MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM 5
Report Title: Annual Report – Looked After Children/Care Leavers/Adoption and Foster Care Services
Executive Member for Children’s Services: Mike Carr
Director: Eleni Ioannides
Date: Tuesday 6th December 2016
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
1. This report aims to inform Leadership Management Team and Elected Members of the work of the following services in the year 2015 to 2016;
Looked After Children
Pathways (Leaving Care)
Adoption
Fostering
2. Each service area has a specific set of regulations, guidance and standards which must be demonstrably met and each is also required to have the oversight and approval of members on an annual basis. The detail to be provided to members is stipulated clearly within regulations relating to Foster Care and Adoption. The information providedhere in relation to Looked After Children and Care Leavers, is to ensure that the Local Authority is providing the best possible corporate parenting oversight and support to its children and young people. The Regulations, Guidance and Standards relating to the this portfolio are as follows;
Children Act 1989
Children and Family Act 2014
Quality Standards for the Health and Wellbeing of LAC
The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
Transitions Guidance Volumes 2 and 3 (Care Planning Regulations 2010)
Adoption (England) Regulations 2005
National Minimum Standards for Adoption 2014
Fostering regulations 2011
National Minimum Standards for Foster Care 2011
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
3. It is recommended that:
- To note information relating to the activity of this area of Children’s Safeguarding
- To formally approve the work plans outlined for each area for the year 2016 to 2017
- To agree that progress against plans is to be reviewed in April 2017 or as soon as is practicable thereafter.
IF THIS IS A KEY DECISION WHICH KEY DECISION TEST APPLIES?
4. / It is over the financial threshold (£150,000)It has a significant impact on 2 or more wards
Non Key / x
DECISION IMPLEMENTATION DEADLINE
5. For the purposes of the scrutiny call in procedure this report is;
Non-urgent / xUrgent report
SUMMARY INFORMATION
6. The purpose of Safeguarding and Children’s care is to ‘ensure that vulnerable children and young people are safeguarded from harm and families are enabled to care for their own children where it is safe for them to do so’.
7. The specialist teams, referred to in this report, are designed to respond to the needs of children for whom it is NOT safe to remain with their family of origin. They must offer individuals excellent care to maximise their opportunity to become healthy, happy and successful members of society. As such, these teams focus on implementing individually tailored care plans for children who are permanently looked after and who are preparing for adulthood. Thepurpose of teams which have an adult focus is to secureexcellent carers and adopters for those children and young people.
8. The key to good outcomes for Looked After Young People and Care leavers is that they experience secure, predictable and stable care. Where this is provided, children are more likely to achieve well in all areas of life. The challenge to this service area in 2015-2016 has been to maintain that stability in the face of a climate of increasing numbers of children becoming looked after, a continued over reliance upon external Foster Care provision and Children’s Homes, some key legal judgements (resulting in, to quote Sir James Munby “a clear and imminent crisis” facing services), significant churn in staffing at senior and operational levels and the ongoing need to meet savings targets.
9. Despite this, placement stability for Middlesbrough children in 2015-2016 was at 63.8%. Whilst this was a slight decrease on the previous year (72.8%), it compares well with national and statistical neighbours.Individual reports (attached) provide greater detail in relation to other successes in overcoming and/or managing the challenges outlined above.
10. The Inspection of Middlesbrough services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers and Review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board took place in November to December 2015. Three of the four services whose Annual Reports are referred to in this document achieved GOOD against the overall outcome for safeguarding of ‘requires improvement’.
-For the Fostering service this meant the retention of the standard of good awarded in a single inspection in March 2012.
-For the Adoption service this retained the standard of good awarded
-For the Pathways Leaving Care service this follows the ‘outstanding’ outcome (Economic well- being) awarded in 2011 SLAC Inspection.
11. Each team has made progress against its 2014-2015 plans, the highlights of which are;
- LAC – Improved completion of PEPS, SDQs, dental and health assessments.
- Pathways – Increase in ‘Staying Put’ placements (to19); 69% in education, employment and training (therefore only 31% NEET when the national average is 50%); 12% in Higher Education which is DOUBLE the national average
- Fostering – increase in number of carers approved, quality of assessments graded ‘good’ against the standards (Ofsted 2015), innovative recruitment processes (Ofsted 2015) and good staff retention.
- Adoption – successful in finding families for older children, good quality reports, innovation in support to adopter’s extended family, developed use of Adoption Support Fund. (Ofsted 2015)
12. There has (nationally) been a 14% rise in care applications to courts in ‘15-’16, a cumulative increase of 131% since 2007. The resulting demands on specialist services and on the Authority’s budget are being mitigated by a series of strategies – chiefly;
13. Return to Middlesbrough
Impact - Twelve children relocated successfully to their birth family,five from residential care and seven IFAs. A further 13 children/young people, who were ‘on the edge of care’, have been supported to remain with family. This represents a saving to the council £652,843.00.
14. Investment in Foster Care Recruitment
Impact- 117 carers approved anda reduction in the use of Independent Fostering Agencies, which was at 146 in July 2015 and in a ‘snapshot’ audit taken in July 2016 this, had reduced to 133.
The Fostering Team has a target of approving 130 Foster Carers by March 2017 and to increase provision to older young people, sibling groups and Mother and baby placements. In terms of the ratio of children placed ‘in house’ as against ‘external’ there is a target to achieve 50% of all those placed in Foster Care provision by March 2017.
15. Improved commissioning of residential provision
Impact– Framework contract with a number of providers in place from February 2016 to better manage the market – the commissioning team will provide data on the impact of that in 2016-2017.
16. Regionalising Adoption
Impact – The Five Tees Valley Local Authorities and five Voluntary Adoption Agencies have undertaken a significant amount of exploration work to achieve what the Government requested (in October 2015) and for which it is likely to legislate in 2017 in terms of improving adoption services. The Head of Services for this portfolio has provided the lead support to the project in terms of technical knowledge and ‘service design authority’. An outline business plan is completed – any benefits from this are yet to be realised.
17.Key issues for 2016-2017 in relation to this portfolio remain as; the ability of the authority to reduce the need/demand for children to become looked after, to reduce the number of children and young people placed out of the area and to improve their educational outcomes.
18. Recent reports of the Head of the Virtual School demonstrate that the performance of children who are looked after in KS1 and KS2 is drawing gradually closer to the performance of their peers and that the ‘gap’ has narrowed year on year. As would probably be expected, with the exception of Maths, the overall performance of children placed within Middlesbrough is better than that of children placed out of the Tees Valley area.
19.The ratio of children placed inside and outside the borough has fluctuated. Using the balanced score card data, the number placed externally peaked at quarter 4 of 2015-2016 (that being 76.30% ‘in area’) and, in the second quarter of 2016-2017 external placements had reduced to the lowest since score card measures were introduced, at 80.43% within Tees Valley. This would demonstrate that the mitigation work described is beginning to have an impact.
20. 2016-2017 PLANNED SERVICEIMPROVEMENTS
- Re-launch Children in Care Council (CiCC)- October 2016 – to ensure that children and young people are influencing key decisions relating to their care and how services are run. Membership reduced as young people made their transition to adulthood – a new CiCC Apprentice is leading the refresh.
- Embed actions from Post Inspection Improvement Plan – via Quality and Improvement Group, chiefly, improved personalisation of Care Plans for Children Looked After.
- Review process for Connected Persons assessment– Completed October 2016
- Review the Family Placement Service in readiness for RAA implementation and for improving the quality of Connected Persons approval – December 2016
- Ensure corporate ‘ownership’ for recruitment of Foster Carers – Marketing and Media Team Annual strategy to include Carer recruitment – Completed.
- Increase the number of children and young people who remain with their family, return to their family and return to the town.
BACKGROUND AND EXTERNAL CONSULTATION
21. Individual Team Managers have the provided reports in relation to their team’s activity in 2015-2016, performance in relation to key indicators and plans for 2016-2017 and these are available and will be provided to FLAC in full for approval should decision making be delegated by the Executive.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT
22. This report does not seek a key decision of LMT or the Executive and therefore does not require completion of a Quality Impact Assessment.
FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND WARD IMPLICATIONS
23. Financial –There will be a financial and reputational cost to the council if the services described here do not achieve the targets set in terms of performance and savings, and/or reduce their effectiveness from current ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
24. Ward Implications –All wards are affected both directly and indirectly by the report.
25. Legal Implications – will arise in the coming year in relation to the organisation of the Regional Adoption Agency.
RECOMMENDATIONS
26. It is recommended that the Executive:
(a)Note the information relating to the activity of Middlesbrough Council LAC, Pathways, Fostering and Adoption Services.
(b)Delegate formal approval of the Annual Reports and Statements of Purpose for Fostering and Adoption for 2016to FLAC
(c)Delegate formal approval of the Children’s Guides for the above.
(d)Delegate formal approval of the Summary of Statement of Purpose (to accompany the Children’s Guides)
(e)Agree that the next annual review of the above documents take place in April 2017.
REASONS
27. This recommendation is supported by the following:
a)The Statement of Purpose for the Fostering Service, required under Regulations 3 of the Fostering Services Regulations 2011
b)The Statement of Purpose for the Adoption Service, required under the Adoption (England) Regulations 2005
c)The review and updating of these documents is required under Regulation 4 of the same regulations
d)Formal approval of these documents is required under Standard 16 of the National Minimum Standards for Fostering Services 2011 and the Adoption standards 2014.
BACKGROUND PAPERS
28. The following background papers were used in the preparation of this report:
-Looked After Children Annual Report
-Pathways Leaving Care Annual Report
-Fostering Service Annual Report, Little book of Foster Care, SOP, Children’s Guide.
-Adoption Service Annual Report, Children’s guide, SOP.
CONTACT OFFICER: Jane Wilson – Head of Service, Looked After Children, Care Leavers, Placements, Children with Disabilities.
TEL NO: 01642 201941
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