Agenda item

To receive an update from CLiCC and make comment on the Challenge Cards.

The Participation Worker, Participation People asked if Board members would like to attend the residential being held on the 19 February 2020 at PGL, Osmington.  The youth summit was being held at the Plaza Cinema on the 30 January 2020 and there were still places available for the Takeover Challenge being held on 14 February 2020, members could book a place through Eventbrite.  If Board members could not attend officers asked if they would please mention the dates to colleague Councillors.

 

The Board considered the 6 Challenge cards:

 

Challenge One – “In June we were promised the results of the transport review and how that affects our taxi challenge.  What were the results of that review?”

 

The Participation Worker, Participation People commented that young people were promised the answer after the July meeting.  The Corporate Parenting Officer confirmed she would provide the result at the next formal meeting of the Board in February 2020. 

 

Resolved

That the Corporate Parenting Officer provide the result at the next formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Challenge Two - “We feel that foster Carer training needs a bit of a re-vamp and concentrate more on things that concern the young people they care for.  We would like more training on mental health and behaviour – to help carers to deal with difficult behaviour better.  Is this possible and can we help?

 

The Participation Worker, Participation People mentioned that some young people felt that foster carers would be out of touch with LGBT and they would like foster carers to have dedicated training in some of those areas.  The CLiCC representative mentioned the important topics were not being touched on in training.  The Interim Executive Director of People – Children

Confirmed officers would look at the training plan and work with CLiCC to co-produce the training.  The Acting Corporate Director – Commissioning  and Partnerships would look into the training and report back on the situation to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Resolved

That the Acting Corporate Director – Commissioning and Partnerships look into the training and report back on the situation to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Challenge Three – “Some children in care want to have access to their records before they are 18.  Is there a way this can be facilitated if the young person in question feels they are ready?”

 

Officers saw no reason why young people could not have access to parts of their files.  The Participation Worker, Participation People commented the young person in question, who was 15, felt they were ready to read their file.  Officers would discuss how this should be handled and as they would not want the young person to read their files off the computer.  The Acting Corporate Director Care and Protection would report back on this challenge to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Resolved

That the Acting Corporate Director Care and Protection would report back on this challenge to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Challenge Four - “When there is a problem at school, some of us feel that communication between the school and Social Services is not good enough or fast enough.  What can be done to address this?”

 

The Interim Executive Director of People – Children mentioned the Virtual School had carried out a great deal of work to ensure that did not happen as the last thing the Authority wanted was vulnerable young people being excluded.  She would ask the Corporate Director – Education and Learning to investigate and report back to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Resolved

That the Corporate Director – Education and Learning investigate and report back to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Challenge Five – “One of our previous challenges was to help Foster Carers to understand how to use Delegated Powers.  What has happened about this and is there any evidence that it is working?”

 

The Acting Assistant Director of Care and Protection mentioned she had spoken with the Fostering Team and while there was evidence that delegated powers were being used by some carers, officers did not seem to have a very good picture of how it was working. She would take this away for the IRO service to report on.

 

The Participation Worker, Participation People mentioned this related to requests to have a sleepover or going away on short breaks or relations birthdays.

 

Officers agreed to talk with the Looked After Team to find out whether delegated powers were working and mentioned foster carers could always contact the IRO.    The Acting Corporate Director Care and Protection would report back on this challenge to the meeting of the Corporate Parenting Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Resolved

That the Acting Corporate Director Care and Protection to report back to the Board at the formal meeting on 11 February 2020.

 

Challenge Six – “In July of this year, as a response to our challenges, we were told that Social Workers would be carrying identity cards.  We have seen no evidence of this yet and Social Workers we have spoken to don’t seem to know about the cards.  Can we have an update please?”

 

The Participation Worker, Participation People thought the process was in place but when she had asked Social Workers about the ID cards, they did not know anything about them.  The Acting Assistant Director for Care and Protection mentioned everything had been agreed and all that was required was the contact details for the social worker and duty team and then teams changed and moved around.  The Interim Executive Director of Children – People thought they could get some printed up with contact numbers to be completed by February 2020. The Interim Executive Director of People - Children would report back on this challenge to the meeting of the Corporate Parenting Board on 11 February 2020.

 

Resolved

That the Interim Executive Director of People – Children report back to the formal meeting of the Board on 11 February 2020 regarding this challenge

 

The Chairman mentioned as the Challenge Cards were mainly aimed at officers and were submitted in advance of the meeting would officers come prepared with an answer in future.