Agenda item

The Panel will consider a report providing information relating to the number and profile of children in our care, including information related to the number of children in care placed outside of the District.

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

The Panel considered a report providing an update relating to the number and profile of children in our care, including information related to the number placed outside of the District. The report also set out comparative data with statistical neighbours and was presented by Julie Bragg, Head of Corporate Parenting.

Julie Bragg highlighted the following key issues:-

-       The number of children in care over the last 12 months had maintained at 688 (which excluded any looked after children receiving only Section 20 short term breaks) alongside the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children;

-       The largest age group for boys in care was 10-15 years with 150 children and the largest age group for girls was 10-15 years with 131 children;

-       Ethnicity changes – there had been a relatively small change in the percentage split over the last 12 months.

-       More than 72% of children in care were white and the next largest group was dual heritage;

-       There were 76 children placed more than 20 miles outside Kirklees – there had been a decline in the number placed outside Kirklees since 2017; officers look to carers first and foremost and also try and maintain the young person’s educational provision due to the support the child would get from stability and consistency and that all these issues were seriously considered before placements were approved;

-       Seen a further reduction in the number of children in children’s homes outside the district;

-       Kirklees provided 18 placements to young adults over 16 who lived in supported accommodation; 11 young adults were placed outside of the Local Authority.

In response to a question from the Panel regarding the policy of contact time between infants who had been taken into care and parents, Julie Bragg responded to advise that there were different plans in place depending on the needs and requirements for individual cases; general contact was supervised visits for 1.5 – 2hrs per day, 5 days per week.  Julie Bragg further explained that once the adoption process was in place the contact between parents and infants would be reduced. 

In response to a question from the Panel regarding the number of children taken into care in Kirklees compared with statistical neighbours, Julie Bragg advised that a lot of different factors could have an impact on the numbers and confirmed that close scrutiny was undertaken in Kirklees of children taken into care via the Legal Gateway Panel, which was chaired by a Head of Service.  The Panel was informed that parents could work with the Local Authority to make a claim for children to stay in their care and parents also had access to legal advice.  Julie Bragg advised that she could confidently say that children coming into care in Kirklees was for the right reasons.  Tom Brailsford advised that with regard to child protection planning, the Council was quality assuring the processes to ensure that children taken into care were regularly assessed.  The Panel agreed to consider further information to a future meeting on the reason why Kirklees figures on the number of children in care was different to statistical neighbours. 

RESOLVED –

1.    That the Panel noted the report on Number of Children in Care and thanked Julie Bragg for her contributions.

2.    That the Panel consider future information explaining the reasons for differences in numbers of children in care for Kirklees compared to statistical neighbours.