Agenda item

The Voice of the Child Coordinator will provide a presentation to the Board.

The Chair welcome the Beth Bradshaw, Voice of the Child Coordinator and Laurie Hunter, support officer for the Member of Youth Parliament  (MYP)for Middlesbrough to the meeting.

 

The Support officer firstly shared an online blog which had been produced by the member of youth Parliament for Middlesbrough and Deputy Member of Youth Parliament. The representatives had had graphic made to be used on their blog.

 

The Support officer read out the blog from the Deputy Member of Youth Parliament from Middlesbrough, which was as follows:

 

Hi everyone!

Recently, myself (Batool the Deputy Member of Youth Parliament) and Muskaan (the Member of Youth Parliament) have aimed to finalise the details of the Middlesbrough Youth Council along with Laurie our support officer. So far we have:

·     Created a video to be sent to Schools/Youth Providers and shared on Social Media

·     Created a leaflet for schools to put on display

·     Created a graphic to be shared on social media

·     Created our letter to send to headteachers

·     Created an expression of interest form for young people

·     Two letters from Deputy mayor Antony High to be sent to schools and Youth Providers

Our support officer (Laurie Hunter) and Beth Bradshaw have met with the Deputy Mayor to converse about the Youth Council and to think about the dates we would like to launch everything. The launch is being worked on at the moment, but hopefully we will be able to share very soon!

The Support officer further advised that the launch of the Youth Council would be taking place in the New Year, and final plans were being discussed with the Mayor. It was a very exciting opportunity and the representative has outlined that for every Corporate Parenting Board meeting, they will provide a blog update.

The Chair asked the Support Officer to convey the Board thanks to the MYP and DMYP.

The Voice of the Children Coordiantor went on to provide an update to the Board in relation to Participation. Her presentation covered:

-     The Middlesbrough Children Matter website demonstration

-     An Update on Participation

-     An update on wider Children’s services communications

-     The Tell us More Survey at a glance

The Board were impressed with the Middlesbrough Children Matter website, which was designed with young people and thanked all staff for their support and work in ensuring this went live.

The Coordinator outlined that she had been working in partnership with the centre for practice excellence (Charlotte) to embed the voice of the child on the front line. This has been done by:

-     To ensure that team plans are focused on voice of the child

-     To clearly evidence voice of the child and the impact

-     To improve compliance and recording

-     Identify a voice of the child lead in each team who is responsible for sharing the pro-forma with the team

-     Identify any barriers to visiting children alone or in time

-     Exploring meaningful direct work

-     Sharing the Middlesbrough Children Matter Mission and Vision with staff teams.

-     13 teams started working with the Practice lead in December 2020.

In terms of future plans the Coordinator outlined that the advert was out for the Participation officer and plan was for this officer to work alongside the Practice lead to be present in Teams and also work alongside the teams to meet children and young people at point of referral.

In terms of other work, 2 of our Care Leavers are to be employed as Apprentices and their roles include working in our Futures for Families team, working with the Principle Social worker to support the training and development of the workforce and supporting the Participation team with their work.

•     Pathways are running a Care Leavers drop in on a Friday morning with their allocated CAMHS worker as a result of feedback from the Care Leavers forum.

•     The Participation Officer role is now live for recruitment. The Care Leavers forum are planning the interviews that will take place in January 2021.

•     Xavier has designed the Christmas card that will be sent to all looked after children, Care Leavers and staff.

•     The launch of Middlesbrough Virtual Youth Council will take place on Thursday 14^th January 2021

•     They had been a fantastic response to the Christmas hamper and all Care Leavers who are living independently or in semi-independent living will receive a Christmas Gift Hamper

The Board were also made aware that the Participation team had run Middlesbrough Children Matter value and behaviour campaign and provided an example to the Board. This has been shared with the workforce and on social media.

In terms of wider children services communication, the service does the following:

•     Fortnightly newsletters sent to the workforce from Rachel Farnham (Director of Children's Care) and Rob Brown

(Director of Education and Partnerships)

•     Fortnightly newsletters from the Children with Disabilities team and Pathways are added to the website

•     Ran a Middlesbrough Children Matter values and behavior campaign which was shared with the workforce & social media.

•     Middlesbrough Mindfulness month – our Care Leavers forum wanted to run a month of mindfulness to cheer people up during lockdown. 1 Mindfullness quote a day was circulated using social media, email and the text service

•      Rebranded Twitter - #Middlesbrough Children Matter 370 followers – 250 impressions

•     Middlesbrough Children matters website launch tweet got 6,123 impressions and 300 engagements and 76 clicks on the website.

•     The service team created a Middlesbrough Children Matter Instagram which has 50 followers

•     BoroMYP has 158 followers

•     BoroDeputyMYP has 135 followers

 Planned a service specific roadshow to discuss progress on the Improvement Journey with each service

The Coordinator also exampled about the work within the Engagement groups:

Mini Children in Care Council - 5 members - An internal email has gone out to all resource workers and social workers to encourage engagement of children and young people in this group. Sue Butcher has also encouraged staff to have conversations with young people about attending this group.

Children in Care Council -A virtual Children in Care Council meeting planned for Monday 21st December. A full communications plan is in place to encourage Social Workers and Independent Reviewing Officers to encourage their young people to attend.

Care Leavers forum- We have 6 active members of the group. We meet weekly and speak regularly via the Care Leavers forum Whatsapp group. A CAMHS worker attends every session to support any mental health needs and a socially distance Christmas walk has been organised.

Recent tasks:

•     The recruitment of the Participation Officer, planning the interviews

•     The development of the Tell Us More Survey questions to ensure the tone is right

•     Planning the Care Leavers Christmas card competition.

•     Attending the Life Story work task and finish group. This was a new group headed by Siobhan Davies. The task and finish group membership is multi agency and involves for example, a care leaver, CAHMS, Future for families, social workers etc.

 At the last meeting of the Board, the members had asked for some further information on the Tell us more survey. It was reported that there were:

·     150 responses

·     80 where completed by a parent/carer

·     67 completed by child/young person

·     3 did not specify.

Key themes from the survey were:

-     Young people felt involved in decisions

-     Young people feel safe with their worker

The Coordinator outlined that as the survey was carried out some time ago (2019), she will be working with the officers involved to go through a new process and will update the Board at the next meeting.

The Chair and Board thanked the Coordinator and team for all their support and hard work.

Agreed-

·     That the information be noted.

·     That an update on the Tell Us More Survey be provided at the next meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MALAP

The Chair provided an update to the Board in relation to the MALAP spot light. The first issue was to gather information from other Local Authorities in relation to their good practice arrangements for Corporate Parenting Board.

There were 8 local authorities identified and questions were submitted in relation to their practice arrangements. 5 interviews have been completed and once all have been completed, the information will be formulated and circulated to the Board.

The Chair further outlined that the second spotlight would examine the Voice of the Child and work would commence in the New Year.

AGREED-

·     To note the work undertaken within the spotlight report.

 

Regulation 44

The Head of service provided an update on Children’s Home Regulations 2015.

Regulation 44 visits are when an Independent Person visits a children’s residential home on a monthly basis. It is the role of the Regulation 44 Visitor to write a report that talks about how the home is being run. The person checks that the children are being kept safe and how well their wellbeing is being promoted. This means that they need to check that the rules that the children’shomes have to follow (The Children’s Homes Regulations) are being done.

This includes making sure that the wishes and feelings of the children in the home are being listened to and that there are meetings happening in the home for them to have their say.

The Regulation 44 visitor does not have to say if they are visiting and may come “unannounced” 

They will look at the files of the children who live in the home. They will need to check they

have the child’s permission to do this as well as the permission from the social worker.

 

The visitor will also look around the home to check that it is a safe place to live and that

there are fire alarms and extinguishers in place. They will also make sure it is decorated 

well and that the children and young people have comfortable bedrooms and places to relax

The visitor will also ask to speak to the children and young people, on their own if they want

to find out if they are happy living in the home and the things that are written in their files are

happening. Since Covid the visits have been a virtual tour of the homes.

 

The Head of Service advised that there is a focus and the Regulation 44 visitor will look at 9 aspect:

 

 

·        The quality and purpose of care standard (see regulation 6)

·        The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard (see regulation 7)

·        The education standard (see regulation 8)

·        The enjoyment and achievement standard (see regulation 9)

·        The health and well-being standard (see regulation 10)

·        The positive relationships standard (see regulation 11)

·        The protection of children standard (see regulation 12)

·        The leadership and management standard (see regulation 13)

·        The care planning standard (see regulation 14)

 

There are very few recommendations from Regulation 44, however since April 2020 there have been two recommendations which related to a young person with behavioural issues and the other with substance misuse issues:

Recommendation - Care team meeting to explore D2 and the approach in relation to police involvement.

Recommendation - consider how often staff should discuss the option of CAMHS and substance misuse support with D1 and to evidence these discussions.

 

The Head of Service further went on to explain some of the positive feedback received from social workers and young people. One that the Board noted was that from a Child who outlined: “I feel safe and enjoy the activities that we do”.

The Manager finally outlined that the presentation did not fully capture the essence of Regulation 44 reports, which are 24 pages long and go into depth about the services offered to young people. It was therefore recommended that Regulation 44 reports are presented to Corporate Parenting Panel on a Monthly basis. This would allow for scrutiny and discussions to be held surrounding recommendations and good practice examples.

 

Agreed-

That the information be noted

That the Regulation 44 reports are presented to Corporate Parenting Panel on a Monthly basis. This will allow for scrutiny and discussions to be held surrounding recommendations and good practice examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future for Families

The Service Manager for Future for Families provided the Board with an update on the progress of Future for Families (FFF).

The Manager outlined that when FFF first opened in September 2020 and this presentation provided the journey since September- November 2020. In September FFF were working with 14 young people on the Edge of care and in fragile placements, meaning their foster placements were on the verge of breaking down. They had a regular in-reach support from the hub, which supported 3 young people

By October, FFF were supporting 38 young people on the Edge of care /fragile placements and were supporting 4 young people in the regular in-reach support from the hub and by November 2020, FFF were supporting 39 young on the Edge of Care/ Fragile placements and supported 5 young people in the regular in-reach support from the hub.

The Manager advised that in terms of direct contact support, the hours from September 2020 were 99.10 and increased to 177.35 in November 2020. Covid has had a direct impact on that contact time due to young people/ support workers isolating ot staff being contacted through track and trace, however staff have remained to work hard to ensure young people receive the best possible support.

Some of the interventions provided by FFF were discussed, including for example, education, substance misuse, parenting and families and emotional and mental health. The Manager advised that in terms of activities with young people, covid has had a significant impact on this, however we could expect to see a decline in activities once a focus on a specific intervention was identified.

The Board were presented with some of the impacts of FFF:

·        FFF have adopted a project from North Yorkshire County Council called Deep dives, which tracks a story/care experience of the young people. 40 young peoples’ care experiences have been analysed and the outcomes have been shared with the social work teams and principle social worker to improve practice

·        75% of all young people accessing FFF are receiving support (either direct or indirect) from the Life Coach and of those accessing support 92% had no previous identified need.

·        Previously 32.5% of young people had an undiagnosed Speech and Language communication difficulty ,of those  92% are male

·        In the past 12 months 11 individuals had a total of 94 missing episodes.

·        Due to targeted outreach 100% of those children have seen a reduction in their missing episodes of between 50-100%

·        36%  of those young people have not had any missing episodes since receiving support from FFF

·        Currently FFF and supporting 9 young people to return to their families or to their community from expensive residential placements.

The Manager finally spoke about cost avoidance, advising that FFF breakdown all the costs for the young people as FFF support young people until the age of 18.

The Chair thanked the Manager for his presentation and looked forward to future updates.

 

AGREED- That the presentation be noted