Agenda item

Purpose of the report:  Scrutiny of Services

The Lead Member’s annual report provides an overview of the Corporate Parenting Board and its work through the previous year.

Witnesses:

Linda Kemeny, Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement

Mary Lewis, Cabinet Associate for Children, Schools and Families
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children and Families Wellbeing

Sheila Jones, Head of Countywide Services

Joanna Lang, Children’s Rights Manager (Participation)

Sophia Hamilton, Apprentice (Children’s Rights)

Verrity Omonuwa, Apprentice (Children’s Rights)

Devon Cox, Apprentice (Children’s Rights)

Jamie-Leigh Clark, Children’s Rights Assistant (Participation)

Declarations of interests:

None

Key points of discussion:

1. Officers explained to Members that the report was produced by the Corporate Parenting Board, which was chaired by the Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement. It was highlighted that the Lead Member for Children’s Services held a statutory responsibility under the Children’s Act 2004 to ensure the provision of services that provide duty of care through Children’s Services.
   
   
2. Officers explained that the service had, in 2016, the largest number of looked after children in Surrey care on record, with a total of 903 children in the care of Surrey County Council. It was also explained that the service had noted a significant number of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and those who are moving to be care leavers and entering the transition period between childhood and adulthood
   
   
3. It was highlighted by officers that there had been improvements registered in key priority areas, particularly relating to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) awareness and response to children who go missing.
   
   
4. It was noted that the service was seeking to encourage care leavers to adopt the “Staying Put” approach of remaining with foster carers post-18. It was noted that there were significant advantages to the wellbeing of the child using this approach, but that it limited carer availability for younger teenagers. It was noted that the recruitment of sufficient foster carers was also a concern within the service.
   
   
5. Officers explained that there were a number of looked after children placed out of county. It was stressed that, in some cases, this was the optimal course of action, however, the service was working to reduce this number where feasible and appropriate. It was noted that Surrey was significantly above the national average of 14% of out-of-county placements and that it had not met its own target of reducing these placements below 20%. Officers acknowledged that more work was required to improve this and that a new strategy to improve this was in development.
   
   
6. It was noted by officers that the service was working to improve educational attainment for looked after children, an area which had been noted as traditionally weaker in Surrey.
   
   
7. Officers highlighted improving practice, noting the Safer Surrey practice guide as a key example and noted that this was working to positively develop overall outcomes.
   
   
8. Officers stressed that the views of those in care and care leavers were taken into account within the service. Children’s Right’s (Participation) apprentices highlighted the Big Survey sent out to looked after children and care leavers to gain insight into experiences of being in care. Officers noted that the return rate for the survey was approximately one in three of children in care and that the survey was widely advertised to care leavers and looked after children to ensure highest uptake. Officers did acknowledge that there was a response gap, although the numbers returned were statistically significant, and that the service was working with social workers to improve upon numbers of returns. The apprentices noted that the results of the survey were shared with the Corporate Parenting Board for analysis.
   
   
9. Members queried whether there was a system in place within the service for long term tracking of outcomes for care leavers and whether outcomes monitoring could be looked into. Officers noted that the Care Leavers service works to gather a significant amount of data regarding outcomes for care leavers, but that there was potential scope for more work to monitor care leaver outcomes in the longer term.
   
   
10. It was noted that, as part of the outcomes tracking process, the service had ascertained that 20% of care leavers who remained in Staying Put arrangements were not in education, employment or training (NEET). It was noted that the service was looking feedback from care leavers to improve outcomes in this area.
    
    
11. It was highlighted that looked after children placement stability was a key aim for the service, but that there were some mitigating circumstances that ensured that this was not possible for all cases.
    
    
12. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families Wellbeing highlighted that the information and performance aspect of this project was crucial to better understanding outcomes for children in care. It was noted that information and performance was one of the five key workstreams within the Children, Schools and Families Directorate. It was noted that the service was implementing a Risk of Vulnerability Indictor to target need as part of these workstreams.
    
    
13. Officers explained to Members the concerns about bullying that had been raised as part of the Big Survey. It was noted that there was a clear trend that looked after children were more likely to experience bullying than other child demographics. However, it was explained that the survey had also shown that 90% of looked after children felt that they knew how to deal with bullies effectively. It was also stressed that the service was working to ascertain the root cause for this concern and look into ways of reducing it.
    
    
14. Members emphasised the importance of good mental wellbeing of looked after children and whether there was a measurement this metric. Officers noted that there was some evidence of substance misuse amongst looked after children, but that there was ongoing work to ensure support is in place from substance misuse services to address this. The apprentices also noted that Children’s services had worked to provide provision for hobbies and other leisure facilities to help improve emotional wellbeing for looked after children, explaining that a Bursary Fund from members contributions was available to help children pursue such activities. Members suggested that officers could look to community resources to provide additional leisure facilities and help improve mental health outcomes for looked after children.
    
    
15. The Board noted its thanks to the Children’s Rights apprentices for presenting to the Board and welcomed their unique input to the service.

Recommendations:

The Board recommends:

1. That targeted work is undertaken to look at gathering the views of unaccompanied asylum seeking children as part of the 2017 survey of Looked After children;

2. That a report on long-term outcomes for care leavers is considered by the relevant scrutiny board in the new council;

3. That a report on the use of risk of vulnerability indicator to target need and improve outcomes for children is brought to the relevant scrutiny board in the new council.