Agenda item

(To consider a report from John Harris, Head of Regulated Services - Children's (Safeguarding), on an overview of services provided to Children in Care and their impact for the year 2019/20)

Consideration was given to a report which provided an overview of services provided to Children in Care and their impact for the year 2019/20.  It was noted that the report covered the period from 1 April to 31 March 2020.

Members were guided through the report and were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         It was queried whether there was a need to provide additional accommodation in the homes to meet future demand.  It was reported that the number of children in care had stabilised, however, the expectation of the local authority of being able to place all children in foster care had become challenging.  There was an increasing number of children moving into residential care due to more complex needs, and also sometimes because there were no fostering alternatives.  It was confirmed that an increase of children coming into care and being placed in external residential provision was being seen.  The Panel was advised that an Invest to save bid had been put to the Leader of the Council, which had been accepted, which gave authority to look to commission another two residential homes.  Suitable locations were currently being explored, as well as the potential size of the home and were preparing the report which would go to the Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's for consideration.  It was also noted that work was being carried out with Impower looking at Value and Care which included work on a toolkit that identified needs and looks at where placement matching might be better supported.  It had been trialled on 149 children that were looked after, and this work had identified some children that could be stepped down from residential provision to foster care.  However, one of the challenges during the pandemic had been the availability of foster carers.  Officers were hopeful that they could work through that.

·         It was queried whether any of the existing residential homes could be expanded to manage the additional demand.  However, the Panel was advised that this was not a approach the authority was following, and there was a move towards smaller and more nurturing environments in residential provision, where the child can be prepared to move back into a family environment, whether that was foster care, one of their relatives or even back to their parents.  It was commented that the starting point for the authority had always been that there was a foster placement for every child.  However, some had experienced such trauma in a home environment that it was not possible for them to go straight to a foster family.  The hope was to have smaller bedded units where staff could work with the child to transition them back to a family environment.  At Eastgate there had also been increased successes in transitioning some children back to their parents.

·         The Chairman advised that he had been invited by the Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services to be involved in the process for looking at the options for new residential homes. 

·         Concerns were raised regarding county lines and drug gangs, and it was queried whether foster carers and staff in the homes were aware of these issues.  It was noted that children in care did have a network of people around them to support them, and there were close partnerships with the police.  It was noted that there had been a number of young people had been placed in a secure unit.  Members were assured that this was something that was taken seriously.

·         In relation to the initial health assessments, it was reported that prior to the end of 2019, alternative ways of completing these assessments had been looked at, a proposal had been made for it to be a nurse led service and a paper was put together, however, this process was interrupted by Covid-19.  Due to this GP's were no longer able to carry out these assessments, and so permission was sought for nurses to carry out these assessments by telephone, some face to face appointments took place during September and October, but now all assessments were back to telephone only.  As a result, more assessments had been carried out within the 20 days, and positive feedback had also been received from carers.  This project was continuing and it would be reported on in the next annual report.

RESOLVED

1.    That the annual report be accepted as an accurate reflection of services provided for looked after children;

2.    That the recommendations for 2020-2021 set out within the annual report be supported.