Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest made by Members at this point in the meeting.

To Follow

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel held on 22 March 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Principal Social Worker will be in attendance to provide the Panel with a briefing in relation to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

S Davies, Principal Social Worker, was in attendance at the meeting to provide the Panel with an overview in relation to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

The Panel was informed that the Government’s manifesto had committed to review the children’s social care system to ensure that children and young people got the support they needed.  The review would also consider how the care system responded to all children referred in to it and would address major challenges including:-

·        the sharp increase in recent years in the number of children becoming looked after

·        high and rising unit costs

·        inconsistencies in children’s social care practice and outcomes across the country

·        the failure of the system to provide stable, loving homes for children

·        the capacity and capability of the system to support and strengthen families to prevent children being taken into care unnecessarily.

The review was launched in January 2021 and was being independently led by Josh MacAlister, a former school teacher and founder of the Social Work Charity Frontline.

The scope of the review was as follows:-

·        Starting from children’s experiences – looking at how service provision influenced a child’s experience and outcomes.  It would prioritise listening to the voices of children, young people and adults that had received help or support from a Social Worker, or who had been looked after.

·        All children who were referred to, or involved with, statutory social care – a whole system review, including relevant preventative services such as Early Help.

·        All children in care in both formal and informal (kinship) placements – it may also consider those leaving or preparing to leave care, adoption and SEND review.

·        Children’s social care and interaction with partner agencies – it would review and investigate how those services’ roles, responsibilities and accountabilities interacted with Children’s Social Care and recommend improvements for working together.

It was highlighted that the review must be workable and lead to deliverable reforms that were evidence-based and demonstrated a measurable impact.

The Panel was informed that the review would focus on the following themes and questions:-

·        Support - What support was needed to meet the needs of children who were referred to or involved with social care, in order to improve outcomes and make a long-term positive difference to individuals and to society?

·        Strengthening families - What could be done so children were supported to stay safely and thrive with their families, to ensure the exceptional powers that were granted to the state to support and intervene in families were consistently used responsibly, balancing the need to protect children with the right to family life, avoiding the need to enter care?

·        Safety - What could be done so children who needed to be in care got there quickly, and to ensure those children felt safe and were not at risk of significant harm?

·        Care - What was needed for children to have a positive experience of care that prioritised stability, providing an alternative long-term family for children who needed it and support  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/51

The Panel will be asked to consider how it wishes to proceed with its current review and is provided with a briefing note recapping the evidence received to date.

The Chair referred to the briefing note that had been provided circulated with the agenda which provided a recap of the evidence the Panel had received to date at each of its meetings in respect of its current review.  The Terms of Reference for the review were also provided.  The Chair asked Members how the Panel wished to proceed with the review and whether there were any further areas that required further examination prior to the compilation of the Draft Final Report.

During discussion, the following issues were raised:-

·        A Panel Member suggested that it would be interesting to look at life skills for young people leaving care and how they are prepared for moving to independence.  It was acknowledged that whilst this issue did not relate directly to the terms of reference for the current review, it might be something that the Panel could potentially examine in the future as a separate topic.

·        A Member suggested that some initial research into whether there were links between poverty and children coming into care could be undertaken.

·        A Panel Member highlighted that the voice of the child, particularly in relation to perceptions of children in care, should be gathered, for example, seeking out the views of children in foster care in Middlesbrough.

·        A further suggestion in relation to diversity in terms of looked after children within diverse communities within the town should be looked into, however, it was acknowledged that as part of the profile of Middlesbrough’s looked after children, provided to the Panel in accordance with Term of Reference 1), this had been addressed in very broad terms.  Any further detailed work would need to be undertaken as a separate topic.

·        The Democratic Services Officer suggested that the Draft Final Report be formulated for Members’ consideration and that should any areas be identified as requiring further information, this could be added to the report prior to its submission to OSB.

·        The Executive Director added that since the start of the review, changes had started to happen within the service, particularly the reduction in the numbers of looked after children, and that she would be pleased to provide a short update in relation to the ongoing work for inclusion within the Draft Final Report.

·        It was acknowledged that the Panel had undertaken a significant amount of work during the current Municipal Year and it was generally agreed that the review should be concluded within the remit as set by the terms of reference.

AGREED as follows:-

1.      That the Draft Final Report be prepared for the Panel’s consideration, with a brief addendum from the Executive Director of Children’s Services in relation to ongoing work within Children’s Services.

That any areas identified as requiring additional information, with the approval of the Chair, be undertaken and included in the Draft Final Report.

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 the Covid situation was moving from the response to the recovery stage, therefore all recovery plans were now being refreshed.  The Children’s Services and Education Covid recovery groups were to be reinstated.

Since Easter, only five staff and 14 pupils, all at one school, had been in self-isolation due to Covid.  SACRE was undertaking risk assessments in relation to whether two workers could now make home visits together as this was a significant part of the workers’ learning and development.

Covid lateral flow testing continued in schools and there had been no issues.

It was suggested that, moving forward into the new Municipal Year, the item on Covid recovery could be reported to the Panel by exception rather than as a standard item.

AGREED that the information provided be noted and that the item on Covid Recovery in Children’s Services be reported by exception to the Panel in future.

The Chair will provide a verbal update on business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 8 April 2021.

The Chair provided a verbal update in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 8 April 2021, namely:-

·        Executive Forward Work Programme

·        Middlesbrough Council’s Response to Covid-19

·        Executive Member Update – Exec Member for Communities and Education.

·        Strategic Plan 2020-2023 – Progress at quarter three 2020-21.

·        Revenue and capital budget – projected outturn position at quarter three 2020-21.

·        Scrutiny Chairs’ Updates

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

Adoption Tees Valley

The Chair advised that, following the Panel’s previous meeting – attended by the Service Manager from Adoption Tees Valley who provided a very comprehensive presentation - Panel Members were consulted to find out whether they had any further questions they wished to ask.  A couple of responses were received from Panel Members and those questions were forwarded to the Service Manager at Adoption Tees Valley.  The Service Manager had subsequently updated the report that was provided to the previous meeting and the responses to the additional questions were contained within pages 10-13.  A copy of the updated report was circulated to the Panel, for information on 16 April 2021 and had been updated on Modern.gov.

Become Charity - Training in relation to children looked after

Also at the Panel’s previous meeting, the Policy and Participation Manger from Become Charity was in attendance to talk about stigma and perceptions of children in care and care leavers.

A couple of things that came out of the discussion were:-

·        The importance of language and the damage and detrimental impact that negative language and use of stereotypes can cause by changing perceptions and attitudes.

·        The Panel felt that training for all teachers in Middlesbrough schools should be provided in relation to children looked after, including the use of language and stereotypes

·        AND that similar training be provided for Members and frontline staff, where appropriate, and also that the local authority look at the use of language within its own services to address negative perceptions and stigma.

In conjunction with the CYP Learning Scrutiny Panel, the Panel had asked what training is currently provided for teachers or how it is planned to address the concerns raised.

In addition, initial enquiries were made with Become Charity to find out what support they might be able to provide to the local authority in terms of training if required.

The Executive Director advised that, as DCS, she intended to select several commonly used/heard phrases/acronyms, for example ‘LAC’, ‘CiN’, ‘Hard to reach’, and would approach how to stop them being used across the authority.