Agenda for Corporate Parenting Board on Monday, 15th March, 2021, 2.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Remote - To be held remotely via Zoom - https://www.youtube.com/user/NottCityCouncil. View directions

Contact: Mark Leavesley  Governance Officer

Items
No. Item

35.

Helen Blackman

Minutes:

The Chair announced that Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Integrated Services, had recently passed away.

 

It was stated that she had been a champion for children in care and that the thoughts of this Board were with her family at this sad time.

36.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Councillor Heaton  )  work commitments

Councillor Langton  )

Councillor N Khan  -  other Council business

Councillor Power  -  personal reasons

 

Kathryn Higgins

Jon Rea

Kay Sutt

37.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

None.

38.

Minutes

Last meeting held on 18 January 2021 (for confirmation)

Minutes:

As the minutes document of the meeting held on 18 January 2021 had been omitted from the agenda, at the request of the Clerk the Board deferred this item to a future meeting.

39.

Health of Children in Care pdf icon PDF 211 KB

Report of Interim Director for Children's Integrated Services

Minutes:

Katharine Browne, Senior Public Health and Commissioning Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council, presented the report, which detailed key achievements during the last year and priorities for the year ahead in respect of improving and promoting the health and wellbeing of children and young people, delivered in the context of the Local Authorities duty as corporate parents to children and young people who are looked after or children in care.

 

During discussion, the following comments were made and additional information given;

 

 i.  in respect of the health and wellbeing questionnaire, the statutory requirement is for it to be undertaken a minimum of every 12 months, however, there is also a requirement that assessments must be based on information that is no more than 3 months’ old;

 

ii.  in respect of unaccompanied asylum seeker children:

 

·  one of the main challenges is interpretation due to the range of languages / dialects that are presented, and how to address this issue is being discussed regionally with other authorities and health colleagues;

·  the numbers have remained stable during the pandemic, with currently 33 children being in the system;

·  due to a lack of capacity due to the pandemic, the authorities did not participate in the ‘Kent relocation scheme’ this year;

 

iii.  in respect of dental care, access to dentists has been an issue during the pandemic. This has been raised with NHS England and an escalation process has been created, with NHS England agreeing that young people will be classed as a ‘priority group’ to help clear the backlog.

 

Resolved that the report be noted.

40.

Children in Care CAMHS update pdf icon PDF 244 KB

Report of Corporate Director for People

Minutes:

Matthew Jenkins, CAMHS Team Manager, presented the report, updating the Board on the development and implementation of the Nottingham City Children in Care CAMHS ‘offer’ over the last 12 months, and on a currently ongoing review.

 

During discussion, the following additional information was given:

 

 i.  the main cohort of referred children was in the 11 to 18-years group, although referrals were made from the age of 3 to 4 years;

 

ii.  the Art Therapy offer started in September 2020 and, although re-configured recently, has continued throughout the pandemic since then;

 

iii.  while not down-playing the seriousness of the pandemic, it has helped children that do not cope well in large groups, such as in a school environment, by being able to be schooled at home and receive 1:1 online learning;

 

iv.  going forwards, the CAMHS Team are increasing the number of groups for carers, starting a Foster group in April 2021 and moving the Schools group online (offering strategies to assist teachers and staff);

 

v.  an ongoing service review over the next few months will look at how the service is delivered and the content of the offer.

 

Resolved to note the report.

41.

Children in Care / Leaving Care - Q3 performance 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 228 KB

Report of Interim Director of Children’s Integrated Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Tajinder Madahar, Head of Children’s Duty and Targeted Services, presented the report, which detailed key performance information in respect of children in care and care leavers for the period 01 October to 31 December 2020 (3rd quarter 2020/21).

 

During discussion, the following additional information was given:

 

 i.  in comparison to statistical neighbours, Nottingham City is about average, but we are performing above our own performance targets. The Department for Education has also stated that Nottingham is ‘performing strongly’;

ii.  there is an audit framework in place, which looks at the quality of service;

iii.  the statistics can be broken down into age groups if necessary.

 

Resolved that the Board:

 

1)  requests the following items be added to the work plan:

 

a)  Personal Education Plans;

b)  Placement Sufficiency and Stability;

c)  Permanence (including long-term fostering and adoption and an update from Adoption East Midlands);

d)  Suitable accommodation;

e)  Fostering Service performance;

 

2)  notes the report and that:

 

a)  Social Care will continue to work with health partners to ensure routine dental checks resume as pandemic restricts are eased;

 

b)  the Head of Service will:

 

·  work with Virtual School to access interim data for ePEP information to ensure an improvement in the numbers, and will consider completion of ePEPs without attainment and assessment data;

·  continue to drive work on increasing the number of children in long-term fostering;

 

3)  requests the Head of Service to submit to a future meeting:

 

·  the audit findings in respect of the quality of service;

·  a breakdown of the statistics to show the changing needs of users by age group, including how those changing needs are met.

42.

Have Your Say survey feedback pdf icon PDF 138 KB

Children’s Learning Improvement Specialist to report

Minutes:

The Board received a presentation (appended to these minutes) by Sharon Clarke, Children in Care Service Manager, and Andy Shone, Children’s Learning Improvement Specialist, detailing the findings from 45 responses (4.7% of the cohort) to the 2nd online annual children in care / care leavers Have Your Say survey, undertaken during the period 01/11/20 to 31/01/21.

 

During discussion, the following additional information was given:

 

 i.  relationship issues were to be expected due to the nature of the experience the young people were going through;

 

ii.  the service works with the young person on ‘healthy relationships’ and ‘building supportive networks’, and foster carers and residential care workers go through a ‘Semi-independence Skills’ booklet with young people moving to independence and leaving care;

 

iii.  the service is currently working with Barnardo’s to create an Asdan programme around relationships. It is also working with the Mental Health Foundation on peer-monitoring for those leaving care, subject to Lottery funding being received.

 

Resolved to note the presentation and request that the Head of Service submit a copy of the Semi-Independence Skills booklet to a future meeting for discussion by the Board.

43.

Children in Care Council update

Engagement and Participation Lead Officer to report

Minutes:

Alison Wakefield, Children’s Social Care Service Manager, stated that the Council had not met since January due to unavailability of staff, but will re-commence meeting from the end of March.

 

Ms Wakefield also stated that all members of this Board have an open invitation to meetings of the Council, however, the maximum at any meeting should be 2 or 3 Councillors as it would be overwhelming for the young people if all members attended, therefore Jon Rea would invite members on a rota basis.

44.

Work Plan pdf icon PDF 236 KB

For discussion / noting

Minutes:

The Board noted the work plan for the municipal year 2021/22 and requested the Head of Children’s Strategy and Improvement amend it as discussed during this meeting.

45.

Meeting dates

To agree to meet at 2.00pm on Monday 17 May 2021.

 

To note the proposed meeting dates for 2021/22 (to be agreed at the meeting on 17 May) of 2.00pm on the following Mondays:

 

2021  2022

19 July  17 January

20 September  21 March

15 November

Minutes:

The Board agreed, due to a return to face-to-face meetings as the remote meetings legislation will end on 06 May 2021, that the next meeting will be held at the Council House, Old Market Square, at 2.00pm on Monday 17 May 2021.

 

It also noted the proposed meeting dates for the municipal year 2021/22, to be held at 2.00pm on the following Mondays (to be confirmed at the 17 May meeting):

 

2021    2022

19 July    17 January

20 September   21 March

15 November