Agenda item

Report and appendices attached.

The Cabinet Member addressed the Board and stated that Corporate Parenting was, in his view, one of the most important duties of elected Members. There were in excess of 400 Looked After Children in Havering and the Corporate Parenting Strategy would commission safeguarding training fir Members which it was hoped all Group Leaders would support.

The strategy would be reviewed annually and a full review would be undertaken in 2023. The Cabinet Members from the Board on the proposed strategy. Officers added that they had sought to keep the strategy brief and understandable.

The training available to Members would use real world examples to give an in depth understanding of the Corporate Parenting responsibility on Councillors. A former OFSTED inspector would be introduced to give an external input to much of the Councillor training. Training would be available to all Members with enhanced and bespoke training available for members of the Corporate Parenting Panel and the relevant Overview ad Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

Progress with the Corporate Parenting Strategy could be considered as part of the work of the Children & Learning Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committee with topic groups formed as appropriate. Members felt that as many Looked After Children as possible should be involved in the strategy.

Officers that clarified that efforts were made to place a child with family members wherever possible and that foster care was only used as a last resort. The figure of more than 400 Looked After Children also included care leavers over the age of 18 although the overall numbers in the Havering care system had reduced. Children were however presenting with greater complexity, often due to their coming into care at an older age (12-13 years or greater) or at a moment of crisis. The number of care leavers had grown by 100% to more than 170 and the Council continued to have duties to this group up to the age of 25.

Performance indicators used were now consistent with the whole of London. It was noted that it was also important to track children had not needed to go into care as a result of the Council’s input. Benchmarking would be undertaken across London Local Authorities as well as with Havering’s statistical neighbours. The Council’s would provide monitoring of the benchmarking data which could be shared with Members.

It was also confirmed that all Havering foster placements were regulated even though the sector was not fully regulated at a national level.

The Board AGREED unanimously that the following comments be passed back to the Cabinet Member as part of its pre-decision scrutiny of this item:

-       The importance of training in the Corporate Parenting role and in associated issues being made available to all Members and that Group Leaders encourage as many Members as possible to attend. Enhanced training should also be made available to Members in roles related to Corporate  Parenting such as members of the Children and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee and the Corporate Parenting Panel.

-       A wish to see as much involvement as possible of Looked After Children themselves in the strategy and its associated groups etc. This should not be limited to solely the Corporate Parenting Panel.

-       The need for a sufficiently robust and consistent set of performance indicators to allow progress against objectives in the strategy to be reported on and scrutinised.