Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel held on 7 December 2020 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Chair announced that the following two agenda items may be familiar to some Panel Members as they were recently presented to the Corporate Parenting Board, however, the Chair felt that it was beneficial for the information to be presented to the Scrutiny Panel in the context of the Panel’s current scrutiny investigation.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services and Head of Service for Future for Families will be in attendance to present the Panel with information relating to foster carers, including recruitment and retention initiatives.

J Rowan, Fostering Team Manager, was in attendance at the meeting to provide the Panel with further information in relation to its current scrutiny topic, focussing on foster carers in Middlesbrough.

The Panel was informed that the Fostering Service was required to provide an annual dataset to Ofsted in relation to foster carers and placements.  The latest data showed that in quarter two of the 2020/21 financial year, Middlesbrough had 156 approved foster care households creating 263 placements.  These figures had increased from quarter one – 149 foster carers with 243 placements.  For 2019/20 the annual return figure was 141 foster carers and 261 placements.  There had been a net increase of foster carers but not of fostering placements, therefore, it was crucial to utilise foster placements as effectively as possible.

A breakdown of the types of foster placements available was provided to the Panel and it was noted that in quarter two of 2020/21, of the 156 foster carers:-

·        89 - short term foster carers

·        38 – fully approved connected persons carers

·        17  - long term foster carers

·        11 – respite care

·        1 – fostering to adopt

There had been an increase of four short term foster carer approvals from quarter one and an increase of five approved connected persons carers from quarter one.  There was a decrease of two long term carers during the same period.  Work was ongoing to identify the resources needed to try to increase the number of short term foster carers.

In terms of the number of foster carers that were approved, Members were informed that a total of 41 foster carers were approved during 2019/20 (22 mainstream and 19 connected persons).  During quarter one of 2020/21, a total of 10 foster carers were approved (five mainstream and five connected persons) and a total of 12 foster carers were approved during quarter two (five mainstream and seven connected persons).

In 2019/20, a total of 24 foster carers were de-registered – 16 mainstream carers and 8 connected persons carers.  In 2020/21 during quarter one, a total of four carers were deregistered – two mainstream and two connected persons carers – and during quarter two connected persons carers were deregistered.  The reasons for de-registration included retirement, health reasons and other work commitments.  There had been initial concerns that some carers might be moving to Independent Fostering Agencies but it was confirmed that only one carer had moved to an Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) since March 2020.  However, three or four IFA carers had moved across to become carers with Middlesbrough Council, this was mainly due to improvement in practice.  Middlesbrough had a good conversion rate in terms of turning initial enquiries into fully approved foster carers and also had a good rate of children in long term foster placements.

The Panel was advised that Children’s Services was improving at better utilising in-house fostering placements with appropriate matching.  In 2019/20, 163 children were placed with in-house foster carers.  In 2020/21, 145 children were placed with in-house carers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/29

The Executive Director of Children’s Services and the Children’s Services Programme Manager will be in attendance to present an overview of the Corporate Parenting Strategy.

B Robinson, Children’s Services Programme Manager, was in attendance to provide the Panel with an overview of Middlesbrough’s Corporate Parenting Strategy.  A copy of the document in its entirety had been circulated to Panel Members and a presentation was given, highlighting the headlines from the Strategy.

The Corporate Parenting Strategy had been developed in consultation with staff, partners, Members and young people, as part of the improvement journey of Children’s Services.  The Strategy set out Middlesbrough’s vision and actions to support children and young people in the authority’s care.

The Strategy encompassed a Permanency Strategy and a Sufficiency Strategy.  The Permanency Strategy set out how the authority would strengthen its quality of practice to ensure positive outcomes for children and young people in its care and the Sufficiency Strategy set out how the authority would commission high quality support, placements and learning that met the needs of the children and young people in its care.

The guiding principles of the Strategy were developed directly from the consultation work with care experienced young people and care leavers and they had made short videos to accompany each of the principles:-

·        ‘Our Home’ – A stable and secure home arrangement that meets our needs and wishes.

·        ‘Our Friends and Family’ – Contact with all the people that are important to us in our lives.

·        ‘Our Education and Employment’ – Excellent support to access the education, training and employment that we need.

·        ‘Our Health and Wellbeing’ – Easy access to specialist support for our emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

·        ‘Our Adult Life’ – Support to leave care when we are ready and to make a positive transition to adult life.

·        ‘Our Voice and Influence’ – Being listened to, having a real voice and opportunities to shape and influence the plans for our care.

·        ‘Our Needs and Wishes’ – The starting point for planning for permanency with children, young people and their families.

The Panel was advised that at the beginning of compiling the Strategy, there were some things that were already going well/started to improve within Children’s Services, for example:-

·        Placements were more stable and there was a steady reduction in the proportion of children who had experienced three or more placement moves whilst in our care.

·        Reduction in drift and delay for children in our care, supported by a targeted focus from Futures for Families and the Innovate projects.

·        More children were being supported to attend school regularly, with a reduction in fixed term exclusions, leading to a more stable and effective learning experience.

·        Visits and contacts to children in our care were increasingly within timescales, leading to an improved experience of care and support.

In terms of areas that required further improvement, the following had been identified:-

·        Early identification of risk to support children on the edge of care.

·        Quality and timeliness of permanence planning.

·        Availability of sufficient and suitable local homes.

·        Access to emotional and mental health support.

·        Educational attainment for children in our care and employment and training outcomes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/30

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide a verbal update on Covid Recovery in Children’s Services.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, was in attendance to provide the Panel with a verbal update on Covid recovery in Children’s Services.  It was explained that as part of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan, it was considered that the work being undertaken by Children’s Services during the Covid pandemic should be shared with Members of both Children’s Scrutiny Panels and the Corporate Parenting Board.  The Chair of the Panel agreed that this item would be placed on the agenda for each Panel meeting.

It was explained that Bronze, Silver and Gold meetings were held within the Council to look at issues across the service at operational and strategic levels during the Covid pandemic.

Members were aware that all schools were open to vulnerable children and children of key workers.  A vulnerable child was defined as being a child with an allocated Social Worker and the attendance of vulnerable children in school was monitored.   A dedicated telephone line had been established for schools to inform the Council when a vulnerable child was not in school.  This notification would trigger a risk assessment to determine whether action was required.

When vulnerable children were found not to be in school, systems were in place to track where they were, ensure their safety and to facilitate remote learning. It was recognised that head teachers were under immense pressure as they were essentially managing two schools - a remote school and an actual school.  The Council held regular meetings with schools to support head teachers and staff.  It had been identified that schools within Middlesbrough required approximately 700 additional laptops/devices to ensure all children had access to remote learning.

The Council was liaising with the DfE and had already distributed thousands of laptops across Middlesbrough, focussing on those pupils that were most vulnerable and disadvantaged. In addition, schools, private businesses and voluntary organisations had also been accessing their budgets and working to provide devices to pupils. The Council aimed to track the distribution of laptops and ensure that schools received the number of laptops they had requested and it was noted that demand varied from school to school.

In relation to staffing within Children’s Services, Members were advised that staff were all working from home in line with current Government advice.  It was acknowledged that this could be isolating, particularly for newly qualified Social Workers who would usually learn from working alongside more experienced Social Workers, however, support was available to staff and the Executive Director held a weekly virtual briefing to share information with staff. 

In terms of Social Worker visits to children and families, including foster carers, recent guidance stated that visits should be face to face wherever possible and only virtual in exceptional circumstances.  Precautions were taken by staff by phoning ahead of the visit to check that no-one in the household had Covid symptoms and appropriate PPE was worn.  The primary aim was to ensure that children were safe and Children’s Services was working with Public Health and CAMHS.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/31

The Chair will provide a verbal update on business conducted at the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 18 December 2020 and 14 January 2021.

A verbal update was provided in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 18 December 2020 and 14 January 2021, namely:-

18 December 2020 – Meeting 1

Call-In – Nunthorpe Grange Farm Disposal – adjourned and deferred due to technical issues.

18 December 2020 – Meeting 2

Call-In – Residual Waste Collections – deferred due to technical issues.

14 January 2021

·        Executive Forward Work Programme.

·        Middlesbrough Council’s Response to Covid-19 Response – Chief Executive & Director of Public Health.

·        Executive Member update – Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health (Councillor Davison).

·        Strategic Plan and Quarter Two Outturn Report.

·        Teesswide Safeguarding Adults Board – Annual Report 2019/20 and Strategic Plan 2020/21.

·        Final Report – Culture and Communities Scrutiny Panel – Social Cohesion and Integration.

·        Scrutiny Panel Chairs’ Updates.

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

The next meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel was scheduled for Monday, 15 February 2021 at 4.00pm.

The Chair permitted a Member of the Panel to raise an issue under any other items in relation to a recent planning application considered at the Council’s Planning and Development Committee. 

A recent Planning Committee had considered a planning application from a private provider seeking planning approval for a children’s residential home.  The Panel Member considered that the Scrutiny Panel Members should be invited to Planning Committee when decisions relating to children’s services were being made and that Planning Committee Members should be provided with training around such issues to ensure understanding of the issues and to take a non-judgemental approach.

The Chair stated that as Chair of the Scrutiny Panel and as a Member of the Planning Committee he had ensured that a balanced view on behalf of the Panel was brought to the discussion in the Planning Committee.

A Panel Member expressed concern around what procedures and processes were currently in place to ensure the quality of care and standards of care provided by private care home providers as this was not a planning consideration.

In response to a query, clarification was provided by the Executive Director that Middlesbrough’s Children’s Services very rarely used independent residential provision in Middlesbrough as it had its own residential provision, however, children could be placed from anywhere in the country in such residential homes. 

It was suggested that further discussion outside of the Scrutiny arena could be held to further understand the practice in relation to the delivery of such models and that the Scrutiny Panel may wish examine the issue.

NOTED