Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Karen Allison, Councillor Richard Smith, Councillor Carole Pattison, Councillor Elizabeth Reynolds, Councillor Andrew Cooper (ex-officio), Keith Fielding (Kirklees Fostering Network), Colleen Kenworthy (Kirklees Fostering Network), Ophelia Rix (Head of Service for Children in Care, Care Leavers and Looked After Children)

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on the 28^th March 2023.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 28 March 2023 be approved as a correct record.

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.

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.

All items took place in public session.

The Board will receive any petitions and/or 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 submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

No deputations or petitions were received.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting

No Public Questions were received

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

Contacts:

Ophelia Rix, Head of Service for Children in Care, Care Leavers and Looked After Children

Louise Hallas, Virtual School Headteacher

Gill Addy, Designated Nurse for Looked After Children

Ian Mottershaw, Head of Service –Contextual Safeguarding and Y.E.S, Family Support and Child Protection

The Board considered the latest Children’s Performance Highlights Report in respect of the performance monitoring data for Children’s Services.

Vicky Metheringham, Service Director - Family Support and Child Protection highlighted the following points in relation to :

• During the 12-month period from Jun 22 to May 23, the number of children looked after peaked at 64.3 (630 children) in Oct 22 and has since decreased to 61.3 (601 children) in May 23. The current 12-month average for Kirklees is 62.4 (612 children), marginally above the 31 March 2022 published rate of 62.0, but below the England 2022 rate of 70.0 and significantly below our Statistical Neighbours 2022 rate of 92.0.
• Of the 68 children placed outside of Kirklees and more than 20 miles from their home address, the large majority are placed in fostering.
• The Heads of Service continue to have oversight of permanency planning through Legal Gateway and Permanence Panel. The panels are held weekly to ensure consistency regarding decision making and care planning for children and young people.  The panels also provide a quality assurance framework and opportunity to evidence good practice and areas for development.
• Senior Leadership Team (SLT) maintains oversight of children and young people placed in external placement through review panel held monthly and chaired by the Service Director. The purpose of the panel is to ensure better oversight of children who are not placed in Local Authority provision and provides a quality assurance function in that it provides high support and challenge as required to avoid drift and delay in care planning for children and young people. 
• The number of social work changes remains a focus to ensure we are minimising the impact on children and young people children as it is important that we maintain and continue to strengthen relationships. This will remain a challenge due to the recruitment of Social Work Practitioners, of which is not just specific to Kirklees Council. We are mindful of the impact this has on our children and young people and to address this we recruited youth engagement and family support practitioners who continue to develop relationships and provide additional support and stability for the children and young people they are working with. In addition, all young people aged 17 now have an allocated personal advisor, to ensure earlier planning to adulthood and independent living. We will also continue to focus on staff retention and consistency in case allocation.
• There had been a slight increase in relation to the number of children who have had 3 or more home moves. This remains a focus to ensure stability is provided to our children and young people.  It was reported that work across service is taking place to address this.
• With regard to convictions it was reported that there had been zero in quarters 3 and 4 due largely to the focus and positive work of the sub groups.
• 17 requests for Initial Review forms were received by the Child Protection and Review unit for Children to become  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Board will consider the Corporate Parenting Strategy.

Contact:        

Vicky Metheringham, Service Director (Family Support and Child Protection)

The Board considered the Corporate Parenting Strategy for 2022-2024 which set out the approach to improving the lives of all children in care. The strategy set out the Council’s vision for corporate parenting to ensure that all of our elected members and officers and everyone else in the Council champion our children in care and care leavers in everything they do and that our children in care and care leavers aspire and achieve, are safe and well, and are prepared for successful independent lives. In addition to the vision the Strategy set out 3 key pledges and associated actions, namely:

We will be a good corporate parent to children in care and care leavers. We will...

a. Listen to the needs of children in care and care leavers and to our health and education partners;

b. Encourage elected members and officers from across the Council to advocate and champion children in care and care leavers;

c. Design services that work with children in care and care leavers to meet their needs, not doing to them.

We will create the conditions for our children in care to thrive in stable placements. We will...

a. Create the conditions for placements of the right kind, including attracting and retaining more foster carers;

b. Support all our children to aspire and achieve in education and training and to be as healthy and well as possible;

c. Work with partners to assess future placement, education, and health.

We will support our care leavers into independence at a pace that suits them. We will...

a. Work with our children in care.

b. We will work with families so they are ready to support them on leaving care, when appropriate;

c. Create the conditions for positive, lasting relationships.

During discussion of this item, Councillor Lawson welcomed the reference to special guardianship orders and thanked all staff, foster carers and partners for their work in bringing the strategy together. All Board Members were encouraged to widely share the pledges set out in the strategy.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Board will receive a verbal update from the Chair of the Virtual School Governing Body.

Contacts:

Councillor Carole Pattison, Chair of the Virtual School Governing Body
Louise Hallas, Virtual School Head Teacher

Louise Hallas, the Virtual School Head Teacher provided a verbal update in relation to the Virtual School Governing Body. It was reported that focus had been on part time timetable, attendance and the impact that suspensions could have on attendance. The final headteachers head teacher report was considered at the last meeting in light of the updated DfE data. Work had also been undertaken in respect of children with a social worker, this strategic work and casework had been developed to improve performance in this area. It was reported that DfE data is strong for children in need.</AI11>

RESOLVED: That the update be noted.

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

Board Members commented on interactions since the last meeting and continued to welcome invites to the various events

The Chair reported that she had:

·         Attended foster carers awards

·         Undertook home visit to a young person

·         Attended 3 listening events

·         Attended a staff engagement session to say goodbye to the Director of Children’s Services, Mel Meggs.

RESOLVED: That the update be noted.

The Board will consider the agenda plan for the 2023/24 municipal year.

Contact –

Jodie Harris, Principal Governance and Democratic Engagement Officer

The Board considered the agenda plan for 2023/24.

RESOLVED–

That the following items be considered as part of the agenda for the next meeting:

·         Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Update

·         Health Outcomes for Looked After Children