Agenda item

(To receive a report from Tara Jones, Service Manager, Regulated Services, which updates the Committee on the work of the Corporate Parenting Panel)

The Committee received an update on the work of the Corporate Parenting Panel.  It was reported that the Panel last met on 15 December 2016 and received a six monthly update on the Independent Reviewing Service.  It was a legal requirement for every child who was looked after to have an Independent Reviewing Officer appointed to them under Section 118 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.  All Independent Reviewing Officers were social workers and the statutory duties of the Independent Reviewing Officer included:

·         Monitoring the performance of the Local Authority of their function in relation to the child's case

·         Participating in any review of the child's case; and

·         Ensuring that any ascertained wishes and feelings of the child concerning the case were given due consideration by the appropriate authority

The Committee was advised that there had been a number of challenges for the Service in the past six months, including an increase in the number of Looked After Children and recruitment challenges.  Between April 2016 and September 2016, the Independent Reviewing Officers carried out a total of 737 review meetings for children who were looked after, which was a slight increase when compared to the same time the previous year.  However, there was still a need to increase the number of children who actually attended their reviews and the development of regular "keep in touch" days had given young people the opportunity to raise issues in a more relaxed way.

It was highlighted at the meeting that not all foster carers fully understood the Signs of Safety approach and the benchmarks being used in reviews.  The Panel suggested that an explanation of these should be provided to Foster Carers, which officers agreed to look into.

The Panel had also received the V4C Children in Care Council Annual Report.  The V4C was in the process of moving to a new operating model.  There were currently monthly meetings of the V4C Executive but this would be changing to three quadrant meetings a year from January 2017.  Instead the V4C would meet in each quadrant at least 7 times per year and in addition there would be three Big Conversation meetings.  The next Big Conversation meeting would be on Wednesday, 15 February 2017 at the Myle Cross Centre from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.  This session would look at LAC communication with social workers, developing carer and LAC profiles, and transitions to leaving care.  Councillors were welcome to attend and were advised to contact the Senior Scrutiny Officer if they would like to attend.

Members were informed that the next Panel meeting would be held on 16 March and on the agenda there would be Barnardo's Leaving Care Service 6 monthly update, the Corporate Parenting Strategy Review and the Annual Report for Looked After Children.

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

·         It was a national requirement that an initial health assessment was carried out when a child became looked after, and this must be carried out by a doctor.  Further annual assessments could be done by a nurse.  However, it was noted that a child was able to decline a health assessment.  Officers acknowledged that there was still too much of a delay in terms of getting an initial assessment carried out.  There was not as much of a problem regarding the timelines for annual reviews.

·         There was a need for more doctors who were willing to carry out the initial health assessments.

·         It was commented that it was sometimes hard for Looked After Children to know who they could trust, and it was queried whether there was any way to minimise the number of people that a child had to deal with.  It was noted that generally there was very little flexibility, but as Lincolnshire was now part of Partners in Practice officers would like to look at whether there was a different way of implementing the care plan regulations.  It was noted that the Panel would receive regular updates on this work.

RESOLVED

            That the work of the Corporate parenting Panel be noted.