Agenda and minutes

The committee is advised that the public may be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely in view of the nature of the proceedings that exempt information would be disclosed. Meetings of the Corporate Parenting Committee are attended by representatives of Care In Action (CIA), the council’s Children in Care Council. The committee is therefore recommended to exclude the press and public for the duration of the meeting,  as the attendance of CIA representatives necessitates the disclosure of the following category of exempt information, set out in the Local Government Act 1972:  - information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

RESOLVED: that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the duration of the meeting, on the grounds that the attendance of representatives from the council’s Children in Care council, necessitated the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2, Part 1 of Schedule 12A, as amended, of the Act, namely: Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

None.

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests in the items on this agenda.

None.

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

None received.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the last meeting, held on 16 October 2023, be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

None.

This is an opportunity for members of Care In Action (CIA) and Care Leavers in Action (CLIA) to feedback on recent activity.

J (Care Leavers in Action) informed the Committee that the group had been involved in a commissioning project focused on services supporting young people not in employment, education or training (NEET). This had involved reviewing answers from bidders, evaluating their pros and cons, and giving each bidder score ratings. This had been a new experience for the majority of the group as it was different to how they had been involved in commissioning previously. Care Leavers in Action (CLIA) were also involved in the work on the new Participation Strategy, looking to improve participation for all children and young people, including developing more opportunities for co-design of services. The strategy was currently out for consultation with CLIA and Care in Action (CIA) and the Voice and Influence Subgroup had discussed it and proposed a young person friendly version of the strategy so that it was clear what children and young people should be expecting in terms of participation. In terms of social activity, CLIA and CIA had went bowling and had a Christmas meal.

K (Care Leavers in Action) added that the groups had done a trip to London Zoo during the October half term, and it had been good for the different age groups to mix together. Care experienced young people had been taking part in interview panels for the recruitment of Social Workers, Personal Advisers and the Participation Team and would be conducting some more soon, and CLIA was focusing on recruiting more care experienced young people to the CLIA and CIA groups. In terms of planning for the future, the group was planning a residential. 

The Chair thanked those present for their contributions and invited members of the Committee to ask questions to the CIA / CLIA representatives. The following questions were raised:

The Committee heard that there had been some discussions around how best young people might contribute to Corporate Parenting Committee in future, and there were plans for a mini workshop to take place at the next meeting to hear how young people think the Committee could be improved.

The Committee thanked the representatives for the updates and RESOLVED:

That the updates by the representatives of Care in Action/Care Leavers in Action be noted.

To provide an update to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee about the London Protocol on reducing criminalisation of Looked After Children and Care Leavers, published in March 2021. Previous reports have been presented to the Corporate Parenting Committee in April 2019 and January 2022.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the report, which provided a progress update on the London protocol for reducing the criminalisation of Looked After Children (LAC) and Care Leavers and the MOPAC London wide guidance. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

·         The key objectives of the work focused on providing a practice model that aimed to introduce and improve preventative measures, reduce re-offending behaviour and rehabilitate young people who had offended through effective joint working between relevant agencies. The protocol highlighted the impact of previous trauma, attachments issues and specific vulnerabilities of LAC and care leavers. As such, the protocol encouraged agencies to use a trauma-informed approach to practice as well as restorative approaches in a child-centred way to enable integrated, coordinated, and proactive responses to prevent and address challenging offending behaviour.

·         It had been found that care experienced children were six times more likely to be criminalised than any other group of children, and just over half of care experienced children would have a criminal conviction by the age of 24 compared to 10% of their non-care experienced peers.

·         Although LAC were overrepresented in the UK Youth Justice System, the number of LAC supervised by Brent’s Youth Justice Service had halved in the three years between 2021-23.

·         Brent continued to focus on the issue of equality and disproportionality in regard to criminalisation, because young people from Black heritage groups were currently overrepresented in the data.

·         Priorities for the next year included:

o   exploring how the local authority could work together with accommodation provider forums to reduce the criminalisation of LAC and care leavers by ensuring staff responses to behavioural difficulties which may be viewed as criminal were proportionate and appropriate and the need for police involvement / court action was minimised.

o   training for Foster Carers focused on de-escalation.

o   training for Personal Advisors around providing advocacy when supporting young people in prison.

o   Implementation of a joint staff forum with LAC providers and the Youth Justice Service.

The Chair thanked Kelli Eboji for her introduction and invited contributions from the Committee, with the following points raised:

Representatives from CLIA asked whether there were any interactive sessions and workshops available to care leavers and LAC to prevent them from going into the Youth Justice System, particularly focused on addressing the statistics included in the report, which they felt would be motivating for young people. They were advised that each individual had their own complexities around prevention. In section 5.15 of the report there were details of ‘Your Choice’, which was a programme providing training to practitioners working with young people at medium to high risk of harm teaching Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques to use during the delivery of interventions with young people in the programme. The programme had recently started being offered in the LAC and Permanency Service, and was already offered within the Accelerated Support Team and Youth Justice Service. This programme was known to have positive outcomes and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee about the updated Fostering Offer to be launched in April 2024.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the revised fostering offer by presenting a short video explaining the benefits of being a foster carer in Brent. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following points:

• A key emphasis over the next year was around promoting the local authority fostering offer, utilising marketing techniques such as the newly created video referenced in section 4.9.3 of the report and competing with independent agencies in the wider market.
• The report detailed a 6-month programme of work, approved by Council Management Team, exploring ways to improve and increase placement sufficiency and save money in terms of the large amounts being spent on semi-independent agencies.
• The revised offer was due to be implemented in April 2024. The background and rationale for the changes in the offer was that, between 2017 and 2023, there was an almost 40% reduction of in-house capacity in Brent fostering households and beds / placements. This was being experienced nationwide, where nationally around 1/8^th of fostering households left their roles in 2021-22.
• Brent currently had 23 fostering households aged 65 or over, and part of forward planning was around recruitment of foster carers when those older carers retired.
• As a result of the national reduction of fostering households, Brent had become reliant on commissioning independent fostering agencies, so the Council had looked to improve recruitment through the revised offer to avoid costly independent placements.
• Section 4.1.4 of the report highlighted that benchmarking showed the allowance offer previously was not competitive compared to Brent’s West London neighbours, so the first priority for the revised offer had been to look at that, and section 4.2 outlined the different elements of the new offer, including an increase in the weekly fostering allowance and a new digital offer for foster carers, as well as leisure offers.
• The offer also introduced a range of initiatives to support placement stability, including a LAC resilience service which was a new programme in the test and learn phase.
• The service was working with HR to make Brent a foster friendly organisation and was developing policies in line with that approach. Alongside this work was being done with West London colleagues to work towards a joint fostering recruitment hub.

The Chair thanked officers for the update and invited comments and questions from Committee members with the following raised:

In relation to the weekly fostering allowance, the Committee asked whether there was a connection between a higher allowance and an increase in the recruitment of foster carers. Kelli Eboji advised there was no direct correlation that could be evidenced, but there were higher levels of enquiries with increased weekly allowances. Brent had identified itself as operating in a competitive area with many fostering agencies within Brent and its border. Many boroughs were offering more, and Brent was losing its constituents to those boroughs and the independent sector which often offered double the allowance offered by local authorities. In response to whether nominated carers receive an allowance or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee about the progress of work being undertaken to commence a local authority residential children’s home.

The Chair introduced the report which provided an update on the progress to establish a residential children’s care home in Brent. She highlighted that a Cabinet decision to purchase a property for the use of establishing the care home was currently subject to a valid call-in which was due to be discussed by the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on Monday 12 February 2024. Until that Committee had met, the decision to purchase a property in Wembley for the purpose of the care home could not be implemented. The report detailed further updates on the progress of the children’s residential care home project.

Michelle Gwyther (Head of Forward Planning Performance and Partnerships, Brent Council) added that feedback from children and young people was integral in designing the operation of the home. There were a number of activities designed with care experienced young people to gather their feedback, including an exciting drawing competition where young people could design one of the bedrooms of the care home.

In considering the reports, the following points were raised:

Assuming the project was able to progress, the Committee felt that a residential children’s care home in Brent would be hugely beneficial to children and young people in the borough, and the project had been well planned to offer significant savings to the Council.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note the contents of the report.

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee in relation to health services and outcomes for Looked After Children in Brent.

Esther Power (Designated Nurse – Children in Care - Brent & Hounslow – NHS NWL) and Kate Head (Designated doctor for Children Looked After - Harrow, Hillingdon and Brent – NHS NWL) provided a presentation on the health needs of Looked After Children (LAC) across NWL. The following key points were highlighted:

• There had been a close focus on inequalities for children and young people over the past 2 years, and the health service had signed up to the Care Leaver’s Covenant, which looked to reduce barriers for LAC and care leavers into getting employment and training in the NHS.
• In terms of health inequalities, it was highlighted that LAC were 4 times more likely to have a mental health need, behavioural and emotional difficulties, substance misuse, or experience teenage pregnancy.
• It was highlighted that many children became looked after as a result of abuse and neglect and as such, although they had many of the same health issues as their peers, the extend of those health issues was often greater because of their past experiences.
• There were 348 LAC in Brent which was higher than other NWL boroughs had who provided that data.
• In terms of the health needs identified during initial and review health assessments, the top themes were around CAMHS, dentistry and immunisations. There was a large range of health issues reported at 431 health needs across 127 individual health assessments, meaning many had more than one identified health need.
• 77% of children and young people reported an emotional health need, and some children may have reported an emotional health need but were not necessarily accessing CAMHS or counselling.
• 38% of children and young people over 10 years old reported sleep issues, which was high.
• In relation to growth and development, the percentage of children and young people with incomplete immunisations was 33.85%. As immunisations were a premise for good health all children would be expected to have complete immunisations. This data may have been skewed by the high number Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) in the borough, as often they attended health reviews with incomplete health records.
• In terms of UASC health specifically, some health needs identified were around sleep, dentistry, counselling, and infectious disease screening. 50 UASCs reported a mental health need, 22 reported gastro issues and 31 reported skin infections. It was highlighted that, compared to the data from the rest of the population, there were some outliers in health needs identified for UASC relating to their unique experiences. UASC also had lower incidences of therapeutic input relative to reported emotional health and wellbeing needs.
• Suggested interventions to tackle health inequalities, high rates of incomplete immunisations and high rates of dental issues were being discussed by the Integrated Care Board (ICB). It was highlighted that if significant health needs were being identified, then the there was a need to work jointly as corporate parents to ensure young people had access to services. As an ongoing piece of work the health service was looking to review the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Executive and Member Services or her representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.