The Strategic Director Children’s Services wil present a report (Document “J”) setting out a revision of the Local Offer for Bradford Care Leavers (April 2022).

Recommended –

That the views of the Corporate Parenting Panel are sought on the revised change of the Local Offer.

                                                                        (Louisa Kay – 07855177078)

The Strategic Director Children’s Services presented a report (Document “J”) setting out a revision of the Local Offer for Bradford Care Leavers (April 2022).

The agenda paper (Local Offer for Bradford Care Leavers) was taken as read.  Bradford Council Leaving Care Service (BC/LCS) said that the Offer, which set out what young people leaving care could expect from the Leaving Care Service, reflected consultation through Young Voice between October and December 2021, including with all care leavers, young people in custody and young people who were parents.  BC/LCS highlighted the following points:

a)    In line with other local authorities, Bradford Council provided an allowance of £3,000 to each young person leaving care.  Young people leaving custody after the age of twenty-five would be able to access this allowance on their release from custody.

b)    Although there was no statutory duty to keep in touch with care-leavers after they reached the age of twenty-five, “Always Here” [section 7 of the agenda paper] provided a mechanism for care-leavers stay in touch of they wished to do so: it was essentially a signposting service.  Usage of the Always Here” service would be monitored.

c)    The education offer for care-leavers had been revised and now included access to Bradford Vibe at Forster College, a one-stop shop for information, advice and guidance. 

d)    The E-Group, a forum for partners and social workers to consider non-mainstream options for care-leavers not in education, employment of training (NEET), had been implemented in partnership with the Virtual School and met monthly. 

e)    A number of blanket payments had been removed to ensure that expenditure was more suitable to the needs of young people and that they were clearer about their entitlements.

f)     The Participation Forum for young people over the age of sixteen continued and had been re-branded as Your Voice.  Work was in hand to develop People’s Panels and interview processes.

g)    The Local Offer was a live, working offer and the team participated in the benchmarking forum to support continuing improvement.   It would also participate in the Catch 22 national benchmarking working group in the autumn of 2022.

Referring to the first bullet in section 1 of the Local Offer (“Having time to get to know your social worker and/or personal advisor and build relationships”), the Panel observed that, based on its consultation with young people in July 2021, this was less about young people having time to get to know their social worker and more about the social worker having time, and being in post for long enough, to build relationships.  Continuity of staffing was critical to developing relationships.  Replying to questions, DD/SC considered that the text should stand: as social worker vacancies were filled, time would be made available for social workers to develop their relationships with young people.  The time required would vary: more time was likely to be required in the case of young people suffering from trauma.  The Panel agreed that the text should stand.

Referring to the category of “eligible” at section 2 of the Offer, the Panel asked whether sound data was available on the periods of time for which a young person had been in care.  BC/LCS confirmed that such data was gathered on a sophisticated system and could be validated manually.

Referring to the statement at section 4 of the Offer that “We will work with you to review your [Pathway] plan at least every 6 months”, the Panel asked whether these reviews were currently on track for all young people.  The Panel also referred to the statement in section 4.1 that “Throughout your Leaving Care journey (up to your 25th birthday) you can access support and advice from our dedicated Leaving Care Nurses.  Our nurses offer a drop in ‘come and chat’ every Wednesday” and asked whether this was fully staffed and working properly.  BC/LCS said that significant progress had been made in the last six months and compliance had improved from 45% to 90%.

Turning to the statement at section 5 of the Offer that “Wherever possible we will work with you to make sure your custody officers know you are a care leaver”, the Panel asked why it might not be possible to do so.  BC/LCS said that, in the case of young people aged sixteen or seventeen, the custody officers would be aware that they were care leavers.  For young people aged eighteen or over, it was for the young person to decide whether they wished to make their care leaver status known: the service would ensure that they understood the benefits of doing so.  Asked whether information was available on how many young people chose to divulge their status, BC/LCS said that, at present, the team was in touch with the custody officers of all its young people.  Replying to questions, BC/LCS said that there were currently twenty-seven young people who had been in care and were now in custody.

The Panel welcomed the progress represented by this new Offer.  Asked how the considerable information in the document would be presented to young people, BC/LCS confirmed that it would be user-friendly: pages could be bookmarked and linked to website pages.  The Panel noted that the Bradford Council site was not user-friendly: attention would be needed to ensure that young people could find the information they needed quickly and easily.