Agenda and draft minutes

(1)          The Chairman welcomed Andrew to the meeting and invited him to introduce himself before answering questions from Members.

(2)          Andrew stated that he had been the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing at Kent County Council for three years. He had previously worked for Kent County Council for 18 years prior to 2005. He had been a qualified Social Worker for 35 years. He held the statutory functions of Director of Adult Social Services and Director of Children’s Services. He explained that due to the complex structure of directorates at Kent County Council, he was responsible for any children’s services including those within the Education and Young People’s Services directorate. He reported that he had full accountability for Kent’s 1300 children in care and 700 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Q – How does the elected Members’ responsibility differ from your responsibility for Corporate Parenting?

(3)          Andrew stated that he had direct accountability for Corporate Parenting with the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children's Services. He noted that there was a looser set of responsibilities on individual Members. Individual members were able to promote and take into account children in care through a variety of fora within the Council with the aim of enabling children in care to have the same outcomes as other children.

(4)          He noted that the Council was able to make special provisions for children in care such as prioritised school admissions. He argued that a specific proportion of Kent County Council apprenticeships could be allocated to care leavers to enhance their employment opportunities and life chances.

(5)          He stressed the importance of supporting older children in care in securing appropriate placements to meet their needs; facilitating easier access to the same services as other young people; enabling them to access the best schools; and ensuring the Pupil Premium is used to support their specific needs. He stated that there were too many examples in Kent County Council and other local authorities were this was not happening.

Q – Through your involvement with the Association of Directors of Children's Services, have you been able to identify best practice which could be implemented in Kent?

(6)          Andrew stated that he had recently been part of a peer review team evaluating another local authority’s children’s services and there were some very specific ideas that would be implemented in Kent as a result of participating in that review. He reported that Kent County Council had made significant strides since the 2010 Ofsted inspection which found services for children in care were inadequate: the numbers of adoptions had increased; there had been a reduction in the number of care proceedings; and there had been an improvement in the number of reviews being held within the set timeframe with increased multi-agency participation.

(7)          He noted two examples of best practice: ensuring greater choice in placements and improving educational outcomes for children in care. He praised the innovative work of Tony Doran in developing Virtual School Kent.

Q – How do we  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

(1)        The Chairman of the Select Committee, Mrs Wiltshire, welcomed Catherine Atkins, Janet Latter, Janetta Sams and Nicki Bailey, Foster Carers, to the meeting.

(2)        Catherine Atkins, Janet Latter, Janetta Sams and Nicki Bailey, Members of the Committee present and Officers introduced themselves.

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

How long have you been foster carers for? Why did you decide to become foster carers? How many children have you cared for?

(4)        Janetta advised that she had been a carer for 17 years.  She became a Foster Carer because she wanted to offer the same opportunities to children in care that her own two children were given.  Over her 17 years as a Carer she had cared for 30 children for different periods of time.

Do you still have contact with those children after they left your care?

(5)        The Foster Carers agreed that they did have contact with some of the children although contact was dependent on where they had moved to and whether their parents wished them to remain in touch.

What kind of support have you received from Kent County Council?

(6)        The Foster Carers advised that they had been through the selection process many years ago which they understood had now changed.

(7)        Janet advised that she had been fostering for 13 years and had the same social work assistant support for 8 years of that time. 

(8)        Nicki said that she had a similar experience.  She advised that when she had adopted a child that she had fostered (ex TRP Child) upon going back after an 18 month break, there were no available Social Workers and then it was compounded by a boundary change in the service and she then came under West Kent.  It was a further 6 months before a Social Worker was available (one year in total without a regular Social Worker)

(9)        Nicki also advised that she was doing the odd respite too with no support and when support was assigned it was a Locum who came from a London Borough and was not up to speed with Kent policies.

(10)     Catherine said that she had been well supported for 10 ½ years (since September 2004) of being a Carer and had three Social Workers in that time.

(11)     Janetta advised that she had received valuable support although sometimes it was not good.  Having a Social Worker was essential when fostering so that you can off load when necessary.

(12)     Nicki said that the Social Worker she now had was wonderful.

(13)     It was suggested that when you have a Locum you immediately think “When will I see them again, what’s the point? The Locum is not going to be there in three to four years down the line”.

(14)     Catherine explained that the Social Worker had a statutory duty to visit every four to six weeks and that happened in her experience. 

(15)     Janet concurred advising that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

(1)     The Chairman of the Select Committee welcomed Christine Liggins, Kim Keen, Maggie O’Donaghue and Neil Foad, Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO), Kent County Council, to the meeting.

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

(3)      Christine Liggins, Kim Keen, Maggie O’Donaghue and Neil Foad, Independent Reviewing Officers, Members of the Select Committee and Officers present introduced themselves.

What are the functions of the IRO in Kent?

(4)     The IROs took turns to state functions of the IRO as follows:

·         Monitor the progress of care plans

·         Drive up standards and outcomes for young children

·         High responsibility for case work and children’s needs

·         Have a knowledge of what was being provided in a multi-agency environment

·         Able to pursue issues and raise issues

It was explained that IROs were employed by the local authority and line managed separately from mainstream.

Are there any other issues with the relevance to the review which you would like to raise with the Select Committee?

(5)      An IRO gave the example of a young child, aged 7, who had been living in care in the South East of the County for two to three years. The child had been out of school for 9 months.  The child had already been seen by three CAMHS workers and had changes in Social Workers.  The majority of problems that had arisen were not directly the responsibility of the Social Workers.  The IRO explained how she was working to resolve the issue by personally speaking to all the relevant teams within KCC.  The assistant director then scheduled a meeting with all agencies involved.  The nearest schools were full and the school the child’s sibling was attending was considered unsuitable as this would be a two hour taxi journey and the IRO was not happy with how the sibling was being cared for at that school.

How would the issue of the school not being suitable for the sibling be resolved?

(6)     The IROs role would be to raise the issues with Virtual School Kent (VSK) but they do not have the statutory power to make the school do what they should, which was frustrating. [Members requested that Mr Leeson be invited to meet with the Select Committee].

(7)  The IRO suggested that many services are struggling and sometimes focused only on work within their individual professional boundaries.  This leads to a limit in joined up partnership working.

(8)  Neil advised that the IRO had the opportunity to be a constant person for the child, and was well placed to make a difference. 

(9)  Maggie considered that the benchmark would be “What would I accept for my own child regarding their Education and Health”.  The IROs have a good overview to drive through the standards.  Maggie said that she was frustrated with the lack of collaboration between services. 

(10)  Children’s mental health services were a concern.  They were not meeting the needs of our young people.  If a child moved out  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.