Sufficiency Strategy for Children Looked After and Care ... · 6.1. Profile of Children Looked...

1

Sufficiency Strategy for Children Looked After

and Care Leavers 2014 - 2017

Version 7.2: December 2014

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Contents

1. Introduction

2. Executive Summary - Ensuring Sufficiency Our Priorities

3. Changing the profile of our Looked After Children

4. Statutory Duties and Guidance

5. Local Drivers - Our Priorities for Children Looked After and Care Leavers in Wokingham 5.1. Wokingham Health and Wellbeing Board 5.2. Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 5.3. Corporate Parenting Strategy 5.4. Wokingham Safeguarding Children Board 5.5. Young People’s Housing Implementation Plan 5.6. Wokingham’s Sustainable Community Strategy 5.7. Central Placements Team - Ofsted Inspection Report 5.8. Children with Disabilities Strategy 5.9. Special Educational Needs Policy 5.10. Children and Young People’s Early Help and Innovation Programme

6. Current need and provision 6.1. Profile of Children Looked After 6.2. Children becoming looked after and leaving care 6.3. Placement type and stability 6.4. Care Leavers 6.5. Young People Transitioning to Adult Services 6.6. Case Studies

7. Review of 2011-14 Strategy

8. What the children and young people we look after say about their services

9. Current initiatives and key areas for development 9.1. Reducing overall numbers of Looked After Children 9.2. Permanency Procedure and Planning Guidance 9.3. Foster Carer Recruitment and Retention – Fostering Review and Innovation Project 9.4. Improve availability of foster care for all Looked After Children 9.5. Reducing Residential Placements 9.6. Reducing placements outside the borough or more than 20 miles from the child’s home

10. Meeting the commissioning standard

10.1. Individual assessment and care planning 10.2. Commissioning decision 10.3. Strategic needs assessment 10.4. Market management 10.5. Collaboration 10.6. Securing services

11. Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services Sufficiency Strategy Delivery Plan

12. Appendices • Appendix 1: Wokingham’s Pledge • Appendix 2: Placement Information (data as of 31st March) • Appendix 3: Additional Information; Care Leavers • Appendix 4 Placement Review Panel Terms of Reference • Appendix 5 Care Leavers’ Charter • Appendix 6 Foster Carers’ Charter

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1. Introduction

This strategy outlines how Wokingham Borough Council proposes to meet its statutory duties to provide accommodation for children on the edge of care, children looked after and care leavers within the borough, which meets their needs both in relation to the number of providers and the range of accommodation. In her foreword to our recently published Corporate Parenting Strategy, Cllr Charlotte Haitham Taylor, Corporate Parenting Board Chair, confirmed our position that Wokingham Borough Council is committed to ensuring that all the children and young people we look after in Wokingham have the best possible start in life and that as corporate parents it is our responsibility to provide every child in our care with care and stability when they are growing up so that they can achieve to their full potential and have the opportunity to be the best they can be. I am equally committed to making this aspiration a reality. It is one of this Council’s most important responsibilities. In order to do this it is vital that we have the right services and partnerships in place locally for our children and this document sets out how we aim to achieve this. As corporate parents we want to provide the children we are responsible for with the same care, support and opportunities that any good parent would want for their children. That means a stable home environment, having good relations with families and friends, achieving at school and enjoying life. For older children this also means preparing for independence and adulthood. With this in mind we are clear on our focus of developing sustainable local foster care services which offer a stable family environment for all our children including those with additional needs. This gives children the opportunity to grow and thrive close to friends and family and will promote better outcomes in terms of health and education. Our services to support older children and care leavers to achieve independence are also a key part of our provision as we help our children on the path to successful adulthood. Wokingham is often cited as being one of the best places to live in the country. We want that to be true for the children we look after as much as for any other resident. Our ambitions are challenging and our standards are high but we believe that is how it should be. We will be keeping this strategy under regular and close review to ensure that we are delivering the services that our children need and making sure that they produce the outcomes that we aspire to.

Judith Ramsden

Director of Children’s Services

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2. Executive Summary

Ensuring Sufficiency - our Priorities

Local authorities have a duty under the Children Act 1989 to ensure that so far as is reasonably practicable, there is sufficient accommodation for children looked after by the Council, that meets their needs and is within their local authority area. The sufficiency duty applies in respect of all children who are defined as ‘looked after’ under the Children Act 1989*. In 2010 the government issued statutory guidance for councils on how they should meet this duty. The guidance stated that:

“Securing sufficient accommodation that meets the needs of children looked after is a vital step in delivering improved outcomes for this vulnerable group. Having the right placement in the right place, at the right time, is a vital factor in improving placement stability, which in turn is a critical success factor in relation to better outcomes for looked after children”.

In providing accommodation for our children looked after, data suggests that Wokingham performs well in a number of areas including placement stability, achievement and health outcomes and foster carer support and satisfaction. However we know there are there are also areas where we need to improve. Our key priorities can be summarised by the key aims below:

• Reduce the number of children becoming looked after, through early intervention and support for families;

• Reduce the number of residential placements and in particular reduce the number of placements more than 20 miles from the child’s home.

• Improve permanency of placements and the stability of the social work workforce in order to offer a consistent and longer term relationship for our children looked after;

• Improve recruitment and retention of in-house foster carers to increase capacity and choice of in-house placements, reduce out of area placements and improve availability of foster care for all children looked after.

To achieve these aims a range of initiatives are currently being developed. These include

• A major project and significant investment to increase in house foster care capacity – “Innovation in Foster Care”.

• Improvements to the commissioning function, including the establishment of an integrated commissioning team across adults’ and children’s services.

• The establishment of a clear pathway to clarify responsibilities and improve processes so that assessment and commissioning are better used to inform placement decisions.

• Collaboration with health partners to improve commissioning of high needs and high cost placements.

• A new recruitment and retention strategy for social workers. • Adopting a young people’s housing plan to address the housing and support needs of young

people. • Recruiting more specialist foster carers for children with additional needs. • Adoption of a refreshed permanency planning process and procedure to improve stability of

placements based on a systems learning model. • Improving options for young people leaving care including better local hostel provision and

making best use of “staying put” arrangements.

Our wider aims and ambitions for children looked after by the Council are set out in our Corporate Parenting Strategy which identifies the key priorities and objectives for the next three years and these are set out in section 5 together with other relevant local drivers, strategies and plans.

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*Note: in this document the term “children looked after” (CLA) is used in preference to “looked after children” (LAC) or “children in care” except where the context requires otherwise (e.g. if the term “looked after children” or “children in care” is used in a document from which a direct quote or extract is taken).

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3. Changing the profile of our Looked after Children

Over the next five to six years it is our aim to radically change the profile of our children looked after from one where we have a preponderance of children in the 10 – 15 age group to one where we intervene early, support older children to remain at home and enable children to return home as they become older. Graphically this can be represented as follows (note plot lines are indicative and do not represent actual numbers):

<1 5 10 15

Number

Age

2014

<1 5 10 15

Number

Age

2020

Most children looked after are in older age range as a result of legacy.

Older children now a minority as full impact of early intervention and re-parenting policies to support families and reduce numbers of older children coming into care means that most children looked after are in the younger age group. The full impact of further housing development in Wokingham may affect this.

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4. Statutory Duties and Guidance

The Children Act 1989 requires local authorities to take strategic action in respect of those children they look after and for whom it would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with accommodation within their local authority area.

The Council will usually become involved in providing accommodation where the family has been unable to make safe alternative arrangements. Under the Act the Council must make the most appropriate placement available and should give preference to placements with a relative, friend or person connected with the child and who is a local authority foster parent. If this is not possible the Council should, where practicable, make placements which:

• are near the child’s home; • do not disrupt the child’s education or training; • enable the child to live with an accommodated sibling; • where the child is disabled, are suitable to meet the needs of that child; • are within the local authority’s area (defined as within 20 miles), unless that is not reasonably

practicable.

The Act also requires local authorities, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation for those children that meets their needs and is within their local authority area. The sufficiency duty applies in respect of all children who are defined as ‘looked after’ under the Children Act 1989.

Each local authority also has a duty, under section 10 of the Children Act 2004, to make arrangements to promote co-operation with its relevant partners with a view to improving the wellbeing of children in the authority’s area. Each of the statutory ‘relevant partners’ is also required to co-operate with the local authority in making those arrangements and the Council’s sufficiency duty should be undertaken within the context of these planning and co-operation duties.

The statutory guidance issued in 2010 on how Councils should meet this duty indicates that good practice requires that:

• all children are placed in appropriate placements with access to the support services they require in their local authority area, except where this is not consistent with their welfare;

• the full range of universal, targeted and specialist services work together to meet children’s needs in an integrated way in the local area, including children who are already looked after, as well as those at risk of care or custody;

• where it is not reasonably practicable for a child to be placed within his/her local authority area, there are mechanisms in place to widen the range of provision in neighbouring areas while still being able to provide the full range of services required to meet identified needs;

• all children with adoption recommendations are placed with an adoptive family within 12 months of that recommendation;

• services, agencies and partners, including housing, work together to secure a range of provision to meet the needs of those who become looked after at the age of 16 and 17, and support the continuity of accommodation beyond the age of 18;

• services are available in adequate quantity to respond to children, including predicted demand for a range of needs, and emergencies;

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• in addition to meeting relevant national minimum standards, services are of high enough quality to secure the specific outcomes identified in the care plans of children looked after;

• services are situated across the local authority area to reflect geographical distribution of need;

• all placement providers (including private, voluntary and public sector providers) are linked into the wider network of services and work with these services to offer appropriate support to deliver identified outcomes for children looked after;

• universal services know when a child is looked after and have good links with the range of targeted and specialist services which support him/her, including placement providers;

• there are mechanisms in place to ensure that professionals involved in placement decisions have sufficient knowledge and information about the supply and quality of placements and availability of all specialist, targeted and universal support services within the local authority area; and

• the local authority and its partners collaborate with neighbouring authorities and partners to plan the market for services for children looked after and commission in regional or sub-regional arrangements.

We have established a Children’s Partnership that built on our Children’s Trust, this provides a clear guide to how services should be delivered.

The statutory guidance makes it clear that securing sufficient accommodation requires a whole-system approach which includes early intervention and preventive services to support children in their families, as well as better services for children if they do become looked after.

In meeting the sufficiency duty Councils should also follow the national commissioning standard, set out in the statutory guidance which encompasses the following activities:

• individual assessment and care planning; • commissioning decision; • strategic needs assessment; • market management; • collaboration; • securing services.

More details of these activities and the actions taken and proposed by the Council in relation to each one are set out in Section 10.

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5. Local Drivers - Our Priorities for Children Looked After and Care Leavers in Wokingham

Provision for our children looked after is driven by a number of local strategies, policies, and drivers:-

5.1 Wokingham Health and Wellbeing Board

The Wokingham Health and Wellbeing Board is committed to improving health and life chances for everyone in the borough and this will entail narrowing the gap between the performance of those children in danger of being left behind in comparison to their peers. Improving services for those children for whom we have a formal responsibility as corporate parent is a key aspect of this.

5.2 Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

Wokingham’s JSNA for 2012/13 reported that there are significantly fewer children in care in Wokingham (20 per 10,000) than there are nationally (59 per 10,000), regionally (46 per 10,000) and across NHS Berkshire West (40 per 10,000).

The JSNA found that overall, children looked after in Wokingham often have poorer outcomes than their peers.

The JSNA reported that all children looked after in Wokingham, who have been in care for at least 3 months, have up to date immunisations, health assessments and dental checks unless the young people concerned have exercised their right to refuse.

There are a higher proportion of children with special educational needs among the Wokingham children looked after population, and generally, there are more older children than seen elsewhere.

Given that Wokingham has proportionally fewer children looked after than seen elsewhere and the numbers are relatively small the JSNA recognised that care should be taken when analysing the data and making comparisons. The JSNA identified the following service gaps:

• There is a need to increase the number of local foster carers to increase choice in locally based placements.

Ensuring Sufficiency

for Children Looked After

Health and Wellbeing Board

Joint Strategic Needs

Assessment

Corporate Parenting Strategy

Safeguarding Children Board

Young People's Housing

Implementation Plan

Sustainable Community

Strategy

Fostering Innovation Project

Children with disabilities

Strategy (in preparation)

Special Educational

Needs Policy

Early Help and Innovation Programme

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• Wokingham needs to invest in its foster carers to support the delivery of consistent, high quality care.

• There is a need to develop a suite of housing and accommodation options for when children want to leave foster care and enter adulthood.

5.3 Corporate Parenting Strategy

The Corporate Parenting Board identified the following priorities for 2014/15:

• Priority 1: To strengthen the corporate parenting role and corporate parenting function of the Council as a whole.

• Priority 2: To strengthen the voice of children in our care and young people leaving care to enable their participation in the planning, reviewing and service design.

• Priority 3: To consolidate progress and continue to improve the timeliness of permanency for children looked after across the range of permanency options.

• Priority 4: To improve a care leaver’s journey by ensuring an enhanced offer to care leavers across all areas: education, employment and training, independent living, housing options and health.

• Priority 5: To improve the educational outcomes for children in care and young people leaving care by including their aspirations.

• Priority 6: To improve health provision for children in care and young people leaving care.

5.4 Wokingham Safeguarding Children Board

The WSCB has agreed five overarching priorities

• CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION - share information and intelligence about all victims of child sexual exploitation to protect and safeguard their welfare and to gain a clearer understanding of current trends and threats.

• SUBSTANCE MISUSE/MENTAL HEALTH/DOMESTIC ABUSE - develop a family focused approach in relation to substance misuse, mental health problems and domestic abuse.

• VOICE OF THE CHILD - ensure that the voice and the experience of children and young people directly impacts on the priorities and the activities of WSCB.

• FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVENESS - create a framework to ensure the effectiveness of inter-agency activity to safeguard and protect children and young people, including robust monitoring, scrutiny and challenge and identification of risk.

• TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS – to ensure that our staff are well supported and equipped to identify and respond effectively to the safeguarding and protection needs of children, young people and families.

5.5 Young People’s Housing Implementation Plan

A Young People’s Housing Implementation Plan has been developed which will form part of Wokingham’s Housing Strategy and will deliver on our corporate parenting responsibilities, with a view towards preventing and responding to the most vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness, including care leavers and young people on the edge of care. It also aims to improve access to affordable housing for all young people. The aims of the plan will be met through three overarching objectives:

• Early help to prevent and respond to young people at risk of homelessness;

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• Improved access to affordable housing; • Improved supported housing options;

The focus of this plan is on the housing needs of young people, with particular reference to those young people to whom the borough has a statutory duty, and therefore focusses on the needs of young people leaving care (looking at how arrangements for children looked after transition into arrangements for care leavers), young people on the edge of care,

As the child population is increasing and the number of children looked was increasing, additional service capacity will be required to meet the needs of care leavers and other vulnerable young people overall.

As part of the development of the plan The Children in Care Council was consulted and identified the following needs in relation to housing:

• Housing Needs Guidance for Young People (Designated Housing Officer for Care Leavers) • Safer accommodation • More accommodation (including supported lodgings) • More than 1 chance to get a tenancy right • Firmer assessment processes • Staying Put Policy • Less cross-boundary placements • Training flat – graduated independence • Automatic processing of children looked after onto housing register • A short term alternative to the current hostel provision

Consultation with young people, and an analysis of local demographics and needs, identified three overarching objectives for the Council in the Young People’s Housing Implementation plan.

• Objective 1: “Early help to prevent and respond to the needs of young people at risk of homelessness”.

• Objective 2: “Improve access to affordable housing.” • Objective 3: “Develop and improve supported housing options.”

Within these objectives two key priorities for service improvement were identified.

• Re-commissioning the existing hostel provision at Seaford Court. • Increasing availability of local affordable housing.

The plan was approved by members in October 2014.

5.6 Wokingham’s Sustainable Community Strategy

This states that we are:

Creating the best place in the country to grow up.

A place where:

• Children and young people learn to make their way in the world safely, and the vulnerable are protected from harm.

• Children and young people achieve their full potential because of the outstanding education and opportunities provided.

• Young people do well, whether they choose education, employment or training, because there are high quality opportunities available in all these sectors.

• Families are as happy and as healthy as they can be, whatever their background, because they can find the right support when they need it.

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• Children and young people are allowed freedom and space to play and take part in activities they enjoy, and nobody is excluded, wherever they come from or whatever needs they may have.

• Everyone enjoys the playfulness and vitality that children and young people bring to the community, and recognises that young people are our future.

• Children, young people and families from every background and culture are valued and celebrated.

• Children and young people know they belong, because they have a say in the things that are important to them.

• Children, young people and families in danger of being left behind get extra help to make the best of their lives.

5.7 Central Placements Team - Ofsted Inspection Report and Fostering Innovation Project

The Council’s Central Placements Team was inspected by Ofsted in January 2013. The service was found to be good in all domains (overall effectiveness, outcomes, quality and safeguarding)

The report highlighted many examples of good practice within the service including

• good quality of support to carers • children are provided with good personalised care and carefully selected placements • children are involved in placement decisions • placements achieve good outcomes in relation the education, health and emotional

wellbeing and support to become independent • stability of placements • foster carers’ buddy arrangements • strong relations with health services • safeguarding arrangements • The service is well managed and there is a holistic approach to working positively and

together for the welfare and safety of the child.

The report made 2 recommendations in relation to prompt payment of fees and maintaining clear and effective procedures for monitoring and controlling the service, including financial viability of the service and quality. Both these recommendations have subsequently been addressed.

Details of the Fostering Innovation Project are set out in Section 9.

5.8 Children with Disabilities Strategy

We are currently in the process of developing a comprehensive strategy to ensure we fully meet the needs of disabled children in the borough. This will include those looked after by the Council. The strategy should be completed by the end of March 2015 and will build on Children and Families Act implementation.

5.9 Special Educational Needs Policy

A high proportion (approx. 40%) of our children looked after have a special educational need. Accordingly our SEN policy is a key element of ensuring that these children receive appropriate high quality education. The policy states that: Wokingham’s policy for special educational need enables and promotes inclusion and partnership and provides that:

• All children should be equally valued whether or not they have special educational needs. • The education of children is a shared professional responsibility.

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• All children have the right to inclusion within the community and to receive their education within the context of their homes and families wherever possible.

• Wherever practical, pupils with special educational needs should be educated in mainstream schools given that their needs can be met there.

• The Council will continue to maintain and purchase special school provision for those pupils with more severe and complex needs.

• The Authority recognises that there is a continuum of need and will seek to provide a continuum of provision to meet those needs within Wokingham Borough.

• The establishment of specialist resources in mainstream will be a major emphasis.

5.10 Children and Young People’s Early Help and Innovation Programme

Innovative work has been taking place over the last two years to support solutions based work with families that empowers people to take responsibility for and find solutions to the difficulties they face in partnership with professionals.

We are now taking this model of working and seeking to embed it across our partnerships. It builds upon

• The restorative practice working with families, our Family First programme has been the highest performing Troubled Families programme in the country with the highest percentage of families achieving positive outcome changes.

• Piloting of Signs of Safety has been rolled out across our social care staff and we will embed this innovative practice in our Triage team, Family Group Conferencing and Child protection Conference Chairs.

• Integrated multi-agency triage team as our front door for Wokingham’s children and families, which includes Wokingham Borough Children’s services, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust nursing services and the Primary Child and Adolescent Mental Health services, Thames Valley Police and Berkshire Women’s Aid. We will continue to develop this team with our partners. Our co-development journey of our triage model has shaped the team with the commitment of the resources that each partner brings, particularly configuring emotional health and well-being and domestic abuse specialisms in the team.

• Community Coproduction approach with our voluntary partners and residents to transform our services.

• Workforce Strategy- New model of career progression with improved retention and salary incentives, additional flexible working arrangements and a revised business model to release practitioners to work more effectively with families and children.

• Children’s Partnership - We have invested in developing our Children’s Partnership through an academic partnership with the Institute of Public Care to achieve strategic multi-agency commitment to delivering our system changes.

Governance and progress of the above will be delivered through the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board and the Health and Well-Being Board.

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6. Current need and provision

6.1 Profile of Children Looked After

Overview

The children looked after cohort is a constantly changing population. As at the end of March 2013 there were 86 children looked after by Wokingham Borough Council (WBC), 52 of whom were of statutory school age. Of these 52 children, 23 had a Statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN).

As at March 2013, Wokingham had 24 Children in care per 10,000 children under 18 against the national average of 60 per 10,000 and the South East regional average of 47 per 10,000. Table 1: Children Looked After 2008-2013 Date 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Wokingham 78 71 78 72 72 86 Statistical Neighbour - Average 369 390 413 466 177 479 South East 7,370 7,650 8,130 8,480 8,720 8,820 England 59,400 60,900 64,400 65,500 67,080 68,110

Age and gender profile

Children looked after by Wokingham are primarily in the older age group (11 and over). As at 31 March 2013 Wokingham’s looked after population was made up as follows:

Table 2: Age distribution of Children Looked After

Age Under 4 5 – 10 11 – 15 16+ TOTAL Numbers 17 20 28 21 86 percentage 19.80% 23.30% 32.60% 24.40% 100.00%

Distribution of ages on becoming looked after is fairly even across age groups up to age 16, with a tendency for more children to have become looked after between the ages of 5 and 10.

Table 3: Age of all current children looked after on becoming looked after

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Number of children 0-4 at BLA date 20 21 23 22 23



Number of children 16-17 at BLA date <5 <5 5 5 <5

More boys than girls are looked after and 70% of looked after boys are aged between 10 and 17 compared to 54% of girls.

Table 4: Age and gender of Children Looked After 2013

Under 1 1 - 4 5 - 9 10 - 15 16 - 17 18 & over in a community

home

TOTAL

Girls <5 <5 9 11 8 0 35

Boys <5 9 6 22 13 0 51

TOTAL <5 13 15 33 21 0 86

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Ethnicity

As at May 2014, 64 out of the 75 children looked after by the Council were of white British ethnicity. The remaining children were from a range of ethnic groups including Indian, mixed white and African-Caribbean and mixed white and Asian.

Location

Wokingham continues to fare worse than regional and national averages in terms of proximity of placements outside the borough and more than 20 miles from the child’s home, but the very small size of the borough (one of the smallest Local Authorities in England and Wales) is a factor in this. Table 5: % of children looked after as at 31 March placed more than 20 miles from their homes outside LA boundary (Source LAIT) % of children looked after Area 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Wokingham 28 29 24 31 28 23 Statistical Neighbour – Average 20.75 19.6 18.3 17.7 17.7 17.4 South East 13 13 13 13 12 13 England 13 13 13 12 12 12

The Council is also above the national and regional averages when all placements both within and outside the LA boundary are taken into account, 24% are more than 20 miles from the child’s home as compared to 16% nationally and 18% regionally. As at 1 April 2014, of 75 children looked after, 21 (28 %) were in placements over 20 miles away from the child’s home.

By comparison LAIT data for 2013 indicates that the percentage of children looked after placed more than 20 miles from their homes outside the LA boundary for our local neighbours was:

• Bracknell Forest, 17%, • Reading, 22%; • Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, 13%; • Slough 28% and • West Berkshire, 20%.

Special Educational Needs

In March 2013, 23 out of 52 (44%) of Wokingham’s Looked after Children of statutory school age had a SEN. This is a much higher proportion than nationally (30%) or regionally (28.5%) and will have an impact on the choice of suitable placements for these children and the additional support required.

6.2 Children becoming looked after and leaving care

During the year April 2012 to March 2013 there was an increase in the numbers of children coming into care and a decrease in the number of children ceasing to be looked after.

Between April 2012 and March 2013, 45 children became looked after (BLA) and 29 children ceased to be in care. Table 6: Numbers of children entering and leaving care in Wokingham from 2008 - 2013. Date 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 No. of Children who became looked after during year 36 33 28 30 45

No. of Children who ceased to be looked after 42 31 32 36 29

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Recently the ages of children becoming looked after shows significantly more children aged 0-4 were taken into care than in other age groups. Table 8: Ages of children taken into care in each year. Ages of children taken into care in year, in care on 31 March 2011 2012 2013

Number of children 0-4 new in care 10 8 13 Number of children 5-10 New in care 8 7 <5 Number of children 11-15 new in care 8 9 <5 Number of children 16-17 new in care <5 <5 <5

The following table provides further detail in relation to children leaving care. Table 9 destination of children leaving care 2012/3 2013/4

Number of children in care at some point in time 117 109

Special Guardianship 3 8 Residence Order 3 3

Transferred to Adult Services 1 1 Adopted 5 3

Home to Parents 10 8 Reached adulthood/ceased LAC 6 11

6.3 Placement type and Stability Placements The Council uses a wide range of placements in order to meet its responsibilities to make the most appropriate placement for the child, but around 76% are in in-house or independent foster placements. This is comparable to both national and regional averages (75% and 77% respectively) but behind regional leaders (86%). Table 10: Types of placements 2009 - 2013 Number as at 31 March 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Residential placements 9 8 6 5 6

Residential Care placements 0 0 0 <5 0

Independent foster agency placements 19 15 21 20 21

In-house foster placements 27 37 30 32 43

Independent living with support <5 <5 <5 <5 <5

Independent living without support 0 <5 0 0 0

Placed for adoption <5 <5 <5 <5 <5

Living with parent <5 5 <5 <5 <5

Residential schools 7 6 6 5 8

Other <5 <5 <5 <5 <5

Total 71 78 72 72 86

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In-house and Independent Foster Agency provision. A recent review undertaken as part of the Fostering Innovation project of the Council’s foster care provision identified the following pattern of distribution between in-house and independent provision: Table 11: Share of foster placements (figures exclude placements with family and friends)

Age Group 0-1 2-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16+ Total National

Total 4 3 1 3 5 5 7 5 7 40

In-house 4 0 1 3 3 1 3 5 2 22

% of In-house provision 18% 0% 5% 14% 14% 5% 14% 23% 9% 102%

% of total provision 100% 0% 100% 100% 60% 20% 43% 100% 29% 55% 66%

IFA 0 3 0 0 2 4 4 0 5 18

% of IFA provision

0% 17% 0% 0% 11% 22% 22% 0% 28% 100%

% of total provision 0% 100% 0% 0% 40% 80% 57% 0% 71% 45% 34%

Generally older children tend to be more likely to be placed with independent foster agency carers than with in-house carers. However girls are more likely than boys to be placed with a foster carer as opposed to residential care. Twice as many girls than boys are placed with independent foster agencies whereas twice as many boys as girls are placed in residential homes

67%

2125%

4350%

<5<5%

<5<5%

<5<5% 8

9%

<55%

Placements as at March 2013

Residential Placements

Independent foster agencyplacementsIn-house foster placements

Independent living with support

Placed for Adoption

Living with parent

Residential Schools

Other

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Table 11a: Share of Foster placements by age group

Age Group Total In-House % IFA % 0-5 8 5 62.50% <5 37.50%

6-11 13 7 53.85% 6 46.15% 12-16+ 19 10 52.63% 9 47.37%

Placement stability and permanence The proportion of children under 16 who have been in care for more than two and a half years and in the same placement continuously for two years is 68.8%. This compares favourably with the figures for our statistical neighbours of 63.2% (South East region figures not published). As at 31 March 2013, 9% of Wokingham children in care in 2012/13 had had 3 or more placement moves, compared to 10% for our statistical neighbours (South East region figures not published). The long term trend is for fewer of our children looked after to experience 3 or more moves. Table 12: Placement Stability - % of children with 3 or more placement moves; 2004 -2013

(Data from Local Area Interactive Tool (LAIT)) * -Data suppressed in Statistical First Release)

(Data Source Local Area Interactive Tool (LAIT))

As of 31st March 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Wokingham 11.90 * * 12.50 9.00

South East 11.00 11.00 10.20 - -

Statistical Neighbours 12.09 12.12 10.45 10.99 10.20

England 11.10 11.40 11.00 11.00 11.00

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6.4 Care Leavers

Generally we perform well in this area. In March 2013 all 15 care leavers aged 19 were in suitable accommodation.

Table 13: Care Leavers at 19: % in Suitable Accommodation (as at 31st March - source LAIT)

2010 2011 2012 2013

Wokingham 83.30 100.00 88.90 100.00

South East 88.10 86.00 84.60 84.00

Statistical Neighbours 92.14 88.00 85.64 84.60

England 90.30 90.00 88.30 88.00

In May 2014 Wokingham had 31 care leavers being supported by a specific service. Of these,

• 11 were living with Friends and Family

• 5 were in support accommodation,

• 5 were staying put with foster carers

• 7 were in independent private LET and In addition, in recent years up to five children looked after have been placed for adoption.

There is a Young People’s Housing Panel, a multi-agency panel looking at Pathway Plans for young people who have been/are in Care and are reaching the age when housing is a consideration.

Hostel accommodation - Seaford Court

Seaford Court has 10 beds providing advice & support for 16 - 25 year olds. It caters for low to medium support needs, with priority for those who are homeless. The services at Seaford Court and how they are to be developed are set out in more detail in our Young People’s Housing Implementation Plan.

The service at Seaford Court is due to be re-commissioned in 2014 and the new service will take into account feedback from young people who have used the service. This will result in improvements to the service and will enhance the options for care leavers.

The Children in Care Council have expressed a need for a short term alternative to Seaford Court, where young people can stay while being supported to gain independent living skills towards actively finding accommodation in the private sector.

“Staying Put” arrangements

“Staying Put” arrangements make it possible for young people to remain living with their foster carer/s (former foster carer/s) after their eighteenth birthday on a familial basis, having already lived with, or as, a member of the foster carer/s family over a period of time. They were developed after a series of pilots and set out in Government guidance issued in 2013.

“Staying Put” arrangements can cover all young people who were previously eligible children living in foster care, and who were looked after immediately prior to their eighteenth birthday, regardless of whether the young person is undertaking full or part education, training or employment or none of these activities.

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During 2013-2014, five young people remained with their foster cares post-18 in supported lodgings arrangements under “Staying Put” provisions and this is a valuable addition to the options available for care leavers.

6.5 Young People Transitioning to Adult Services

The Council currently manages commissioning for young people transferring from children’s to adults’ services within a dedicated transitions team comprising 2.5 fte social workers.

The team works closely with children’s services to identity and track young people from the age of 14 who may need ongoing social care services on becoming 18. This includes children looked after with learning and physical disabilities as well as vulnerable care leavers. Each term any children looked after with Special Educational Needs who will become 14 that term will be assessed to establish whether they are likely to have needs as adults to enable longer term planning of services. Those who are likely to need services are allocated to a worker in the transitions team who will begin working with the young person to plan services.

The Children and Families Act 2014 places requirements on Social Care, Health and Education services to work together to jointly plan and commission services for young people with Special Educational Needs and work is currently being done across social care, health and education to enable us to fulfil this duty.

Where independent housing is identified as the preferred option the transitions team works closely with the Council’s housing service to identify suitable Council properties for supported living. Places are also identified with specialist housing providers with the borough. Generally finding appropriate accommodation is not a major issue for this group. The team deal with only a handful of children looked after each year (4 in 2013/14) and arrangements made included moves from foster care and voluntary placements into supported living or “Staying Put” arrangements.

6.6 Case Studies

Case Study 1

AB is a 12 year old boy who has a moderate learning difficulty and a statement for educational needs. He is in a residential placement where his social care needs are met and attends the local special school which has provision to meet his educational needs. Recently his mother’s mental health has deteriorated and she has not been able to safely meet his needs and deal with his more challenging behaviour. Mr B has now left the family home and lives locally in a one bedroomed property which he owns. Significant attempts and interventions have been put in place to reunify AB with his mother but she does not have the capacity to sustain a consistent approach to AB. Following a case review and in consultation with the parents and AB it was agreed to support Mr B to care for AB using additional services provided by The Bridges service and ASSIST. Adequate housing was a barrier to AB returning to the care of his father. The Social worker worked closely with Mr B to find appropriate alternative Housing and supported Mr B in finding an appropriate private rented property quickly. As a result AB was able to remain in the care of his family, contact with his mother was preserved and AB could remain at school. An enhanced package of support was made available to Mr AB for a three month period and over the school holidays so he could build his capacity to parent and have time to manage his housing arrangements. Mr AB was linked to Tier 2 support services in his new locality so he could continue to have support within his local community.

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Case Study 2

CD is a 14 year old girl with profound and life limiting disabilities as result of which she is entirely dependent on her carers to meet all of her needs. She is in a 48 week placement and her elderly carers are requesting that she is now placed for 52 weeks of the year as they can no longer physically meet her needs and keep her safe. They love her and are devastated that they have had to make the request.

By agreeing to put in a package of support CD can still safely return home for 4 weeks in the summer. Her carers can continue to maintain their relationship with their granddaughter and the father can now continue to have contact with CD at his parents’ home ensuring that CD still has a strong meaningful and affirming connection with her family.

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7. Review of 2011-14 Strategy

The 2011- 2014 Sufficiency Strategy set out the following aims

Aim Comments

Recruit a net gain of 10 mainstream full-time mainstream (not Family/Friends) foster carers in the first year at skills level 1. – 2011/12

2011/12 - Four carer households approved during this period.

2011/14 – There has been a net gain of 6 carer households within this period (16 approvals and 10 de-registrations).

There are currently 7 carer households at level 1.

To progress five carers from skills level 1 to 2; two from level 2 to 3 - 2011/12

2011/12 - One carer household progressed from level 1 to level 2

2011/14 – There are currently seven carer households at level 1; 10 carer households at level 2; three carers carer households at level 3

Aims for 2014/15 are to progress:

• 4 carers to level 1 • 4 carers to level 2 • 1 carer household to level 3 • 1 carer to include parent & child

Recruit 10 adoptive families per year beyond the Wokingham boundary which will allow more choice and matching - 2011/12 Recruit (or develop current carers) five single placement specialist foster carers within - 2011/12

2011/12 -The service committed to approving 10 adopters and prioritised applications from applicants outside of WBC; 14 applications were taken up 10 were approved, 3 of which lived outside of WBC.

2012/13 – 13 applications were taken up, 4 from outside of WBC.

2013/14 – 15 applications were taken up, 6 from outside of WBC

Set up specialist foster care scheme - 2011/12

Solo Foster Care Scheme was set up however not successfully recruited to.

The scheme has been reviewed and re-launched as ‘Specialist Foster Carer Scheme’ and wrap around support to this scheme is in the process of being finalised.

Two parent and baby foster carers in - 2011/12

There are in-house carers who wish to attend ‘Parent and child foster care training’. The training has been identified and is proposed for June 2014.

Recruit five foster carers to also offer respite - 2011/13

Six foster carer households recruited to also offer respite.

Recruit five supported lodgings carers – 2011/13

2011/13 One supported lodgings carer was recruited during this period.

2011/14 – Total of 4 Supported Lodgings Carers recruited and 5 resignations. Two foster carer household’s approval changed to include Supported Lodgings for young people ‘Staying Put’.

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Currently there are 3 supported lodging carer households.

Develop a support foster carer scheme to train adult children of carers to care for the children when parents on holiday - 2011/12

This target will be a priority for the forthcoming period 2014/15

Recruit five long-term foster carers for permanency - 2011/13

During the period 2013/14; four carer households were approved as long-term/permanent carers for WBC CLA.

During the period April 2011 to March 2014 there were 8 long term/ permanent matches with IFA carers

Ensure sufficient suitable accommodation developed for care leavers - 2011/14

Young People’s Housing Strategy includes: 1 or 2 bed flats for Care Leavers Consideration for protected housing stock from SDL’s or Commission a new build for social housing (1-2 bed) for Care Leavers Extend Supported Accommodation criteria to provide accommodation and support to young people on the edge of Care and provide more local supported placement options for Care Leavers Accommodation finder Young Peoples Housing Panel Seaford Court improvement

Review contact arrangements with foster carers 2011/12

‘Contact with children policy & guidance for social workers & Foster Carers’ – July 2011

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8. What the children and young people we look after say about their services

Care Leavers have raised the issue about the lack of Supported Lodgings placements believing that there should be a recruitment campaign to increase the numbers available.

“When I became 18 I had to move out of my placement and asked to go into supported lodgings as I didn’t feel ready to live on my own I was told there was no-one available so I had to leave the area away from every one I knew, to live with a relative because there was nowhere else for me to go. I think this was unfair because we have been saying for ages that they should be finding more supported lodgings for young people.”

Young people have raised the issue that there is not enough housing available for young people in Wokingham. They find the system for getting and staying on the housing list difficult, don’t feel they have enough information and need more support. Recently a presentation was made to the Children in Care Council of a proposed new WBC housing strategy to address the issues that young people have raised in this area.

One young person’s verdict on the strategy was-

“I think that was the best thing about housing and how young people are going to be helped I have ever heard. I hope all the things in it are going to happen very soon.”

One of the most raised issues by children involved with Children’s Services is the constant change in social workers. They know sometimes people have to change jobs but for Wokingham’s children there are too many changes.

“They ask you to share all your personal feelings with them and then they leave and a new one asks the same questions. I’ve had so many social workers I can’t remember them all and I don’t want to talk to any more”.

The difference stability makes to a young person can be seen in this message to a social worker who worked with a young person for years-

“To be honest you was there quite big deal of time in my life and I never really did thank you enough. Such a kind person to me and you actually listened to how I felt. So this is why I think it’s nice for me to show you my life now as it is, and hope that you know were a life role model for my life in most aspects.”

Young people have suggested that they are not being taught independence skills.

“It’s great that your carers do everything for you, I liked it but then I was living on my own and I didn’t know how to do anything. I think we should learn more before we have to leave our carers”

The CiCC have produced a list of skills that they think young people should be taught at each age and hope this will be given to foster carers to follow.

Young people often say they don’t feel they are being listened to.

Relevant Action: Re-establish Placement Review Panel to meet regularly to review all residential placements to ensure Right Child, Right Place, Right Time principles are followed.

We will also address these issues through our Young People’s Housing Implementation Plan.

Relevant Action: Enhance the stability of the social work workforce in order to offer a consistent and longer term relationship for our children looked after.

Action: We will address these issues through initiatives supporting young people to prepare them for leaving care.

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“My social worker comes and it’s like she has a check list that she just has to get through.”

“I wanted to tell my social worker something but I couldn’t because my carer was in the room all the time and I didn’t want to say it in front of her”

Making sure young people are listened to is really important in young people’s lives.

“The person who I have so much respect for is my advocate who has stuck by me and my family since day one and has been a massive rock in my life with all the support she’s given. Again without her I wouldn’t be the person I am today. “

In addition Ofsted have recently published a digest of children’s views on the services they receive. This will also be helpful in informing our future provision. The full report can be found at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/surveys-and-good-practice/children's-views-digest.pdf

Relevant Actions:

Children’s voice to be heard within placement review meetings.

Commissioned Annex to train all foster carers and selected staff in attachment and re-parenting. Additional support for foster carer outreach (e.g. re-parenting skills training and respite).

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/surveys-and-good-practice/t/The%20children%E2%80%99s%20views%20digest.pdf

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9. Current Initiatives and Key Areas for Development

As set out in the Executive Summary our main aims are to:

• Reduce the number of children becoming looked after, through early intervention and support for families;

• Reduce the number of residential placements and in particular reduce the number of placements more than 20 miles from the child’s home.

• Improve permanency of placements and the stability of the social work workforce in order to offer a consistent and longer term relationship for our children looked after;

• Improve recruitment and retention of in-house foster carers to increase capacity and choice of in-house placements, reduce out of area placements and improve availability of foster care for all children looked after.

In order to achieve these we are currently implementing or planning a number of key initiatives and developments to improve the range and quality of services available to the children we look after.

9.1 Reducing overall numbers of Looked after Children

It is a key element in meeting our duties to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children that we only take a child into care where this is absolutely necessary for the child’s safety and wellbeing. We actively support the principle of “Right Child, Right Place, Right Time” to ensure that where possible we support families to care for children in the family home through social work support, re-parenting, and short breaks.

The general trend in recent years has been for the children looked after by the borough to remain stable in the mid-70s and for the numbers becoming looked after to be around the high 20’s (save for a small increase in both cases in 2013). This broadly mirrors both national and regional trends.

Development of new triage assessment (2014) as part of a renewed focus on early intervention may result in more children being identified but this is likely to be balanced against improved early intervention and other support preventing children becoming looked after, particularly in the 10-15 age group, as well as enabling those looked after voluntarily to return to the parental home. A wider joined up system wide approach is also being developed.

We also have a legacy of a large number of long standing placements of older children with independent foster carers which are well settled. Many of these placements will be ending naturally over the next 3 years as the young person reaches 18 but may become “staying put” arrangements.

Achieving Sufficiency

1. Reducing overall numbers of

Children Looked After

2. Permanency Procedure and

Planning Guidance

3. Foster Carer Recruitment and

Retention -Fostering

Innovation Project

4. Improve availability of foster care for all Children

Looked After

5. Reducing residential placements

6. Reducing placements outside

the borough

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9.2 Permanency Procedure and Planning Guidance

The Permanency Procedure sets out the Council’s commitment to ensuring that all children in its care are given the opportunity to live safely and securely in a family either within the child’s birth family or, where this cannot be achieved, alternative families are found to meet the needs of each child as speedily as possible through thorough care planning and monitoring. This is underpinned by our learning from our 2013 permanency project.

The Council’s permanency planning guidance provides that where it is clear that a child/young person cannot appropriately remain in the care of his/her birth parent(s) or with a Connected Person priority consideration should be given to forms of placement, which will facilitate the child/young person's early discharge from public care provided that this is consistent with his/her welfare.

Wherever possible, care should be provided locally unless this is clearly identified as being inappropriate and siblings should be placed together provided this is in keeping with the assessed needs of each child/young person.

Where it is not in the child/young person's best interests to live within the family network, it will usually be in the interests of the child/young person for alternative permanent carers to be identified and the placement secured through adoption, long term foster care, a Residence Order or a Special Guardianship Order. Residential group living should only be considered if there is clear evidence to suggest that placement within a family at that particular time is not appropriate to the child/young person's individual needs. In this situation the need for a residential placement must be clearly identified within the Care Plan. For older children/young people arranging for their independent living must be considered. When undertaking permanency planning, all workers have a duty to promote a child/young person's links with his/her racial, cultural and religious heritage. 9.3 Foster Carer Recruitment and Retention - Fostering Review and Innovation Project In order to achieve our aim to reduce the number of children in residential placements it will be necessary for the Council to increase the number of foster placements. The Council is part of a regional framework agreement and approved provider list for foster carers with the aim of achieving greater quality and getting better value for money. However many of these are located some distance from the borough which has an impact on our aim to reduce placements more than 20 miles from the child’s home. Recruitment and retention of foster carers is a critical issue for the Council. In-house foster carers - those who work directly for the Council - are widely acknowledged as providing better outcomes for children due to better connectivity to the child’s social worker and wider system, and are better value for money than external carers.

A review of The Council’s foster services conducted in 2013 in partnership with iMPower showed that the Council’s in-house foster service was significantly less expensive than foster care agencies (average weekly cost of in-house foster care was around £600 compared to £1,000 for Independent Foster Agency placements) but that the Council’s share of in house foster care provision was low compared to national benchmark figures with a split of 55% in-house and 45% independent (excluding placements with families and friends) compared to a national average of 66% in-house

ACTIONS

• Review voluntary placements made under S.20 of the Children Act to confirm whether this is still required in order to ensure the placement is still appropriate.

• Develop a more robust and transparent “shared care” model for children with disabilities. • Re-shape Children Looked After cohort via early intervention to reduce numbers of older

children, especially boys, becoming looked after by providing more targeted, prevention support to families where children are on the edge of care.

http://www.proceduresonline.com/resources/keywords_online/nat_key/keywords/care_plan.html

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and 34% independent. Our main objective therefore is to increase the number of local in-house foster carers.

The review also noted that the Council has experienced difficulties recruiting foster carers despite using a wide range of recruitment and publicity initiatives. Between March 2012 and March 2013, 143 enquiries about foster caring resulted in 5 new approvals. A conversion rate of 3.5%. This compares to an average conversion rate of 7% amongst a benchmarking group.

As a result there had not been any significant growth in in house foster carers in recent years.

(Note: This excludes family and friends / supported lodgings)

The project built on previous work to understand more about our foster carers and has identified four areas for development –

• improving the quality of enquiries we receive, • reducing the length of the approval process for new foster carers, • making sure we use our foster carers before looking elsewhere, and • supporting existing foster carers.

The project is now implementing changes in these areas to improve the experience of foster carers from the point when they first decide to put themselves forward to having a child in their home. The project has identified the placement requirements of the service as follows Type of Foster Carer Number of additional

carers required Number identified from existing cohort

Number outstanding

Mainstream fostering 6 0 6

Solo Carer 4 1 3

Supported Lodging 3 0 3

Mother & Baby 1 1 0

Other – Long term carers 4 1 3

This is based on an assessment of cases which have been placed with IFA or residential providers, and the type of foster carers who would have been required to meet this need internally. ‘Solo’ carers are included in the table but will be recruited separately.

In the light of this we have developed a plan to improve foster care recruitment to deliver these targets, including improvements in publicity and processes to follow up of expressions of interest. We have recently initiated a new recruitment drive and implemented new recruitment processes for in-house foster carers which focuses on word of mouth promotion of fostering through key stakeholders and community networks.

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13

Approved Deregistered Net change

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Our current cohort of carers have remained involved – sharing their experiences and helping us to come up with solutions to the issues they have raised. We are also trialling some new ways of promoting and marketing fostering in the borough.

The Benchmarking Report on Local Authority Fostering Services produced by iMPower, the Department for Education and the Fostering Network has identified a number of key indicators and the Council will use this to establish benchmarking and evaluate effectiveness of its in-house provision.

The Foster carers buddying scheme will continue as a key way of supporting foster carers and we are also looking to extend support for young and vulnerable mothers who are or need to be looked after in foster placements as well as short break care provision.

9.4 Improve availability of foster care for all children looked after.

Analysis of recent placements has indicated that there is a large discrepancy between the placements made for boys and girls. Twice as many girls than boys are placed with independent foster agencies whereas twice as many boys as girls are placed in residential homes.

We need to look at the reasons for this which may be due to reluctance of foster carers to accept boys aged ten and over, and promote and support carers to foster older boys. This will involve looking at what has and hasn’t worked in the past to ensure that new initiatives are effective.

The higher proportion of younger children with in-house foster carers reflects anecdotal evidence that in-house foster carers generally prefer to take children in the younger age groups. We therefore also need to ensure that we promote and support foster carers to take on older children. The Council is also embarking on a campaign to recruit and train specialist foster carers for children and young people with complex care needs. The Specialist Foster Care is a scheme for children and young people aged from 8 to 17 years who have complex care needs and/or challenging behaviours. The scheme aims to offer care in a highly supportive family environment where they will experience ‘repair and re-parenting’ in a household where they do not face competition from other children.

ACTIONS

• Commissioned Annex to train all foster carers and selected staff in attachment and re-parenting

• Fostering Innovation Project to generate more in-house foster carers to better match need of children looked after in the borough.

• Promote Foster caring through an “Ask about Fostering” campaign and events. • Identify and promote support from Council as unique selling point of in-house fostering.

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The aim is to recruit foster carers who are able to provide full time care for the young person and who have previous experience of caring for children and young people with additional needs, either in a professional or voluntary role and who have no children under the age of 16 in the household. The Council will provide a comprehensive package of support including 24 hour support, 7 days a week, one to one support from a social worker and a full training programme. In addition the foster carers will receive an enhanced fee regardless of whether a young person is placed with additional allowances when a child is placed to cover the expenses of caring for a young person.

It is also proposed that a tender exercise to establish a preferred provider list for therapists will be completed in 2014 to enable all social work teams and foster carers to access therapists’ to support services to the children we look after.

9.5 Reducing Residential Placements

Children in residential placements fall into two broad categories,

• children with learning and/or physical disabilities who tend to be placed in residential schools.

• children with severe emotional detachment and behavioural problems who tend to be placed in residential care placements.

Whilst some improvements have been made, Wokingham still has a relatively high number of children in residential placements - 19 out of 85 as at 31 March 2013. This is higher than the regional and national averages (22% as compared to 10% for the South East and 11% for England as a whole). This has historically been the case and is linked to previous social work practice and lack of local provision. Of those placements 10 (9%) were for children in a residential school selected to meet their particular needs. Excluding these placements Wokingham’s percentage of residential placements is reduced to 12% (9 out of the remaining 75) as compared to equivalent figures of 11% for England and 9% for the South East.

The Council is embarking on a plan to establish more specialist foster care options as part of the wider Fostering Innovation Project so that children with higher and additional needs may be supported in foster care in preference to residential care placements.

Where there is no other option other than residential care this will be arranged only on the basis that the child will move as soon as practicable into a foster care placement and we will work towards a policy of residential care placements only being made where such a transition is planned by the residential care provider. A Placement Review Panel has been re-established to review all placement decisions and residential placement decisions, even short term, are now only taken at Assistant Director level. The Panel’s Terms of Reference are set out in appendix. 4

We have also adopted a policy of not making residential placements where an Ofsted report finds services are assessed as “requires improvement” or below. Whilst this ensures that the children we look after receive high quality care it can also limit options. Market management and commissioning actions to develop alternative provision is therefore a high priority.

ACTIONS

• Provide training and support for fostering older children, especially teenaged boys. • Assess past initiatives to attract more foster carers for older children, especially

teenaged boys and apply lessons about what has and hasn’t worked in planning development of future provision.

• Fostering Innovation Project to generate more in-house foster carers to better match need of children looked after in the borough.

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9.6 Reducing placements outside the borough more than 20 miles from the child’s home.

It is well understood that it is usually in the interests of the child/young person that they continue to have access to the family, friends or community within which they were previously brought up and which form part of their identity and their likely long term support network. For these reasons it is our aim children/young people should be placed in local provision wherever possible.

As indicated above, however, the Council is above the national and regional averages for placements outside the borough more than 20 miles from the child’s home, although given the size and location of the borough this is always likely to be the case.

Nevertheless we are committed to reducing the number of children in distant placements, and developing more in-house foster provision through the Fostering Innovation Project will address this and reduce the numbers being placed outside the borough, particularly into residential care. In addition we will aim to bring children currently in residential care out of the borough, back into more appropriate placements within the borough.

We will also systematically review all residential placements giving priority to those furthest from the borough to ensure that the placement is appropriate and that options to enable a provision closer to home are fully explored in line with the individual child’s care plan.

ACTIONS

• Re-established Placement Review Panel to meet regularly to review all residential placements to ensure Right Child, Right Place, Right Time principles are followed.

• Review all distant residential placements in line with child’s care plan or where holistic needs (including education) are not in line with our aspirations

• To deliver SEN provision and develop an integrated and joint offer in partnership with health.

• Enhance the stability of the social work care workforce in order to offer a consistent and longer term relationship for our children looked after.

ACTIONS

• Review all distant residential placements in relation to the positive impact for the child across a range of indicators.

• Review Independent Foster Agency placements outside the borough. • Fostering Innovation Project to generate more in-house foster carers.

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10. Meeting the statutory commissioning standard

The Commissioning Standard for Sufficiency is set out in guidance issued by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

It is our aim to meet these standards whilst achieving our over-arching objective to secure in house foster care placements for all the children we look after.

The Commissioning Standard as described in the Departmental Guidance comprises six areas of activity

Fig 1: The Commissioning Standard

10.1 Individual Assessment and Care Planning

All children are to have outcomes based care plans which will feed into commissioning decisions.

Work is currently taking place to develop a clear pathway from assessment to commissioning of services and establish operational ownership of the actions required through this process.

The Council has a specialist long term CLA social work team and a care leaving service, Here4U. This was set up 4 years ago, based on feedback from young people, to bring together qualified

Commissioining Standard for Sufficiency

Individual Assessment

and Care Planning

Commissioining Decision

Strategic Needs

Assessment

Market Development

Collaboration

Securing Services

DE Guidance states:

Needs assessments are the starting point for all commissioning decisions for a child’s services. Care plans which detail the needs of the individual and specify planned outcomes will enable providers to design services around the child and innovate where this will improve outcomes. It will also enable commissioners to set clear performance expectations. Incorrect decisions at this point will lead to vastly inefficient or ineffective service provision and improvements in the capacity, quality or systems for assessment can have a large impact on both outcomes and resources.

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social workers to provide care, support and guidance to children looked after and care leavers (up to age 24 years) to enable them to reach their full potential within their communities, placements or families.

Here4U provides a multi-agency service & centralised support to children cared for by Wokingham Borough Council and young people who are leaving care. The team works closely with its partners in Health, Housing, Education, Police and other Community services. Young people are able to utilise the drop in service where they can access advice from the children looked after health team, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Adviza(1), the Housing department and the Youth service. Every child / young person has a housing plan which includes being on Wokingham’s housing register, A personal education plan is created by the team with the child, school and our head teacher for the virtual school for children in our care. Targeted support focuses on young people who are NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) or young people at risk of becoming NEET; extra training is available which is accredited by the youth service along with priority given to the Council’s apprenticeship scheme. 10.2 Commissioning Decision

It is important that we understand and implement current and best practice in making placements. This will be informed by our permanency procedure and planning guidance as described above.

The recent integration of commissioning placements for CLA into a single operational commissioning team with expertise in commissioning services and extensive knowledge of placement options will improve the commissioning decision process and secure more effective and efficient allocation of resources.

Operational managers will ensure that relevant information from assessments including pen pictures and children’s preferences are communicated to the commissioning team to inform decision making about the best choice of placement.

There is currently multi-agency working within the referral and assessment team to ensure that all aspects of the child and young person’s wellbeing are addressed.

10.3 Strategic Needs Assessment

Commissioning Support Programme guidance indicates that strategic needs assessment will:

1 Adviza is a youth charity, formerly known as Connexions Thames Valley. Adviza work with young people supporting them into education or employment.

DE Guidance states:

The right decision, first time, is the best way to improve placement stability, service efficiency and effectiveness. Decision-making will be most effective when it is informed by the strategic assessment, the resource analysis, the individual assessment and the views of the child. Commissioners who have built a strong decision-making process will reap benefits in terms of better outcomes for children and better use of resources.

DE Guidance states:

Commissioners are dependent on comprehensive aggregate data about the needs of children looked after to prepare for the sufficiency duty. The strategic needs assessment is intended to inform the Children and Young People’s Plan and commissioning strategies for a range of services.

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• be undertaken with partners, including internal and external providers, (e.g. as part of the JSNA) • assess the desired outcomes and needs of all children looked after and children in need at risk

of care or custody, including the needs of their families • cover the full range of needs and outcomes • include short term and long term time scales (up to ten years) • predict demand for both the quantity and quality of services, drawing on a wide range of data • assess the likelihood and impact of unexpected demand and the availability of appropriate

contingency arrangements. Wokingham’s JSNA for 2013/14 has a comprehensive chapter on the needs of the children looked after by the borough.

10.4 Market Management

There has been an increase in the number of children looked after by the Council and the capacity and choices offered in the locality need to reflect this. The Fostering Innovation Project will be a key vehicle for developing and shaping the local market through increasing the number and range of local in-house foster care provision.

Although our primary aim will be to increase in-house provision we recognise the importance of independent foster agencies and carers and will undertake a policy of greater engagement with this group to ensure that services meet needs and that they feel well supported in their work.

However we also need to offer greater support to children on the edge of care and their families and this will be addressed through better support for families who are struggling to cope. Support foster care and shared care schemes will also be developed to enable us to achieve this. This prevention provision should reduce the number of children needing to go into care.

Our permanency plan and procedures will also impact on our market development by contributing to more stable placements.

The lack of choices for older children (16+) has been recognised and we are aiming to increase the number of supported lodgings carers and extend “staying put” arrangements where appropriate.

The operational commissioning team is developing a commissioning policy outlining how we will commission services. This will finalised during 2014.

We will also develop a Market Position Statement along the lines of that recently published for Adult Services, outlining the needs, service requirements and commissioning intentions in relation to children’s services to better inform current and prospective providers about the development and future direction of services. We aim to develop and publish this during 2015.

We will also continue to make use of the South Central Framework agreement and the collective resources that this enables us to access a list of approved providers (28 as part of the framework and a further 24 on the approved list.

DE Guidance states:

Market management – which includes resource analysis and workforce development – is essential to improve outcomes. Commissioners must have effective relationships with all providers (including private, voluntary and public sector providers) to ensure the markets can be incentivised and changed to secure sufficient provision. Commissioners must therefore lead the markets and children’s services system, including universal services and internal services.

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10.5 Collaboration

Multi-agency working is a key aspect of our services and is demonstrated in our safeguarding processes and we will work to ensure that our Health and Wellbeing Board which includes with multi agency representation, fully understands the children’s agenda. Children’s services will report regularly to the board. Co-location of assessment and referral teams ensures joined up partnership working.

Joint needs assessments and commissioning strategies will developed with health and adult services to ensure services are provided efficiently and in a joined up way. In addition arrangements for cost sharing and pooled budgets will be reviewed.

The Head Teacher responsible for children looked after will continue play an important role in advising on placements particularly to ensure that local school options and educational provision will be appropriate for the child or young person.

It is proposed that a Multi-Agency Resource Panel, which would include the Wokingham CCG, should be established to consider the needs of children and young people who require a high cost multi-agency response from social services and health, to achieve value for money and the best outcome for each individual child/young person. The Panel would determine the funding arrangements for packages of care/placements for individual children/young people and aim to ensure that placements and support are commissioned with clearly defined timeframes, quality requirements and outcomes and are reviewed regularly.

10.6 Securing Services

The recent integration of adults’ and children’s operational commissioning teams will enable better sharing of expertise and resources. The team already deploys, or is developing, a wide range of procurement methods to obtain services that meet the child’s or young person’s needs including tender exercises both for general and individual provision, approved provider lists for therapeutic services.

The commissioning team ensures that best use is made of information from the assessment process about the child or young person’s wishes and outcomes to enable services to be tailored to achieve those through well-defined service specifications and targeted procurement activities.

DE Guidance states:

Collaboration refers to the extent to which partners work together to secure outcomes through commissioning, for example, pooling budgets between the local authority, youth justice services and CCGs; managing special educational needs services and services for children looked after as one category; and procuring external foster care in a framework across several local areas.

Collaboration enables commissioners to take advantage of increased scale, in particular to reduce back-office costs, align services, increase market power and transparency, and pool commissioning capacity and capability.

DE Guidance states:

The commissioning mechanisms and performance management options which drive market behaviours and the efficiency and effectiveness of services. This requires commissioners to be familiar with and to employ more sophisticated techniques to optimise outcomes.

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11. Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services Sufficiency Strategy Delivery plan

The below action plan will be regular reviewed on a quarterly basis by leadership team to monitor progress and ensure actions are completed

1. Reduce the number of children becoming looked after, through early intervention and support for families.

Actions Lead Deadline Outcomes

1.1 Review voluntary placements made under S.20 of the Children Act to confirm whether this is still required in order to ensure the placement is still appropriate.

Chris Buckman, Service Manager, CS Social Care

Completed Aug 2014

All children’s status as S.20 placements have been reviewed; all but 3 were confirmed as appropriate and 3 children supported to return to their families. S.20 placements will be reviewed again formally in February 2015 to check whether placements are most appropriate under S.20.

1.2 Develop a more robust and transparent “shared care” model for children with disabilities.

(Link with Disabled Children’s strategy and development of early intervention and personalisation.)

James Burgess, Commissioning and Market Development Manager


April 2015 Model will help to ensure children stay within their family network.

1.3 Re-shape Children Looked After cohort via early intervention to reduce numbers of older children, especially boys, becoming looked after by providing more targeted prevention support to families where children are on the edge of care.



April 2015 Younger children who are looked after will get greater opportunity for permanency

Older children looked after get chance to remain safe in family setting

These opportunities lead to improved well-being, aspiration and outcomes for our CLA.

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2. Reduce the number of residential placements and in particular reduce the number of placements more than 20 miles from the child’s home. Improve permanency for children.


2.1 Re-establish Placement Review Panel to meet regularly to review all residential placements to ensure Right Child, Right Place, Right Time principles are followed.

Ensure there is appropriate governance of and management visibility of placement decisions.

As a result of staff feedback and audits placement review process has been reviewed and clarified

Children’s voice to be heard within placement review meetings

Commissioning support for social work teams to support most appropriate placements and ensure right match for child.

Commissioning support for social work teams to ensure enhanced contract management and ensuring provided service are meeting the needs of the child.



Implemented June 2014

Placements are only made where we have Right Child, Right Place, Right Time.

Outcome has been a reduction in IFA and residential care placements.

Right matches lead to evidenced, monitored needs being met and outcomes agreed in plans being achieved with changes made when improved is needed

2.2 Review all distant residential placements In line with child’s care plan or where holistic needs (including education) are not in line with our aspirations.



Commenced June 2014

Children will be moved to placements within or closer to the borough where this will deliver better and evidenced outcomes for the child, with better and stronger links to Wokingham as their community where appropriate.

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2.3 To deliver SEN provision and develop an integrated and joint offer in partnership with health.

Cathy Roberts, Service Manager Access and Inclusion

April 2015 Children receive appropriate health care support enabling family to meet child’s needs.

2.4 Review Independent Foster Agency placements outside the borough.

All IFA placements are regularly reviewed by managers at placement review panel


Commenced June 2014, takes place every month

The most appropriate placements are made and to support permanency including Special Guardianship Orders.

2.5 Enhance the stability of the social care work workforce in order to offer a consistent and longer term relationship for our children looked after.


Through longer term staff relationships Children Looked gain positive experience, helping them develop their own, stronger, lasting relationships.

3. Reduce out of area placements and improve availability of foster care for all children looked after. Improve recruitment and retention of in-house foster carers to increase capacity and choice of in-house placements


3.1 Commissioned Annex to train all foster carers and selected staff in attachment and re-parenting. Additional support for foster carer outreach (e.g. re-parenting skills training and respite).

The whole Foster family should be offered training and have opportunities to share good practice with other Foster families.


Ongoing; first phase complete by Dec 2014

Children and young people to stay in the foster family home

Increase in placement stability through more holistic support

Fewer children in residential placements and fewer placement breakdowns.

3.2 Fostering Innovation Project to generate more in-house foster carers.

Increase number of in house carers to better match need profile of Wokingham Children Looked After, to achieve the following targets

• 10 more general in house foster carers,

• 3 specialist fosters carers for children with disabilities ,


Patricia Hodge, Placements Team Manager

Commenced May 2014, complete April 2015

Additional foster carers available that better match the need profile of Wokingham’s CLA

Higher proportion of children looked after placed with in house foster carers

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• 5 supported lodgings carers,

• 5 short break carers for CWD,

2 additional parent and baby carers.

3.3 Promote foster caring through an “Ask Me About Fostering” campaign and events.

Launched at September Corporate Parenting Board.

Jackie Ross, Recruitment Officer, Placement Team

Launched Sept 2014

Increased foster carer inquiries

3.4 Identify and promote support from Council as unique selling point of in-house fostering.

Communication plan agreed including new interactive website which supports new interest in care options and existing foster carers


As above Increased conversion rate of enquiries about fostering through to approval.

3.5 Providing training and support for fostering older children, especially teenaged boys.

£25K committed for 2014-15, to commission annex to train all foster carers and selected staff in attachment and re-parenting.

Jackie Ross, Recruitment Officer, Placement Team

Ongoing first phase complete by Dec

Better support to teenage boys in foster care, to increase foster care placements for this group as opposed to residential care.

3.6 Assess past initiatives to attract more foster carers for older children, especially teenaged boys, and apply lessons about what has and hasn’t worked in planning development of future provision.

Analysis of current cohort of fostered boys being undertaken Quality Assessment Team, use this analysis to commission external support to develop early intervention model to prevent need for care.

Chris Buckman, Service Manager, CS Social Care James Burgess, Commissioning and Market Development Manager

Commenced Current and future initiatives are robust and deliver better outcomes in relation to reducing the need for children (especially older boys) to become looked after.

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12. Appendices

Appendix 1

Wokingham’s Pledge

What is Wokingham’s Pledge?

The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 means that Wokingham and other local authorities have to write down a list of promises to their children in care to make sure they are good corporate parents. This list is called Wokingham’s Pledge and was written by the Children in Care Council in consultation with other children in care and care leavers.

What does Wokingham’s Pledge promise to do?

We will only promise you things we know we can do

We will be honest with you at all times

We promise to keep you safe

We Promise to:

Give you a home where you belong and • Try and provide a placement of your choice • Give you information about any home you are moving to • Introduce you to carers beforehand, unless it is an emergency move and have introductory

visits • Fully involve you in plans made for your future promoting your involvement in planning

meetings and reviews providing with you with all minutes and reports from meetings you attend

• Help you understand your past and why you are in care including doing life story work with you

• Help you keep in contact with your family and friends providing a contact schedule that you will be given and if any contact with someone is not possible then give you a clear reason why

• Help you build a photo album of important people in your life and places you have been while in Care and provide you with a ‘treasure box’ to keep all your special papers and possessions in.

• Care and plan for you as an individual person involving you in decisions taking account of your particular needs, especially those relating to your age, interests, disability, race, culture, religion and sexuality.

• To ensure you have an up to date Care Plan • To ensure that when your social worker stops working with you they say a proper goodbye

and whenever possible introduce you to your new social worker

Make sure you get an excellent Education and • Make sure that you have a place at a school that will help you to do your best • To ensure you remain at the same school but if this is not possible to involve you in the

choice of your new school • Take an active interest in what you do at school (e.g. attend parents’ evenings) • Support you in your education plan and in subject/career options

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• Encourage and if necessary help you to do your homework • Celebrate your achievements • Provide you with a range of learning opportunities • Ensure every child in care or young person has access to a computer and safe access to the

internet • Provide computers for post year-11s in full time education including those in further and/or

higher education • Ensure we help you reach your potential with qualifications, training or courses to choose

your future path • Ensure you have copies of school reports

Help you have a Healthy lifestyle and • Provide you with contact details for a named nurse specifically involved with Children in

Care • Make sure you are registered at a Doctor’s • Provide you with access to information on all health issues • Make sure you have regular dental and health check-ups • Point you towards specialist groups and drop-ins • Accompany you to appointments if you wish • Do everything possible to make sure you’ve got the skills and knowledge to keep yourself

healthy and happy now and in the future

To ensure you have fun and • Encourage you to take part in at least one leisure activity of your choice • Provide information on local activities and events • Support you to access sport and leisure facilities • Help you record your achievements by providing an ‘Achievement folder’ for every child in

care • Take an active interest in your hobbies and celebrate your achievements • Involve you in activities/holidays with your carers • To give you the opportunity to go on a school holiday • Celebrate dates that are important to you including birthdays and religious festivals.

Listen to and value your opinions and • If you have a disability make sure that you have your own ‘communication passport’. • Involve you in decisions and plans made about you and make sure you understand them • Make sure you are involved in your reviews • Offer you the opportunity to talk to your Independent Reviewing Officer before your review

and give you their contact details • Offer you the opportunity to be involved in participation and consultation groups such as the

Children in Care Council • Make sure you know who is responsible for you ( including your corporate parents) and how

to contact them • Give you a timely response to any enquiry or request • Make sure you have the opportunity to talk to your social worker alone every time he/she

visits you and know how to contact them

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• We will make sure you know your rights and what services you’re entitled to • You will have clear information and support about how to access all the help you need,

including advocates, making complaints and contacting directors of children’s service • We will be honest with you

Help and support you on the road to adulthood and • Give you good preparation and planning for when you leave care, by providing information

and advice, including drop-ins and groups • Ensure you have your national Insurance number by your sixteenth birthday • Find you work experience placements • Help you find and settle into a new home emotionally, financially, securely and safely • Help you access adult services if you need them • Ensure you have access to an NHS dentist • Make sure you can afford bills and rent if you are in low paid employment and support in

financial difficulties • Help you learn to drive and be confident in using public transport • Help you make the most of your chances for training, further education and employment

including identifying funding • We will make sure you have an up to date passport or understand the reasons why you don’t • If you get in trouble with the police we will make sure that the right adult is there to offer you

help • Ensure you have a detailed Pathway plan • Ensure you have a Personal Advisor from your 16th birthday

Who makes sure we keep our promises?

We don’t always get it right so if you think Wokingham is breaking its promises, you can make your views known through:

• The Children in Care Council • Regular reviews • Your Social Worker • The Children’s Rights Officer • A complaints procedure • Your social worker or carer can put you in contact with any of them or help you with your

complaint directly

If you’re a bit nervous about saying it yourself, you can ask for someone else to help or even to do it for you – these are known as “advocates”.

In addition, the CICC will be monitoring and reviewing the Pledge and they will let us know if they think we are not keeping our side of the bargain. Once a year, they will be suggesting changes to the Pledge if they think it’s necessary.

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Appendix 2

Summary of Placement Information (data as of 31st March) 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Children Looked After 71 78 72 72 86

Residential Placements 9 8 6 5 6

Residential Care Placements 0 0 0 <5 0

Independent foster agency placements 19 15 21 20 21

In-house foster placements 27 37 30 32 43

Independent living with support <5 <5 <5 <5 <5

Independent living without support 0 <5 0 0 0

Placed for Adoption <5 <5 <5 <5 <5

Living with parent <5 5 <5 <5 <5

Residential Schools 7 6 6 5 8

Other <5 0 <5 0 <5

Number of children 0-4 15 16 18 14 17







Number of children 16-17 at BLA date <5 <5 5 5 <5

Children becoming looked after

Total no of children becoming looked after in year 36 33 28 30 45

Number becoming looked after year, looked after on 31/03/ 27 27 23 30 36

Number of children 0-4 new in care 10 8 13 8 11

Number of children 5-10 new in care 8 7 <5 <5 10

Number of children 11-15 new in care 8 9 <5 14 13

Number of children 16-17 new in care <5 <5 <5 6 <5

Children leaving care 42 31 32 36 29

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Residential Placements

7%

Independent foster agency placements

25%

In-house foster placements

50%

Independent living with support

2%

Placed for Adoption1%

Living with parent1%

Residential Schools9%

Other5%

Placements 2013

0-4 31%

5-10 28%

11-15 36%

16-17 5%

Children becoming looked after 2013

0-420%

5-1018%

11-1538%

16-1724%

Ages of children looked after 2013

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Appendix 3:

Additional Information

Care Leavers

Table 1: Current care leavers (total 31) aged 18-21 under the Here4U Team, with details of initial placements.

Initial Placement

Foster Care/ Kinship Family

Supported Lodgings (S/L)

Staying Put S/L

Supported Accommodation Residential

Section 20 12 <5 <5 <5

Section 31 12 <5

Residence Order

<5

Table 2: Current accommodation for these care leavers, including EET/NEET status.

Current Accommodation Family or friend

Supported Accommodation

Staying Put S/L

Independent in LA Housing

Independent in Private Let

No Fixed Abode

EET NEET

5 <5 <5 <5 5 <5 9 8

5 <5 <5 <5 8 5

<5 <5

Table 3: Care Leavers at 19: % in suitable accommodation (source Local Area Interactive Tool)

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Wokingham * * * * * * 83.30 * * 100.00

South East 79.20 80.70 86.40 84.00 85.10 87.40 88.10 86.00 84.60 84.00 Statistical

Neighbours 81.32 83.43 83.90 82.22 86.04 89.44 92.14 88.00 85.64 84.60

England 79.60 83.90 88.00 87.30 88.40 89.60 90.30 90.00 88.30 88.00

( * = Data Supressed in LAIT)

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Appendix 4

WBC Placement Review Panel

Children’s Services

Terms of Reference

June 2014

Value Statement

Wokingham Borough Council believes that children and young people should always be enabled to remain with their parents/carers when it is safe to do so, and it is in their long term best interest.

When a child has to be removed from the care of their parents/carers/extended family children should be placed locally with foster carers who are ‘in house’ unless it is not in their best interests.

Children will only be accommodated voluntarily by Wokingham Borough Council as part of a short term Public Law Outline (PLO) plan.

In exceptional circumstances and with the prior agreement of the Heads of Service, parent’s requests for voluntary accommodation for a short term planned admission may be considered.

Voluntary accommodation (Section 20 of the Children’s Act 1989) should only be used as part of a planned intervention where a return home and permanency within the family is the desired outcome.

IFA carers should only be considered as short term options until an in house foster carer option is identified.

IFA care options should be formerly reviewed on a very regular basis to ensure they continue to meet the child’s needs and offer value to Wokingham Borough Council.

When a child or young person including those with disabilities or special needs is assessed by Health/Education and Social Care as not being able to safely access a foster care option residential care can be considered as an alternative but only following agreement by the Heads of Service (see Multi Agency Review Panel – MARP guidelines).

Principle – Right Child, Right Place, Right Time

Purpose of the Placement Review Panel

To regularly review all residential placements and Independent fostering Agencies (IFA’s) foster care options on a monthly basis to ensure that Wokingham Borough Council:

• Continue to offer the best/most appropriate care options for each individual child taking into account: The evidenced outcome for the child Best financial value for Wokingham Borough Council

• Identify if alternative options may be more appropriate and cost effective and progress and action further searches for alternative options

• Identify predicted end dates for each placement in order to support budget management process.

• Ensure that all options for care and support have been carefully considered and mechanisms such as Family Group Conferences used in order to engage and involve the family and wider network in planning and support which enables the child to remain as connected to their family as possible.

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• Identify if the child or young person can safely be returned to the care of parents or family & friends with an enhanced package of support – which may include respite care, or interim multi agency care package (spend to save) (provided this is in the child’s best interest) to be accessed through Multi Agency Review Panel (MARP)

The Placement Review Panel membership

Core Group 1. Commissioning Manager – James Burgess 2. Finance Manager – James Norris 3. Service Manager, Corporate Parenting – Chris Buckman 4. Team Manager, Placements Team – Patricia Hodge 5. Service Manager, Early Intervention and Assessment Services – Jan Benn 6. Service Manager, QA/IRO – Bernie McCormack

Reporting Case Holding Manager 7. Team Manager, DCT – Ian Stokoe 8. Team Manager, Brambles – Chris Giddings 9. Team Manager, Ambleside – Susan Poole 10. Team Manager, Here4U – Andrea McMahon

Legal advisers, case holders i.e. Social Workers and interagency partners may be requested to attend as necessary.

11. Minute taker – Karen McAuley

Frequency of Panel

The panel will meet monthly for 90 minutes to briefly review all children currently placed in IFA, residential or other costed placement options.

Preparing for panel

Finance and Commissioning Manager will produce a monthly spread sheet in advance of the meeting setting out details of the child, place, cost and other relevant data to be determined by the panel.

Operational case holding managers will ensure they are familiar with the care plan for each child and have up to date information about the current placement.

Decisions made by the panel will be actioned by each respective manager and reported on to the panel between meetings.

The Placement Team Manager will have up to date information about usage and capacity within in house respite and foster care options including Children with Disabilities (CWD).

The QA Team Manager will ensure the IRO service and the view of child, is represented at meetings and ensure placements are meeting children’s needs.

Accountability & Servicing

The CPB Service Manager will report monthly to SMT via a requested agenda item at the performance meeting.

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The Heads of Service will report regularly to the Strategic Director within CSMT and ECSMT and to the Corporate Parenting Board.

Data and performance will be reported as part of the department’s performance score cards.

The development and outputs of this group will form part of the service plan and activity for 2014/15.

The Terms of Reference and effectiveness of the group will be reviewed every six months.

Meeting dates

The first inaugural meeting of this panel will convene in early July 2014 – with a review of the purpose and function in December 2014.

Meetings will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 15:30 to 17:00;

04/06/2014 Agreement of Terms of Reference and first look LAC population not in LA foster care

02/07/2014

06/08/2014

03/09/2014

01/10/2014

05/11/2014

03/12/2014

These dates will be reviewed and may change to bi-monthly meetings.

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Appendix 5

CARE LEAVERS’ CHARTER

The Charter for Care Leavers is designed to raise expectation, aspiration and understanding of what care leavers need and what the government and local authorities should do to be good Corporate Parents. Wokingham’s Pledge for Care Leavers has used this Charter for the basis of their pledge

We Promise:

To respect and honour your identity • We will support you to discover and to be who you are and honour your unique identity. We will

help you develop your own personal beliefs and values and accept your culture and heritage. We will celebrate your identity as an individual, as a member of identity groups and as a valued member of your community. We will value and support important relationships, and help you manage changing relationships or come to terms with loss, trauma or other significant life events. We will support you to express your identity positively to others.

To believe in you • We will value your strengths, gifts and talents and encourage your aspirations. We will hold a

belief in your potential and a vision for your future even if you have lost sight of these yourself. We will help you push aside limiting barriers and encourage and support you to pursue your goals in whatever ways we can. We will believe in you, celebrate you and affirm you.

• To listen to youWe will take time to listen to you, respect, and strive to understand your point of view. We will place your needs, thoughts and feelings at the heart of all decisions about you, negotiate with you, and show how we have taken these into account. If we don’t agree with you we will fully explain why. We will provide easy access to complaint and appeals processes and promote and encourage access to independent advocacy whenever you need it.

To inform you • We will give you information that you need at every point in your journey, from care to

adulthood, presented in a way that you want including information on legal entitlements and the service you can expect to receive from us at different stages in the journey. We will keep information up to date and accurate. We will ensure you know where to get current information once you are no longer in regular touch with leaving care services. We will make clear to you what information about yourself and your time in care you are entitled to see. We will support you to access this when you want it, to manage any feelings that you might have about the information, and to put on record any disagreement with factual content

To support you • As well as information, advice, practical and financial help we will provide emotional support.

We will make sure you do not have to fight for support you are entitled to* and we will fight for you if other agencies let you down. We will support you if you change your mind about what you want to do. We will continue to care about you even when we are no longer caring for you. We will make it our responsibility to understand your needs. If we can’t meet those needs we will try and help you find a service that can. We will help you learn from your mistakes; we will not judge you and we will be here for you no matter how many times you come back for support. We will provide any support set out in current Regulations and Guidance and will not unreasonably withhold advice when you are no longer legally entitled to this service

To find you a home

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• We will work alongside you to prepare you for your move into independent living only when you are ready. We will help you think about the choices available and to find accommodation that is right for you. We will do everything we can to ensure you are happy and feel safe when you move to independent living. We recognise that at different times you may need to take a step back and start over again. We will do our best to support you until you are settled in your independent life; we will not judge you for your mistakes or refuse to advise you because you did not listen to us before. We will work proactively with other agencies to help you sustain your home.

To be a lifelong champion

• We will do our best to help you break down barriers encountered when dealing with other agencies. We will work together with the services you need, including housing, benefits, colleges and universities, employment providers and health services to help you establish yourself as an independent individual. We will treat you with courtesy and humanity whatever your age when you return to us for advice or support. We will help you to be the driver of your life and not the passenger. We will point you in a positive direction and journey alongside you at your pace. We will trust and respect you. We will not forget about you.

* Details of care leavers entitlements are listed in the booklets:

A guide to financial and practical support for care leavers, and

Guidance for care leavers on the grant for setting up home

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Appendix 6

Wokingham Borough Council Children’s Services Foster Carers’ Charter

Introduction

Children come first

• Every child in foster care deserves to experience as full a family life as possible, as part of a loving foster family with Carers who can make everyday decisions in respect of his/her care as they would for their own child and without the child feeling that he or she ‘stands out’ as a Child in Care.

• Children should be given every support to develop their own identities and aspirations, to fulfil their individual potential, and to take advantage of all available opportunities to promote their individual talents and skills. Above all, they should be listened to and respected.

Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services must:

• Recognise in practice the importance of the child’s relationship with his or her foster family as one that can make a significant difference in the child’s life and which may endure into adulthood.

• Listen to and involve foster children and their Carers in decision-making and planning, and provide both foster children and Foster Carers with full information about each other.

• In making placements: o be clear about the care or support that will be provided (including for the child into

adulthood) o recognise that the support needs of both the child and the Foster Carers family may

change over time and keep this under review o Be sensitive to the needs of both the child and the Foster Carer/family at the time of

making and ending placements and have contingency plans in place should any placement not be successful.

• Treat each Foster Carer with openness, fairness and respect, as a core member of the team around the child, and support her/him in making reasonable and appropriate decisions on behalf of her/his foster child.

• Ensure that each Foster Carer has the support services and development opportunities that she/he needs in order to provide her/his foster child with the best possible care. This includes liaising with local Foster Carers’ groups and seeking to address any difficulties and disseminate best practice.

• Make sure that Foster Carers are recompensed for their time and are given clear information about:

o the financial package (fees and allowances) that they will receive o any other support that they can expect to receive o the training opportunities available to them o any holidays to which they may be entitled o any respite arrangements that may be available to them o How any of the above may be affected if the Carer is the subject of an allegation

or complaint. o WBC Children’s Services policies and procedures (that are applicable to the role

of a Foster Carer).

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Foster Carers must:

• Provide positive adult role models for any child/ren placed in their care. • Treat their foster child as they would their own child, and be a “pushy parent” in advocating

for support and services for the child in their care in respect of all aspects of the child’s wellbeing, including health, development, education and aspiration .

• Co-operate fully as part of a team with other key professionals involved in the child’s life. • Support their foster child to enable him or her to achieve to the best of his/her potential. • At all times promote the best interests of their foster child and do all that they can to ensure

that each placement is successful. • Take up appropriate learning and development opportunities in order to continue to develop

within their role. • Seek to develop skills and approaches that enable them to make a positive impact. • Support their foster child to help him or her to counter any possible bullying and/or

discrimination that he/she experiences as a result of his/her care status or birth family background.

• At all times be mindful of the need to protect foster children from harm. Roles and commitment Children’s Services role

Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services aims to provide stable and first class foster care for children in care aimed at supporting and encouraging them to grow and develop as individuals. To achieve this aim, we recruit, train and approve a range of Foster Carers and deliver ongoing support to them. We seek to ensure that the training and support provided both pre and post approval is of a high standard and directly relevant to the fostering task.

Foster Carer’s role

Foster Carers are at the heart of Wokingham Borough Council’s foster care service. They look after children and young people in a family environment, providing them with good quality care, stability, and opportunities and support aimed at enabling them to grow and develop and to reach their ambitions and potential.

Our working relationships are based on mutual trust and respect. This charter explains what we can expect from each other.

WBC’s Children’s Services’ commitment

Foster Carers can expect from us: • Working in partnership • Information • Clarity about decisions • Support • Learning and development opportunities • Fair treatment • Clear communication and consultation.

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• Be listened to Foster Carers’ commitment

The Fostering Service can expect from us: • Working in partnership • Respect for the child • Information sharing • A commitment to learning and professional development • A commitment to good communication and consultation.

What WBC approved Foster Carers can expect from Wokingham Borough Council’s Children’s Services

1. Working in partnership

The authority will recognise the individual skills and experience that individual Foster Carers have and the significant difference they make to the everyday lives of Children in Care.

We will: • Value your knowledge, skills and experience equally to that of other professionals and

recognise that you are the people who live with different children and young people, know them best and want the best for them.

• Include you in all meetings that affect you and the child/young person who you care for, consulting you about your availability when setting up meetings and providing you with adequate notice of when meetings are arranged where possible.

• Ensure that a member of the Fostering Team is available to attend meetings with you where this is appropriate and at your request.

• Ensure that our fostering service meets the standards set out in Fostering Regulations and Guidance (including the National Minimum Standards).

• Treat you without discrimination and respect you as a colleague. • Respect confidentiality.

2. Information

We know that information is vital in order for Foster Carers to provide care that meets the needs of the children and young people who they care for.

We will: • Make every effort to provide you with all the information that you need in order to care safely

for the children/young people placed with you and provide this information in writing prior to placement (except when a placement is made in an emergency and it is not feasible to do so, when we will provide this information as soon as possible after the placement is made).

• Ensure that in advance of each placement a Placement Plan is drawn up in discussion with you and agreed with you (except when a placement is made in an emergency, when this will be done as soon as possible after the placement is made).

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• Ensure that Placement Plans are reviewed regularly via the Child in Care Review process. • Provide you with LAC Review consultation paperwork at least 5 working days in advance of

a child’s Child in Care Review meeting and circulate the review minutes within 20 working days of the review taking place.

• Ensure that you are involved in the ongoing planning for any child or young person placed in your care and that you are informed promptly if there is any significant change in a child/young person’s situation or Care Plan.

• Provide you with information on all financial matters including, fees and allowances, additional entitlements and tax.

• Provide you with full details of all departmental policies and procedures relevant to the role of a Foster Carer.

3. Clarity about decisions

We recognise that in order for foster children to live a full family life Foster Carers must be able to make decisions regarding the day-to-day lives of the children who they foster.

We will: • Ensure that, wherever possible, you are able to make everyday decisions that mean that any

child or young person placed with you are not treated differently to their peers and can feel part of your family.

• Provide clarity about what decisions you can and cannot make at the outset of any placement so that everyone understands who is responsible for what and the process for obtaining specific permissions if required.

4. Support

We recognise that fostering can be an isolating and challenging task and that appropriate and timely support can make all the difference to the success of a placement and the wellbeing of both the foster child and the foster family.

We will: • Provide you with monthly supervision and weekly phone contact. • Provide you with an annual foster carer review. • Be proactive in discussing any difficulties that arise and pro-active in seeking to resolve any

difficulties or disagreements with a minimum of delay. • Provide you with access to 24-hour support from people with fostering expertise. • Respond positively to any reasonable request for additional support (whilst always being

mindful of the best interests of the child/young person concerned). • Pay Carers’ fees, allowances and expenses in a timely manner. • Ensure that there is a local support group, recognised by the Fostering Service, through

which Carers and their families can find support and share experiences with other foster families.

• Provide family events and foster carer forums where there is an opportunity for consultation/feedback and mutual learning.

• Provide a plan of induction to Fostering following initial approval.

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5. Learning and development opportunities

We believe that Foster Carers should be enabled to access learning and development opportunities throughout their fostering careers. This will promote them developing the knowledge and skills that they need, and enable them to develop their practice in order that they can help to transform the lives of the children/young people who they foster.

We will: • Provide Carers and their families with appropriate and relevant training delivered by trainers

who understand the fostering role • Keep the Training Programme that we offer to Carers under regular review. • Provide Carers with development opportunities aimed at furthering their professional

development in their fostering role – this may include taking a mentoring role or providing support to less experienced Carers.

6. Fair treatment

We recognise that Foster Carers have a right to be treated fairly, no matter what the circumstances.

We will: • Consult with our WBC approved Foster Carers before changing any terms or conditions that

directly affect them. • Ensure openness in all of our discussions and communications with our approved Carers. • Ensure that should any WBC approved Carer be the subject of an allegation or complaint:

o You are treated with respect and provided with emotional support and listened to o We adhere to our agreed timescales and keep you informed about the state of our

enquiries o You know the arrangements for the payment of fees and allowances in the event that

she/he is not able to foster while the subject of an allegation. 7. Communication and consultation

We believe that open and honest but sensitive dialogue is the key to a good relationship between Foster Carers and the Local Authority.

We will: • Facilitate regular communication between our WBC approved Foster Carers and:

o the Family Placement Management Team o The Head of Children’s Services. o Relevant Councillors

• Ensure that we consult with our approved Carers in a meaningful way on matters that are likely to affect them as Carers.

• Provide timely feedback from consultations.

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What the Fostering Service can expect from Foster Carers

1. Working in partnership

We will consistently provide a high standard of care and demonstrate positive conduct.

We will: • Use our knowledge and experience to the best of our abilities and make use of our skills in

order to provide all foster children/young people with a positive experience of family life. • Given reasonable notice attend all meetings about the children/young people who we care

for (unless there is an exceptional reason that prevents us doing so). • Work positively and co-operatively with Wokingham Children’s Services and with any other

agencies and/or professionals involved with a foster child, such as school, health and religious establishments, and treat professional colleagues with respect.

• Demonstrate a willingness to work with each child/young person’s birth parents, wider family members and other people who are significant to the child and facilitate contact arrangements that are deemed by the Local Authority to be in the best interests of the child/young person.

• Meet the standards set out in Fostering Regulations and Guidance (including the National Minimum Standards) and to at all times endeavour to follow departmental policies and procedures.

• Respect confidentiality. • Be proactive in discussing any difficulties that arise in our working relationship with the Local

Authority or any particular Officer and pro-active in seeking to resolve any difficulties or disagreements with a minimum of delay.

2. Respect for the child

Every child and young person should be respected as an individual and supported to have their needs met and to achieve their aspirations and potential.

We will: • Respect and promote the religious, linguistic and cultural heritage of all foster children and

young people. • Afford the same level of care and protection to a foster child/young person as we would our

own child in accordance with the National Minimum Standards • Ensure that each child/young person has the right to make decisions regarding his/her own

life, as appropriate to his/her age and understanding. • At all times promote the best interests of each child/young person.

3. Information

We recognise that building and maintaining a high standard fostering service necessitates an open exchange of information between Foster Carers and the Local Authority

We will: • Ensure that we are familiar with all of Wokingham Borough Council’s policies and procedures

that are relevant to fostering and know the expectations that they place on Foster Carers.

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• Inform our Supervising Social Worker promptly about any significant changes in our household.

• Make our Supervising Social Worker aware when we are missing any relevant information about any child or young person placed so that this can be rectified as quickly as possible.

• Inform our Supervising Social Worker at an early stage about any difficulties that arise for us in respect of a placement so that appropriate supports can be put in place to reduce the risk of a disruption.

• Ensure that when sharing information with a child/young person about his/her Care Plan, changes in contact arrangements, etc. we are mindful of the child/young person’s level of understanding and particular needs and consistently support the line taken by the Local Authority so as to avoid confusion for the child/young person.

4. Learning, development and support

We must be enabled to access learning and development opportunities throughout our fostering careers. This will enable us to develop and maintain the skills and knowledge that we need, and support us to develop our practice in order that we can help to transform the lives of the children and young people who we foster.

We will: • Be prepared to continue to develop our knowledge and skills throughout our fostering career. • Attend appropriate and relevant training. • Take up development opportunities that are offered to us which are likely to further our

professional development as Carers. • Let the Training and Development Team know in advance if we are unable to attend

trainings on which we are booked. • Proactively seek to develop positive links with other Carers. • Work co-operatively with our Supervising Social Worker in order to identify and address our

training and support needs.

5. Communication and consultation

We recognise that open and honest but sensitive dialogue is the key to a positive relationship between Foster Carers and the Local Authority.

We will:

• Respond to local consultations and discussion in order to inform the development of the service.

• In order to promote dialogue and a good working relationships take up opportunities to meet with: o the Family Placement Management Team o The Head of Children’s Services. o Relevant Councillors

This is the 2014 review Charter was drawn up between Wokingham Borough Council Children’s Services Approved Foster Carers and Wokingham Borough Council’s Placement Management

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