Agenda item
Corporate Parenting Support during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Provides a summary of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on children in care, care leavers and foster carers, detailing Brent’s response as a Corporate Parent during this period.
Minutes:
Onder Beter, Head of Looked After Children and Permanency presented the report which provided a summary of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on children in care, care leavers and foster carers, detailing Brent’s response as a Corporate Parent during the period.
Members heard that robust risk assessments for all children and foster carers had been conducted separately to ensure their safety during contact between children and loved ones. Based on the outcomes of the risk assessments some children could not see parents, family or loved ones face to face and it was acknowledged how difficult that would have been. As the guidelines were gradually being relaxed members hoped to see more young people seeing family members face to face.
Foster carers had access to an online foster carer support group, and had been appreciative of Brent’s support offer.
Brent were investigating further financial support for care leavers with a £20 supplement to the weekly allowance in line with Universal Credit increases, highlighted in the final paragraph of the report. Nigel Chapman (Operational Director Integration and Improved Outcomes, Brent Council) informed the Committee that this levelling up was something the Council would only be able to offer for the current year as it was a one-off in line with the position taken by government. Members of the Committee highlighted the difficulty of offering something and then taking it away and requested this was taken into consideration during budget setting in March 2021. Councillor McLennan (Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Resources, Brent Council) agreed that it was important to ensure what care leavers had was sustainable beyond March 2021 and they would see what could be done with the funding they had.
In relation to budget, members of the Committee heard that the overall position for the budget as a whole had been a challenge and the main cost was placements for children in care and agency social workers. Gail Tolley (Strategic Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) explained that Brent was the 5th lowest funded children’s services in London so delivery needed to be impactful. There was placements budget pressure. Brent was now a place of choice for social workers therefore was much stronger on employment of permanent staff.
In response to member’s questions, Nigel Chapman advised that there had been a small number of placement breakdowns as a result of COVID-19 mostly due to young people finding it difficult to adhere to the stricter guidelines of lockdown and the providers of those placements having concern about the impact on other young people in the placements. Where there were placement breakdowns in semi-independent providers this caused a strain on the placement budget due to the rates for the subsequent placements for those more challenging children. Gail Tolley highlighted that IFAs and semi-independent providers had sent letters asking for placement fee uplifts as a result of COVID-19, and there had been a firm rebuttal on that pan London.
Further discussing semi-independent and independent providers, members heard that overall Brent had maintained good liaison with semi-independent provision and had seen a greater level of flexibility than anticipated, but there had been some independent fostering agencies where Brent had experienced breakdowns which had been raised through commissioning colleagues as it was felt their tolerance level of behaviour and willingness to be flexible was limited.
Officers did not have the number of young people who had accessed the Safe Base programme for online therapy requested by members of the Committee but would be happy to bring a brief report to the next Committee that covered support for the emotional and mental health of care leavers. It was added that the hours and availability of the online therapy had been expanded and feedback had been positive.
Care leavers had not been asked to leave University accommodation by providers and some had preferred to stay in their accommodation. For those care leavers who wanted to return to London and be close to their networks the Council had provided financial support for accommodation.
Officers acknowledged that Brent had been able to work with health partners including the Designated Doctor for Safeguarding and Looked After Children to continue to conduct health assessments for looked after children, and members and officers expressed gratitude to colleagues and partners that had enabled this work to continue.
Members of the Committee noted the increased attendance and engagement from care leavers as a result of virtual meetings and suggested moving forward the approach could be a mixture of face to face and online virtual meetings.
RESOLVED:
i) To note the content of the report.
Supporting documents: