Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence had been received.

No declarations of interest were made relative to items under consideration at the meeting.

[For approval]

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2015]

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2015.

[To consider and comment on the summary of outstanding matters]

Carl Craney, Democratic Support Officer, presented a report which appraised the Board of the current position with a variety of matters considered at previous meetings of the Corporate Parenting Board.

The Chair, Cllr Val Gibson, reported that she had yet to undertake a visit to Upper Pendeford Farm but intended to do so shortly. Cllr Peter O’Neill reported that he had yet to visit Merridale Street West but would be arranging to do so in the near future.

With reference to the role of schools in improving contact between Looked After Children and their siblings, Darren Martindale, Virtual School Head for Looked After Children reported that this matter had been raised with the Designated Teachers at a recent meeting but had not met with such support. It was not considered that schools provided the appropriate venue for such contact. Cllr Stephen Simkins suggested that schools had a pastoral duty of care to Looked After Children and that schools would provide a safe environment for such contact sessions. The Chair, Cllr Val Gibson, commented that if supervised visits were to be held these should be at the home of the Looked After Child or at the Contact Centre. If the visits were unsupervised it would be inappropriate for the Council to determine the venue.

Cllr Peter O’Neill questioned whether the Youth Zone could be used for such contact sessions. Emma Bennett, Service Director for Children and Young People advised that the number of venues for contact sessions was not an issue. Cllr Paula Brookfield referred to Minute No. 6 of the meeting held on 30 September 2015 and drew to the attention of the Board that the original suggestion had related to unsupervised visits. Cllr Stephen Simkins opined that if schools could be used for such visits the Council could dispose of the Contact Centre. The Service Director for Children and Young People acknowledged this point but reminded the Board that a venue would still be required for visits for children under school age and again as previously discussed the contact centre was actually used for supervised contact rather than unsupervised..

Resolved:

That the report be received and noted.

[To receive the IRO’s Annual Report 2014/15]

Mandy Lee, Safeguarding Manager - Children, presented the Annual Report of the Independent Reviewing Officer Service 2014/15. She reported that the Wolverhampton Safeguarding Service had a statutory duty for overseeing and ratifying the care plans for Looked After Children (LAC) via the activity of the Independent Reviewing Officers. As such, the service was bound to provide the Board with an annual report that outlined the activity of the service, the impact for children and recommendations for service improvement that would enhance young people’s experiences. Furthermore, she reported that a real challenge faced by the service was a lack of useful performance management data and that requests for such data had been outstanding from the past three annual Reports over a period of two years. The Chair, Cllr Val Gibson, sought clarification as to the type of information required. The Safeguarding Manager - Children explained that she required the Business Intelligence Service to treat the request as a priority. The Service Director, Children and Young People reported that the request had now been actioned.

Cllr Julie Hodgkiss referred to paragraph 3.4 of the report inasmuch as it referred to caseload. The Safeguarding Manager - Children explained that the IRO Handbook recommended IRO caseloads of 50 – 70 children per IRO. Despite being fully staffed and having an additional agency IRO it had not been possible to achieve this recommended caseload due to the high number of LAC. She informed the Board that IRO’s were also required to undertake Chairing duties at Child Protection Conferences and together with ensuring that reviews were undertaken on time it was not always possible to monitor LAC between reviews. She assured the Board that the statutory minimum duties were fulfilled. The Service Director, Children and Young People reminded the Board that caseload had now reduced significantly with additional opportunities created to monitor LAC between reviews.

Cllr Peter O’Neill referred to those LAC with mental health problems and who were remanded in custody and questioned where the reviews were undertaken. The Safeguarding Manager - Children reported that the reviews would be undertaken wherever the LAC was living and confirmed that the reviews would be undertaken by City of Wolverhampton Council employees.

Cllr Stephen Simkins referred to paragraph 3.4 of the report and the earlier comment that IRO’s were also required to Chair Child Protection Conferences resulting in caseloads exceeding the recommended levels. The Safeguarding Manager - Children reported that three new IRO’s had been appointed, some IRO’s would only deal with LAC and not Child Protection cases and that some had a caseload of 70 or under. She advised that caseload management was important as every effort was made to maintain a relationship between an individual IRO and a LAC. With the reduction in the LAC population caseloads were now more manageable. Cllr Stephen Simkins advised that he remained to be assured on the current position. The Service Director, Children and Young People advised that it was common practice for IRO’s to combine their duties  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[To receive a report on the principles of the New Belongings initiative]

The Head of Service, Looked After Children presented a report in connection with the New Belongings project. The project aimed to;

·         Embed the principles of the Care Leavers Charter;

·         Join up services to care leavers, as outlined in the Access All Areas report. This report called on Central Government Departments to improve the support offered to young people as they left the care system and in their early years after leaving care. It examined how working across government was essential to improve the support care leavers received and removed obstacles to their progress;

·         Brought in the energy of local communities to support care leavers.

She reported that the project had been launched during “Care Leavers” week held during week commencing 2 November 2015. Furthermore, she reported on joint working with other Black Country authorities in a Cluster Group in which priorities were shared. A survey had been undertaken with Care Leavers to establish what was important to them and following the compilation of responses received an Action Plan had been prepared. She reported that work in relation to the project was being progressed through the Care Leavers Forum.

Cllr Paula Brookfield reported that the Mayor, Cllr Ian Brookfield and her, in her capacity as Mayoress, had met recently with representatives from the Care Leavers Forum, and that a very positive response to this project had been indicated. It was considered to provide a platform from which to provide their views for consideration.

Cllr Peter O’Neill commended the initiative and also the use of the Care Leavers Forum to continue progressing this initiative. He enquired as to the actions being taken with regard to LAC currently classified as NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). The Head of Service – Looked after Children advised that the Council was proactive on this issue and worked closely with Partners with particular emphasis on arranging Work Experience / Apprenticeship opportunities etc. Cllr Peter O’Neill enquired as to whether the NEET figures were monitored on a regular basis. The Chair, Cllr Val Gibson, assured the Board that this position was kept under review and reported to the Board through the Performance Monitoring report considered at each meeting. She suggested that enough work was not done with LAC or Care Leavers to promote opportunities in Further of Higher Education.

Cllr Julie Hodgkiss referred to paragraph 6.1 of the report and queried whether the Council needed to think differently in relation to its dealings with the most vulnerable young people in society or whether this had already happened. The Head of Service, Looked After Children explained that the Council was very conscious of the extra help that could be required by Care Leavers and endeavoured to provide this. 

Cllr Stephen Simkins advised the Board that Universal Credit was to be introduced across the Black Country shortly and, in his opinion, it was essential that Care Leavers were well informed as to their respective entitlements. Also, there appeared to be an increase in the aspiration levels of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

[To consider the Performance Management Data for September 2015]

The Service Director, Children and Young People presented the Performance Report for November (data as at September 2015) and responded to a number of questions.

Resolved:

That the report be received and noted.

[To pass the following resolution:

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information on the grounds shown below]

Part 2 – items not open to the public and press

Resolved:

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information contained in paragraph 1 of the Act, namely information relating to any individual.

Part 2 – items not open to the public and press

[To receive feedback on any visits to establishments undertaken by Councillors since the last meeting]

No visits to establishments had been undertaken by Councillors since the last meeting of the Board (see Minute No. 5 above.).