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.

Apologies were received from the following:

·         Councillor Liz Dixon

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.

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

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the last meeting, held on 29 April 2024, 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.

This will include a discussion about Care Experience as a Protected Characteristic, facilitated by Brent young people and Participation leads.

Alice Weavers (Participation and Engagement Manager, Brent Council) opened the session with a workshop which considered care experience as a protected characteristic. She explained that in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care by Josh McAlister, a recommendation was made for care experience to be a protected characteristic in the same way as other protected characteristics such as race, gender and disability. The government did not take that recommendation on board nationally, but the recommendation did lead to conversations in local authorities reviewing what could be done locally to support care experienced young people. In introducing the discussion, she highlighted that at least 63 local authorities had now adopted policies with care experience as a protected characteristic, which would mean that all reports with Equality Impact Assessments would need to consider their impact on children and young people with care experience. Other Councils had used it as an opportunity to launch new initiatives for care experienced young people. For example, Camden Council had launched free WiFi access for care leavers under 25. Across the country, there was some confusion about what it would mean for the Council to consider care experience as a protected characteristic with no general consensus across the piece nationally or regionally. As such, she asked those present to consider what it would mean for Brent in terms of people’s work, their colleagues, and for children and young people if this policy were to be implemented in Brent.

During the discussion, concerns were raised in relation to disclosure and the risk of discrimination or stigma. Young people felt that disclosing their care experience may cause discrimination against them due to societal stigma, but it was highlighted that to have care experience as a protected characteristic would mean that they would be protected from discrimination and would be able to challenge where they felt discriminated against. The policy could also be used as an opportunity to break stigma and take a zero-tolerance approach to discriminatory behaviour.

NHS colleagues highlighted that local providers would likely be willing to adopt the policy of having care experience as a protected characteristic if the Council took a lead in that. This would mean that those with care experience would automatically be guaranteed an interview during recruitment processes if they met the relevant experience criteria and disclosed on their equal opportunities form that they were care experienced. There were also staff networks to support those with protected characteristics to come together, which included campaigns and events such as LGBT+ month and International Women’s Day, which would mean those with care experience would be given supported opportunities to come together in a similar way.

It was highlighted it was not clear to young people what this policy would mean tangibly, with a suggestion for the phrase and terminology to change so that it was easier to understand. The policy could be used for lobbying for more offers for care experienced young people such as free WiFi and free travel. As well as this, services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

This report fulfils the Council’s statutory obligation to present an annual report to the Corporate Parenting Committee (CPC) on outcomes for Looked After Children and Care Leavers, in line with the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations (2010). The report provides a summary of the activity alongside the strengths and areas for growth in supporting Looked After Children and Care Leavers in Brent.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced a report which provided a summary of the activity alongside strengths and areas for development in supporting looked after children and care leavers in Brent. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

·         The highest priority the previous year had been to address issues around staff recruitment and retention, particularly of social workers. There had been big moves forward in recruiting permanent social workers over the last year, compared to the previous year where the LAC teams were holding 1/3 of vacancies.

·         The improvements in recruitment and retention had been done through a range of actions including recruiting through specialist agencies, recruiting internationally and newly qualified social workers.

·         Over the reporting year the Council had continued to work with health partners to improve outcomes for looked after children and care leavers. Focused work had been undertaken to ensure young people had access to their health histories when leaving care and embedding in practice that updated health information booklets were provided.

·         The participation offer had been improved over the last year with an updated participation strategy. The Council was working with Barnardo’s through Brent Care Journeys which had finished last month, and there was now a transition period to ‘Brent Care Journeys 2.0’ which was due to launch in Autumn 2024.

·         Work was being done on accommodation pathways and developing independent skills for care leavers.

·         A Bright Spots survey had taken place and the Council was awaiting the results of that.

·         The social work service continued to work on life story work for children in care and would keep this as a priority as the Council moved into the new reporting year. There was bespoke training available on life story work through WEST. The service was exploring IT platforms to improve that work with children and their carers.

·         Three-monthly case summaries had been introduced for all children in care.

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

CLIA asked about the work on accommodation pathways. Kelli Eboji explained that the service was looking to expand the ways young people could move out into independence alongside promoting an independence programme as part of ASDAN.

CLIA asked what support was available for care leavers at university during the holiday periods when they had no access to their student loan. Kelli Eboji would get back to CLIA regarding their entitlements, highlighting that there was support available for care leavers during the holiday periods through rent payments, accommodation and subsistence depending on the needs of the care leaver. The support offer was tailored due to individual nuances which could cause confusion over entitlements. Kelli Eboji would work with the leaving care teams to improve the communications around the support offer to make it clearer for care leavers.

CLIA noted that the number of young people post-16 in employment, education or training had not changed from the previous year and highlighted that many  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

These reports provide information to the Corporate Parenting Committee (CPC) on the health needs of Brent Looked After Children and the service provided to these children in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Kim Lewis (Head of Clinical Services, Brent Children - CLCH) introduced the report, which provided the annual Looked After Children (LAC) Health Reports for 2022-23 and 2023-24. In introducing the reports, she highlighted the following key points:

• The CLCH LAC health team worked closely together with the wider system to improve outcomes for children and young people. The portfolio had sat within CLCH since 2021.
• During 2022-23 the LAC health team had supported 369 children at year end, which was an 8% increase from the previous year. The Royal College Intercollegiate Framework provided guidance on nursing staff provision per LAC and this was monitored closely by CLCH to ensure compliance.
• The Committee were advised, however, that the recruitment of nurses into the service had been challenging during that reporting period. There was a high number of agency and bank staff use and mutual aid available through CLCH, as well as assistance from the other boroughs that CLCH were providers for. Those staffing issues were now resolved and a full permanent team was in place, with final recruits now being onboarded and inducted which would lead to more consistency.
• Due to the staffing challenges experienced, there had been a pause of health team attendance at some meetings so that the service could ensure core health plans for children and young people were completed, and the team was now in the process of stepping that attendance back up.
• The timeliness of health assessments for 2022-23 showed that 92% had been completed on time. Some of the challenges for completion were around waiting for appointments from hosting boroughs, re-booking of appointments where the child was not brought to the appointment, and timely information transfers between the health team and the Council LAC team. A meeting was scheduled to look into that challenge and come up with a solution to improve that process.
• Section 5.2 of the report detailed the number of LAC children registered with a GP, which was 97% for 2022-23. Final data was not yet available for 2023-24 but the health team continued to work closely to register children and young people. For those young people who did not want to register with a GP the health team signposted to alternatives.
• Section 5.11 detailed the patient experience measure results which asked ‘is this a good service’ to which 95% agreed or strongly agreed.
• The health service was undertaking a quality improvement process, working with children and young people, to create an animation about the LAC health service to showcase the support available and dispel common myths about the LAC population. The video would be aimed at children and young people themselves as well as those who may have inaccuracies in their views of LAC. Children and young people had been very involved in that project which was due to launch in January 2025.
• The reports also included a summary of service improvements and challenges, including improvements to networking with system wide partners, assigning specialist roles to individual nurses in LAC to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director - Democratic Services or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.