Home > Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting will be held remotely. View directions

Contact: Michelle Ossei-Gerning
020 8726 6000 x84246  Email: michelle.gerning@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1/21

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 276 KB

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on Tuesday 24 November 2020 and Thursday 10 December 2020 as an accurate record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 24 November 2020 and Thursday 10 December 2020 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

2/21

Disclosures of interest

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

 

 

Minutes:

There were none.

 

3/21

Urgent Business (if any)

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.

 

Minutes:

There was none.

4/21

Update on actions agreed at previous meeting(s)

Minutes:

There were no actions from the previous meeting.

5/21

Children in Care Performance Scorecard pdf icon PDF 265 KB

The Children in Care Performance Scorecard for November 2020 is

attached.

Minutes:

Officers present spoke to the November performance scorecard highlighting that there had been no significant changes, though it was positive to note that there were less red indicators on the scorecard this time than the last report presented at the panel in December 2020.

 

In summary, officers pointed out that there were continuous issues around the pathway plan and highlighted a 6% increase between October and November performance. Officers acknowledged that there was more work to do to improve the performance. The other red indicator within the performance scorecard was related to the care leaver’s education training and employment. Officers addressed that the significant difficulties around this was partly due to the pandemic situation that caused challenging conditions to work with young people, though efforts were put in place to engage with the young people for training or education. There were other indicators that did not have a target and this was pending to be set by the Improvement Board.

 

Panel Members commented on the low percentage of the health assessments which had dropped to 50%, and the assessments conducted had also dropped to 50%, and asked officers for more information to this change. Officers advised that a variety of factors would have contributed to these changes such as a number of new social workers who did not understand process and another factor was not receiving consent. With regards to the decline of the health assessments the issue with services receiving correct information to follow through with the referral was often the delay in assessments not being completed timely.

 

Further comments relating to the health assessment was discussed with the foster carer co-optee representative adding that the process and communication needed to be improved as it was essential for an assessment to be carried out within three days. Officers recognised that there was often difficulty in meeting deadlines and information were missed and this was to be improved. The service managed weekly meetings between health services, there were also champions groups that met weekly ensuring assessments were completed. With part of the improvement, these things were to be tracked on a weekly basis.

 

Other areas of concern raised by Panel Members was the pathway plans that was still a red indicator, and officers informed that there was a number of issues linked with the pathway in the computer systems when updating pathway plans. Timeliness and updates were sitting in draft by it is to make sure it was followed in a timely way. Staff themselves do make complaints on this. Officers reflected on the challenges the service had over the last few months with financial implications and changes within the senior staffing particularly since the pandemic as morale was low, and gave assurance that the service was working very hard with the resources available to provide the best service and performance.

 

Panel Members acknowledged the pressures currently held within the service.

 

In regards to the indicator CLA21, Panel Members commended the low numbers and queried on whether the cohort  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/21

6/21

Summary of ALS Adoption activity pdf icon PDF 251 KB

The report provides an overview of the work of Adopt London South (ALS) Regional Adoption Agency to achieve permanence for children looked after.

Minutes:

Officers present spoke to the report and informed that the local authority joined the Adopt London South (ALS) as a result of a decision to join regional. In detail they informed that Southwark was the house borough and Croydon was one of four in the region to join.

 

The report presented covered first full year of adopters and its operation. In summary, the service had transferred of a number of staff. The ALS function was to recruit and provide adoption services of prospective adopters. Children Services however retained the corporate parenting agency and decision making responsibilities for the best interest decision for children who were believed to need a plan of adoption and also the match between adopters and a child. Children’s Services also retained the responsibility for the permanency planning and paying adoption allowances.  Croydon was currently paying 17% of the funding for the next two years of ALS and was the biggest local authority within the ALS.

 

Officers further provided the Panel with statistics and addressed that the sufficient of adopters had remained the same though targets set were not met. At the time of completion there were:

-       Twenty-one families being assessed, though ALS do prioritise applications for families who met the needs of ALS.

-       Forty-one children waited over a year before ASL started of which some have now been matched. Out of the fifty, thirty-eight were under the age of two which was a significant amount.

-       Babies on average waited one hundred and twelve days, and for all children over six years old waited over one thousand days.

-       There was also a longer average waiting time for the minority ethnicity groups too than for children of white European heritage.

-       The average waiting time has been reduced by four days since ASL was initiated

-       There had been seven early permanence in ALS. This data represented how long it was between children in care and a placement order with those children who were in their permanence placement.

-       There had been over one thousand requests for post adoption support where additional work was undertaken to increase capacity and also the challenges during the pandemic. 

 

The service worked closely with ASL to ensure high quality plans for support during adoption with the view to improve waiting time for ethnic minority groups and increase ethnic minority group adopters, improve early permanence planning, recruit local adopters for London children, support approved adopters who could not be matched with a child from another local authority, increase significantly the capacity for post adoption support and improve the way data and systems were shared.

 

Panel Members appreciated the report presented and looked forward to the annual report upon completion. They then discussed the whole report in detail and raised questions and provided comments.

 

Panel Members noted the partnership agreements indicating the protocols put in place when there was a breakdown in the home. Further, Panel Members requested for information on the procedure and timescales of completion, what the future  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/21

7/21

Croydon Social Care update on children with a plan for adoption pdf icon PDF 447 KB

The report provides an overview of Croydon Council’s work to achieve permanence for children looked after.

Minutes:

Officers present spoke to the report and provided Members of the Panel an oversight of the permanence options available. They informed that permanence may start at the point from where children became looked after before proceedings and beyond. The service assessed family members, alternative carers within the family network, which took different forms within proceedings, such as Regulation 24, connected person’s assessment as well as long term option for a children and the Special Guardianship Order (SGO) which was an alternative placement order.

 

Officers provided some statistics and highlighted that the number of children looked after fell by 4% last year. This was in line with the children looked after. The number of looked after children who left care decreased by 4% last year too.

 

The service conducted assessments and made recommendations to court about whether prospective carers were able to meet the needs of the children and what support they would need. In the last financial year, there was sixty-five SGO granted, three was to foster carers of three children. In the current financial year there was four order in quarter one, six in quarter two and six in quarter three which was a significant decrease, this was believe to be due to a reduction in care proceedings an improved quality of assessments which were more robust. An improvement in the ability to assess kinship carers and progressing through fostering panel – therefore a high number of connected carers, also the delays in proceedings due to the pandemic and court space.

 

In relation to the financial implications, the service was generous in that the allowance now referred to special guardians and some of the financial review that should have been in place was not, thus now a process for a proper annual review to ensure all special guardians packages that need to be reviewed were reviewed annually. Additional funding had been provided by the government to DfE to commission grandparents plus to offer additional special guardianship support with access to a number of families within the service.

 

Further to the report, officers summarised that the numbers of children matched with foster carers was better this year than last year. Fostering to adopt was also a significant rise. There was four children with no placement order and twelve children with placement order with active family finding. There was four children making applications to discharge placement orders where the service were looking for families for a long time as a parallel plan. There was three early placements this year. There was fourteen children waiting for adoption who went for a placement order and there was a delay in the court process for this.

 

In conclusion, work around permanence was improving for the service, which was in line with the vision to achieve a good outcome for children. Though there remain challenges such as timeliness, there was strong indicators of improvement.

 

Members of the Panel discussed the report and ad contributed to comments and raised questions.

 

There was comments raised relating to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7/21

8/21

Croydon Renewal Plan and the Impact on Children pdf icon PDF 921 KB

This report details the work undertaken to date, the changes proposed, the early impact on children’s services, particularly children in care and care leavers, and considers the likely long term impacts of the Croydon Renewal Plan.

Minutes:

Officers present provided a summary of the renewal plan. They shared with the Panel that the renewal plan was still in consultation with proposals made to make significant savings for delivery given that the Council was currently under the S114 Notice.

 

Officers informed that the service achieved an Ofsted rating of GOOD in 2019 and was still improvement

 

Officers informed that the pandemic had a significant impact with staffing within the service, children looked after, foster carers and families.

The proposals put forward were to:

-       Reduce the early help offer

-       Reduce the systemic offer

-       Delete the Family Group Conference Service. This service supported children at home and care arrangements for the last year.

-       Delete the PAWS service. This national project supported women who had children removed from care.

-       Service a reduction in interim and sessional staff.

 

Panel Members requested for further clarification of the report to provide the Panel with the opportunity to discuss the financial implications. Officers informed that the children services had £15 million in savings over the three years, which needed to be safe to promote the best outcome for the children.

 

Panel Members sought for clarification on the list of statutory and non-statutory services, and officers informed that there was a duty to provide a statutory service and obligation but not a duty to deliver early help services.

 

The Chair thanked officers for their report.

 

The Panel RESOLVED to note the proposals and the likely impact on children and young people.

9/21

How has the Panel helped Children in Care today?

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

Minutes:

Panel Members welcomed the clear process put in place to support foster carers considering to become special guardians.

 

Panel Members welcomed the positive discussions on adoption which raised constructions points.

 

Panel Members appreciated the foster carers input with important issues raised and contributions made, which had helped the children of today.

 

The Panel acknowledged less red indicators on the children’s performance scorecard and that more actions had been met.

 

Panel Members commented on the disappointment in having to reshape services that families and foster carers put into the care of children.

 

Panel Members appreciated the work of the staff at the forefront of the struggle faced during this difficult times.

10/21

Work Programme

To consider and approve the Panel’s work programme for the municipal year 2020/21.

Minutes:

The Work Programme was received for information.

 

11/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

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.”

 

Minutes:

This was not required.