Agenda item

To provide information about the Pan London Care Leavers Compact and to update members on the Council’s progress against the Compact and areas of development during 2023-24.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the report which informed the Corporate Parenting Committee of the Pan London Care Leavers Compact and the Council’s progress against the Compact. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following points:

• London local authorities were all being asked to make 6 commitments to London’s care leavers by the end of December 2023.These were five housing related positions and an additional commitment relating to whole council support of care leavers through membership of the Care Leavers Covenant. The Compact aimed to maximise consistency and quality in the local offers of support from local authorities.
• The report set out each commitment, including the current position in Brent for each of those. The Council was meeting most key elements of the Covenant, for example, Brent had implemented a Council Tax Scheme in 2018 waiving the requirement of Brent care leavers to pay council tax. 
• Brent Council ensured care leavers were offered supported accommodation until they felt ready for their own tenancy which ensured no care leaver was found intentionally homeless. Brent was the only Council still offering social housing tenancies to care experienced young people.
• The Council did not currently offer a rent deposit scheme and would look at that as part of the work on the Pan-London Compact. Any proposals would be presented to senior managers. 
• In relation to adopting the principle that care leavers up to the age of 25 should be placed in ‘priority need’ under homelessness legislation, Brent Council had not officially adopted that principle, but in practice there was close working between the Council’s Housing Need Service and Looked After Children and Permanency Service through the joint protocol. That protocol would be revised during the current financial year.
• The Committee may ask the Council to do more work to present a position on the possibility of recognising being care experienced as a protected characteristic. In law, it did not appear in the Equalities Act, so it was not likely to be legally enforceable and would be more of an intent towards care leavers.

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

S (Care Leavers in Action) had been involved at a London level in developing the proposed Compact, which had been a long process involving a lot of research. She had found it an interesting experience to be involved in, particularly in hearing what other local authorities offered as part of their local offer. Personally, S was conflicted around recognising care experience as a protected characteristic as she was concerned it may turn into a ‘tick box’ exercise, but she did see benefits to this and it if a care leaver did not want to then they did not have to disclose their status.

The Committee asked whether there had been any further work around lobbying at a national level for the rights of care leavers. Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) advised that being part of the London Covenant was in itself a commitment from the local authority to support the rights of care leavers. Part of the reason for the establishment of the Compact was the recognition that, across London, there was difference in service depending on where a care leaver was. In relation to the specific proposal to recognise being care experienced as a protected characteristic, Councils did not have a common view on that point and it was still an emerging issue. Committee members felt that sometimes words were important and although it may not be legally binding it could be a big statement and gesture to care experienced young people to have that enshrined in writing. As councillors, Committee members highlighted the possibility of bringing forward a motion to Full Council to have wider publicity around the commitment.

The Committee heard that the Council had not yet looked at supporting care leavers with private rented accommodation because the Council provided social housing tenancies, but there may be a need to look at that in the future as housing became more pressured.

RESOLVED:

i)              To note the report and support the improvement in the consistency of Brent’s local offer to include updating some elements of the housing offer, set out in section 3.3 of the report.

ii)             To endorse the Council’s adoption of the national Care Leavers Covenant and support its implementation across the Council.