Minutes:
Sarah Hammond, Corporate Director of CYPE and Christine McInnes, Director of Education were in attendance for this item
1. Mr Love provided his Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:
1.1 Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) Update
The first progress review of the APP had taken place. NHS England and the Department for Education (DfE) examined the steps taken to improve SEN services in Kent and found strong governance processes in place, appropriate oversight of SEN and strengthening relationships with schools. There were clear signs of improvement, but there was more to be done and another review would take place in six months to monitor progresses. A written briefing would be circulated to Members to outline the position in more detail.
1.2 SEND Roadshows
Following on from a series of successful SEND Roadshows so in 2023, the next session would be in Dover on Thursday 18 January. The details were shared with subscribers to the SEND parent newsletter and were available on the KCC website. Further sessions were planned throughout 2024 as part of the ongoing commitment to improve SEND services for Kent families.
1.3 Zayed Sustainability Prize
Congratulations were offered to students at Northfleet Technology College. They were among 11 winners worldwide to be awarded the Zayed Sustainability Prize at COP28, for their school beehive business. The school received £118,000 for the accolade that would be spent on a wind turbine and spreading their message about sustainability to other schools.
1.4 Christmas Card Competition
Mr Love held a Christmas card competition for local Kent primary schools. Six year old Sarrinah from St Stephen’s Infant School won the competition and her design featured on front of Mr Love’s annual Christmas card. On 12 December Mr Love visited the school and was given a tour from Sarrinah before meeting with the headteacher Alice Edgington, and the CEO of the Inspira Academy Trust, Dean Jones, to discuss a range of educational matters.
2. Mrs Chandler provided her Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:
2.1 New Director Appointment
Mrs Chandler welcomed Ingrid Crisan the new Director of Operational Integrated Children’s Services and offered thanks to Carolann James who her work as Interim Director. Ms James would continue to oversee the family hubs project to help ensure that the rollout went as smoothly as possible.
2.2 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) High Court Decision
On 29 November 2023 the High Court determined that the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully and vindicated the actions that KCC had taken. The ruling found that the National Transfer Scheme and its management was inadequate, and for large periods unlawful. It was acknowledged that the NTS had been unreasonably slow and unlawful during the period December 2021 to 27 July 2023. The Home Office must resolve the issues and ensure that it worked fairly and sustainably in the future.
KCC was working with the Home Office to ensure funding would be in place to provide sufficient temporary accommodation for all expected new UASC arrivals moving forward. Several possible sites across the county had been identified and local residents had been informed.
2.3 UASC Update
The total number of UASC arrivals during 2023 was 2,226. This was a significant increase over the number of arrivals in 2022 that reached 1,403. 2,226 was the highest number of arrivals ever recorded in a single calendar year.
2.4 Kinship Care
From April 2024 KCC there would be a new Kinship Care Service, that utilised existing staff within the fostering and district teams. This was in line with the Government’s recently published National Kinship Care Strategy. Kinship carers were family and friends who care for children when they cannot stay at home.
The service would meet and assess potential carers, deal with urgent entries into care, and provide wider support to identify alternative measures of care that mitigated against the need for extensive child protection measures and legal interventions. Section 17 funding would be utilised to support the arrangements, and the outcomes for vulnerable children and young people would be monitored.
2.5 ‘Any of Us’ Fostering Film Project
KCC, part funded a short film project entitled “Any of Us” which was awarded two prestigious awards in December. The film was intended to encourage people from all backgrounds to consider becoming a foster carer for their local authority. The fostering film won the “Best Collaboration” and “Best Creative Comms” categories at the comms2point0 UnAwards.
Anyone considering becoming a foster carer was encouraged to attend one of the online information events. Full details were available on the Kent Fostering website.
2.6 Outcome of Christmas Appeal
KCC partnered with the Young Lives Foundation in 2023 for the annual Kent Corporate Parenting Christmas Appeal and exceeded the target to raise £20,000 in order to provide a £10 Christmas gift voucher to every care leaver in Kent. Thanks were offered to everyone who donated. The surplus money would be used to provide house warming gifts for care leavers when they move into their first homes.