Agenda for Corporate Parenting Board on Monday, 24th April, 2017, 2.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: LB 41 - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions

Contact: James Welbourn  Email: james.welbourn@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

52.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Glyn Jenkins  -  personal reasons

Councillor Ginny Klein  -  other Council business

 

Sam Flint

TM

Gill Moy

Valerie Marshall

 

53.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

None.

54.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 306 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 23 January.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 January were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

55.

The Response to Missing Children pdf icon PDF 239 KB

Report of Director, Children's Integrated Services

Additional documents:

  • The Response to Missing Children

Minutes:

Clive Chambers, Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, introduced a report setting out the local arrangements in place to respond to children who go missing from home or care.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  the local multi-agency guidance needs to be updated, with the key change being replacing the term ‘Absent’. It was introduced to reflect national Association of Chief Police Officers which was developed to differentiate between different types of missing persons. The national guidance has been updated and the term ‘Absent’ has been replaced with ‘Missing’ (no risk) When the ‘Absent’ category is amended, there will not be a huge change to local practice as in Nottingham, absence and missing children are treated in the same way;

 

(b)  when a child goes missing, the circumstances around what encouraged the child to leave are looked at (otherwise known as the ‘push and pull’ factors).  A return interview will be used when a child goes missing on two or more occasions (or potentially one occasion where the child is vulnerable, e.g. child sexual exploitation is possible).  The return interview will always been conducted by an independent party;

 

(c)  a significant proportion of those children/young people who did not have a return interview failed  to agree to engaging in this process;

 

(d)  a letter will be sent out to first time missing people offering support, as well as signposting to the relevant organisations that can provide this help.  If there is a second time missing person (or a first time vulnerable person), then they will be offered a return interview;

 

(e)  after subtracting the children who were reported missing for the first time there were 1,484 episodes regarding 354 individual children in the city that should have had return interviews;

 

(f)  there was approximately a 60% completion rate for the return interview when figures were last available;

 

(g)  Nottingham City Council have worked alongside the Police to develop a leaflet that is child friendly and focuses on the expectation that a return interview will be carried out;

 

Following questions from Councillors, further information was provided:

 

 

(i)  there is no definitive time period where children have to be missing before a media  appeal would be put out. There is a risk assessment approach taken on a case by case basis at a senior level.  There have been occasions when it has been decided not to use the media, where this is felt to have the potential to increase the young person’s vulnerability;

 

(j)  as a result of a return interview, there are several actions that could arise.  Sometimes, it could be signposting to relevant support.  At the other end of the scale, an adult of concern could be identified;

 

(k)  there is an overlap between missing children and children at risk of sexual exploitation. Analysis of return interviews considers whether a name is given that is unknown, connections can be made in this way and additional child sexual exploitation concerns can be identified.

 

RESOLVED to note the content of the report.

 

56.

Educational Attainment of Children in Care pdf icon PDF 268 KB

Report of Director, Children’s Integrated Services

Additional documents:

  • Educational Attainment of Children in Care

Minutes:

Jasmin Howell, Service Manager of the Virtual School introduced a report on the educational attainment of children in care (CIC).  This report provided an update of the work of the Nottingham City Virtual School and provided details of attainment in the 2015-16 academic year.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  the Virtual School ensures that CIC are receiving appropriate education, and that they have a ‘smart’ action plan to see what interventions are needed.  This action plan also ensures that these interventions are put in place;

 

(b)  currently, 80% of CIC have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) in place. Those that are in Further Education or higher education are being supported with plans;

 

(c)  a strategy for early years CIC is being developed to enable a smooth transition to school;

 

(d)  Pupil Premium Plus (PPP) is money received from central government.  Applications come into the Virtual School for funding for CIC.  All schools have been able to reapply for funding over and above £1,900 (which applies to years 5, 6, 10 and 11).  17 schools in total applied for the funding, which totals around £17,000 of additional money;

 

(e)  so far, no applications for PPP have been declined, but every request has been monitored, and in some cases returned to the school if their initial proposal wasn’t satisfactory;

 

(f)  at Key Stage 1 (KS1) CIC are:

·  performing in line with schools nationally;

·  Performing above average for all measures related to CIC, but below average for non-disadvantaged children;

 

Following questions from Councillors, further information was provided:

 

(g)  the figures on PEPs are quality assured.  The aim is to get the figure receiving them to 95% from the current 80%;

 

(h)  only one CIC was excluded during the period 15-16;

 

(i)  there are some CIC placed in schools rated as inadequate by OFSTED, which is usually a consequence of the school’s rating changing whilst the child is there.  The ambition of the service is not to place new CIC in schools with this rating;

 

(j)  the statistics in the report apply to 44 children who are spread over a large number of schools.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)  note the recent trends and current levels of educational attainment for Nottingham City’s CIC in comparison to the performance of all children and CIC nationally;

 

(2)  note the current work and interventions of the Virtual School to promote and support the educational achievement of Nottingham City looked after children.

57.

Children in Care Council - Have Your Say Survey Results 2016 pdf icon PDF 246 KB

Report of Director, Children's Integrated Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Jon Rea, Engagement and Participation Lead introduced a report outlining the Have Your Say results from 2016.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  the Red/Amber/Green (RAG) rating in the slides (attached to this minutes pack) indicates the degree of scrutiny that the CIC Council would like the Board to pay to certain issues;

 

(b)  there has been increased work with the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) and the Complaints Service regarding reaching out to CIC;

 

(c)  not one child or young person said that they weren’t being listened to;

 

(d)  there are three separate charter commitments related to seeing that children have the right place to live as quickly as possible;

 

(e)  62% of CIC felt that they were doing well at school.  Only 16% didn’t know about their PEP and whether they were happy with it.  10% were never happy with their PEP;

 

(f)  overall there has been a more settled experience for CIC.  Over 70% thought that their care was good, or very good;

 

(g)  most young people thought that they had the skills necessary for independent living, and wanted more training and skills to become a responsible tenant;

 

(h)  three corporate CIC Council meetings will investigate the red and amber markers.  There will also be a reference group meeting with NYAS;

 

(i)  180 social workers are being trained to enable CIC to have access to the Mind of My Own (MOMO) application.  MOMO is a smart phone App where CIC can get in touch with care workers.  With MOMO, the young person can, at any time send a message which will be picked up by a social worker;

 

(j)  there is currently an incentive for people to return the Have Your Say form; an example of this incentive would be a leisure pass;

 

(k)  the Leaving Care service has good relationships with Nottingham City Homes (NCH).  There are also ‘stay put’ arrangements to stay with a foster carer beyond the age of 18 if this is required.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)   recognise the hard work done by the Children in Care Council in the planning, delivery and analysis of the Have Your Say survey, and to acknowledge their vital role in the co-production of services across children’s social care;

 

(2)  implement the findings of the 2016 Have Your Say survey as appropriate.

58.

Edge of Care Provision pdf icon PDF 345 KB

Report of Director, Children's Integrated Services

Additional documents:

  • Edge of Care Provision

Minutes:

Mark Ball, Edge of Care Hub Manager introduced the report on Edge of Care Provision.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  in the last financial year there were two children from one family accommodated.  Two other children were made subject to supervision orders;

 

(b)  expenditure on  the Edge of Care Hub for 16/17 came in under the £658,000 that was projected;

 

(c)  the Edge of Care CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) is going from strength to strength.  This helps ensure that children’s voices are being heard;

 

(d)  ways to expand the Edge of Care Hub are being investigated to include an adult mental health worker; additional work into how this could be funded is needed.

 

RESOLVED to note the service being provided by the Edge of Care Hub, and to monitor progress made year on year.

59.

The Health of Children in Care of the Local Authority 2016 / 17 pdf icon PDF 264 KB

Report of Director, Children's Integrated Services/NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

Additional documents:

  • The Health of Children in Care of the Local Authority 2016 / 17

Minutes:

Kathryn Higgins and Melanie Bracewell from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust introduced a report on the health of Children in Care of the Local Authority 2016/17.

 

The following points were highlighted:

 

(a)  the role of the Designated Nurse is now strategic, based within the City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  Melanie herself still has a dual role, working as a health provider within NUH and as a designated professional within the CCG;

 

(b)  funding from NHS England has been secured for a project to support with Health data collection and reporting.  The aim of this work will be to improve data collection and reporting in line with statutory guidance, and to ensure the data collected is meaningful, and will link in with NHS England;

 

(c)  a large piece of work over the past 12 months has been around supporting the health of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. This has included scoping health services required and the impact of this cohort of young people on these services, and improving links with the Local Authority.  More recently Health have received an invite to join a wider regional group.

 

RESOLVED to:

 

(1)  note that health providers supported by the Designated Professionals will continue to work with the Nottingham CIC Service Improvement Forum and associated working groups with the aim to improve the health outcomes for Children in Care.  The Designated Professionals will continue to encourage the City Local Authority to engage alongside the County Local Authority in this Forum;

 

(2)  note that health providers supported by the Designated Professionals will continue to work with the Local Authority and other partner agencies in planning for and providing health provision for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and young people placed in Nottingham City.

 

60.

Chair's Update

Minutes:

The Chair gave attendees an update on activities over the past couple of months:

 

·  there will be a full report on the OFSTED inspection into children’s safeguarding in June.  In summary, there were issues that were areas for improvement, and relevant teams are already aware of these.  The Board appreciated the extra work that went into the OFSTED inspection, in addition to the stress endured by staff that had to deal with the inquest;

·  over 40 care leavers attended a celebration event at the Council House;

·  the young men involved in the rooftop standoff in Dunkirk were both well known to the Youth Offending Team (YOT) – the YOT worked with the Police to bring about a conclusion to the incident.