Agenda and draft minutes

(1).         The Chairman of the Select Committee, Mrs Wiltshire, welcomed Annabelle Taylor (Bella), Kahleigh Jenner and Matthew Roberts (Matt), Apprentices with VSK', to the meeting.

(2).         Bella, Kahleigh and Matt, the Members of the Select Committee and Officers introduced themselves.

(3).         Bella, Kahleigh and Matt had received questions and themes that the Select Committee were investigating in preparation for the meeting.

Please introduce yourselves

(4).         Bella advised that she was a VSK Apprentice and the Chairperson of the Our Children and Young People’s Council (OCYPC).  Matt said that he was a VSK Apprentice in the 16+ Service.  He had been in the Army and had attended the OCYPC.  Kahleigh advised that she too was a VSK Apprentice.

In your view, how effective and beneficial are KCC apprenticeships?

(5).         Bella said that the opportunity to be offered a position working within such a large well known organisation was truly outstanding.  She said that she was not able to achieve her potential whilst at school or college, so when she had the chance to apply for her current apprenticeship she went for it.  She felt lucky to be able to study whilst earning, receiving vital experience and knowledge in the working world.

What are you doing?

(6).         Bella explained that she was providing children in care the opportunity they might not receive.  As she had been in care she was able to build up trust with children in care as they knew that “she had been there”, being young helped too.  Bella advised that the role covered the whole of Kent with 3 apprentices in West Kent and 3 apprentices in East Kent but they all worked as one Team.  The Team helped with developing the Personal Education Plans and had been trained so that they could offer mentoring and counselling.  There were also activity days.  Bella said that she had run her first residential activity day and hoped to do more.

Who offers you support in your role?

(7).         The apprentices advised that they had support from Jo Carpenter, VSK.

(8).         Matt advised that he had been volunteering before he applied for the apprenticeship.  He was looking forward to applying for a position within the 18+ Services for people who live in care in the future and would continue to study for the Level 3 apprenticeship.

(9).         The apprentices explained that the Level 2 apprenticeship, which they were all studying for at present, was for 12 months and the Level 3 apprenticeship was for 18 months.

(10).      Bella said that she wanted to continue with her studies to achieve Level 3 as her aim was to work in children’s homes.

(11).      Kahleigh advised that she was not sure what she wanted to do in the future.

 What are the problems most often raised and how can Members help to resolve them?

(12).      Matt said that housing was an issue as there was often a lot of change and sometimes at short notice giving no time to adjust. He advised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

(1)           The Chairman of the Select Committee, Mrs Wiltshire, welcomed Nick Wilkinson, Head of Youth Justice and Safer Young Kent, KCC, to the meeting.

(2)          Nick, Members of the Committee present and Officers introduced themselves.

(3)          Nick had received questions and themes that the Select Committee were investigating in preparation for the meeting.

Please describe the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

(4)          Nick advised that he was currently the chair of the Kent Criminal Justice Board, Chair of the Kent Out of Court Scrutiny Board and co-chair of the Kent Prevent Board.  He was previously a police officer for over 30 years; retiring as an Assistant Chief Constable with Sussex Police.  Nick was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Children and Young Persons Group, Regional Prosecution Service and Regional Director, Association of Chief Police Officers member of the Children’s Interagency Group and National Participation Forum. He referred to the draft protocol that had been provided and said that his aim is to reverse the current situation where a former child in care is more likely to go to prison than to university.

(5)          He advised that his role did not include looking at cases but taking an overview, picking up issues and bringing them back to negotiate solutions.  He spoke about Youth Magistrates and the challenges there were as Youth Magistrates only saw what was put in front of them regarding the young person. 

(6)          He touched on the challenge in getting frontline Police to look at the issue of dealing with young people differently.

(7)          Nick tabled a paper that showed slides from theNational Institute of Mental Health Study.  The slide showed normal brain development from age 5 to age 20 and demonstrating the effects of trauma in a young person’s life on the brain. 

(8)          Nick referred to a case of a child placed with Foster Carers. The child had experience a significant childhood trauma – detachment. The child had been wetting the bed.  An incident happened after returning from school when he went up to his bedroom and urinated on his bed.  The Foster Carers called the police.  This was recorded as a crime.  The young person was arrested and was placed in a police cell.  Nick said that his team intervened. There was a clear responsibility.  This was cut off before it got in the justice system.    If the issue had proceeded any caution would have to be declared in later life when the young person was completing an application form etc. He is working with the Police to encourage the use of proportional and appropriate methods to avoid burdening young people with a criminal record. We now work with the child and the family to curb behaviour. He advised that when he attends the Partnership meetings Police officers refer to these cases as a pain because police were always being called out to incidents involving them.

(9)          Nick reflected that there are, and will be, occasions when the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Please introduce yourself and describe the main roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

(1)          Coram has worked in partnership with Kent since February 2012, to improve its Adoption service. I had expected to undertake the improvement work for six months but I am still here three years later!  It has been a rewarding experience and I have learned much since being here. Coram is based in London and we are used to going to and working with small local authorities, but Kent is vast, and working in such a large authority has been a very useful learning experience.

(2)          I manage the adoption service, which has 60 - 65 staff, and I take a lead in improvement work. Coram was commissioned after the County Council received an ‘inadequate’ rating for its children in care services in 2011. It was initially a 2-year contract but this has been extended and now finishes in February 2016.

(3)          The Coram/KCC partnership will shortly move to a different arrangement, as a voluntary adoption agency (VAA), from July 2015. This will be called ‘Coram Kent Voluntary Adoption Agency’.  This voluntary agency will be separate from the County Council, although the Council will retain its responsibility and accountability for its corporate parenting role for children in its care. The driver for this move to apply to be a VAA was Kent’s vision, and the VAA will be able to access funding from the Government that the County Council as a local authority cannot access. This way of working is innovative but Kent’s will not be the first model of a VAA to be established. A VAA in Cambridge has recently been rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

(4)          Coram has a good track record in adoption in terms of delivering the best outcomes.

Is there a problem with, and can you tell the committee about, children with special educational needs (SEN) who are seeking adoption?

(5)          Children having SEN is always a challenge but we have a good track record of placing them.  For example, one child with SEN, health issues and disabilities has taken 13 months to place but has now been placed, so we know that persistence pays off. We have to hang on to the belief that we will find a family for such children. The adoption service needs to have the confidence of the local authority and Ofsted. It’s not just a case of numbers – how many placements made in how much time; some children will take longer to place. Other children with similar combinations of issues have taken over a year to place; a deaf child who was eventually placed with a deaf adopter after over a year has had big benefits from the placement and has made progress with language development.

Is there a long waiting list of children needing adoption?

(6)          No. You have to look at a waiting list in the context of improving the journey for such children.

(7)          In 2011/12, the year in which the County  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.