Agenda item

Colleagues from Children's Services

To receive an update on:

·  Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), Education, Employment and Training (EET), GCSE Results for CLA and Care Leavers at University – Audrey Swann

·  Local Offer for Care Leavers – Jane Hylton

·  Increasing Numbers of Children Looked After (CLA) – Amanda Hatton

·  Residential Strategy  - Barbara Bath

·  Mind of My Own (MOMO) – Hannah Peake

·  Care Leavers Facebook – Roxanne McAllister

·  Sincerely You – Jane Hylton/Roxanne McAllister

Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), Education, Employment and Training (EET), GCSE Results for Children Looked After (CLA) and Care Leavers at University

Audrey Swann spoke to the presentation attached and reminded the Board about the changes in measurement to Key Stages 1 and 2 as well as GCSEs.  There is still a big gap between attainments in children who are looked after and those that are not.  However, the attainments that are measured at Key Stage 4 can differ greatly because it will not necessarily be the same cohort of children that were measured at Key Stages 1 and 2 and figures state that there are quite a number of young people who come into care in Year 11 (GCSE year).  Key points for all attainments are detailed in the presentation.  Lancashire attainments against National attainments for 2017 are not available until March 2018.

With regards EET, all Year 11 CLA are able to access career information, advice and guidance from a qualified support worker from the Children and Family Wellbeing Service.

The Employment Support Team are currently actively working with 172 young people.

There are 37 young people following higher education (University) studies – aged between 18 and 26.

Going forward actions were as follows for the education of CLA in Lancashire:

·  Clarifying the learning offer for LCCs CLA/Care Leavers.

·  Working with young people to make sure it fits their needs and aspirations.

·  Strengthen links with colleges, universities, training providers and employers.

·  Strengthen links with district councils.

·  Raise expectations and aspirations of young people, carers, education and ourselves.

Local Offer for Care Leavers

Jane Hylton informed the Board about the Local Offer for Care Leavers and gave the presentation attached.  Jane said that this was a fantastic opportunity to look at services in Lancashire County Council that can support Care Leavers in preparation for adulthood and independent living.  The Local Offer will replace the Rights and Entitlements Guide and all information will be in one place.  Young people will be consulted on what they want it to look like and it should be available to all Care Leavers by June 2018.

There are 881 Care Leavers in Lancashire and a small working group for the Local Offer has been set up to take this forward including how best to communicate with them all.

This is a big piece of work and will be looking for support from the Corporate Parenting Board on this.

Increasing Numbers of Children Looked After

There has been lots of different reviews taking place recently within Children's Services, the DFE Review, Peer Review, Monitoring Review and SEND Review and in six weeks the inspections will start again.  The reports for the reviews are not available yet, however, what has come out of them is how inspirational the young people are whom the inspectors met and that they are a credit to Lancashire.  It was also reported on how genuine the social workers are and speak with care and compassion about our young people.  Things that need to improve are talking about what we do well and are getting right eg care leavers, as Lancashire are one of the best in the Country with indicators good/outstanding and this is down to the young people and as their parents we are very proud of them.  Challenges faced are writing down and recording all the good work that is carried out and our young people have done a video about this.

With regards increasing numbers of children looked after, this is an area that needs to be looked at thematically.

The question was also raised by young people about how Brexit will affect them.  This will be discussed at a future meeting.

Residential Strategy

Barbara Bath shared the Residential Strategy powerpoint as attached.  All of the residential establishments except one are good/outstanding and the three overnight break units are good/outstanding also.  Barbara shared the background to the previous strategy and the significant changes that have resulted in the need to revise a new strategy going forward, this includes a significant increase in the numbers of CLA and the spend in Children's Social Care agency placements since October 2015 and without action to address this, spend are predicted to continue to rise.

The aim of the strategy is to specifically seek to:

·  Reduce numbers of CLA in residential placements.

·  Ensure that appropriate placements are available to best meet the needs of our CLA.

·  Ensure that best use is made of available resources and best value for money is achieved.

An Adolescent Support Unit will open in the New Year as a pilot and if this works, will look to possibly open others and offer respite weekends at the Crisis Unit to manage emergencies and prevent placement breakdowns.  The Crisis Unit will open in April 2018.  Barbara asked the young people to be involved in designing the Units and would contact LINX to arrange this.

Sincerely You

Roxanne McAllister and Jane Hylton introduced the film that was shown to the Board.

The following items, Mind of My Own – Hannah Peake and Care Leavers Facebook – Roxanne McAllister will be carried forward to the next meeting.

Actions:  Sam Gorton to ensure that Mind of My Own and Care Leavers Facebook are on the next agenda.