Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services which provided an overview of Leicestershire County Council’s duties and responsibilities to children in care, including children seeking asylum. The report also outlined progress achieved and the development plan going forward. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’, is filed with these minutes.

The Cabinet Lead Member for Children and Families stated that he was pleased to see such strong indicators consistency within the care system with all children having had up-to-date plans and 90% of health and dental checks having been completed on time. He emphasised that the Department was meeting its core responsibilities as well as ensuring good outcomes for children in care.

Arising from discussion, the following points were raised:

(i)            A member raised concern regarding the accessibility of the Disabled Childrens Service for families who were supporting children with complex needs. The Director stated that the Service was not responsible for providing support to all disabled children, but to children whereby an assessment had identified that they and their families would benefit from social work involvement. The Director agreed to respond to concerns relating to accessibility of the Service outside of the meeting with the member.

(ii)          In response to a question regarding the number of staff employed within the Children in Care Service, the Director stated that the Service comprised of four teams. Each team had a manager, five social workers and a senior practitioner. No vacancies were held within the Service, but it did reserve positions for the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme and apprenticeships. The Director assured members that although the number of children in care was increasing, this growth had been built into the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) in order to ensure that there were a sufficient number of social workers to support children.

(iii)         With regards to support available for staff, the Director stated that it was recognised that staff worked within a challenging environment and were supported in various ways. Members noted that staff had monthly supervisions which presented an opportunity to discuss cases, personal supervision which focussed on wellbeing, pods whereby teams could collaborate to discuss complex cases and challenges, and appraisals whereby wellbeing and training would be discussed. In addition to this, the practice excellence team was responsible for supporting staff through observing practice. The Council also had a wealth of wellbeing resources available to staff which included a counselling service. Members noted that the Department was mindful of experience, and therefore staff being trained the ASYE programme were allocated with a protected number of cases.

(iv)         Members noted that of the 717 children in care at the time, 206 of those were being supported by the family safeguarding service which would determine what the long-term plan for those children would be. In addition to this, 82 became looked after due to seeking asylum, 388 were children with a care plan of long-term care in the Children in Care service, and 41 were supported by the Disabled Children’s Service.

(v)          In response to a question relating to how the Service overcame language barriers when supporting Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC), the Director stated that interpreters were present in meetings in order to facilitate communication between the child and social workers. In addition to this, UASC were enrolled on English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses to assist with to reading, writing and speaking English.

(vi)         With regards to the assessment process relating to UASC, the Director stated that the Department would undertake a Merton compliant age assessment, follow government guidance, and refer to a court assessment. In order to make a judgement on claimed age, the Service would consider their life journey and experiences in their country of birth, as well as a genogram. In the event that the individual was considered to be of adult age, the Home Office would then be responsible for their support.

RESOLVED:

That the overview of Leicestershire County Council’s duties and responsibilities to children in care, including children seeking asylum, progress achieved and the development plan going forward, be noted.