Agenda and minutes

The Chair will welcome everyone to the meeting and announce any apologies received.

The Chair welcomed Board Members. Apologies had been received from Cllr Andrew Marchington, Cllr John Lawson, Gill Addy, Jo-Anne Sanders, Julie Bragg, Anna Gledhill, Colleen Kenworthy, Christine Carmichael and Ophelia Rix.

The Board Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have disclosable pecuniary interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interest.

No interests were declared.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board held on 3^rd November 2020.

The Board considered the minutes of the last meeting held on the 3^rd November 2020 and noted that Councillor Karen Allison’s apologies had not been noted.

The Chair requested that Gill Addy be removed from the attendance list of the previous meeting as she had sent apologies.

RESOLVED-

That the minutes of the last meeting, held on 3 November 2020, be approved as a correct record to include the above amendments agreed by the Board.

Most debates take place in public. This only changes when there is a need to consider certain issues, for instance, commercially sensitive information or details concerning an individual. You will be told at this point whether there are any items on the Agenda which are to be discussed in private.

It was agreed that all agenda items would be held in public session.

The Board will receive any petitions and hear any deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also hand in a petition at the meeting but that petition should relate to something on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (2), Members of the Public should provide at least 24 hours’ notice of presenting a deputation.  

No deputations or petitions were received.

The Board will hear any questions from the general public.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, questions should be emailed to executive.governance@kirklees.gov.uk no later than 10am on 12 January 2021

No questions from the public were received.

Richard Parry, the Strategic Director for Adults and Health will attend to speak to the Board about the role of Corporate Parent.

Contact: Richard Parry, Strategic Director for Adults and Health

The Board considered a verbal update on the role of the Corporate Parent from Richard Parry, Strategic Director for Adults and Health. 

The Board were provided with an overview of the range of services within the Adults and Health Directorate. It was noted that within Adults Social Services there was a significant focus on maximising the independence of residents in Kirklees by:

-       Working in close partnership with the NHS to support individuals from hospital discharge, within their homes and communities;

-       Using assistive technology to help local residents to be more independent and safer within their homes;

-       Enabling access to employment by providing learning and skill building opportunities such as ‘Real Employment’ and supporting Mid-Yorkshire Hospital Trust to develop ‘Project Search’;

-       Increasing community capacity through the work undertaken by the Community Plus and Local Area Co-ordinators teams.

The Board were further advised of recent work undertaken in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. This included:

-       The Kirklees Libraries Service which had undertaken some work focused on reducing social isolation and provided virtual workshops to support children with reading and other educational activities.

-       The Customer Services Centres in both Huddersfield and Dewsbury had continued to deliver some face to face support throughout the pandemic but this was limited by the Covid-19 restrictions.

-       The Contact Centres had adapted to deliver most services by phone to support to Kirklees residents.

-       Working closely with local GP’s was to continue during the Covid-19 vaccine rollout to support vulnerable individuals to access the vaccination offer safely;

Richard Parry described the work that was being carried out to support the transition period from ‘child’ to ‘adult’ for individuals with a disability.

The Board noted that, services within the Children’s and Young People Directorate worked closely with a range of groups and organisations to help support young people in Kirklees and asked how collaborative working was being used to support this area of work. 

Richard Parry advised the Board that the services within the Adults and Children’s Directorates were working collaboratively to manage the transition period. This included regular engagement with Parent Advocate Groups, who worked closely with teams in Children’s services, to support the Transition Programme.

The Board highlighted that it had been recommended that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for Care Leavers were offered to 18- 25-year olds and agreed to examine the work of external services to determine where workstreams could be linked.

RESOLVED –

1-    The Board noted the update on the role of the Corporate Parent and thanked Richard Parry for his contributions. 

2-    That the Board would consider an update on the continued progression of the Transition Programme at a future meeting.

3-    That the Board consider an update on the approach to commissioning across Adults and Health, Children’s Services, and the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG’s) at a future meeting.

4-    That the Board examine the work of external child and adolescent mental health services at a future meeting.

To inform the Board of the work and developments within One Adoption West Yorkshire between April 2020 and September 2020.

Contact: Suzanne Whitley, Service Delivery Manager, One Adoption West Yorkshire

The Board considered the half yearly Adoption Agency report from One Adoption West Yorkshire (OAWY) presented by Suzanne Whiteley.

Suzanne Whitely highlighted the key issues from the report which set out the work and developments within OAWY between April 2020 and September 2020 and advised the Board that:

-       There had been some challenges to staff morale as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but managers had worked hard to support their teams;

-       Most of the vacant positions within OAWY had now been filled, and interviews were scheduled to recruit to any remaining vacant posts; 

-       Letterbox work had been redirected to the Leeds office as an interim measure whilst accommodation in Kirklees and Calderdale was refurbished;

-       This created some delays as staff had to travel from Huddersfield to Leeds to access files and process file work;

-       A reduction in income from the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) ,as a result of the pandemic, had put pressures on the budget but a plan had been actioned to address this;

-       The ‘Duty and Advice’ service was running remotely and a telephone choice system had been implemented to efficiently direct incoming calls;

-       The Operational Leads group had met to discuss aligning adoption payments and joint audit work was agreed;

-       The Centre of Excellence project had progressed but due to increased costs the final model was amended to remove the post of the Assistant Psychologist;

-       A medical advisor protocol has been agreed and ‘Peer Supports’ and audits had taken place across the region to support the improvement of medial information provided to adoptive families; 

-       Work with Virtual School Heads across the region continued progress and the educational helpline was well used;

-       Virtual training sessions with schools, and workshops with doctors, to increase awareness around ‘Attachments and Trauma’ had been delivered and were well received;

-       The Special Guardianship (SG) support plan was being tested by the kinship teams across the five local authorities (LA’s) in West Yorkshire;

-       A therapeutic parenting programme for SG’s had been commissioned and a group application for funding on behalf of the region was to be made;

-       The Grandparents Plus project was progressing well with the further support provided from the ASF Covid-19 funds;

-       Training in ‘Non-Violent Resistance’ had been commissioned for the kinship teams across the five LA’s; 

-       The OAWY’s website had been resigned and was now live;

-       There was a significant increase in families interested in becoming adopters during the first half of the year;

-       OAWY had undertaken a review of perspective adopters and the decision was made to temporarily hold applications for young children;

-       Technology had been used to continue to deliver the work of OAWY virtually throughout the pandemic and training workshops and ‘profiling events were well received;

-       OAWY (after adopting the University of East Anglia’s model) used virtual technology to increase the ‘getting to know you’ phase which helped build relationships between children and adoptive families;

-       Meetings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Board will consider a report giving key highlights from the latest Performance Monitoring data for the Children’s Service.

Contacts:

Julie Bragg, Head of Corporate Parenting (Children in Care and Care Leavers)

Janet Tolley, Virtual School Headteacher

The Board considered the Children’s Performance Highlights Report presented by Elaine McShane, Service Director for Family Support and Child Protection, Janet Tolley, Virtual School Head Teacher and Stewart Horn, Head of Joint Commissioning, Children and Families.

Elaine McShane presented the performance data relating to children entering care, children in care and placement stability, looked after children (LAC) reviews, visiting, and missing.

The Board were advised that:

-       There had been an increasing trend in the number and rate of children in care from 65.8 (659 children) in December 2019 to 68.7 (688 children) in November 2020.

-       The increase had now stabilised and the number and rate of children in care had not increased to the figure projected.

-       This was partly attributed to the work of the Community Plus Service, Third Sector groups and their role in supporting families.

-       Of the 80 children placed outside of Kirklees, or more than 20 miles from their home address, the large majority were placed in a fostering placement and some of these placements now had a permanency decision.

-       15 requests for Initial Review forms were received by the Child Protection and Review unit in November 2020 relating to 23 children in total.

-       For all referrals received in November all children and young people were allocated an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) within 24 hours and Initial Child Looked After Reviews were arranged for all but 1 child within 4 weeks of them becoming Looked After.

-       In November 2020, the Child Protection and Review Unit held 177 Looked After Review Meetings, with 98.2 % of these were held within timescales.

-       A virtual approach to reviews had been taken as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but it had been taken into account that some children preferred face to face reviews.

-       Independent Reviewing Officers were closely monitoring Child Looked After Review timescales to ensure that this high percentage was maintained and improved upon.

-       Where there were circumstances where a child’s review meeting was not held within the statutory timescales a clear rational was recorded on the child’s record.

-       Mid-way reviews were embedded into practice and continued to demonstrate evidence of improved oversight of children’s files and planning for children by Independent Reviewing Officers.

The Board were informed that key areas to improve were placement stability, allocated social worker stability and reducing the number of children placed more than 20 miles outside of their home address.

It was also noted that the reporting strategies for when LAC go missing were also being reviewed and a priority was to use return interviews to identify why (Looked After Children) LAC choose to go missing.

Janet Tolley presented the update on Looked After Children Education Outcomes and highlighted that:

•       The initial focus was the transition back into education school closures with a continued focus on supporting young people who were learning from home.

•       100% of Personal Education Plans (PEPs)  were completed within the Summer Term which were all being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Board will be given a verbal update in relation to the OFSTED and Improvement Board.

Contacts:

Julie Bragg Head of Corporate Parenting, (Children in Care and Care Leavers)

The Board considered a verbal update on the OFSTED and Improvement Board presented by Tom Brailsford, Service Director for Resources, improvement and Partnerships, Children and Families.

It was explained that:

·       the Board had been renamed the ‘Ambition Board’

·       A new membership had been agreed to broaden the remit of the Board to include representation from SEND, Social Care and Learning Performance.

 RESOLVED – That the update on OFSTED and Improvement Board was noted and Tom Brailsford was thanked for his contributions. 

The Board will consider an overview of the number and age of children in care

Contact:

Julie Bragg, Head of Corporate Parenting (Children in Care and Care Leavers)

The Board considered a report on the Overview and Age of Children in Care which was presented by Elaine McShane, Service Director for Family Support and Child Protection. The purpose of the report was to provide information relating to the number and profile of children in our care, including information related to the number of Children placed outside of the District.

The Board were informed that there had been a recent increase in the number of children in care in April 2020 which coincided with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The increase had now stabilised, and Kirklees’s the current number of LAC was 68.6% as of November 2020 which compared with the statistical neighbour average (Local Authorities that the Department for Education regard as similar to Kirklees socio economically,) of 92.2%  and with 67% nationally.

Elaine McShane advised that there had been some early challenges when usual support systems, such a schools, closed due to the pandemic. It was noted that removing children had a detrimental impact on both parties and that it was important to take into consideration that these were unprecedented times. Wherever possible services were creative about the package of support delivered to counteract the effects of the pandemic and to support families to stay together, but children were removed where deemed necessary. 

               RESOLVED - That the report on Overview and Age of Children in Care was noted and Elaine McShane was thanked for her contributions. 

The Board will consider verbal updates from Board Members in relation to progress and key issues following interaction with Services and partners to challenge the role of the Corporate Parent.

Contact:

Jodie Harris, Principal Governance and Democratic Engagement Officer

The Board considered verbal updates from Board Members in relation to progress and key issues following interaction with Services and partners to challenge the role of the Corporate Parent.

The Chair noted that the virtual awards for Children and Care Leavers which was a positive event and that Care leavers continued to share updates on their recent achievements.

The Board were advised that the Chair continued to hold regular one to one meetings with Heads of Services, Service Directors and the Strategic Director within Children Services.

RESOLVED – That the update from Board Members on Interaction with Services was noted.

The Board will consider its Agenda Plan for 2020/21.

Contact:

Jodie Harris, Principal Governance and Democratic Engagement Officer

The Board considered the agenda plan of the Corporate Parenting Board for 2020/21.

The Chair noted that there were a number of reports which had been deferred due to pressures on officers as a result of the pandemic and the recent lockdown. These items would be rescheduled for consideration at a future meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED- That the agenda plan for 2020/21 was noted and that deferred reports be rescheduled for consideration by the Board at a later date.</TRAILER_SECTION>