Previous reference:  Minute 11 (2017/18)

The Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) will present a report   (Document “B”) which sets out the progress made in respect of the implementation of the recommendations arising from a review of the support for young people in care/care leavers, undertaken by members of Bradford Council’s Future Leaders Programme 2016, as requested by the Panel at it’s meeting held on 13 September 2017.

The views of the Corporate Parenting Panel are requested in respect of the support in place for Care Leavers and the Bradford Care Leavers Local Offer.

(Emma Collingwood – 01274 437123)

Previous reference:  Minute 11 (2017/18)

The Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) presented a report (Document “B”) which set out the progress made in respect of the implementation of the recommendations arising from a review of the support for young people in care/care leavers, undertaken by members of Bradford Council’s Future Leaders Programme 2016, as requested by the Panel at it’s meeting held on 13 September 2017.

It was explained that the recommendations had now been brought into the Through Care Service and a number of good outcomes had been achieved. The following initiatives were highlighted:

·         A Local Offer website was being created to bring all the relevant information together. There was also access to Facebook and Twitter forums.

·         The pilot scheme to give young people in care free gym membership had now been rolled out to all and extended to carers where appropriate.

·         A lot of work had been undertaken on engagement. Examples of this included: the provision of free tickets for the Bradford Literature Festival; the entry of a team into the 2017 Dragon Boat Festival (who had won both their races; and free pantomime tickets. Future events were being considered such as a picnic and rounders session at the park.

·         Significant progress had been made in respect of apprenticeships; work had been undertaken alongside the Equalities Group and Human Resources (HR) to ensure that all the young people who met the necessary criteria were invited for interview and that they were provided with assistance/support for the interview process. Difficulties had arisen, in relation to necessary HR requirements, relative to a suggestion apprenticeships should be granted automatically to looked after young people but it was possible to ensure that young people managed to gain work experience.

·         Preparations were being made for three specific apprenticeships for a Community Residential Worker, a Social Media/Public Relations post and a post to support Quality Assured accommodation for the over 16s (which was to be funded on a regional basis).

The presentation also included information in respect of:

·         The numbers of care leavers currently, including those accessing the 21 to 25 service.

·         Positive outcomes achieved in respect of access to education.

·         The management of homeless young people.

·         87% of care leavers were still in touch with the Service on their 19^th birthdays which was considered to be very positive.

·         The percentage of young people in suitable accommodation was not as high as the Service would like but the Authority had good contracts in place and strong working relationships with partner agencies such as Centrepoint and Horton Housing and gained added value from these agencies.

·         The Therapeutic Social Work Team was now operating. This service had previously been accessed through CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service). There were now 5 highly qualified workers within the service to care for the young people and they would work with individuals up to the age of 21.

·         This work included assisting foster carers in dealing with any issues. The wish was for all children to have a ‘healing placement’

·         The appointment of a dedicated Subject Access Request (SAR) officer had led to real and amazing feedback. This individual helped young people to access their case file and track their journey including why they entered care; this could be a very healing process for a young person.

·         The Local Offer had been published. This had been drawn up further to consultation with young people and staff.  Four young people were going to work with the Marketing Team to develop the website. It was intended to use videos rather than written format to relay information and a Theatre Group was also to assist in this. Input from Corporate Parenting Panel would also be sought.

·         Finances were a significant issue for young people and the relevant polices had been reviewed so that information would be available for young people to ensure that they knew what they were entitled to.

·         Proactive work was being to done to access as much grant funding as possible to help finance other initiatives and activities and this was having a positive impact on the quality of the service that could be provided.

In response to Members’ questions it was explained that:

·         Officers were working hard across the various services to try and ensure that there was a graded approach to prepare young people for leaving care rather than a ‘cliff edge’ at a particular age.

·         Negotiation was being undertaken with adult mental health services in relation to support for care leavers. It was believed that in the Bradford district the necessary services were available. The Therapeutic Social Worker Team helped young people to access community based support. If help was needed post 21 support would be provided and young people would be signposted to the right agencies.

·         Work was being done on a regional basis to look at achieving potential benefits for the young people in respect of free public transport and cinema tickets.

·         Between the ages of 16 and 18 the Authority had a duty to house a homeless young person immediately. Post 18 they had to be dealt with under the Housing Act legislation and an assessment of their situation would be done jointly with Housing; Through Care would always lobby hard to try and ensure that they were not judged to be intentionally homeless and that a safe recommendation was achieved. The Council had a strong partnership with Centrepoint.

·         Young people would not be placed in an area of the district where they might be more at risk.

·         Young people in custody were visited every month and it was ensured that they had access to appropriate means such as clothing and income.

·         Bradford did have a relatively high rate of accommodation in multiple occupation and this had to be utilised for young people but it was quality assured and if there were any issues they would be addressed promptly. Staff would spend additional time with these young people and quality assurance meetings were held every 6 weeks.

·         A number of events had been arranged focussed on a group of young people; this had facilitated them coming together and had resulted in the formation of friendship groups.

Comments were forthcoming as follows:

·         The Children in Care Council were pleased with recent developments and looked forward to seeing all the proposals become operational. The young people had been consulted and had an input into the development of these ideas.  One of the issues for young people was that they should not have to be identified as looked after; for example any tickets they were able to access should be just the same as anyone else. There was also an issue with associated access for carers; some events could be quite intimidating for a young person to access independently.

·         The access to the Literature festival had been very positive.

·         The behaviour of the young people in attendance at the Dragon Boat Festival had been exemplary.

Members discussed the difficulties in the logistics of providing young people with benefits in terms of free access to facilities and attractions without making it obvious and thus potentially awkward for them and it was noted that this was an issue that required further consideration.

Resolved –

(1)       That the Panel endorses the principles set out in paragraph 3.3 of Document “B” in the development of Bradford’s Local Offer for Care Leavers and that the Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) be requested to send a copy of the Local Offer to all Members of the Panel once it is finalised.

(2)       That the Deputy Director (Children's Social Care) be asked to thank officers within the Through Care Service, on behalf of the Panel, for the valuable work they do.

ACTION:       Deputy Director (Children's Social Care)