Agenda item

(Item B3 – Report by Overview, Scrutiny & Localism Manager)

(Mr P Brightwell was in attendance for this item at the invitation of the Board)

(1)       Miss Grayell introduced the report of the January meeting with young people leaving care, and sought Members’ views on how they wished to approach the next meeting with the same group, due in July 2008.

(2)       Members who had attended the meeting said how impressed they were with the mature approach the young people had taken to tackling and relating the problems they had experienced.  Members also observed that many of the points raised were those which any young person might share, whether or not they were in care.

(3)       Mr Brightwell explained that a recent meeting between the Leader of the County Council and a similar group of care leavers had raised similar issues, which the Leader had asked the Board to address.  He set out how he proposed to take forward each of the issues raised, and explained that he would prepare a detailed action plan which he would share with Board Members.  Points highlighted in discussion, and in response to questions raised by Members, were as follows:-

(a)       all young people who have left care continued to receive advice and support from a personal adviser up to the age of 21, via the Connexions service;

(b)       some district councils had raised the minimum age for housing application in an attempt to manage demand on very limited housing stock;

(c)        young people had expressed a range of views on whether or not a school should be advised of a student’s care status, but several Members and officers expressed the view that a school did have a legitimate need to know and echoed the young people’s unanimous view that such information should be treated very sensitively;

(d)       private and voluntary organisations had a role to play in the provision of housing and advocacy services.  KCC supported some such organisations and services via grant funding – for example, the Young Lives Foundation and the Independent Visitor service.  Members expressed concern that budget pressures may force the KCC to reduce its financial support, and sought reassurance on this point.

(4).      RESOLVED that:-

(a)       the issues which arose at the recent meeting with care leavers, and the actions being put in place to take them forward, be noted;

(b)       the next meeting between the Board and the same group of care leavers, to be held in July 2008, be planned as a daytime rather than an evening meeting, in the school holidays, but the young people be consulted to see if this arrangement also suited them; and

(c)        the second Corporate Parenting event, to which all KCC Members would be invited, be planned for June 2008, so the guidance still awaited from the National Children’s Bureau (currently expected at the end of March) could be used in preparing its content.  The event would serve to keep all Members up to date with their role as Corporate Parents and also highlight the work of the Children’s Champions Board in equipping Members to fulfil this vital role.