Agenda item

To provide an update on the Children’s Services Medium Term Financial Plan – its aims, the contributing work underpinning the plan and the progress to date.

Ms Jeanette Richards, Assistant Director of Children’s Services introduced the Children’s Services Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). She outlined that the MTFP called for significant additional investment into Children’s Services over a two year period and that the focus would be around the five work programmes underpinning the plan as follows:

·       Fostering Service Transformation;

·       Edge of Care Services;

·       Therapeutic Children’s Home and Step Down;

·       Placement Stability; and

·       Discharges from Care.

In relation to the therapeutic children’s home, the Committee sought clarification around the cited delays as well as questioning where the children would be recruited from and where they would be placed following completion of the 16-week placement. Ms Richards advised that the children identified for the therapeutic children’s home project would be carefully selected for their suitability and during the 16-week period they would be supported to step down into foster care. The aspiration being for a reduction in placements within residential children’s homes and a supported move into foster care.

The future plans for the former children’s home located on Bispham Road were questioned. Mrs Booth, Director of Children’s Services informed the Committee that the Council was in talks with Blackpool Coastal Housing to examine the feasibility of converting the building to supported accommodation for care leavers.

The Committee requested additional information around the reported numbers of children discharged from care, specifically seeking clarification around where they had been discharged to. Ms Richards reported that the majority of the children had stepped out of public care via a special guardianship arrangement order which added permanency to their care as provided by either foster carers or family members. She added that a small number of these children remained as Looked After but under the care of their parents whilst under supervision and review and with the provision of support as necessary.

With regards to the Council’s preference of keeping children with their families or within the local authority area wherever possible, the Committee questioned whether appropriate training had been provided to the Planning Committee in order to ensure cohesion of policies across the Council. Mrs Booth advised that she was aware that this had been identified for inclusion on the programme of training for the Planning Committee and would seek clarification of when the session had been scheduled to take place. Mr Robert Arrowsmith, Performance, Systems and Intelligence Manager clarified that the intention was not for the addition of more residential children’s homes within Blackpool but for more children to be looked after within family homes, for example via foster carers.

In response to a question seeking clarification around the cited tighter management of the fostering service, Ms Richards explained that part of the fostering transformation programme had included the creation of three bespoke teams in the following areas:

·       Recruitment and training of foster carers;

·       Supporting carers and children through to permanence of placements;

·       Supporting foster carers.

Ms Richards advised that the purpose of the bespoke teams was to create a more structured approach to the recruitment, assessment and training of foster carers and a subsequent alignment of skills with the fostering payment system. The Committee questioned whether the transformation programme had been created in response to previously identified areas of concern within the fostering service, with Ms Richards identifying that staffing resources within Children’s Services had previously been diverted elsewhere which had resulted in a reduction in the training being offered to foster carers. Mr Arrowsmith suggested that the high number of children placed within residential children’s homes reflected the abilities of Blackpool’s foster carers to meet the needs of the children in their care and he anticipated that an increase in the skills of carers should result in a reduction in the need for residential children’s home placements. In addition, the introduction of the therapeutic model of foster care added a further level of training for Blackpool’s foster carers and aimed to better match the needs of the child to the most suitable foster carers whilst simultaneously providing better support and appropriate training.

The Committee requested details of the success of the current recruitment drive aimed at attracting suitable foster carers, in response Ms Richards reported that following the official launch of the recruitment campaign on 13 January 2021 there were 11 ongoing assessments for potential foster carers within the mainstream fostering service. This was an encouraging improvement on the five newly recruited foster carers for the whole of 2020. In addition, four prospective carers were being assessed for addition to the therapeutic fostering team who would potentially be providing foster homes for children on completion of their journey through the 16-week therapeutic programme, with Ms Richards advising that 12 carers would be required in total. The Committee was informed that a combination of approaches was being utilised to include a balance of digital campaign methods and more traditional recruitment techniques. Mr Arrowsmith reported that due to the importance of the need to recruit, a team specifically dedicated to the recruitment of foster carers had now been established. In response to a question regarding remuneration of Blackpool foster carers in comparison to other local authorities, Ms Richards advised that rates of pay were now set at competitive levels but that also of importance was the provision of adequate support for carers and the presentation of foster caring as a career. The Committee requested further information on how prospective candidates could begin the application process, which Ms Richards agreed to provide to Committee Members following the meeting.

Members discussed the circumstances which might cause a breakdown of foster placements, with Ms Richards acknowledging that there was a complex combination of reasons which differed for each individual child and which often became more complex as the age of the child increased. In relation to the disproportionate number of teenage children in care in Blackpool, the Committee suggested that this mirrored the decline in academic achievement across the education phases whereby attainment levels of primary phase children declined as they progressed through the secondary phase. The Committee noted the correlation and asked for information on any plans in place to address this. Ms Richards reported plans to coordinate adolescent services with other support services offered across the Council to young people. She advised that an early help offer for teenagers was in the process of being formulated and a new structure for implementation being devised. She agreed that schools played an integral role and acknowledged the importance of working closely with them to ensure a coordinated approach to early help.

The Committee requested details of what young people asked for from the Council, with Ms Richards reporting that they often requested the development of different leisure activities and opportunities to keep them occupied. She added that Looked After Children had previously reported that they felt they could have been better supported to remain in their family homes. The Just Uz group would ordinarily be included in gathering the views of young people but Ms Richards advised that their meetings had been impacted by the pandemic and as such were not currently taking place. The Committee sought further clarification around how, in normal non-Covid times, young people were consulted and engaged with and asked for details on the methods utilised to capture their voices and valuable input. Ms Richards noted that the wishes and feelings of young people were at the centre of plans for restructuring and remodelling of services and that their input was factored into the consultation process for all major changes within Children’s Services, along with the views of previous users of a service via engagement with young people and their families who had been key recipients of a service in the past.

With regards to any anticipated budgetary reductions arising from the MTFP, the Committee asked when any positive impact on the budget might become evident. Mr Arrowsmith advised that due to the longer-term nature of a number of the interventions as well as the increased initial spend required to implement them, the financial modelling indicated that it would be two to three years before any reduction in spending would be realised.