Venue: LH 2.13 - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG. View directions
Contact: Phil Wye Email: phil.wye@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Councillor Jim Armstrong – other Council business Councillor Nicola Heaton – work commitments Councillor Ginny Klein – personal reasons Councillor Marcia Watson – work commitments Councillor Cate Woodward – other Council business
Nick Lee, Director of Education Services
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Declarations of Interests Minutes: None. |
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Minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2018, for confirmation. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2018 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. |
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Fostering and Adoption Panel Chair’s Report PDF 278 KB Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Ian Crompton, Panel Advisor, introduced the report on the activity of the fostering and adoption panels, highlighting the following:
(a)
there has been a slight increase in
adoption applications for 2018, and a significant increase in
adoption matches. This includes both in-house and inter-agency
adoptions; (b)
inter-agency adoptions require fees to be paid so are more of a
challenge to fund, and some agencies have recently increase their
fees; (c)
there has been a large increase in mainstream applications for
fostering, whilst other authorities nationally are struggling to
recruit; (d)
the four Panel Chairs and panel members all reported consistent
improvements in the quality of reports presented to the panels,
with 88% of reports considered outstanding or good which is an
increase from the previous year; (e) as part of the government’s regionalisation agenda a regional adoption agency will be set up soon. The panels will continue to be heard in Nottingham but will hear wider adoption cases.
It was suggested that Councillors could continue to sit on adoption panels for the regional agency for democratic accountability.
RESOLVED to note the activity of the fostering and adoption panels. |
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Inspection Outcome Verbal update Minutes: Clive Chambers reported on the outcome of the Ofsted Inspection of Nottingham City’s Social Care Services from November 2018, highlighting the following:
(a)
the report judged all areas to require improvement, including the
experiences and progress of children in care and care
leavers; (b)
the report, however, acknowledges that a range of services have
improved since the previous inspection and that there are areas of
good practice across the service. Children are well placed with
carers and the authority works well with high-risk
children; (c)
key suggested service improvements included the speed of
progressing permanence and the availability of emergency placements
when, for example, a child is taken into custody; (d)
a high number of children were taken into custody over the
inspection period, and their care is transferred to the local
authority. These may require secure accommodation which can be
difficult to find, particularly if a number are taken into custody
simultaneously; (e)
the authority’s process for dealing with these children is
being reviewed with the police, including new guidance and a
tracker so that the authority is informed as quickly as possible so
that arrangements can be made; (f) an improvement plan is being drawn up following the report and will be presented at the next Board meeting.
The report can be found online at the following link: https://files.api.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50048229
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Adoption and Permanency PDF 240 KB Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Audrey Taylor, Service Manager, Fostering and Adoption, introduced the report providing an overview of the permanency performance of the local authority, primarily focusing on adoption activity. The following information was highlighted:
(a)
In Nottingham City there are currently 93 children with adoption
plans, 31 of whom are currently matched with adopters. There are
also 333 children being supported by means of Special Guardianship
Orders; (b)
37 children have been adopted so far in this financial year, with a
further 14 due to be granted adoption orders by 31st
march 2019; (c)
the authority is currently home finding for 27 children, including
seven sibling groups and a high number of 1 year olds; (d)
21 prospective adopters are currently being assessed, and the
authority has 43 approved households of which 28 have children
placed and 15 are awaiting a match. This includes 5 foster carers
who wish to adopt; (e)
this financial year the authority has made 50 applications to the
Adoption Support Fund which offers support to adoptive families by
enabling them to access bespoke therapeutic support for the child
and adopters; (f)
plans are underway to establish an East
Midlands Regional Adoption Agency by April 2019. Staff currently in
the adoption and post order team will move over to the new agency
which will be hosted by Nottinghamshire County Council; (g) the Permanency Panel has been established which reviews proposed plans for permanency and ensures that proposed matches are viable and appropriate for prospective carers and children.
RESOLVED to note the performance to date in relation to Permanency Planning for Children in Care, which can be in the form of adoption, permanent fostering or special guardianship. |
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Children in Care Social Care Complaints PDF 284 KB Report of the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Ian Hillier, Complaints Officer, introduced the report highlighting complaints made specifically by children in care in accordance with the statutory social care complaints procedure, and highlighted the following:
(a)
24 complaints were received which was an
increase from 11 in the previous reporting period. 23 of
these 24 complaints were resolved at stage 1 of the complaints
procedure; (b)
nearly all complaints were resolved
within statutory timescale of 20 working days. Of those that were
not, one was 1 day outside the timescale and one was 9
days; (c)
the significant increase in complaints demonstrates that the
children in care are finding it easier to make their voices heard
through new methods such as MOMO which is an app that the young
people can use to contact their social workers; (d)
MOMO is available to all children in care. If they do not have a
mobile phone then it is accessible through computers or handheld
devices. RESOLVED to continue to support the effective complaints handling of young people in care and understand the required duties of corporate parents in relation to addressing the concerns of young people in care. |
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Educational Attainment of Children in Care PDF 592 KB Joint report of the Director of Education Services and the Director of Children’s Integrated Services Minutes: Jasmin Howell, Acting Head of the Virtual School, introduced the report providing an update on the work of the Nottingham City Virtual School and details of attainment in the 2017-18 academic year. The following information was highlighted:
(a)
the majority of children in care were in schools judged good or
outstanding by Ofsted; (b)
there was a slight drop in the school attendance rate of 1% from
the previous year; (c)
there were no permanent exclusions of
children in care, but there were 139 fixed term exclusions which is
a decrease from the year before. The reason recorded for the
majority of these was ‘other’; (d)
68% of the authority’s children have had an up to date
Personal Education Plan (PEP) completed in the last 6 months. 6% of
children have a PEP that is out of date by over a year and 5% have
not yet had a PEP completed. An electronic PEP is being developed
which should increase completion rates and timescales; (e)
a new process for the administration and distribution of Pupil
Premium Plus was introduced at the start of the 2017-18 academic
year, encouraging and supporting schools to apply for the
funding; (f) the Virtual School now has the responsibility to provide support, advice and signposting for previously looked after children. A training course specific to these children has been developed for parents of adopted children and special guardians.
The following information was provided during
the discussion which followed: (g)
the completion rate for PEPs should be
higher, but it would be almost impossible to achieve 100% for this.
Some schools refuse to complete a PEP
until the child has been on roll for some time. The electronic
system should improve rates as they will be signed off more
quickly; (h) some schools send children home early as an alternative to fixed period exclusion, and some teachers are unaware of the issues that children in care may have. There are designated teachers who are trained on these specific issues.
RESOLVED to
(1)
note and discuss the recent trends and current levels
of educational attainment for Nottingham City’s children in
care in comparison to the performance of all children and 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 and previously looked after children. |
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Children in Care Council Verbal update Minutes: This item was withdrawn from the agenda as Children in Care Council members were unable to attend. |
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Minutes: The forward planner was noted. |