Agenda and draft minutes
PDF 224 KBVenue: Mandela room
Contact: Susie Blood
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Welcome Minutes: The Chair
welcomed all present to the meeting and a round of introductions took place. Members
observed one minute’s silence as a mark of respect following the recent death
of Queen Elizabeth II. |
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies were received by Councillors Higgins, Saunders and J Walker. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive
any declarations of interest. Minutes: There were
no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting. |
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Minutes- Corporate Parenting Board- 27 July 2022 Minutes: The minutes
from the Corporate Parenting Board held on 27 July 2022 were submitted and
agreed as a true record. |
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Sue Butcher, Director of Children’s Services will provide an update from Ofsted to the Board. Additional documents:
Minutes: Sue Butcher, Director of Children’s Services provided members of the Corporate
Parenting Board with an update from the Ofsted
Monitoring visit held in July 2022. The
monitoring visit was the fifth visit by Ofsted since the full inspection of Children’s
Services in November/December 2019 which judged the service as inadequate overall.
(Report published Jan 2020). Children’s
services were give two weeks preparation and the visit took place over 2 days
on 13/14th July 2022. The monitoring visit was undertaken by two inspectors
and reviewed the following: •
The front door service that
receives contacts and referrals •
Child protection enquiries, •
Early help assessments •
Step-up and step down to
early help The Director outlined the positives and areas that
need focus for each area. However the headline findings were as follows: Positives •
Front door services have
continued to develop and improve overseen by the Improvement Board •
Robust and comprehensive
quality assurance programme ensures leaders have an
accurate understanding of practice and its impact on children and families
Expansion of the offer of early help support to vulnerable children •
Stronger and wider
partnerships in the Multi agency children’s hub (MACH) •
Improving the quality of
information, •
The richness of
information-sharing •
Leading to better informed
decision making. Areas needing focus •
Workforce instability and
increased demand in the assessment service have slowed down throughput •
Additional pressure on some
social workers’ caseloads and quality of practice •
Unfinished assessments and
incomplete records have led to delays and risks being fully assessed for some
children The Board were advised that the areas needing
focus would become part of the refreshed Children’s Services Improvement Plan
which was monitored on a six-weekly basis by the Multi-Agency Strategic
Improvement Board (MASIB). The most significant area of concern remained the
recruitment and retention of experienced, permanent social workers as this
affects all of the area needing focus as set out above. Colleagues from Human
Resources are reporting to the next MASIB meeting on the continuing efforts to
recruit and retain such staff. Further
information on this would be brought back to the Board at a future meeting. Next steps were as follows: ·
Next monitoring visit would
take place in November 2022 focusing on Care experienced young people. ·
Annual engagement conversation
(across children’s services) in December 2022. ·
Judgement inspection –
possible February 2023. ·
The Director lastly thanked
everyone across the service for their dedication to evident that ‘Middlesbrough Children matter’. Following
the presentation, the panel had a conversation regarding social workers and
demand on the front door. In May and June they had been significant demand on
the service in terms of children’s assessments due to social workers leaving the
local authority. Whilst this wasn’t the case in July 2022, Ofsted were made
aware of this flux in demand. Another Board member also raised concern about potential future challenges that might hit the service as social world changes and the financial pressures. This in turn would create more demand on ... view the full minutes text for item 22/14 |
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Performance against Corporate Parenting Board Strategy Rachel Farnham, Director of Children’s Care will
present the scorecard to the Board ( this will be circulated on the day of the
meeting for information) Minutes: The Head of
Looked after Children and Corporate Parenting was in attendance and
provided the Board with information relating to the Corporate Parenting Board
scorecard. The Head of Service advised that the
scorecard was in place for the Corporate Parenting Board to see how our
performance was progressing and have the opportunity to challenge. Key findings August 2022 were as
follows: CP1: Number of children in Care in Middlesbrough-
Trend ·
Number of children and young people open to social care, in particular
Children looked after shows a fluctuated trend since September 2021. ·
Children looked after numbers vastly improved. They dropped down below
the 500 mark in January 2022, reaching 535 in August 2022- a 1% decrease prior
to last month. ·
Children looked after are down 1% in comparison to 12 month prior. CP2: gap between Middlesbrough and
Regional Children in Care (CiC) per 10,000- trend ·
The rate of Looked after children per 10,000 shows a fluctuating trend
in the last 12 months reaching the lowest rate in January 2022 at 39.91. ·
The rate increased in recent months, reaching 53.49 in August 2022-
still a 3% decrease in comparison to the previous month. ·
Middlesbrough remain above all external benchmarks, and have fallen
below our 2020/21 outturn. CP3: Ration of children entering to leaving
care- Trend ·
The
number of children starting a period of care remaining stable, until recent
months when the ratio increased. Scorecard shows that in August 2022, for every
09. Children starting care 1 ceased. The ratio still remains below the 2020/21. CP4: Average number of weeks children spend in
care (Ceasing care in month) –Trend ·
The average
number of weeks children spend in care has shown a fluctuating trend in the
last 12 months. The number of weeks reached in September 2021 at 249.73. ·
In
August 2022, the average number of weeks fell below the 2021/22 target (132.40)
again, reaching 97.90. CP8: % of permanence arrangements resulting in
Special Guardianship order (SGO)- trend ·
The %
of permanence arrangements resulting in SGO remains above or meets the 2020/21
target, 20%, the last 12 months. ·
This
shows great improvements across Children’s social care, with regard to the
reasoning for CLA ceasing. CP10.1: % of children who ceased to be looked
after in the period, who were adopted- Trend The % of children who ceased to be looked after
during the period, who were adopted hs remained
relatively stable across the last 12 months. In August 2022 the % reached 10%, a 1% decrease
in comparison to last month and a 1% increase in comparison to 12 months prior.
CP9: % of CIC placed with parents on care orders
at home- trend ·
The
number of children in care placed with parents on care orders at home exceeds
the 2020/21 target (5%) across all months. ·
The %
slowly declined, reaching the lowest recorded in February 2022 at 7.20%. Though
the % has since increased reaching 9.35% in August 2022.
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Fostering Quarter 1 Paul Rudd, Head of Service- Future for Families will provide information on the Quarter 1 fostering data to the Board Minutes: The Head of Looked after children and Corporate
Parenting Board provided the 2022-2023 quarterly report in relation to
fostering in Middlesbrough for the period April- June
2022. The Head of service provided a table with key
data, including for example, number of initial enquiries, number of fostering
families and information on number of children placed within in-house fostering
and Independent fostering agencies (IFAs). Key statistics included, were as
follows: Number
of enquiries - Quarter 1 (22/23) 63 (28 at Quarter 4 21/22) Number
of initial visits – Quarter 1 (22/23) 5 (14
at Quarter 4 21/22) Number
of children placed in-house fostering-
Quarter 1 (22/23) 191 ( 180 at quarter 4 21/22) IFA – Quarter 1 (22/23) 145 (same as quarter 4
21/22) In terms of what was going well the Board were
advised of the following: •
Middlesbrough now have
the highest number of children placed with in-house fostering families. March 2019 IFA 154 Inhouse
124 - 44% March 2020 IFA 160 Inhouse
158 - 50% March 2021 IFA 163 Inhouse
164 - 50 % March 2022 IFA 145 Inhouse
180- 55% June 2022 IFA 145 Inhouse
191 - 57 % •
There has
been an increase in fostering enquiries due to the sustained marketing campaign;
to date. Middlesbrough have received 63 enquiries
which exceeds our target of 46 by the end of July 2022. •
88% of Foster
Carer reviews were held within timescales •
No
connected carers assessments have gone out of the 24
week timescale •
Middlesbrough have timescales and practice guidance
on connected assessments making them more robust and child-focused •
Middlesbrough have a stable team and two agency
workers have now been recruited into permanent posts. •
The
introduction of Birth Child, Therapeutic Parenting Support Groups, and a Men
Who Foster Group are underway •
10 workers
within the team are undertaking a12 month programme
of Trauma-Informed Practice training with John Scadden. •
Trauma-Informed
supervision sessions with foster carers, Children
looked after social workers, and Education and supervising social workers have
been introduced to support fragile placements. •
Management
oversight and grip continues to increase and is supporting the improvement of
practice and compliance across the service. •
The Pilot
Constellation for the Mockingbird Project is in place and due to launch in
September. The Head of Service advised that there were
concerns regarding the following: •
Connected Carer Referrals have increased by 33% due
to influx of children coming into the care of the Local authority, which has
increased workload for social worker, creating pressure on timescales and
performance. This has seen a rise in 8 week extensions and tasks not completed
in 16 weeks. •
While initial enquiries have increased many
enquirers do not progress often choosing to progress with an Independent
fostering agency (IFA ) due in part to the current financial offer. • In June a fostering family, long-term matched with 3 Middlesbrough children, transferred to an IFA at a considerable long-term cost to the LA; in ... view the full minutes text for item 22/16 |
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Future for Families- Transition report. Rob Hamer, Service Manager, Future for Families, will provide an evaluation report to the Board. Additional documents: Minutes: Rob Hamer, Service Manager for Future for
Families was in attendance to provide the Board with a project end report. He advised the Board that The Future for
families service was within the strengthening families protecting children programme from September 2022 until August 2022. The
service has now come out of the project stage and the partnership with North
Yorkshire has ended. The Manager provided information on the
following: -
Our referrals and support Within
the 2 year pilot, the Manager advise that they had support over 100 young
people. The service begin to with heavy support with outreach but this started
to reduce in the summer of 2021 and the resources went to support the complex
cases within the residential hub. It is proposed that the edge of care service
will restart again in November 2022. -
Our specialist support -
Overall
within the Authority there has been a 12.3% reduction in the number of missing
episodes. 59% of
young people supported by the service, has received some form of specialist
service e.g. speech and language -
OFSTED Within
the 2 years, the service has been Ofsted inspected 2
times since the service was registered in August 2020. In October 2021, the
service was rated good with outstanding leadership and management. In context,
the service was rated the highest amongst the programme.
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Our impact (cost avoidance) This
tracks the cost of the child up until their 18th birthday. The manager advised that there was an
estimated cost avoidance of 56% of forecasted spend. -
OUR
young people The
manager finally provided some facts in relation to the hub over the last 2
years, including for example: Ø
Future
for families has supported 102 young people Ø
29
young people have accessed the HUB. Ø
100%
of young people accessing the hub received support from all specialist support. The Manager also advised after a number of
queries, that where possible they try to keep and support young people in Middlesbrough, as long as the support provided fits their
need. There is evidence that inhouse
support is better rather than outsourcing, and therefore the fostering offer,
social work and residential offer was also discussed, due to the demand for
this service and referrals from the MACH. The manager was thanked for his presentation. AGREED- That the information be noted. |
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Nominet digital REACH programme Ralph Jordinson, Risk and Resilience Manager and Louisa Jefferson, Digital Policy Apprentice will provide an update to the Board. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair welcome Ralph Jordinson
, Risk and Resilience manager and Louise Jefferson to the meeting to provide an
update on Nominet – REACH- Digiwise. As way of background the manager advised that in March
2021, Middlesbrough Council were successful in a funding application for
£36,220 which is to research, consult and produce a policy/practice document
for digital safeguarding for Children Looked After and Children Leaving Care. Funding by Parentzone and Nominet was allocated to 9 interlinked
projects under 3 key areas of which Middlesbrough’s sits within Design
Challenge 3, that is: Elevating young peoples’ voice to influence
the services that impact on their
digital safety and opportunity. Care experienced young people have
invaluable insight which is currently under-utilised in relation to digital and
online safety policy development. More
specifically the project was to ensure care experienced young people can
influence the service policies, process and practice that impact on their digital
lives. We need to extend participation;
diversify and improve channels of communication and feedback. This is based
on significant risks posed to Children Looked After (CLA) being at risk of
online grooming and exploitation, exposure pornography, peer pressure to send
youth produced sexual imagery and access to drug sales and other harmful
products usually via social media. Since reporting at the last board meeting, the manager
provided information on the progress so far; a) Employed and trained a care experienced
apprentice training in Impact Measurement and Management. b) Steering group formed inclusive of young
people representation and developed action plan with progress milestones. Established the project name ‘Digiwise’. c) Designing and implementing consultation for
young people with care experience. d) Hosted a series of consultation workshops,
focus groups and events capturing young peoples
views. e) Consulted with 35 young people within
quantitative surveys, 5 young people within qualitative ‘deep dive’ surveys and
multiple others within focus groups and workshops. The target was 100 young
people but sadly this wasn’t met. f) Promoted recognised CPD programme of
learning for foster carers, residential workers and social workers. g) Promoted the adoption of the UKCIS Digital
Passport for children and young people in care. h) Developed with young people a smartphone
holder for all care experienced young people with QR code for a quick and easy
access to resources. Since the last Corporate Parenting Board in February
2022 the survey has been completed and the key findings of the Digiwise project were as follows: •
Most of
our young people are exposed to some form of adversity in online spaces, these
issues are far reaching and usually involve social media. •
Young people
want data plans and do not want data limited. •
That
internet speeds are slow and could be better across all settings. •
There
was limited evidence of consistent approaches and overall effectiveness of
acceptable use agreements and use of online safety contracts in care homes.
This is sometimes that needs to be explored further e.g
a digital pledge • Young people want quick ... view the full minutes text for item 22/18 |
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Participation of Children and Young People Kathy Peacock, Voice and Influence Manager and
Xavier Davies, Apprentice Youth Training &
Development Officer will provide an update to the
Board. Kathy and Xavier will also be joined by Adam Hart, CAMHS /
HeadStart Business Administrator Apprentice. Minutes: The Chair welcome Kathy Peacock, Voice and
Influence Manager to the meeting to provide the Board with the standard item
regarding the participation of Middlesbrough’s children and young people. The Manager firstly advised the purpose of the Team,
which was to: facilitate open,safe, and inclusive spaces for
care experienced young people/adults to come together. We provide fun activities for them to tell you
what is important to them, so you can improve the support they and others
receive. The Team support ·
Care experienced young people to get
involved, have a voice and create events to hear from more young people/adults. ·
Young people to share their views with key
decision makers and professionals, who will act on what they say and positively
change services to meet their needs. Membership of the Children in Care Council (CiCC) for 10-16 year olds.
Meet fortnightly. ·
Three young people in the same foster
placement ·
One young person in foster care ·
One young adult in supported housing (Young
Leader for the group) ·
One young person with SEND in a residential
home (he is seen at his home to capture his views) Membership of the Care Leavers Forum (CLF) for 16 - 25 year olds. This
will however be put on pause whilst the weekly pop up cafes take place- see
below information) ·
One young adult in supported housing (same
person who attends the CiCC) ·
Care leaver
who has a young child Over the last 6 weeks, the Board were advised of
the following activities of the Team:
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