Previous references:  Minutes 5 and 22 (2017/18)

The Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) will present a progress report in relation to the B Positive Pathways Programme (Document “U”).

Recommended –

That the contents of Document “U” and the progress of the B Positive Pathways programme be noted.

                                                            (Jim Hopkinson – 01274 432904)

Previous references:  Minutes 5 and 22 (2017/18)

The Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) presented a progress report in relation to the B Positive Pathways Programme (Document “U”).

·         B Positive was operating from The Willows Children’s Home alongside 3 other satellite homes. These were traditional residential homes with additional provision including psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapy and police officers so that young people could access these services in-house.

·         The programme meant that a different approach was taken with adolescents in crisis to try and overcome the problems so that they were not  brought into care unnecessarily.  Since commencement of the initiative 17 young people had been helped and successfully returned to their home or a family member; it was believed that this was the best outcome for the young people. Work had also been undertaken with 48 young people who had been deemed to be ‘edge of care’ to prevent them from entering long term care.

·         An additional home had now been opened and the Authority’s aim was to reduce external placement unless this was a positive move to better address an individual’s needs. An 8% reduction in placement outside the district had been achieved since the programme started and this would also bring about financial savings as they were likely to be more costly.

·         The possibility of some staff being facilitated to become crisis foster carers was under consideration.

·         Two ‘Mockingbird’ fostering constellations had been set up which enabled additional support to be provided for the child and wider support for foster carer families. This had been launched at the beginning of the year and was operating very effectively.

·         The money for B Positive was provided by the Government and the Authority needed to demonstrated that this investment was effective.  Data was thus being collected to evidence the outcomes and a cost benefit analysis would also be undertaken.

He responded to questions from Members:

·         The concept of existing staff as crisis foster carers was a new way of working that had been developed in North Yorkshire; it was accepted that it challenged the traditional ‘boundaries’ between workers and the young people they cared for. If a young person was in crisis sometimes things had to move very quickly and it was better for them if they could go to a connected person; Residential Social Workers were one of the people with which many would have a connection.  This would be a voluntary opportunity and full assessment would be undertaken. If the idea was pursued it would be done on a bespoke, case by case basis. North Yorkshire had also had foster carers working on a casual basis within residential homes to assist in building relationships.

In response to a question from the CICC representative in respect of the longer term stability of the young people who had been assisted by the programme to date, the B Positive Programme Manager said that a tool had been created to monitor the journey of each individual and a monthly check would be undertaken on each child that came though the programme. The 17 young people would maintain access to an outreach team for support and this was not time limited. There would be no conclusion until there was certainty that the situation was working for all parties.

She also explained that a number of local authorities were collaborating in respect of the sharing of good practice and provision of mentoring support.

Resolved –

(1)       That the contents of Document “U” and the progress of the B Positive Pathways programme be welcomed.

(2)       That a further progress report be submitted to the Panel in 2018/19.

ACTION:       Deputy Director (Children's Social Care)