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 Stephen Clarke

 

To note who is attending and any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

All were welcomed to the meeting and apologies were received from Bev Woods, Liz Donnelly-Nelson, Lynsey Evans, Julie Dawkins, Dr Nicola Bamford, Gina Power, Paul McIntyre, Stephen Young, Suliman Hussain and Brendan Lee.

 

The Board noted the following membership changes:

 

Replacements for this meeting:

 

Moya McKinney, Lead Officer in place of Brendan Lee, Lancashire County Council

County Councillor Rupert Swarbrick for County Councillor Andrea Kay, Lancashire County Council

Caroline Waldron for Kirsty Byrne, East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Jennifer Donnelly for Rebecca McGeown, Lancashire 0-19, Virgin Care Ltd

 

New Members:

 

Bev Woods is replacing Jackie Hodson as the Residential Provider.

 

New Co-opted Non-Voting representatives:

 

April Dawkins, Child and Family Wellbeing Service (Participation)

Adam Riley, Child and Family Wellbeing Service (Participation)

 

The Board also welcomed County Councillor Cosima Towneley, Cabinet Member for Children and Families to the meeting.

 

2.

Notes of the Meeting and Matters Arising from 16 June 2021 pdf icon PDF 218 KB

County Councillor Stephen Clarke

 

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

Minutes:

Resolved:  That the minutes were agreed as an accurate record and there were no matters arising from them.

 

3.

Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 208 KB

County Councillor Stephen Clarke

 

To approve the amendments to the Terms of Reference.

Minutes:

Sam Gorton, Democratic Services, Lancashire County Council presented the amendments that had been made to the Terms of Reference following discussions at the last Board meeting in June 2021.

 

Resolved:  That the Board approved the amendments and noted that these would be submitted to Cabinet at its meeting in September 2021 for approval.

 

4.

Corporate Parenting Strategy 2018-2022 - Our Partnership Priorities pdf icon PDF 6 MB

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council

 

To develop a partnership plan for four overarching key priorities to promote permanence and support the objectives of our Corporate Parenting Strategy as identified at the last meeting held on 16 June 2021.

 

·  Placements and Provisions

·  Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health

·  Safeguarding

·  Education, Employment and Training

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Andreas Feldhaar, Permanence Service, Lancashire County Council outlined to the Board new developments that had taken place since the last workshop in June 2021:

 

Children and young people have a voice in the way we deliver our service (Objective 1)

 

·  A Care Leaver consultation had taken place at the end of June by the Care Leaving Service on the Local Offer, young people's expectations on their Personal Advisors, how the service communicates and shares information with young people, how Personal Advisors write about young people and how they can access their records.  Feedback will be evaluated, and this will form future service delivery.

·  Child and Family Wellbeing Service summer involvement events for LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Service) and the Care Leaver Forum (further information will be given later in the agenda).

 

Care Leavers in Lancashire will have a Local Offer (Objective 3)

 

·  Following the Care Leaver Consultation the Local Offer will be reviewed, particularly looking at accommodation, preparation for life, health and wellbeing and education, employment and training (EET).

 

Children and young people will have a suitable place to live and be cared for (Objective 5)

 

With the support of Care Leavers a National Housing project has been secured which is another supported housing scheme to provide young people aged 17+ with permanent homes.

 

Following the last workshop the Board had in June 2021, the following four partnership priorities with the most complex objectives were identified as:

 

Placements and Provision

 

Ø   Objective 5 - Children and young people will have a suitable place to live and be cared for.

 

Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health

 

Ø  Objective 6 - The health and wellbeing of our children and young people in care and care leavers will be a priority for Lancashire County Council.

 

Safeguarding

 

Ø  Objective 8 - Children are protected from harm and risk of exploitation.

 

Education, Employment, Training

 

Ø  Objective 4 - Children and young people will be supported in their education.

 

The Board engaged in a workshop and a group had been set up for each of the four objectives identified which would incorporate participation and partnership working.  There was also a request to elected members on the Board to consider becoming a Champion for one of the four objectives due to the complexity that they present and it was felt that the Champions would strengthen the opportunities and the service that can be provided under the objectives.

 

The four questions that each group were required to discuss in the workshop were:

 

To achieve effective partnership working:

 

·  What information does the CPB need to support each of the objectives and who from?

·  Who needs to get involved to help the CPB to achieve positive outcomes for our children and young people for each of the objectives and how?

·  What can the CBP do to support this process?

·  How does the CPB want to be informed about progress on each of the objectives?

 

Following the workshop, the facilitators reported back from each of the four groups.  Feedback from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Any Other Business

County Councillor Stephen Clarke

 

To receive any other business.

 

Minutes:

Recruitment

 

Brian Wood, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Lancashire County Council updated the Board on events that had been planned in order to recruit new young people and also consult with them about things that are relevant to them and for them to understand that they have a voice and can be heard and there is an opportunity to contribute to this Board and other formats.  To do that, a new Participation Team has been set up, with five officers and an apprentice will hopefully join them in September/October 2021.  The events are being conducted over six sessions, across three areas of Lancashire, North, Central and East virtually and in person. 

 

The BBC Young Reporters will also be involved in the Zoom sessions across three different age ranges 8-11, 12-14 and 15+ and will do work around news (what is news and what is fake news) and will also provide some bespoke career sessions for those aged 15+.  Also the BBC Young Reporters have close links with the BBC Apprenticeship routes and it has been agreed that if young people engage in the sessions that are being provided by the Child and Family Wellbeing Service, that they will happily support young people in planning apprenticeships with the BBC.

 

In the face-to-face sessions, there will be outward bound and team building activities across various locations for the same three age groups.

 

Further information is provided in the fliers that have already been circulated to foster carers, residential homes, social workers, partners such as NYAS and these will also be circulated to the Board.

 

An overview was also given on the recruitment process that is underway, across Lancashire for young people to have their voice heard across the different platforms that are available such as LINX and POWAR and there will be bigger cohorts of young people involved going forward at different levels, ie every young person in care will have an opportunity to air their voice on some sort of platform, there are also regional area groups meetings in North, Central and East who will feed into the groups such as LINX (Lancashire's Children in Care Council), Children in Care Forums and POWAR who will then be involved with interview processes and the recommencement of the Young Inspectors programme as well as young people attending the Corporate Parenting Board.

 

Resolved:  That Brian Wood, Child and Family Wellbeing Service send copies of the fliers to Sam Gorton, Democratic Services to circulate to members of the Board to promote the activities available over the summer.

 

Future Agenda Items

 

The Board were also asked that if they had any items that they wished to be included on the agenda at any future meetings, to inform the Chair, County Councillor Stephen Clarke email: stephen.clarke@lancashire.gov.uk or the Clerk to the Board, Sam Gorton, email: sam.gorton@lancashire.gov.uk.

 

Ofsted Update

 

Sharon Hubber, Director of Children's Service, Lancashire County Council updated the Board on the recent focus visit from Ofsted who had been looking at the thresholds and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

County Councillor Stephen Clarke

 

Tuesday, 21 September 2021 at 6.00pm, format to be confirmed.

Minutes:

Tuesday 21 September 2021 at 6pm, format to be agreed.