Councillor Sue Johnson – other Council business

Alison Michalska

Aileen Wilson

None.

To agree to change the date of the January meeting from 21 to 14 January at 2.30pm.

RESOLVED to change the date of the January meeting from 21 to 14 January at 2.30pm.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Verbal update

Clive Chambers, Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, delivered a presentation on the National Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, highlighting the following:

(a)  the Inquiry was set up to address increasing concerns about responses to child sexual abuse nationally, following a range of allegations;

(b)  the Inquiry is composed of 13 investigations into individuals, services and local authorities. One of these investigations is into Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council (jointly referred to as Nottinghamshire Councils);

(c)  the focus of the local investigation is because there were a high number of reports to the police and allegations of child sexual abuse of children in care. The local hearing will focus on one particular children’s home, children abused whilst in foster care and child on child abuse;

(d)  public hearings will begin on 1 October at Trent Bridge cricket ground and will continue in London;

(e)  a key element of the Inquiry is the Truth Project which gives victims an opportunity to come forward with their experiences. The outcomes of the Inquiry will be published in a future report.

Board members were reassured that whilst there has been some significant issues in the past Nottingham City Council undertakes robust recruitment of foster carers and has effective residential care provision. Ofsted reported the voice of the child was a strength in the pilot inspection in January 2017.

RESOLVED to thank Clive for the information provided.

Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services

Alison Wakefield, Service Manager, introduced the report outlining the work undertaken and progress made by the Leaving Care Service since the pilot Ofsted inspection in January 2017, highlighting the following:

(a)  31 young people have decided to ‘stay put’ with their foster carers, residential homes or in semi-independent residential placements this year;

(b)  95.7% of care leavers are in suitable accommodation for 2018/19 which is an increase on the previous year. Young people in custody are not counted as being in suitable accommodation;

(c)  new statutory guidance requires local authorities to consult on and publish a Local offer for its care leavers. This has been assembled with the help of focus groups and will be published in October 2018;

(d)  young people may not wish to keep in touch when they reach the age of 21 but the Council must give them every opportunity to do so if they wish. All care leavers up to the age of 25, whose address is known, have been written to highlight this.

The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:

(e)  the Council has the names of all care leavers and their care history on its records but not necessarily their addresses, which can be a challenge for the keeping in touch protocol;

(f)  when care leavers ‘stay put’ it could have a consequence for the number of foster carers available. The Council is undertaking a recruitment drive for foster carers;

(g)  a proposal has been agreed in principle to make care leavers exempt from paying council tax for 2 years in order to give them a good start. Their Personal Assistants will prepare them for when they do begin to pay tax at the age of 20.

RESOLVED to

(1)  continue to support and understand the duties required of the Leaving Care Service;

(2)  note the proposals for service redesign of the Leaving Care Service;

(3)  circulate the Local Offer to Board members by email.

Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services

Clive Chambers, Head of Children in Care, introduced the report providing an update on the development and implementation of an offer from the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to children in care. Clive highlighted the following:

(a)  a Clinical Commissioning Group quality visit was undertaken in May 2018 which was positive. Recommendations from that visit included improving transitions from child to adult mental health services;

(b)  there has been a slight increase in the number of open cases to the team since March 2017;

(c)  referrals can be accepted by the team even if children have normal Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores as there may be other concerning factors;

(d)  there has been an increase in the number of referrals for children in the 6-10 age range, which is positive as evidence suggests that early intervention is linked with better outcomes;

(e)  the team consistently meets its target of offering a Choice appointment within 2-4 weeks of referral.

Board members welcomed the positive outcomes outlined in the report.

RESOLVED to continue to develop an offer in line with the countrywide CAMHS transformation plan as set out in the national Future in Mind Report and the Directorate Plan.

John Matravers, Manager of Safeguarding Partnerships, delivered a presentation on the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service Annual Report 2017-18, highlighting the following:

(a)  the core business of the team includes chairing of Children in Care reviews, Initial and Review Child Protection conferences, Child Sexual Exploitation and Child Criminal Exploitation strategy meetings;

(b)  the team plays a key role in relation to the improvement of care planning for children in care as well as ensuring a process for challenging any issues identified with this. The views of children, parents and carers are always given weight in care planning;

(c)  the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) works in the team and coordinates the response to allegations against individuals who work with children;

(d)  the service has played a critical role in moving forward the criminal exploitation agenda, developing a toolkit for referrals, developing a training package and representation at Child Criminal Exploitation Panels;

(e)  Independent Chairs are now linked to area teams and attend regular team meetings, enabling clear communication and ensuring issues are addressed in a timely manner;

(f)  93% of Children in Care Reviews took place within the statutory timescales and 92% of children in care participated in their review. These figures are positive as compared to statistical neighbours;

(g)  a new escalation policy has been introduced which consists of an informal process followed by a more robust formal process whenever it is warranted. 79 concerns have been raised in the last year, none of which needed to be escalated beyond Service Manager level;

(h)  plans for 2018-2019 include the launch of the ‘Coming into Care’ packs for both children and their parents/carers.

(i)  it would be difficult to complete 100% of Children in Care reviews in statutory timescales as sometimes they are rearranged so that all appropriate people can attend. This only happens in rare cases and is always close to the timescales.

RESOLVED to

(1)  thank John for the information provided;

(2)  circulate the ‘Coming into Care’ pack to Board members.

Verbal update

This item was withdrawn from the agenda.

The forward plan was noted.