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