Agenda and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on Wednesday 3 March 2021, Wednesday 28 April 2021, Thursday 24 June 2021, Wednesday 22 September 2021 and Wednesday 10 November 2021 as an accurate record.

[To Follow]

The minutes of the meetings held on Wednesday 3 March 2021, Wednesday 28 April 2021, Thursday 24 June 2021, Wednesday 22 September 2021 and Wednesday 10 November 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that, in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, they are required to consider in advance of each meeting whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI), another registrable interest (ORI) or a non-registrable interest (NRI) in relation to any matter on the agenda. If advice is needed, Members should contact the Monitoring Officer in good time before the meeting.

If any Member or co-opted Member of the Council identifies a DPI or ORI which they have not already registered on the Council’s register of interests or which requires updating, they should complete the disclosure form which can be obtained from Democratic Services at any time, copies of which will be available at the meeting for return to the Monitoring Officer.

Members and co-opted Members are required to disclose any DPIs and ORIs at the meeting:

§  Where the matter relates to a DPI they may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must not stay in the meeting unless granted a dispensation.

§  Where the matter relates to an ORI they may not vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation.

§  Where a Member or co-opted Member has an NRI which directly relates to their financial interest or wellbeing, or that of a relative or close associate, they must disclose the interest at the meeting, may not take part in any discussion or vote on the matter and must not stay in the meeting unless granted a dispensation.

Where a matter affects the NRI of a Member or co-opted Member, section 9 of Appendix B of the Code of Conduct sets out the test which must be applied by the Member to decide whether disclosure is required.

The Chair will invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3, to be recorded in the minutes.

There were none.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There was none.

There was none.

This report will provide an overview of the children currently subject to a placement order who have a plan for adoption.

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Croydon Children's Social Care Update on Children with a Plan for Adoption report, and the Adopt London South Regional Adoption Agency Annual Report 2020-21 together, which provided an overview of the children currently subject to a placement order who had a plan for adoption. The presentation by Adopt London South further highlighted how Croydon had developed its permanence framework in the year 21/22 and the planned improvements for the next financial year.

The Panel received a detailed presentation from the Permanence Service Manager, Derek Dyer, and the Head of Service of Adopt London South, Susanna Daus.

In brief, the presentation highlighted:

-        The permanence framework which reviewed the emotional, physical and legal condition that provided a child a sense of security, continuity, commitment and identity. There was also a Permanence Panel which reviewed children in permanent care and their needs.

-        The Adoption Order sets out the security and stability of a child by permanently altering the rights and duties of the adults involved. This was irrevocably of natural family members or a reconstituted family.

-        The adoption process would be tracked and monitored.

-        There were ten adoptions completed between 2021 and 2022.

-        There were currently twenty-two children subject to a placement order, of which:

-        Thirteen children were matched and residing with their adopters pending an application for an adoption order and in their 10-week monitoring period;

-        Five children had adoption hearings arranged in January

-        Nine children that had placement orders were in foster care placements awaiting for a new family.

-        There were eleven children with a plan for adoption that had not received a placement order and currently residing in placements with foster carers.

-        Life story books - focused on younger children (aged 3 – 5) in assisting an understanding of moving to their placement. This would be constructed by the social worker in collaboration with the adopters.

-        Life letters – provided more information of why the young person came into care and was adopted. Support was given to social workers in writing these letters.

The Adopt London South (ALS) presentation highlighted:

-        The ALS service provided to Croydon included finding families for the children in care; recruiting, preparing and approving adoptive families; providing support to adopted children and parents (including group work, therapeutic work, counselling, training services and many more); Letterbox services system to enable indirect contact between birth families and children; supporting adopted adults in the finding of their past adoption through Croydon or residence in Croydon; providing counselling to birth parents and adopted people; providing help to families to adopt within the wider family network; and the partnership with specialist international adoption services for those wanting to adopt from abroad.

-        ALS partnership with “We Are Family” – which were an adopted led group operating across London and who arranged training; hosted podcasts; arranged social groups and online groups; and ‘adopt a hub’ which provided masses of information for adopters.

-  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/22

[To Follow]

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Children in Care Performance Scorecard which provided an overview of the December month. The Panel received an overview from the Head of Quality Assurance, Shaun Hanks, who highlighted the following:

-        The population comparison for December 2020 and December 2021 had shown a higher number of black children and less number of white children looked after.

-        There was an increase of children aged 7-14 becoming looked after and a decrease of 16 and 17 year olds who were looked after.

-        There was a number of Pathway Plans delayed due to some impact within the service, however there was an improvement with the numbers and quality of plans for the children. There was 75% of the plans completed on time, though it was noted that there was disparity in individual experience for plans to be completed on time.

-        Care plans had not risen much in performance, though there was better statistics for the younger aged groups than the older aged groups.

-        There was also disparity in placement moves.

In response to queries raised by the Panel, the Head of Quality Assurance, clarified the following:

-        In regards to Pathway Plans and supervision and management, there were some teams that were managing well, and a team that struggled and had caused a 10% drop in the overall performance to which management was working with the team to better standards. The service focused on the predictions of plans due to be out of date, and senior officers had noted that the failures within the teams was due to unforeseen personal circumstances, as well as not addressing plans that were due to be out of date.

-        Further, performance statistics in teams were 93%, 88% and 80% highlighting more room for improvement within the performance of teams, however the service was in a better stance for care plans completion than before which was a huge improvement overall.

-        Compliance and quality was changing, and the service was working very hard to make pathway plans and care plans the centre of work for frequent update. 

-        With the concerns raised for the high number of young persons that were Not in Education, Employment or Training, the service was working very hard to ensure that young people were in education, employment or training, though the service had experienced difficulties mostly due to the individual circumstances (such as health, being a parent). There was a lot of effort in finding opportunities through apprenticeships and a number of other placements through local networking. The service was also aspiring to seek more support to young people who were in new experiences.

-        Additionally it was noted that though the red key indicator performance for the young people in Education, Employment and Training was low, it was above the London’s national average; nonetheless, the service was looking for more ways to improve on this performance.

During the discussion, the Panel raised the following:

-        For future reports to address the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/22

For the panel to consider how its work at the meeting will improve services for children in care.

The Panel welcomed the voices of EMPIRE and ways services could support adoption in Croydon.

The Panel welcomed the work that was being done to improve better performances for the young people in Education, Employment and Training.

To consider and approve the Panel’s work programme for the municipal year 2021/22.

The work programme was received for information.

ACTION: To discuss the work programme with EMPIRE

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This was not required.