Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services presenting the draft Corporate Parenting Strategy for comment as part of the consultation process.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 11’ is filed with these minutes.

Arising from the discussion, the following comments were raised:

i)             The Committee welcomed the draft Strategy.

ii)            Clarification was sought as to the understanding of elected members around their responsibility as a corporate parent.  Members noted this was both an individual and collective responsibility and the role and expectations of Councillors had been detailed in the Strategy through seven key principles.  It was hoped that elected members would think about opportunities for children individually but then scrutinise these collectively to challenge the delivery.  It was agreed that it would be important that all elected members bought in to the Strategy and the Department would work with them to develop their role as corporate parents.  It was suggested that the Children in Care Panel, which included members from this Committee, would be a good forum for holding members to account and to consider the development of a framework for members to follow.

iii)           A query was raised around the ongoing support for care leavers and how effective this was.  In response, it was stated that this was part of the work being undertaken around the core offer for care leavers.  Consideration was currently being given to the financial support and package provided to those young people up to the age of 25.  This included the support that was currently given to those who chose to go to university or higher education and the support the Department would want to offer.  Currently, support was provided for accommodation for young people coming home from university, and consideration had been given to the provision of 52 weeks free accommodation for care leavers by some universities.  Work had previously taken place with the DfE around this offer, and a further meeting was due to be held with the advisor to discuss progress.

iv)           During the consultation period, work was taking place with children and young people to ensure their voice would be reflected in the Strategy.  It was the intention to produce a child friendly version of the Strategy for all children and young people in the care of the local authority or care leavers.

v)            Earlier in the year, a Scrutiny Review Panel had considered the role of elected members as corporate parents, and one of the recommendations arising from this had been the introduction of three member champions in the specific areas of education, training and work, housing and accommodation, and health.  The three members had now been identified and the terms of reference for the roles agreed.  A meeting would shortly be arranged to discuss the role further.

vi)           The Lead Member for Children and Families agreed that the recommendations arising from the Scrutiny Review Panel had ensured that positive progress had been made and had brought the role of elected members as corporate parents to the fore as there had traditionally been a lack of awareness regarding their responsibility towards children in care.  Mr Ould felt that it was essential that the voice of young people was listened to and this was being achieved through various forums, such as the Corporate Parenting Board being co-chaired by a young person, young people presenting items at the Children and Families Partnership, and the Children in Care Councils, which were ran by young people.

vii)          Members noted that the success of the Scrutiny Review Panel had been reinforced through the agreement reached with district/borough councils to remove the paying of council tax for care leavers up to the age of 25.

The outcome of the consultation and the final draft Strategy was due to be presented to the Cabinet at its meeting on 17 December 2019.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.