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 15 February 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Policy and Participation Manager from Become Charity will be in attendance to provide a presentation in relation to the stigma and perceptions faced by care experienced children and young people.

S Turner, Policy and Participation Manager from Become Charity, was in attendance at the meeting to advise the Panel about the work undertaken by Become, particularly in relation to tackling the stigma and negative perceptions faced by care experienced children and young people.

The Panel heard that Become was the National Charity for children in care and young care leavers in England, with one of its strategic aims being to change attitudes towards care experienced young people in society.  The Charity provided advice and support through the National Care Advice Line; One to one support and life coaching; weekly link-ups; Propel website and training for professionals.  The services provided were youth-led, holistic and trauma-informed and ongoing follow up support was provided to meet the practical and emotional needs of children in care and young care leavers.  The Charity was independent from statutory services ensuring that young people felt safe to share their feelings and challenges knowing that they would be listened to without being judged and that action would be taken to make sure they received the right support.

In addition, Become helped to improve the care system by ensuring young people’s voices were heard to shape the policies and services that were there to help them.  This included working with Government, Parliament, professionals within the care system and others to promote good policy-making and practice, responding to consultations, providing briefings, running campaigns and awareness-raising with the media.  Part of the Policy and Participation Manager’s role was to involve care experienced young people across these areas in a way that was both safe for them and meaningful.

It was highlighted that Become was formerly known as ‘Who Cares Trust’, founded by a Social Worker in Westminster who created a magazine that was circulated to children in care.

Stigma and Perceptions

The Policy and Participation Manager shared the most commonly heard quotes from young people around stigma and perceptions.  There were many assumptions and stereotypes often made about children in care and their families which had an impact on their wellbeing and sense of identity.  For example, regular local media coverage of children’s homes and concerns around ownership often quoted falsehoods and unfounded negative comments about the types of children in the care system.

Sometimes stigma was less easy to identify and could be explained as ignorance and lack of education around the care system.  The real facts about how a children’s home actually operated and how it looked went a long way to combatting some of the perceptions.  The Policy and Participation Manager stated that when speaking to members of the public, many people were surprised to learn that a children’s home was usually a three or four bedroomed house designed to feel like a family home.

When speaking to young people, many felt that other people’s (peers and professionals) perceptions of the reasons why they were in care, included that it was the young person’s fault that they were in care, that they were trouble-makers, or it was due  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/44

The Service Manager, Adoption Tees Valley, will be in attendance to provide further information in relation to sufficiency and permanency from an adoption perspective.

V Davidson-Boyd, Service Manager from Adoption Tees Valley, was in attendance at the meeting to provide the Panel with an overview of the Adoption Tees Valley service in the context of sufficiency and permanency, and how it worked with the five Tees Local Authorities, particularly Middlesbrough.

It was highlighted that Adoption Tees Valley’s Bi-annual Report had been circulated to Panel Members, prior to the meeting, for information as background reading to accompany the agenda. 

The Service Manager stated that there had been an improvement in several areas of work within Middlesbrough over the last six months, particularly in terms of permanency planning.

By way of background to the service, it was explained that Adoption Tees Valley (ATV) was established in 2018, in line with the Government’s aim to see all local authorities with adoption responsibilities participate in Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) by 2020.  The key drivers for this were that children were waiting too long to be adopted and to improve adoption support and outcomes for adopted children. 

The RAAs had provided ongoing opportunities for collaborative thinking and working, sharing of ideas and good practice and stimulating focus on adoption at national and regional levels.  The RAAs also provided a larger pool of adoptive families resulting in increased adoptions - previously around 150 local authorities each carrying out a small number of adoptions but now there were currently 40 RAAs carrying out an increased number of adoptions.

Adoption Tees Valley was the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) for the five local authorities within the Tees Valley – Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool, Darlington and Redcar and Cleveland.  ATV was responsible for:-

·        Recruitment, assessment and approval of adoptive families

·        Receiving referrals of children for adoption

·        Family finding

·        Matching and placing children with adoptive families

·        Life story work and books

·        Step-parent adoptions

The Panel was provided with detailed information regarding the adoption process – both in terms of the child’s journey and the adopters’ journey.

Child’s Journey

The process for the referral, matching and placement of children through adoption was as follows:-

·        All children in the care of the local authority were assessed to determine the most suitable care plan.

·        Once the permanence plan was known, where the plan was for adoption, it must first be approved by the relevant local authority’s Agency Decision Maker (ADM).

·        It was essential for any child’s plan where adoption may be a possibility to notify ATV at the earliest opportunity in order for preliminary family finding to commence.

·        ATV commenced initial family finding internally by identifying any potentially suitable approved adopters for the child.

·        Where no internally approved adopters existed, ATV commenced the early stages of external family finding.

·        Final proceedings were concluded in Court by seeking the grant of a Placement Order to authorise the local authority to place the child for adoption.

·        Once a Placement Order had been granted this signified the start of the formal family finding process, however, it was beneficial to have undertaken family finding work prior to the Placement Order being grated in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/45

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will be in attendance to provide a verbal update on Covid recovery in Children’s Services.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, provided the Panel with a verbal update in relation to Covid recovery in Children’s Services.

The Panel was advised that all schools had reopened from 8 March 2021 - some schools had adopted a phased return - with no specific issues identified.  It was confirmed that the funding received for laptop provision in schools had now been distributed.

In relation to the attendance of vulnerable children at school, it was highlighted that more than 90% of vulnerable children had attended school for at least one day between 8-12 March.

The Panel was informed that the Local Authority had been successful in securing funding for ‘Welfare Call’ – a mechanism that provided live data for tracking Middlesbrough’s vulnerable children more effectively by providing daily attendance data as well as monitoring attainment of vulnerable cohorts.

Covid-19 testing in schools was going well and relationships between schools and the Local Authority was positive and continued to strengthen.

Finally, Children’s Services, in conjunction with Public Health, had arranged delivery of enrichment activities during the Easter school holidays and beyond, provided by the Holiday Activities Fund (HAF).

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

The Chair will provide a verbal update in relation to business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11 March 2021.

A verbal update was provided in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11 March 2021, namely:-

·        Executive Forward Work Programme

·        Executive Member Update – The Mayor

·        Middlesbrough Council’s Response to Covid-19

·        Final Report – Economic Development & Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel – Pest Control

·        Final Report – Health Scrutiny Panel – Opioid Dependency: What happens next?

·        OSB Call-in outcome – Nunthorpe Grange Farm Disposal

·        Scrutiny 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, 19 April 2021 at 4.00pm.