Agenda and minutes
Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions
Contact: Phil Wye Email: phil.wye@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Councillor Sue Johnson – other Council business Councillor Ginny Klein – personal reasons TM (foster carer representative) |
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: None |
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Minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2018, to be confirmed. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. |
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Reducing Offending Behaviour PDF 303 KB Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Natalie Pink, Nottingham Youth Offending Team Lead for Children in care, and Sam Flint, Children in Care Police Officer, introduced the report, highlighting the following:
(a)
for the year 2016/17 5% of children in
care in Nottingham City, aged between 10-17, have received a Youth
Caution, Youth Conditional Caution or conviction within a year.
This figure has reduced continuously over 5 years; (b)
a protocol aimed at reducing the
criminalisation of children in care, embedding restorative justice
and early intervention, was ratified by the Youth Offending Team
Board in July 2017. A multi-agency training event is planned in
March to launch this formally; (c)
an Arrest Screening Programme has been devised to pro-actively
divert children in care from prosecution where
appropriate; (d)
the Children in Care Police Officer
chairs the Concerns Network meeting, a multi-agency forum which
collates and distributes pieces of information where concerns for
potential child sexual exploitation (CSE) have been identified. CSE
awareness training has been provided to hotels; The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:
(e)
the Council will be required to produce a local offer for care
leavers, and this presents an opportunity to replicate the good
work done for children in care; (f) CSE training is provided for taxi drivers, and completion of this is a condition for license renewal.
RESOLVED to
(1)
recognise the significance of the 5 year trend in
reducing offending behaviour within the children in care
population; (2)
recognise the importance of sustaining the work of the
Children in Care Police Officer to continue to improve outcomes for
children in care; (3)
recognise the further development of the Youth
Offending Team Lead role, and the benefits of broadening its scope
to the wider directorate; (4) note the continued drive for early identification and intervention in offending within the children in care population, to target resources and inform service development, and embed the use of restorative approaches to reduce the risk of offending across residential, semi-independent and foster care settings. |
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Edge of Care Services PDF 224 KB Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Donna Stenton-Groves, Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) Supervisor, and Mark Ball, Edge of Care Hub Manager, introduced the report updating the Board on the current menu of services provided at the edge of care to prevent family breakdown, and providing a brief overview of the effectiveness of these services in keeping families together and building resilience in order to avoid children coming into care. The following information was highlighted:
(a)
the Edge of Care Panel meet every Tuesday, and consists of members
from the Edge of Care Hub, the Multi-Systemic Team, the Youth
Offending Team, the Targeted Support Team, the police, NSPCC,
housing, Child Adolescence Mental Health Services, Placement
Services, and Safe Families for Children and Education. Up to 5
cases a week are presented to the Panel, where there is a risk of
family breakdown and a service is required to help prevent
this; (b)
services that can intervene in these cases include the Targeted
Family Support Team, who provide an emergency response to families
at imminent risk of breakdown, Safe Families for Children, and
Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST); (c)
MST Standard has worked with a total of 165 families since 2013. Of
these, only 17 young people have come into care. MST Child Abuse
and Neglact (MSTCAN) is a service for
families where children are subject to child protection plans or
within public law outline. 104 children have been supported by
MSTCAN. Of these, 33 have closed completely to Children’s
Services; (d)
the Edge of Care Hub (EOCH) began in
November 2013 and provides intensive family support and therapeutic
support to children for approximately 6-9 months, visiting 3-5
times a week. It specialises in working with pregnant or
peri-natal women and families who
present with multiple complex issues; (e) the EOCH has 4 years of evidence based practice that shows it has been successful in supporting children to remain at home where it is safe to do so, and addressing complex issues such as mental health, domestic violence and substance misuse.
RESOLVED to continue to invest in Edge of Care Services. |
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The Response to Missing Children PDF 238 KB Report of the Director for Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Rachael Osborne, CSE Coordinator and Missing Children’s Team Manager, introduced the report setting out the local arrangements in place to respond to children who go missing from home or care, highlighting the following:
(a)
children from all backgrounds go
missing, but children in care are more likely than others. Children
who go missing face an increased risk of significant harm,
including being exposed to the risk of alcohol and drugs, criminal
and sexual exploitation and trafficking; (b)
the police no longer record children as
absent, following changes to statutory guidance. These are now
recorded as missing with medium/high risk. The City Council has
maintained the same approach, which is to not differentiate
according to the police risk levels; (c)
in local arrangements, the Multi Agency
Sexual Exploitation (MASE) Panel receives information about
children who are at risk of sexual exploitation that go missing,
and the police have recently employed a Missings Coordinator. Every month there is a
meeting between the police and children’s social care staff
to discuss those children that have been reported missing most
frequently; (d)
if a child goes missing on two or more
occasions, is identified as being vulnerable, has been missing
overnight or is under the age of 13, they are offered a return
interview. These are carried out by somebody independent of the day
to day care of the child. The Missing Children’s Team
Manager reviews and authorises all
return interviews; The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:
(e)
the police make the decision as to
whether a missing child is at no apparent risk, medium risk or high
risk. This is reviewed every 6 hours in light of any new
information; (f)
a number of children recorded as missing are reported by parents
and then arrive home a short time afterwards; (g) when a return interview is conducted, the interviewer also speaks to the parents to address any concerns. They can also hand leaflets ad information to the children about risks.
RESOLVED to note the content of the report. |
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Educational Attainment of Children in Care PDF 265 KB Report of the Director for Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Jasmin Howell, Service Manager, Virtual School, introduced the report providing an update of the work of the Nottingham City Virtual School and detailing attainment in the 2016-17 academic year, highlighting the following:
(a)
the Virtual School is currently
experiencing capacity issues within the team due to two vacant
posts and a long-term absence, and is currently prioritising the
monitoring of statutory school aged children in care over post 16
and early years children. It is expected that the vacant posts will
be filled shortly; (b)
over 70% of CiC are in schools judged by Ofsted to be good or
outstanding. If a child is on roll at a school the requires
improvement or is inadequate, then this usually happened after the
child went on roll there; (c)
the attainment of children in care has improved in most areas for
the 2016-17 academic year, and has seen particularly strong
improvements in Key Stage 4; (d) approximately 61% of looked after children have an up to date Personal Education Plan (PEP)
Board Members commented that they still have concerns about the number of CiC with an up to date PEP and were reassured that this is recognised as an area for improvement.
RESOLVED to
(1)
note the recent trends and current levels of
educational attainment for Nottingham City’s children in care
in comparison to the performance of all children in care
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; (3) approve the actions identified and developments necessary to improve and enhance the work of the Nottingham City Virtual School. |
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Children in Care Council – 2017 Have Your Say Survey Results PDF 275 KB Report of the Director for Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Jon Rea, Engagement and Participation Lead, and Steven Tuckwood, ‘Your Voice’ Care Leavers' Participation Group, introduced the report and delivered a presentation, highlighting the following:
(a)
questions in the survey were based on
the commitments made by the Corporate Parenting Board in the
Children in Care and Care Leavers’ Charter. The survey was
perceptual including both qualitative and quantitative
questions; (b)
despite a communications exercise and changes to the way the survey
is presented, the response rate to the survey remained low at
19%; (c)
Children in Care (CiC) and Care Leavers
(CLs) are generally happy that they are treated with respect, have
time and help to understand their circumstances, have the right
place to live, have a home life that is stable and safe and get the
right support to be as healthy as possible; (d)
CiC and CLs are generally, with some
exceptions, aware of and know how to access advocacy and complaints
processes, and are listened to in the planning for their
care; (e)
more needs to be done to avoid unnecessary change in the lives of
CiC and CLs, and to ensure they receive
the support they need with their pathway plans to facilitate
transition into adulthood; (f) more needs to be done to ensure CiC and CLs receive the support they need to achieve in school and elsewhere;
(g)
the survey uses a simple grading system,
along with optional text boxes. There is also a simplified version
for under 8s with smiley faces. Support
can be provided by social workers or foster carers, but children in
care and care leavers are encouraged to complete the survey
themselves. The survey was partially designed by the Children in
Care Council; (h)
there could be exploration of a shorter
survey in addition to the full survey, possibly online. A new
development called Mind of My Own (MOMO) has the potential to
improve communication with CiC and
CLs; (i)
the percentage of younger respondents at ages 3-8 is higher than
the average for older CiC and
CLs; (j)
despite the low response rate, the survey still provides a useful,
consistent year-by-year overview of the views of CiC and CLs; (k) Charter Commitment 6 (We will help them to achieve at school and elsewhere to the very best of their ability) has been rated as amber/red, despite improvements in educational attainment. The young people have asked for a focus on this due to a small but serous issue around the right to privacy at school around their CiC or CL status.
RESOLVED to
(1)
use the findings from the survey results to inform
relevant service and corporate action and business plans; (2)
recognise the hard work done by the Children in Care
Council and Your Voice (Care Leavers) groups in the planning and
assessment of the Have Your Say survey, and acknowledge their role
in the co-production of services across children’s social
care; (3) implement the findings of the 2017 Have Your Say survey as appropriate. |
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Forward Planner for the 2018/19 municipal year PDF 242 KB Minutes: The forward planner was noted. |