(Members Code of Conduct - Part 4A of the Constitution)

To receive disclosures of interests from members and co-opted members on matters to be considered at the meeting. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

Notes:

(1)       Members may remain in the meeting and take part fully in discussion and voting unless the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an interest which the Member feels would call into question their compliance with the wider principles set out in the Code of Conduct.  Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

(2)       Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applies to them.  A failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. 

(3)       Members are also welcome to disclose interests which are not disclosable pecuniary interests but which they consider should be made in the interest of clarity.

(4)       Officers must disclose interests in accordance with Council Standing Order 44.

                                                                        (Jill Bell – 01274 434580)

In relation to all subject items that included health matters on the agenda (Minutes 18 to 21) and in the interest of transparency, Sue Thompson declared that she was employed by the Bradford District Clinical Commissioning Group.

Action: City Solicitor

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2019 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

(Jill Bell – 01274 434580)

Resolved –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2019 be signed as a correct record.

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

(Jill Bell - 01274 434580)

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents.

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “H”) provides an overview of the Safeguarding and Reviewing Unit performance from January 2019 to end of September 2019.

Recommended -

(1)          That the report and progress and the actions that have been identified in the forward focus be noted.

(2)          That the Safeguarding and Reviewing  Unit ensure that the voice of the child is central to the work that is undertaken and captured as part of the QA arrangements.

(Amandip Johal - 01274 431620)

The report of the Strategic Director, Children’s Services (Document “H”) provided an overview of the Safeguarding and Reviewing Unit performance from January 2019 to end of September 2019.

The Head of Service (Quality Assurance/Safeguarding & Reviewing) was present and with the invitation of the Chair, gave a synopsis of the report to the Panel.

A question and answer session ensued –

·         In regards to Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO), and since the beginning of 2019, 8 children out of 2385 did not attend the review and failed to send in their views. What have you done to make it different in terms of easier for young people to give their views?

o   To evaluate current procedures and what changes could be made to assist young people in the future.

o   A number of children did not wish to be included in the Child Protection Conference hence the lack of views;

·         There was no breakdown of children’s ages, ethnicities and the Wards they resided in. If the service had no information on young people then how could the Council make a significant positive difference to their lives?

o   Breakdown on information was held by the service and would be provided in future reports;

·         What were the ages of the children who had contributed during the feedback process?

o   Between the ages of 6 – 7 years old and it was dependent on issues;

·         What was the purpose of the series of questions for the children?

o   This was to establish improvements to the current structure and the development for the sake of good practice; and,

·         What was the method of the review and what was the pursued outcome?

o   This was an online source with a series of questions and to establish from outside users on what part of the services to revaluate and potentially improve for the long run.

The Chair praised the work of the team for its efforts towards the focus of improving services for children.

Resolved –

(1)       That Document “H” and the progress made on actions that have          been identified in the forward focus be welcomed.

(2)       That a further report be presented to this Committee highlighting          improvements to support the development of good practice of the     Safeguarding and Reviewing Unit.

(3)       That the Safeguarding and Reviewing Unit continues to ensure             that the voice of the child is central to the work that is undertaken           and captured as part of the QA arrangements.

ACTION: Strategic Director, Children’s Services

The Department of Corporate Resources provides support and activities for Looked After Children and young people across a wide range of services. The report of the Strategic Director Corporate Resources (Document “I”) provides information on this work and seeks feedback from Panel members on areas for further development.

Recommended -

That the views of Panel Members are sought on the range of activities and actions outlined in Paragraph 2 of Document “I” and onareas for further development.

(Joanne Hyde 01274 432131)

The Department of Corporate Resources provided support and activities for Looked After Children and young people across a wide range of services. The report of the Strategic Director, Corporate Resources (Document “I”) provided information on this work and sought feedback by the Panel on areas for further development.

The Strategic Director, Human Resources was present and accompanied by the Head of Procurement. They jointly gave a synopsis of the report.

Following introduction, a question and answer session ensued –

·         In regards to the service pro-actively working to achieve the performance indicator of 100% of Children Leaving Care being offered access to traineeships or apprenticeships, how was this being accomplished?

o   A career event was held for Looked After Children and Foster Carers to promote Council Apprenticeships and all apprenticeship posts were sent to the Leaving Care team;

·         Had the service come across any gaps in young people’s skills that required filling?

o   A meeting was scheduled on 20 November to look at traineeships in detail for the objective of filling gaps for young people such as work planning, training and basic Maths/English needs;

·         Did the service provide references for young people for future jobs?

o   Yes and in addition, skills provided were tailored for future jobs in order to ensure a thorough process from the beginning to the end so that care leavers were assisted in securing jobs successfully.

o   It was essential for the Council to ensure that care leavers were finding success in securing jobs; and,

·         Did children in care have access to information technology services due to most not being able to afford computers/laptops?

o   The service did hold budget for laptops in the past however this funding had been pulled this academic year but there was an ongoing conversation in relation to how laptops could be provided to children who were deprived of essentials in order to gain a good education.

 Resolved –

(1)       That a report be presented to a future meeting of this Committee           that provides detailed information on the supporting activities of     the Council for traineeships, apprenticeships and work   experience.

(2)       That resources be explored by officers to initiate a scheme to support looked after children with laptops for educational purposes.

ACTION: Strategic Director, Corporate Services

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “J”) is to provide an update to the panel on developments in respect of the Youth Homeless Team in Bradford.

The team for 16/17 year olds, who are experiencing homelessness or rooflessness, is sited within the Through Care Service. For young people over 18, the team work in partnership with Housing Options to ensure their housing needs are met, alongside appropriate emotional support.

Recommended -

The views of the Panel on the content of this report are requested.

(Emma Collingwood - 01274 437123)

The report of the Strategic Director, Children’s Services (Document “J”) provided an update to the panel on developments in respect of the Youth Homeless Team in Bradford.

The team for 16/17 year olds, who were experiencing homelessness or rooflessness, was sited within the Through Care Service. For young people over 18, the team work in partnership with Housing Options to ensure their housing needs were met, alongside appropriate emotional support.

A Service Manager from the Children’s Social Care Service was present and introduced the report to the Panel. In particular, she highlighted that due to an additional resource of a temporary Team Manager post, which had focused on a quality assurance role and ensuring work was of a standard that was compliant with Practice Standards expected across all of Children’s Services, the current team setup would be revaluated. Following the strengthening of relationships with Nightstop in order to increase its capacity and ability to respond to the Council’s more challenging young people, through delivering training to hosts and developing smarter working processes, this setup would be revaluated. There were plans to consider additional crèche facilities. To consider Post 18 and the pressures associated.

A question and answer session ensued –

• How were young persons made aware of the Youth Homeless Team?
  • There was a series of people who worked for the team and continuously circulating via word of mouth in relation to homeless provisions for young people. A combination of leaflets were also circulated, drop in locations and a universal telephone number for access to the team and provisions. Ex homeless person had also been utilised to give talks around Bradford;
• Was the telephone number free to call?
  • Yes;
• Was the team working with the Youth Services?
  • Better links had to be forged with the Youth Service as at present the team was identifying young people to the preventative stage. There was room for forming better links with the Youth Service and this is something that would be focused on during the re-structure;
• What was the basis of the 54 young people that required no further assistance by the Youth Homeless Team, as highlighted in the report?
  • Reasons behind the no further assistance being due to young people falling out with parents on interim basis over very trivial circumstances such as not cleaning bedrooms;
• Until what age did the team support young people?
  • According to new legislation, the age had risen from 21 to 25 year olds;
• In relation to the Project Initiation Document that set out what was required in relation to bringing together a Youth Homelessness Delivery Plan as a key action identified in the district’s emerging Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025, what was the basis of the Project Organisation?
  • To give the formal project accountability throughout the whole process; and,
• Who were the independent voices on the Project Organisation?
  • There were plans to involve young people to be the independent voices of the delivery plane.

Resolved –

(1)       That in response to the contents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Director of Strategic Partnerships will present Document “L”, a highlight report on the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England  funding for children who are Looked After service aspect of CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service)

Recommended -

The Panel is asked to note the contents of Document “L” for information. 

(Sasha Bhat – sasha.bhat@bradford.nhs.uk)

The Director of Strategic Partnerships presented Document “L”, a highlight report on the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England  funding for children who are Looked After service aspect of CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service).

The Head of Commissioning Mental Wellbeing was present and with the invitation of the Chair, introduced the report to the Panel. She explained that the Specialist Team consisted of dedicated, highly trained therapists who worked with looked after, adopted and Special Guardianship Order children within the NHS Trust Boundaries of Bradford, Airedale, Craven, and Wharfedale. There had been a reduction in provision since July 2018, when the Local Authority Therapeutic Social Workers had been redeployed from the team.  Since then the team had been working to redesign their model of delivery.

The following question and answer session ensued –

·         Was there any information in terms of detailed specifics of the number of various teams in the service area, gaps with teams and vacancies across the health sector that provided services to looked after children?

o   There were vacancies across the board. There had been an increase of looked after children from 851 to 1244 due to large sibling families being taken into care. To accommodate the increase of children, an additional 4 nurses had been employed. There was a requirement of a further 0.6% of Paediatricians in order to efficiently commence with initial health assessments of looked after children. Other related detailed information for services within the health sector for looked after children were not at hand at present;

·         Was the increase of children a national trend?

o   Bradford was unique to the extent of having one of the largest young people populations in the country;

·         Why were health assessments required to be undertaken by special teams?

o   It was a legal requirement for all children or young people who are looked after by the local authority will have their health and wellbeing supported during their time in care. In order to achieve this, assessments have to be undertaken by professionals to ensure that all of a child’s health needs were being met;

·         Due to becoming of age when a child leaves looked after services, what is the protocol involved?

o   A Consultant and a key worker would be involved with a handover to adult services;

·         Who was lead on referrals?

o   Anyone who worked with a child and identified needs however the Care Trust should have a process in place;

·         How strong were support networks between services?

o   Supporting networks were crucial and boundaries were continuing to be pushed in opening new supporting routes for the sake of providing essential services for looked after children;

·         How were introduction pathways to looked after services operating at present?

o   This involved statutory ground level services such as schools, GP surgeries, community centres and Councillors were also another point of contact within communities;

·         What kind of issues did children arrive with?

o   On occasions, health issues. Two thirds of children in the care had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The Panel’s Work Plan for 2019/20 is submitted for Member’s consideration (Document “M”).

The Panel’s Work Plan for 2019/20 was submitted for the Panel’s consideration (Document “M”).

Resolved –

That the Panel’s Work Plan for 2017/18, Document “M”, be approved.