To receive a list of the broken promises from CLICC and to consider Challenge Cards and receive an update from Participation People.
Minutes:
The Chief Executive of Participation People apologised to the Board that unfortunately there no young people available to attend the meeting.
The challenge cards which Children’s Services had completed
were circulated to the Board and discussion took place on the responses. The Board’s response is set out below.
Challenge One – Sometimes it takes too long to hear back from a Social Worker. We have an example of it taking 2 weeks for a reply, by which time it was too late to act on the request. How can we stop this from happening?
Response – Ask young people how they would like to be contacted/communicated with and offer a personalised response. Return calls as a basic/standard duty. Support them to elevate an issue if it persists, easily.
Challenge Two – We think that some decisions are passed up to managers, when they could be made by Social Workers. This can mean the decision takes too long to be effective. Is there a process where Social Workers can have the confidence to make those decision themselves to save time?
Response – Foster Parents should have their own delegated powers. Dorset Council should help them be more aware of these and support them to use them.
Challenge Three, Four and Six – If my Social Worker is on holiday or has left, how can you make sure I can get in touch with someone else when I need to?
Must I always go through my carer if I need to contact my Social Worker? I don’t have my Social Worker’s email address or contact details.
We think Social Workers should give us a card with their contact details on the front and the out of hours/duty number on the back, so we always know how to get in touch.
Response – Agree to a business card. They need to be of good quality. Not all Social Workers will want their face on a business card, perhaps a Bitmoji could be used instead? We should offer a paper version and digital one for both young people and Foster Carers. The Executive Director of People – Children’s details should be added to every card to make it as easy as possible for young people and foster carers to get in touch with her.
Challenge Five and Seven – When a taxi is booked for us, why can’t the taxi be given our details so they can keep us informed? We understand that our Social Worker probably won’t know if our taxi has failed to turn up. We need to know what to do if this happens.
Response – Foster Carers should be able to book young people’s transport. We should support young people’s independence.
The Chief Executive of Participation People thanked the Board for their input and confirmed CLiCC responses would be fed back to the Board at its meeting on 4 September 2019.
Resolved
That the Chief Executive of Participation People provide the CLiCC responses to the meeting of Corporate Parenting Board on 4 September 2019.
Supporting documents: