Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings to watch them in person at any of the venues across the County. Publicly accessible meetings held in County Hall will be webcast, which means they are available to be watched live or recorded on our website. Please see our webcasting notice here. The Committee may, in certain circumstances, resolve to hold part of the meeting in private. If this is the case, you will be required to leave the meeting.

Venue: Zoom Virtual Meeting - Zoom. View directions

Contact: Sam Gorton  Tel: 01772 532471 email:  sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions and Apologies

County Councillor Brown

 

To note who is attending and any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

All were welcomed to the meeting and apologies were received from Liz Donnelly-Nelson, Barbara Bath, Tracy Smith, Terri Crossland, Lynda Pearson, Judith Gault, Jane Hylton and Kirsty Clarke.

 

County Councillor Phillippa Williamson was replacing County Councillor Jayne Rear for this meeting.

 

Amelia Brummett, East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group was observing this meeting.

 

2.

Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 22 July 2020 pdf icon PDF 238 KB

County Councillor Brown

 

To agree for accuracy the notes of the meeting and receive any matters arising.

Minutes:

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record and there were no matters arising from them.

 

3.

Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)/Education. Employment and Training (EET) pdf icon PDF 352 KB

Audrey Swann, Headteacher , Vulnerable and Challenging Groups

 

To receive a report on the NEET and EET situation in Lancashire.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Audrey Swann, Headteacher of Vulnerable and Challenging Groups, Lancashire County Council provided the board with some background to the report that was circulated to members and details of a subsequent action plan that will outline the practical steps required to deliver it.  The Corporate Parenting Board and partners alongside the Council need to accept this as a priority and support an increase in Education, Employment and Training (EET) for Children in our Care and Care Leavers by providing opportunities and resources to allow this to happen.

 

The Virtual School has a statutory duty to support and champion those children and young people in care to their local authority and care leavers.  One of the key duties of the Virtual School is to ensure that across the Local Authority 'Top priority is given to creating a culture of high educational aspirations and that the authority strives for accelerated progress and age-related attainment or better for looked-after children'.

 

The duty to promote the educational achievement of a looked-after child extends to looked-after young people aged 16 or 17 preparing to leave care.  It is expected that although clearly focused on children aged between pre-school and 18, Virtual School Headteachers should work with care leaving teams to ensure the education of those transitioning from care is supported at both a strategic and individual level.  For those between 16-18 years, the Virtual School Headteacher should liaise with the young person’s Personal Adviser during the initial transition to leaving care services to ensure the adviser understands the young person’s educational goals and support needs.

 

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 stipulated that advice and support needed to be available for all eligible care leavers until the age of 25. This included the provision of a Personal Advisor for each young person to assist with preparation for adulthood and independent living. This included support when required in relation to education and employment. The Local Authority must also provide a published care leaver offer to support and sign post young people to services and advice and guidance available to them.

 

It is good practice and expected by Ofsted, for the Virtual School to work closely with leaving care services and contribute to providing advice, guidance and support in relation to education, training and employment to care leavers beyond the age of 17 and in Lancashire we extend our support when required to care leavers up to the age of 25.

 

A detailed account of all the data contained within the report was presented to the Board which included:

 

·  Care Leaver Education, Employment and Training (EET) Data

·  Comparative Data from 2015-2019 within the North West, statistical neighbours and nationally.

·  Details of the current role of the Virtual School in supporting Children Looked After (CLA) and Care Leavers into Education, Employment and Training (EET)

·  Activity and Impact – Success Outcomes

·  Future Plans

·  Plans and recommendations from findings

 

In conclusion the contributing factors to Lancashire's high Not in Education, Employment and Training (NEET) figures are complex and require a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

What Support Young People Would Like pdf icon PDF 10 MB

LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council)

 

To receive feedback from our young people on what they would like to see from our partners/agencies around support for housing and employment and training.

 

 

Minutes:

Following on from the previous item, LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council) were asked to do a piece of work around what practical support young people would like in relation to NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and the outcomes from the discussion was in the report circulated with the agenda which are the views of 12 children in care and eight care leavers and who were asked their opinion of what they practically needed to help them in education, employment and training.  The key themes that young people reported were very similar to what the previous report found which is very positive and something that the young people noticed when they met to discuss the agenda and the reports for this meeting.  Further details on the quotes/comments from the young children are found in the report.

 

Key themes were:

 

·  Aspirations.

·  Experience of the workplace.

·  Financial support – balancing finances prior to that first wage.

·  Work ethics – having conversations earlier, talking about different options available.

·  Making education over work the preferred option.

·  Practically helping young people to prepare for work ie develop the Curriculum Vitae (CV), interview practice.

·  Hobbies that are related to studies, paid for and made available and support to help young people look at those opportunities.

·  Within school, having 1:1 support if needed.

·  Support around Mental Health – young people found it positive that discussions were happening on a Mental Health strategy.

 

Young people commented that it was useful to know that education and employment was still an option when dealing with mental health and that there were trained professionals in education and employment to support young people in dealing with the issues they may have and to support them positively.

 

Young people asked with regards to the different categories of Long Term NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) detailed in the previous item, as to whether it was to do with certain issues happening in the areas or what makes those particular issues stand out in those areas?  It was noted that this is something that will be looked at under the new ways of working which are being introduced when the service will all be under the same management structure.  This information will be reported back to the Board at a future meeting.

 

LINX were invited to participate in the development of the action plan and Brendan Lee will discuss this outside the meeting with Barnardo's.

 

An issue was raised around supported accommodation and the surcharges incurred if young people commence employment and advice that was being received from placements.  It was reported that there is a recommission underway on supported accommodation and in terms of accommodation pathways this is a positive for our young people.  Applications should be made for discretionary housing payments which comes from the District Councils and an idea is to change the commission for those placements so that it is not an issue, however, this is not always possible.  An alternative would be to seek an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Children in Care and Care Leavers Performance Information pdf icon PDF 117 KB

Umer Khonat, Business Intelligence Analyst, Business Intelligence Team

 

To receive the Annex 'A' performance data report for children in care and care leavers and the Corporate Parenting Board Monthly Lancashire Performance - July 2020 and receive any issues/comments arising from the report.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Umer Khonat gave a brief overview on the children in care and care leavers performance information for July 2020 which was circulated prior to the meeting. It was also noted that information prior to this item and discussions that ensued, showed that issues within the data and explanations and narrative behind it were being challenged and addressed as to why it was happening and where the pressures are and what the strategic approach will be to improve the performance.  There is still inconsistency on how data is reported ie with different definitions, indicators alongside the use of national indicators, there should also be some local information which would reflect Lancashire's area, approaches and plans as well as having benchmarking data to compare against.

 

The data in general showed that demand had decreased whilst in lockdown, however there are now signs of increase and timeliness of assessments is good, rates of children on child protection have declined, however at the same time, seen an increase on children in need plans as well as an increase in children looked after.  This has an impact across how the Council plan for its' services.

 

The national rate for care leavers in Education, Employment and Training is 64% for 17-18 year olds and 52% for 19-21 year olds.  Currently Lancashire is operating at 46% for 17-18 year olds and 39.8% for 19-21 year olds which means that Lancashire are quite a distance from the national average and there is work to be done and with the right plans in place this will improve.

 

Further interactive data can be found below.

 

Weekly MASH Dashboard:

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYThkZTllYWItZjZiYS00ZjdhLWE1ZmYtMTgyMTY3M2Y3NzU1IiwidCI6IjlmNjgzZTI2LWQ4YjktNDYwOS05ZWM0LWUxYTM2ZTRiYjRkMiIsImMiOjh9

 

Weekly Post Covid-19 Outbreak Weekly dashboard:

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZDZkYzM3OWItNWViNS00NmIwLTlkZTUtZjYzNTVmNTNmNjJmIiwidCI6IjlmNjgzZTI2LWQ4YjktNDYwOS05ZWM0LWUxYTM2ZTRiYjRkMiIsImMiOjh9

 

For future meetings it was suggested that the data that is presented be compliance data including the dashboards, then review the service narrative if there is any and challenge managers to seek assurance that they are aware of the data and ask what is being done in terms of it.

 

Resolved:  That the Board discussed and commented on the information presented and agreed the content of future performance information provided to subsequent meetings.

 

6.

Care Leavers Christmas

Sharon Hubber, Director of Children's Social Care

 

To discuss ideas with regards the Christmas collection for Care Leavers this year.

 

Minutes:

It was noted that due to the current pandemic and that the majority of colleagues were working remotely, this year's Christmas Hampers collection would not be able to take place in its usual format.

 

Barnardo's were also collaborating on their ideas of how to provide the Care Leavers Christmas meal this year.

 

Action:  Sam Gorton would speak to colleagues to look at how else we, as Corporate Parents could provide gifts for our young people this Christmas.

 

7.

Any Other Business

County Councillor Brown

 

To receive any other business.

 

Minutes:

Andreas Feldhaar updated the Board on the preparation for National Care Leavers week on 26-30 October 2020 by the Leaving Care Service.  It is for all care experienced young people between 16 and 25 years of age and this year's theme is Future Me, which also highlights areas of work which is already being developed.

 

There are three areas in particular which are:

 

i)  Build on Lancashire's social engagement strategy, promoting virtual events and support for young people.

ii)  Education, employment and training working with the Virtual School to develop some workshops and also source some support from Further and Higher Education institutions around supporting young people that are going through College and University and have to adjust and adapt to the whole virtual learning concept.

iii)  To support the development of a stronger corporate parenting ethos.  There will be a corporate parenting network event where all community partners will be invited, to enable wider communication, share learning and good practice, strengthening the understanding of everyone's role to support young people and how the individual service may impact on other areas.  Also exploring further the Local Offer and looking for a stronger commitment from partners around it.

 

Resolved:  That a copy of the programme will be circulated to all members of the Corporate Parenting Board.

8.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

County Councillor Brown

 

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 24 November 2020 at 6pm.  Format to be confirmed.

Minutes:

Tuesday, 24 November 2020 at 6pm, via Zoom.