CORPORATE
PARENTING PANEL – TERMS OF REFERENCE (April 2016)
The Corporate
Parenting Panel (CPP) is a multi-agency forum made up of Kent
County Council’s elected councillors representing all
parties, as well as the multi-agency partners in Kent who are
responsible for delivering good and effective corporate parenting
for children and young people.
The Panel confirms the
joint commitment to improving services and outcomes for children
and care leavers for whom the Council is corporate
parent. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman
of the Panel are drawn from the Kent County Council’s elected
councillors.
The Panel’s role
is to lead on ensuring the corporate parenting responsibilities of
the multi-agency partnership are being met, in line with the
Children Act 1989. Section 22 of the Children Act 1989 sets out the
general duty of the local authority in relation to children looked
after by them; to safeguard and promote the welfare of these
children, ensuring effective, individualised support and access to
services. This duty is inclusive of
both children and young people with care orders and those provided
with accommodation.
Kent’s Children
Looked After and Care Leavers Strategy 2018-2022 sets out what good
and effective corporate parenting looks like, alongside our key
strategic objectives. The
Strategy’s ambitions assist in the Council’s
overarching vision that “Children and Young People in Kent
get the best start in life”.
This commitment is one
of three strategic outcomes which provide a simple and effective
focus for everything the Council does; they are set out in Kent
County Council’s Strategic Statement 2015-2020.
The Corporate
Parenting Panel is accountable:
·
To the County Council and the Cabinet Member for
Children, Young People and Education
·
To
looked after
children, care leavers and their carers or guardians
·
To each respective member on the Panel and the
relevant senior management team of each agency which is
represented.
Roles and Responsibilities of
the Corporate Parenting Panel:
·
To develop expertise about services for and issues
affecting children and young people, both in care and leaving care;
in doing so, elected councillors are enabled to fulfil their role
as corporate parenting champions and advocates for Kent children
who are looked after, and those leaving local authority
care;
·
To provide the multi-agency strategic direction for
services and projects working to achieve good outcomes for both
children in local authority and leaving care;
·
To raise the awareness of other elected councillors,
the Cabinet and the County Council to the whole Council’s
corporate parenting responsibilities towards Kent’s looked
after children and care leavers; and
·
To oversee and challenge progress and performance
against the objectives within Kent’s Children
Looked After and Care Leavers Strategy. The
Strategy consists of four priority areas which represent the
corporate parenting ambitions for children and young people, both
in care and leaving care. The four
priority areas are:
1.
Working together and
learning;
2.
Developing into successful and
responsible adults;
3.
Being emotionally, mentally and
physically healthy; and
4.
Feeling safe and nurtured in a home
setting.
·
To consider any changes arising from relevant
legislation, guidance or reviews;
·
To lead on ensuring that the corporate parenting
roles and responsibilities of the Local Authority are being met,
including:
§
Local expectations and the promises made via
Kent’s Pledge to Children in Care and Kent’s Care
Leavers Charter;
§
To be aware of national expectations regarding the
services to looked after children (including unaccompanied asylum
seeking children (UASC)) and care leavers; including those
contained in reports from the Office of the Children’s
Commissioner, the adoption reform agenda, changes to permanence
planning and the commitment to ‘staying
put’;
§
To creatively consider ways in which the Corporate
Parenting Panel will hear and respond to the views of looked after
children, care leavers, their parents and carers;
§
To have an understanding of the arrangements that
need to be in place in order to be an effective corporate
parent;
§
To undertake an in-depth analysis of the needs of
the County Council’s care population and all aspects of the
service required to meet those needs, so there is clear evidence to
inform future action;
§
To take action continually, in conjunction with
officers and partner agencies, to improve services and ensure it is
responsive and meeting changing needs; and
§
To report in a timely manner to the relevant local
member(s), as and when such may be required
·
To support the Chairman of the Corporate Parenting
Panel and the Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Members for
Children, Young People and Education in undertaking their
specialist level 3 corporate parenting responsibilities (National
Children’s Bureau, Hart and Williams 2013);
·
To highlight the issues relevant for
scrutiny;
·
To act as the governing body to the Virtual School
for Kent;
·
To consider reports from the Kent Safeguarding
Children’s Board (KSCB), 0-25 Health and Wellbeing Board and
Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee in
relation to looked after children and care leavers;
·
To consider statistical information about both
looked after children and care leavers’ health and wellbeing
and attainment. To ensure that
Corporate Parenting Panel members have enough background knowledge
to understand and evaluate this information; and
·
To work alongside Our Children and Young
People’s Council (OCYPC) in order to gather feedback from all
those involved in and working with or on behalf of looked after
children and care leavers. This will
include ongoing engagement with foster carers and other user
groups.
The merger of the Kent Corporate Parenting
Group and the Corporate Parenting Panel took effect from 1 April
2016, with the aim of bringing together elected councillors and multi-agency partners in a forum
which would ensure that the best interests of all looked after
children in Kent’s care are given the highest priority and
would help to shape the Council’s agenda.
MEMBERSHIP (May 2017)
Membership of the
Panel includes foster carers and representatives of clinical
commissioning groups, advocacy groups, Children in Care Councils
and care leavers, as well as County Council officers.
The Membership was
revised following the County Council election in May 2017 and is
listed below.
Administrative support and
procedural advice to the Panel is provided by:
Theresa Grayell, Democratic
Services Officer, telephone 03000 416172, email theresa.grayell@kent.gov.uk