Venue: Online only
Contact: Kate Griffiths, Committee Officer
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Apologies Minutes: Apologies had been received from Lucy Hodgson and Selina Rawicz. |
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Confirmation of the Minutes Minutes: The Minutes of the meeting held on 9 July were agreed as a correct record.
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Review of Previous Action Points Minutes: It was agreed that, due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on service delivery, previous action points would be suspended. |
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Children in Care Council and Care Leavers Council PDF 1 MB Minutes: The Board received a presentation on the Children in Care Council and the Care Leavers Council from the Participation and Engagement Manager. She also showed a brief video that had been created by a young person to highlight the participation offer for children and young people in care in Worcestershire and the benefits that young people could gain from getting involved.
Every local authority was required by law to organise a Children in Care Council. This was a forum for children and young people who were looked after to share their views with the decision makers. There were three groups currently running:
COVID-19 had had a huge impact and engagement had been more sporadic and needed to be approached in a more flexible way. Although the formal groups had been paused, officers were still keeping in touch with individuals.
Examples of Who Cares, We Care’s recent activity were given. The Board was told about the benefits to young people of involvement in the participation groups including improving their confidence and self-esteem, and developing life skills. A number of events had been planned for this year but had had to be postponed due to the COVID pandemic, including an early years celebration and a looked after children’s fun day.
Children in care were also members of the Young People’s Panel which had been a great success and had supported the recruitment of a number of prospective candidates (including the Participation and Engagement Manager herself). The young people had received training which led to a recognised qualification and were professional and passionate about choosing the right candidate. The team had since been inundated with requests for young people to be involved in other recruitment exercises.
It was recognised that a formal forum was not right for all young people and other opportunities were available. It was important that all children in care were aware of the range of opportunities open to them. Future plans included increasing the number of members and the diversity of the young people involved, developing participation webpages and building closer links with Corporate Parenting Board Councillors.
Members were reminded that 26 October to 1 November was Care Leavers week and this year’s theme was ‘Careers’. ... view the full minutes text for item 237. |
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Return to School Minutes: The Board received a presentation from the Headteacher of the Virtual School on the return to school in September for children who are looked after.
The following main points were noted:
Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:
The Chairman thanked the Virtual Headteacher for attending the meeting.
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Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews PDF 360 KB Minutes: In order to accommodate officer availability, the Chairman amended the order of the remaining agenda items.
The Director of Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding reminded the Board that there were two Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) currently in progress. Both were likely to be completed in 2021. The Board would receive a more detailed presentation when the reviews were completed including a discussion of the learning points.
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Children with Disabilities and SEND Minutes: The Director of Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding reminded Members that it had been part of Children’s Services’ vision for some time to improve services for children with disabilities and SEND. Although services had not yet moved to the ultimate vision, work had been ongoing as part of the wider service improvement agenda and the action plan following the SEND inspection.
Moving towards further service improvement would involve a complex programme of work taking 18 months to two years to complete and divided into four phases. The ultimate vision would be to have a 0-25 service of quality taking children with Special Educational Need and Disabilities from early in their lives through to young adults. The work would include all stakeholders including children, parents, carers, children’s social care, the CCG (as commissioners and providers of services), specialist education providers and adult social care.
Officers were in the process of creating a document which would present the vision to stakeholders. A further report would be brought to the Corporate Parenting Board in the future. When discussing this report, it would be important for the Board to maintain its focus on children in care. Members were informed that there were currently 35 children with disabilities who were in the care of the local authority.
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Quarterly Data Report PDF 149 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Director of Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding informed Members that, on the whole, the data in the quarterly data report had not been significantly impacted by COVID-19.
Throughout lockdown, social workers had kept in touch with looked after children by virtual contact and this had worked well. As soon as workers were able to return to physical contact they had done so. However, this had not been the case for all as, for some children, young people and parents, the virtual method of contact had been a better experience. For some young people it was an emotional challenge to see their parents and seeing them virtually had made this easier. Families would now be offered a mix of virtual and face-to-face contacts and feedback would be taken from each family. This would be reviewed going forward.
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Developments to the Care Leavers and Outreach Service PDF 1 MB Minutes: Members received a presentation from the Group Manager, Placements and Sufficiency, who informed the Board that she had now also taken on responsibility for the Care Leavers Service. This was a positive development with the aim of getting the best outcomes for Worcestershire’s care leavers.
The Care Leavers Service would link up with the Outreach Service which provided support to looked after children aged 16 plus, who were living in supported and semi-supported living. Merging the two services would improve outcomes for young people and would mean they would have one consistent worker at an early stage (a Personal Adviser) to support their transition to adulthood. The intention was to ensure that staff were as skilled as possible, including providing training to deliver ASDAN qualifications. There would be a whole service approach to support care leavers from age 16 up until 24 or 25. Although there would be a combined service, each branch would retain its specialty, with the roles of Outreach Workers and Personal Advisers remaining separate.
Members were reassured that, in bringing the two teams together, the service for young people would not be disrupted. The combined service would have the oversight of one Group Manager but would retain the specialist knowledge of the individual teams.
The Director of Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding informed the Board that feedback from young people had expressed concern about duplication in the system with individuals having overlapping conversations with different support workers. This change would allow young people to develop a relationship with one worker and would enable the service to ensure best use of resources. Staff in both services were very positive about the changes.
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Minutes: No amendments were made. |
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Minutes: The Board received an update on apprenticeships and traineeships with particular reference to children who were looked after by the local authority.
The Assistant Director of HR, OD and Engagement asked Members to focus on three areas:
The new apprenticeships strategy had been agreed in February 2020 and covered both apprenticeships and traineeships.
With reference to traineeships, the team was working closely with the 16-19 NEET Prevention Team. Traineeships were part of an education and training programme which offered skills development and work experience to young people who wanted to find a job but may not have the necessary skills and experience. The aim was for young people to move from a traineeship on to an apprenticeship or into employment. It was important for the two schemes to work together. A traineeship was not intended for the most disengaged young people or for those who were already in employment.
The apprenticeship scheme was a structured programme which had already seen real successes, providing a qualifications platform at all levels of the organisation, right up to level 8 (an MBA or other leadership and executive qualification). An apprenticeship would involve learning on the job, with the apprenticeship levy covering training costs but not the individual’s salary. For an organisation, an apprenticeship could be an important succession planning tool.
The scheme had a real focus on care leavers including:
It was important to recognise some of the challenges the scheme faced. These included:
In terms of future action, the new apprenticeship strategy provided a clear focus on care leavers and provided the basis for managers to provide more individual support for young people leaving care. Every vacancy in WCC and WCF would be shared with the Care Leavers Team to establish whether any were of interest to care leavers. Any care leavers who wanted to apply would be supported through the recruitment process.
The Head of Learning and Development informed Members that, with reference to the prioritisation of care leavers, the County Council was following the Department for Education Model which allowed for an exception to the standard recruitment process. This recognised ... view the full minutes text for item 244. |
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Future Meeting Dates Dates 2020
6 February 2020 30 April 2020 4 June 2020 9 July 2020 8 October 2020 10 November 2020
Locations to be finalised.
Minutes: Noted. |