Agenda item

Context:

To consider and endorse the Strategy for Children, Young People and their Families.

          Key Issues:

The Strategy for Children, Young People and their Families sets out the strategic intentions in respect of Children, Young People and their Families who require care and support by Monmouthshire County Council.

Specifically, it seeks the Children and Young People Select Committee’s support to:

1. Endorse the Children, Young People Strategy which aims to keep children and young people safe by preventing need from escalating, responding appropriately to disadvantage and safeguarding concerns, and maintaining a focus on identifying the most appropriate placement setting;

2. Develop and resource prevention and early intervention services to reduce need from escalating, and to support children and families out of statutory services;

3. Review the range of family support services Monmouthshire provides at all tiers of intervention to ensure that where possible children remain in their families and where they are in care that they can be effectively reunified;

4. Strengthen our approach to practice and quality assurance by learning and implementing change from the findings from quality assurance exercises;

5. Strengthen our collection, validation and presentation of high quality information and intelligence that gives insight into how effective the system as a whole is at protecting and supporting vulnerable children, as well as helping to change and improve practice;

6. Strengthen the procedures for admission to care;

7. Improve the opportunities for children and young people to have permanency outside of the care system by enabling them to be reunified with their birth or extended family where it is safe to do so, or by securing an adoption order or a special guardianship order to live with a permanent family;

8. Expand the availability of placements to meet a wide range of children, in particular placements for teenagers, parent and babies, sibling groups and children with additional / challenging needs;

9. Evaluate the BASE project with the aim of establishing if the model has been effective, and whether it can be expanded to all foster carers, adopters, and special guardians;

10. Ensure placement with parent agreements are updated in line with regulatory requirements and plans are monitored, and where possible that arrangements are made to discharge Care Orders and support families to meet children’s needs without the requirement for them to remain looked after.

Member Scrutiny:

Members asked about the pilot scheme of 20 foster families working with a clinical physiologist and applauded the support for foster families which has being lacking in the past. It was asked if this would have a positive effect. Officers hope that it will and look forward to seeing the pilot start shortly.

In regard to the historical data regarding Looked After Children, the data shows a recent increase of 34% in Monmouthshire. We were told that the strategy has developed to cover every aspect impacted by Looked After Children with early intervention being paramount in all cases.

In response to questions regarding the projected number of Looked After Children the The Head of Children’s Services explained that she didn’t necessarily want the number of Looked After Children to go down, the emphasis had to be on the right   children to be looked after when they need it for the right amount of time and where possible, living with their families.

A Member commented as children get older it comes more difficult to integrate them.

It was asked how much the department costs and how it compares to other authorities. We were told that 2-3 years ago when officers advised the outturn for the CYP Select Committee we were advised that we were embarking on collecting unit cost & comparative data. This wealth of data allows us to compare ourselves against other 21 other authorities. We also compare CP to LAC ratios.

In regard to residential placements a Committee Member suggested the use Mountain House.

The Cabinet Member explained the nature of the serious issues and complex needs of some of the children and stressed the importance of finding the best solution for those children.