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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Daniel Cooke  Scrutiny Adviser

Items
No. Item

1.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

 

2.

Mid Year Service Plan Reports - Social Services pdf icon PDF 95 KB

            Appendix 1) Adult and Community Services

            Appendix 2) Children and Young Peoples Services

Additional documents:

Minutes:

1.         Mid Year Service Plan report for Social Services

          (Children and Young Peoples Services)

 

 

Attendees:

-       Councillor  P Cockeram, Cabinet Member for Social Services

-       Sally Jenkins, Head of Children & Young People Services

 

The Head of Children & Young People Services introduced the report and highlighted that the Service provided a range of specialist services to families and children in need including specialist provision for those most vulnerable and at risk of social exclusion, such as those at risk of significant harm, disabled children, children looked after and unaccompanied ( separated) children and young people. The Children and Young People Service aim was to promote and safeguard the wellbeing of children and young people within their families and where this was not possible, to provide good quality alternative care.

 

To achieve this aim, the service worked closely with both families and a wide range of agencies to meet the stated outcomes and offer the best possible services.

 

To support the delivery of the Corporate Plan 2017-22, the 2019/20 Service Plan  identified 4 objectives that were focussed on:

 

Objective 1 – Deliver effective services to support children to remain safely with their families.

Objective 2 – Improve outcomes for children in car and care leavers including a focus on safe reunification.

Objective 3 – Ensure a range of placements are available for looked after children.

Objective 4 – Prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people.

 

The Head of Children & Young People Services highlighted the positive position the Service was currently in with regards to continuity and stability in the workforce and the positive contribution made from the Intermediate Care Fund which had enabled the Service to instigate new pieces of work such as the Family Group Conferencing and Baby and Me initiative which targeted and identified high risk individuals at the earliest stage and enabled intensive support from the outset of pregnancy.

 

This positive position was tempered by the current overspend of £2 million which was almost all due to placement costs where the Council was struggling in relation to provision of in- house foster care services and competing with higher payments by independent fostering agencies.

 

Members asked the following:

 

·                A member asked about payments made to the independent fostering agencies and why we use them.

The Head of Children & Young People Services explained that if we were unable to place a child with one of our own foster carers or another Local Authority carer then we had to go to an agency to find a suitable placement. We then effectively purchased this place from them and paid them their required fee. We had no choice as we were bound to find suitable accommodation. The Cabinet Member for Social Services explained that you could apply to be a foster carer for the Local Authority or a private agency and that unless we increased our payment rates then we would keep losing our foster carers to the private agencies.

 

·                Members of the Committee raised the issue of who monitored these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Conclusions of Committee Reports

Following the completion of the Committee reports, the Committee will be asked to formalise its conclusions, recommendations and comments on previous items for actioning.