Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from the following member(s) of the panel:

Cllr Christopher Haynes

Cllr Julie Hodgkiss

Rosalie Watkins

Cyril Randles

Portia Tsvangirai

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

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record]

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2015 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[To consider any matters arising from the minutes]

Minute 5 – Corporate Parenting, Children in Care Council and the role of Councillors

Scrutiny Officer advised that invitations had been sent to all panel members about the planned Total Respect training.

[Alison Hinds, Head of Service Looked After Children, to present report on proposed changes to the fostering fee and allowances paid to approved Wolverhampton foster carers]

Alison Hinds, Head of Service Looked After Children, introduced the report detailing proposed changes to fostering fees and allowances. Head of Service explained that the service was finding it hard to recruit sufficient in-house foster carers and also could not match the level of fees paid to agency registered carers. A range of work is being done to promote the service. The current recruitment plan will be underpinned by the new proposed financial package.

Head of Service explained that the difficulties in recruiting foster carers led to a review of the current financial package. Foster carers and representatives of the Children in Care Council were consulted about the changes. In addition, a survey of the different practices among other local authorities was done as part of background research work.

In response to comments and feedback from foster carers and Children in Care Council a number of changes have been made to the original plans. For example, the payment of a retention fee to foster carers with a vacancy will be provided for a set period if the Council does not have a child that we could place with them. In the original plan, no payment would have been made to a foster carer in these circumstances.

The panel were concerned about the reference in 4.6 of the report about the monthly inventory check on the clothing stock of the foster child(ren) and that it would not be appropriate or sensitive to the needs of the young person concerned to have this done.

Emma Bennett, Service Director Children and Young People explained the reasons for doing the clothing checks and the responsibility on the Council to protect the interests of the young person and check that money given to foster carers was being spent appropriately. Service Director explained that there was support in responses from foster carers to check that clothing checks would be done. The clothing checks are not done every month. The panel agreed that there was a need to find the balance between the Council meeting its corporate parent responsibilities and checking that the clothing stock for the young person was sufficient for their needs.

Service Director accepted that the paragraph gives a misleading view of what happens in reality and agreed to make changes to the paragraph before the report is submitted to Cabinet in response to the concerns expressed.

The panel expressed a concern about the reduction in allowances paid to children aged 16 and over in the new scheme. Head of Service explained that the changes were discussed with representatives of the children in care council and also comparator work done across the other local authorities. The view of the children in care council was that the current amount was too high and they did not feel comfortable when they returned home or moved into independence with a large amount of savings. The panel were assured that young people would be given advice on how to manage their savings.

The panel commented on whether the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.