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Corporate Parenting

Policy for

Looked After Children

in Enfield

January 2008

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Contents

Page

Introduction……………………………………………………………….. ….. 3 Member’s Responsibilities…………………………………………………… 3 National Agenda………………………………………………………………. 4 Enfield’s Commitment to our Looked After Children……………………… 5 How We Are Fulfilling Our Commitment……………………………………. 6

Family Support 6 Temporary Care for Children 7 Planning for Permanency/Long Term Care 7 Unaccompanied Young People From Abroad 8 Involvement, Consultation and Advocacy 8 Meeting the Every Child Matters Outcomes………………………………. 9

Be Healthy 9 Stay Safe 10 Enjoy and Achieve 12 Make a Positive Contribution 14 Achieve Economic Well Being 15 Programmes and Services Currently Being Developed…………………. 16 Monitoring the Effectiveness and Quality of the Care We Provide……… 18 Glossary of Terms…………………………………………………………… 18 Appendices …………………………………………………………………… 18

Appendix 1 – Legislation & Guidance 18 Appendix 2 – Care Matters Summary 24 Appendix 3 – Corporate Parenting Group – Terms of 26 Reference

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CORPORATE POLICY FOR LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN IN ENFIELD

Introduction Corporate parenting is the collective responsibility across the local authority to safeguard and promote the life chances of looked after children and young people. Local authorities have a duty to act as good parents for all children in their care. Responsibility for corporate parenting sits with the whole authority, not just children’s social care teams. Councillors, community services, education support, schools and health services all have a vital role to play in helping looked after children to do well. Being a good corporate parent entails:

• Accepting responsibility for children in the Council’s care

• Making their needs a priority

• Seeking the same outcomes for them that any good parent would want for their own children.

The aim of this Policy is to increase awareness and define the ownership of the corporate parenting agenda for London Borough of Enfield councillors and members of staff. The main objectives are to:

• Clarify the roles and responsibilities of corporate parents

• Achieve better outcomes for looked after children

• Set out how we will provide a seamless service, through effective multi-agency working.

Members’ responsibilities

All councillors in Enfield play a key role in ensuring the well-being of Enfield’s looked after children. As corporate parents, members have a duty to ensure that all council services work in partnership and carry out joint planning with health and the voluntary sector in order to promote the welfare of looked after children. All members need to ask key questions about children in care to ensure that they are aware who and where these children are and that they are safe, well looked after and supported by the Council. In October 2003 the Department of Health and the Local Government Information Unit produced ‘If this were my child… A councillors’ guide to being a good corporate parent.’ This guidance provides a series of different questions for councillors

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to ask to ensure the needs of looked after children and young people in their authority are being met. Questions include:

• How many children in need, children on the child protection register, looked after children and care leavers are there in your area? How old are they and what sort of help do they need?

• How well does the authority look after them?

• What is happening to make sure they don’t get into trouble?

• What needs to be done to improve their educational attainment? The full guidance can be found at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/qualityprotects/pdfs/childmain.pdf More recently, the 2007 White Paper Care Matters: Time for Change sets out an expectation that the Lead Member (together with the Director of Children’s Services) should also be able to demonstrate how they maintain contact with children and young people in care to promote their interests.

National Agenda The Children Act 2004 & Every Child Matters The central theme of Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004 is that agencies work closer together to provide better outcomes for children. Every Child Matters identified five outcomes for all children to:

• Be healthy

• Stay safe

• Enjoy and achieve

• Make a positive contribution

• Achieve economic well being As corporate parents, the local authority has the responsibility for ensuring that these outcomes for looked after children and young people leaving care are achieved. It should work closely with partners such as schools and health agencies to do this. Care Matters: Time for Change: the 2007 White Paper, and the Children and Young Persons Bill 2007

In June 2007 the Government published Care Matters: Time for Change. The White Paper sets out new expectations for local authorities to improve the life chances of children in care, across a wide range of areas:

• Corporate parenting

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• Family and parent support

• Improving the quality of care placements

• Improving educational opportunities for children in care

• Promoting health and wellbeing

• Supporting the transition to adulthood

• Delivering the role of the practitioner.

A number of the recommendations within the White Paper will be underpinned by reforms to the statutory framework. These are set out in the Children and Young Persons Bill, published in November 2007 and due for Royal Assent in 2008. The London Borough of Enfield is already delivering some of the expectations within the White Paper and the Bill. We will work together with our partners to ensure that we fulfil all the requirements. See Appendix Two for a summary of the White Paper.

Enfield’s commitment to our looked after children and young people The London Borough of Enfield and our partners are committed to fulfilling our duties as a corporate parent by providing good quality support, care and seeking the same outcomes for looked after children that any good parent would want for their children. This includes their education, their health and welfare, what they do in their leisure time and holidays, how they celebrate their culture and how they receive praise and encouragement for their achievements. We will:

• Provide care, a home, and access to health, education and other public services to which all children are entitled according to their needs

• Support the child’s development

• Protect and educate the child about their life, friendships and relationships

• Share and celebrate in the achievements of our looked after children and young people and support them when they are down.

• Be ambitious for them, encourage them to fulfil their potential, whether through education, employment re training

• Recognise and respect a young person’s growth to independence, being tolerant and supportive if they make mistakes

• Provide consistent support and be available to provide advice and practical help when needed

• Provide occasional financial support; remember birthdays and Christmases or any celebrations within the child’s religion and culture

• Encourage and enable appropriate contact with family members

• Help them to feel part of the community through contact with neighbours and local groups.

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• Be proactive, not passive, when there are known or suspected serious difficulties.

• Tell our looked after children and young people about the services, opportunities and benefits we can offer them.

• Listen to children and young people’s views and take them into account in care planning.

Our vision is: “To ensure (that) children remain the central focus of all activity and actions, through providing services that are delivered in a consistent, appropriate and co-ordinated way where children can develop in safe and supportive families and communities, irrespective of the ethnic and cultural background, gender or disability of the child.”

Our planning for children and young people in Enfield is based on a set of principles that we have adapted from the ‘The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services: Emerging Findings’ document. These principles can be found in ‘Promoting Positive Futures’ Enfield’s Children and Young People’s Plan. Underpinning all our work for children in our care is a commitment to multi-agency working. This is key to making sure that all the needs of our children and young people are met effectively; that none are overlooked. For example, the Health and Education Access and Resource Team (HEART) brings together Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) services, Education services, a specialist nurse service and Connexions services. These services work together to promote children and young people’s educational, social, emotional and physical development by co-ordinating support for children, their carers, social workers and teachers.

How we are fulfilling our commitment Family Support

� We aim to provide an integrated approach to supporting children in their own homes wherever possible. This requires Enfield’s Education, Children’s Services & Leisure and Housing Departments and local Health services to co-operate in supporting families to bring up their children themselves as long as this course of action is consistent with safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare.

� A wide range of community support services is in place to meet the diverse needs of children and families in Enfield. Many children and families are linked to support services run by voluntary organisations in their neighbourhoods. The range of services provided by the Education Children’s Services and Leisure Department includes Family Centre

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services and Family Group Conferences, used to help establish if there are any family members in the wider network able to assist at times of difficulty.

� Provision of services is based on a comprehensive assessment,

undertaken according to government guidelines and in partnership with the family. This identifies the needs of the child and the parent’s capacity to respond to these needs appropriately. The assessment identifies the intervention necessary to secure the well-being of the child and leads to the development of a realistic action plan. In some cases the action plan will include the child being looked after away from home for long or short periods.

Temporary care for children

� Where all supportive measures fail to ensure an adequate level of care for children in their own homes, our aim is to provide good substitute parenting for children and a continuing assessment to establish what services, if any, will facilitate an early return to the child’s birth family. The action plans to assist in the child’s rehabilitation must be pursued energetically during the child’s first months in care, as research indicates that this is when there is the greatest chance of achieving a child’s return to his/her birth family. All other options for substitute care within the child’s extended family will continue to be explored during this period.

� For some children, in order to avoid delay, parallel planning takes place,

which means that while attempts are made to effect rehabilitation to a child’s birth family, plans are also being made to prepare for the possibility of a permanent placement outside that family.

Planning for permanency / long-term care

� Where children are unable to return home and continue to be looked after by the Council, we aim to provide them with a stable, secure placement, which allows them to develop to their full potential. We are committed to placing children with family members better able to meet their needs wherever possible. Where this is not appropriate, we will pursue long term fostering options to prepare for independent living or adoption. The quality of placements is continually monitored. Continuing contact with members of their birth family is arranged where it is in the child’s best interests.

� Adoption will always be considered as a means of securing long-term

stability for a child within a substitute family. To avoid delay for children, we aim to make decisions at the earliest opportunity about whether or not a child needs a permanent placement. Where children have been in long-term placements, plans will be considered to safeguard their position on

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a more secure basis, possibly through adoption or special guardianship. Progress towards carrying out long-term care plans is regularly reviewed by the adoption and permanency panel, looked after children reviews, permanency planning meetings and the Resource panel.

� Adoption and Special Guardianship support services are available to

support adopted children and those on Special Guardianship Orders, and their families. Financial support will be provided to carers eligible for adoption allowances. A post box facility is provided where direct contact between an adopted child and his/her family of origin is not possible.

� The Adoption & Fostering Panels act as independent bodies charged

with making recommendations regarding the placement of children and young people.

Unaccompanied young people from abroad

� Lacking the support of family and friends when they arrive in this country, some unaccompanied young people from abroad are unable to cope with living independently. The priority for the Council is to individually assess their needs as quickly as possible to provide appropriate care.

� Young people who are assessed as needing to be looked after will

remain accommodated until their 18th birthday and will be eligible for the same leaving care services as any other looked after child or young person.

Involvement, Consultation and Advocacy Children in care know what it is like to be looked after and what could be done differently to improve their experience. As corporate parents, the London Borough of Enfield is committed to involving children and young people that are looked after in developing services for them. We believe it is important for young people to feel that they are not only consulted, but that their views have influenced decisions made about their lives. Children and young people must be active participants in care planning and decision making. They are encouraged to take part in their care reviews and given information about options available to them. Their wishes and feelings are ascertained in age appropriate ways and must form part of the review meeting. We promote this participation through the provision of an independent visitors scheme, mentors to support young people, the use of advocates/friends/interpreters. Enfield’s Children’s Rights service is widely publicised and provides looked after children and young people with an independent advocacy service should they wish to use it. We also have a Children’s Complaint Service in place which children and young people can

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approach directly, through an advocate or through a friend or relative. Furthermore: � The Children’s Champion works with the Corporate Parenting Group to

ensure that the Council listens to and acts on the opinions of children and young people looked after.

� Young people will continue to be invited to take part in more formal

planning forums, such as the Corporate Parenting Group, to ensure services are responsive to the needs of children.

Meeting the Every Child Matters Outcomes We are committed to making sure our looked after children achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes. We will work together with our partner agencies to help children in our care to maximise their life chances.

Be Healthy

Nationally, the health and well-being of looked after children and young people together with care leavers is significantly poorer when compared with their peers and this may affect their ability to benefit from education and other life-enhancing opportunities. It also has serious implications for their health and well-being in adulthood. As a corporate parent, Enfield has a duty to promote the welfare of all the children we look after.

� The Council and the Health authority aim to provide each child who starts to become looked after with a health assessment, which identifies a health care plan. This is based on an assessment of the child’s growth and development as well as their physical and mental well-being and consideration of any relevant genetic factors. The specialist knowledge of the designated doctor and nurse ensures that this group of children, who may already have suffered adversity due to previous life experiences, are not further disadvantaged by becoming looked after.

� The health care plan also promotes good health by ensuring that children

receive an adequate and nutritious diet, exercise, protection from accidents, immunisations and developmental checks, dental and optical care. All children’s health care plans ensure that they receive age appropriate advice and information on issues that have an impact on health including sex education and substance misuse. For care leavers, pathway plans include a comprehensive assessment of their health needs.

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� The content of the health care plan is reviewed yearly to ensure that agreed plans are carried out to the benefit of the children, and meet all the child’s health needs.

� Any specific health needs arising from disability, abuse or ethnicity are

taken into account in assessment, care planning and review processes.

� Health care plans include the young person’s mental health needs. The experiences that result in children being looked after leave them at far greater risk than their peers of developing mental health problems, which may continue into adulthood without early intervention.

� Education, Children’s Services & Leisure and Health Services will further

co-ordinate their efforts to provide a comprehensive CAMHS service to those children looked after locally and outside the borough and to provide linkages with adult services for care leavers. Close working relationships include the identification of designated lead clinicians for looked after children. Additionally, the HEART’s CAMHS service offers consultation and support for front-line workers and carers as well as direct work with children and young people.

� Children and young people placed outside the borough will be linked to

local CAMHS services, and links will be established with adult mental health services for care leavers.

Stay Safe The Children Act 2004 places a key duty on local authorities to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) have been established to ensure that key agencies work together to safeguard children and young people. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as;

• Protecting children from maltreatment

• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development

• Ensuring that children are growing up consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

• Undertaking that role to enable children to have maximum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.

As corporate parents, the London Borough of Enfield is responsible for ensuring that all looked after children are safe, well looked after and supported. � All looked after children and young people in Enfield will be treated with

respect and dignity and will be protected from maltreatment, neglect,

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violence and exploitation. Partner agencies work together closely to ensure that this is the case.

� Enfield Fostering Service aims to provide safe, secure and effective

family placements for children and young people who are unable to live with their birth parents.

� The Fostering Service ensures that foster carers are given the

information they need to undertake their role of caring for children, keeping them safe and promoting their welfare. They are provided with regular and ongoing training in addition to a foster carers’ handbook containing information to help them in their role.

� The Council will work with other agencies including the police to ensure

that looked after children do not become involved in criminal activity, either as victim or perpetrator.

Enjoy and achieve Education Evidence shows that educational achievement is the most effective way to improve outcomes for children and break cycles of deprivation. Achieving educational qualifications is a significant factor in improving the life chances of children looked after. The importance of co-operation across services and between authorities in improving the educational achievement of looked after children is recognised in The Children Act 2004. Section 52 of the Children Act 2004 introduces a duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of looked after children and young people leaving care. The Care Matters White Paper sets out further expectations about the local authority’s role in promoting educational achievement for all children and young people in or leaving care. The London Borough of Enfield is committed to meeting the educational needs of looked after children and young people leaving care. All Council departments will work in partnership to ensure that adequate resources and services are guaranteed to achieve the best possible outcomes for children looked after. � All looked after children and young people of statutory school age should

be in appropriate full-time education, with the right support at home and in school to achieve their potential. Because changing schools can cause children serious difficulties by disrupting their course work and their social relationships, Enfield Council tries to ensure that placement changes are

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kept to a minimum and schooling is arranged before any moves take place.

� Raising the attainment of care leavers is a stretch target within Enfield’s

Local Area Agreement. As part of this, the HEART team is closely monitoring the progress of looked after children through the education system. This enables us to intervene early and bring in extra support where it is needed. When young people do less well at key stage 4, the Council works with further education providers to identify ‘second chances’; opportunities to continue in education and achieve qualifications.

� All looked after children and young people are supported by the Council

in accessing suitable pre-school education and further or higher education, wherever appropriate. Looked after young people attend meetings in year 11 to discuss their next steps. A learning advice worker is funded through LAA pump priming monies to help raise attainment and reduce the risk of looked after young people not entering education, employment or training (NEET). This post has a particular focus on working with young people placed out of borough. To encourage looked after young people into higher education, Enfield provides them with an educational grant.

� Carers, teachers and social workers are provided with regular training

and support to ensure that education has sufficient importance in plans made for each child. They note the child’s achievement at all key stages and encourage the child to consider further education and training to maximise opportunities in adult life.

� Collaboration between carers, teachers and social workers is being

strengthened to ensure that education is recognised by all parties as an essential component of the care planning and statutory reviewing procedures for each child. All Enfield’s maintained schools have a designated teacher with specific responsibility for ensuring that the needs of looked after children are met in each school.

� The Council aims to ensure that each child and young person has a

detailed personal education plan (PEP) addressing their educational needs and attainments. All care leaver’s needs assessments and pathways plans include a comprehensive assessment of education, training and employment needs & wishes in an achievable career plan.

� The Council works closely with schools and other LEAs to ensure that

national standards and targets concerning the achievement and attainment of looked after children are met.

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� Looked after children and young people are prioritised in the schools admissions process. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 gives local authorities the right to direct schools to admit looked after children even if they are fully subscribed, and we will continue to work with schools to make sure looked after children are a priority.

� A high level of support is provided to looked after children and young

people who are at risk of exclusion. Exclusion is an absolute last resort and the Council works with schools to identify solutions to maintain pupils in schools.

Youth & Leisure Services Participation in positive activities can make a considerable contribution to children and young people’s development and their emotional and physical well-being. This is especially important for children and young people looked after. Play, arts and creative activities, leisure, sport and recreation opportunities provide skills and experience needed to support success in adulthood. They can help overcome social exclusion and lead to positive outcomes in health, educational attainment, employment and crime reduction and the forming of important social networks for children and young people looked after and leaving care. The London Borough of Enfield is committed to improving outcomes for children and young people looked after, including children with disabilities, by providing access to a variety of play, arts and creative activities, leisure, sport and recreation opportunities. We encourage looked after children and young people to play an active part in the local community, its opportunities and activities as a whole: � The Council aims to provide accessible after school resources/purposeful

activities and local leisure, cultural and youth services for looked after children (including activities specifically for children with disabilities). For example, cultural activities taking place for looked after children include an international cultural exchange project to Paris and the Moving Stories project, creating moving image ‘story books’.

� Through training and support groups, foster carers are encouraged to

take children to local theatres, arts centres, libraries, museums, galleries, leisure centres and sports clubs.

� Children and young people and their key workers are encouraged to

include their cultural and sporting achievements in Personal Education Plans.

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Make A Positive Contribution

Personal Identity � The Council will ensure that the specific needs of each child are

assessed and met and that their individuality is actively nurtured and encouraged. Their needs arising from disability, ethnicity, culture, religion and language will be given priority in formulating their care plans.

� Plans include language support for children where English is not their first

language, while they need it, and encouragement and support to participate in religious or cultural activities which relate to their own background.

� Children’s life stories and family histories are carefully recorded in ‘Life

story books’ to ensure that they have access to information about their own backgrounds at all stages of their development.

� Children & Families services have developed a carefully considered

policy with regard to parental contact. This covers all types of circumstances but aims to provide children with as complete a sense of their history and background as possible. Research shows, that in most cases, this will aid their future well-being. According to the child’s care plan, contact will range from free and open contact with family members to information shared by post at set times of the year.

� Family experiences through play, arts and creativity activities, leisure,

sport and recreation opportunities provide important positive reinforcement to personal development and self-image for children and young people. This sector of services (provided by the Council, private sector and voluntary sector) can contribute to personal plans and life story books to underpin self development work.

Emotional and Behavioural Development � Enfield Council make every effort to enhance children’s life chances by

helping them gain control of and understanding of themselves, their histories, as well as the separation and loss that they have experienced by not living with their natural families.

� We aim to support looked after children’s emotional development by

reducing the number of placement moves that they have to make, thus helping to preserve important connections and links. Research has shown that placement stability greatly increases the chances for positive outcomes for looked after children. Placement stability is a Local Area

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Agreement stretch target, and Enfield is making good progress towards this target.

� Each child or young person requiring a long-term placement is matched

as quickly as possible to carers who are assessed as being able to meet their needs. Delays in finding such placements are reviewed regularly at the weekly placement panel.

� Where children are placed in long-term therapeutic or residential

placements, we aim to give them access to specially recruited foster families for periods of respite care so that they also experience family life.

Family and social relationships � The Council will promote contact between a looked after child and his or

her family members, family friends and/or significant others, where this is in the best interest of the child. To help maintain these links, looked after children, especially those in short term placements, are placed as near to their family home as possible in order to facilitate contact and maintain positive community relationships.

� Parents, guardians or social workers will be given regular information

about their child’s progress at school and in placement. Self Confidence � The Council ensures that measures are taken to improve the confidence

and self-esteem of all looked after children. These include supporting their involvement in leisure time activities, helping them to develop new interests, and involving them in training initiatives that provide them with new skills. These activities help children to understand how they present themselves to others and to raise their awareness of their self-presentation in general.

� The Council provides funding to meet children and young people’s

personal needs including meeting particular needs deriving from their culture, religion, language or disability.

Achieve Economic Well-Being Building Independence � Children and young people of all abilities who are looked after are

encouraged to take on age-appropriate responsibilities for self-care and other practical tasks which will help them gradually acquire independence skills. Carers in fostering and residential settings give children and young

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people the opportunity to develop their confidence to be able to look after themselves. By practising these skills under supervision and in a safe setting, children and young people will learn and gain a sense of what independence entails.

Housing Housing has an important role to play in enabling children to live locally and avoid high cost social care or educational alternatives. As a corporate parent, Enfield council is committed to ensuring that looked after children and young people and care leavers have access to safe, suitable and specialist accommodation based on their housing needs. Wherever possible: � Children with disabilities are supported locally - either in their own

homes with additional services, or in local foster homes, and special needs housing and adaptations to properties are available to parents and foster carers.

� Foster carers/kinship carers can be helped with housing - (either

extending their homes or assisting them to move) to enable them to take additional children, including sibling groups.

� The housing needs of young people leaving care are met -

(as required by the Children Leaving Care Act 2000). The Council makes every effort to ensure that care leavers are helped to access high quality and appropriate housing. The housing needs of young people leaving care are addressed as part of the young person’s pathway plan and are jointly assessed with housing. Support is provided for first tenancies to increase chances of success.

Programmes and services currently being developed

� The Council, working with partner agencies, is developing an Education Champions scheme to help raise the attainment of looked after children. Senior managers from across the authority will act as ‘interested godparents’ to individual looked after children by monitoring children’s educational progress and asking the same questions any parent would about their child’s schooling. A pilot of the programme is due to be launched in Spring 2008.

� From 2008, looked after children and young people will be screened

regularly and routinely to assess their emotional wellbeing. This will allow us to identify and address potential problems before they escalate.

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� The Council already provides free music tuition in schools. We will publicise this to foster carers and schools to encourage take up of music tuition.

� We will develop a Children in Care Council to further engage looked after

children in the development of services for them. � The Children’s Rights service is co-ordinating Total Respect Training for

professionals who work with looked after children in either front-line or strategic roles anyone who has responsibilities as a corporate parent. Training is planned and delivered by young people and is intended to raise professionals’ understanding of young people’s experiences of care.

� Enfield Council is reviewing provision in the light of the Care Matters

White Paper and the Children and Young Persons Bill. If the review identifies areas for service development, we will develop provision as necessary.

� A Looked After Children Working Party recently conducted a review of

Enfield’s services for looked after children. The recommendations within the report have been agreed by the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel and Cabinet. We are currently looking at how to take these forward.

Monitoring the effectiveness and quality of the care we provide

� Each child and young person’s care plan is regularly reviewed within the statutory time-scales and new arrangements made to achieve the aims listed above in light of the child’s changing circumstances.

� A Corporate Parenting Group meets quarterly to ensure that all

departments co-operate in providing services to looked after children, and councillors are involved in planning and resourcing services. (See Terms of Reference - Appendix 3)

� The Council monitors the effectiveness of its corporate parenting by

measuring performance figures, Annual Performance Assessment Indicators and Local Public Service Agreement/ Local Area Agreement targets. Taken overall, evaluation of services against these targets enables the Council to establish the effectiveness of the care provided for looked after children over time and to take remedial action where necessary.

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� The Council regularly monitors the cost of placements and will link this information to the needs of individual children and the outcomes of placements so that judgements can be made about quality, effectiveness and cost in meeting identified needs to provide best value services.

� The Council is a member of the Institute of Public Finance LAC

Benchmarking Club. This club focuses on the unit costs per LAC in local authority homes, independent sector homes and foster care. It then enables us to make comparisons with other members of the club and to see how our unit costs compare from year to year. At present Enfield’s unit costs are generally in line with the average costs of the other local authorities.

This policy document will be subject to regular review and will be amended in the light of new government guidance or the views of users of services for looked after children.

Glossary of terms Parallel planning: the process by which plans are made both to return a child to its family of origin and to find a permanent placement so that if the rehabilitation plan fails there is no delay in the child being placed in a permanent family Child care review : a continuous process of planning and reconsideration of the plan for a child. Information is collected and consultation takes place with the child, carers, parents and significant others before a meeting is held to discuss the plan Post box contact: the process by which parents who can no longer have face to face contact with their child can still continue to receive information about their progress. This usually occurs when children are permanently placed for adoption and adoptive parents supply information to a third party who passes it on to the birth parents Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: subject to Parliamentary approval, this process will be made statutory. It is an assessment of local need for children and young people, which must be carried out jointly by councils and PCTs.

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Appendix One – Legislation & Guidance

Legislation The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN 1989) The overarching framework of principles provided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN 1989) ratifies by the UK Government in 1991. The full text is available online at: http://www.hri.org/docs/CRC89.html The Children Act 1989 The Children Act 1989 is the key piece of legislation with respect to corporate parenting and sets out the duties of local authorities in relation to children looked after by them. The full text is available online at: http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1989/Ukpga_19890041_en_1.htm Housing Act (1996) The above Act makes provisions that clarify the responsibilities of local housing authorities in relation to all aspects of housing. In particular, the guidance that accompanies the Act sets out responsibilities in relation to ‘vulnerable’ people. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/1996052.htm Data Protection Act 1998 This Act regulates the holding and processing of personal data, which is held on computer or in manual form. The data protection principles require that information is obtained and processed fairly and lawfully; is only disclosed in appropriate circumstances; is accurate, relevant, and not held for longer than is necessary; and is kept securely in accordance with organisational policies and procedures. http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980029.htm The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 places a duty on local authorities to assess and meet the care and support needs of children leaving their care. Authorities must keep in touch with care leavers; ensure they have a Pathway Plan, a personal adviser and suitable accommodation; and assist with the costs of education, training and employment. These duties recognise that parental support would not normally come to an abrupt end at the age of 16. The full text is available online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000035.htm Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 This Act makes “provision about the assessment of carers' needs; to provide for services to help carers; to provide for the making of payments to carers

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and disabled children aged 16 or 17 in lieu of the provision of services to them; and for connected purposes.” The full text is available online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000016.htm Education Act 1993, Education Act 1996, Education Act 1997, Education Act 2002 and Education Act 2005. The above Acts make provisions that clarify the responsibilities of local education authorities in relation to all aspects of education. In particular, the Acts set out responsibilities in relation to children with special educational needs and the provision of education away from the usual school environment. The Education Act 2005 can be found online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2005/20050018.htm The Adoption and Children Act 2002 The Adoption & Children Act 2002 aligns adoption law with the Children Act to ensure the welfare of the child is paramount and confers new duties on local authorities to provide adoption support services and on the courts to ensure adoption cases progress with appropriate speed. The full text is available online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20020038.htm The Children Act 2004 The Children Act 2004 places Framework and Children's Partnerships on a statutory footing and places a duty on local authority and key partner agencies to co-operate. Each local authority will be required to designate a lead director and lead member of children and young people’s services. The Act also makes provision for the sharing of information between agencies for the purposes of child protection and places a duty on local authorities to promote the education of looked after children. The full text is available online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/20040031.htm The Education and Inspections Act 2006 The Act gives local authorities enhanced powers to direct schools to accept children in care, even where schools are oversubscribed. The full text is available online at: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2006/20060040.htm Children and Young Persons Bill 2007 The Bill proposes new legislation to underpin some of the recommendations within Care Matters. It includes proposals to increase placement stability, strengthen the role of Independent Reviewing Officers, extend the duty to appoint an independent visitor to all young people and put the designated teacher role on a statutory footing. The Bill is due for Royal Assent in 2008. http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2007-08/childrenandyoungpersonshl.html

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Guidance Every Child Matters: Change for Children Every Child Matters: Change for Children sets out the national framework for local change programmes to build services around the needs of children and young people so that we maximise opportunity and minimise risk. http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/publications/?asset=document&id=15516

Councillors’ Guide to Being a Good Corporate Parent This guidance provides a series of different questions for councillors to ask to ensure the needs of looked after children and young people in their authority are being met. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/qualityprotects/pdfs/childmain.pdf Guidance on the Education of Children & Young People in Public Care The DfES and the DoH produced joint guidance on the education of children and young people in public care. The guidance sets out the following corporate parenting education principles:

• Prioritising education

• High expectations – raising standards

• Inclusion – changing attitudes

• Achieving continuity and stability

• Early intervention – taking priority action

• Listening to children The joint guidance also sets out the range and number of individuals and agencies that may be involved in delivering ‘corporate parenting’. http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/socialcare/lookedafterchildren/educationalachievement/ A Better Education for Children in Care This report examined the barriers that prevent children in care achieving their educational achievement, it identified five key factors leading to the educational achievement of looked after children:

• they spend too much time out of school;

• their lives are characterised by instability;

• they do not have sufficient help with their education if they fall behind;

• primary carers are not expected or equipped to provide sufficient support and encouragement for learning and development; and

• they have unmet emotional, mental and physical health needs that impact on their education.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force/documents/publications_1997_to_2006/abefcic_summary_2.pdf Promoting the Health of Looked After Children In 2002 the Department of Health published guidance ‘Promoting the Health of Looked After Children’. As corporate parents Councils have a duty to

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promote the welfare and ensure the well-being of all children who are looked after by them. http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4060424.pdf Healthy Care Healthy Care is a national programme funded by the DfES, designed and developed with the NCB to be used as a key mechanism for the delivery of the DoH 2002 guidance. It aims to promote the health and well-being of looked after children by enabling them to:

• Experience a caring, supportive and sustainable relationship with a carer

• Live in an environment and wider community which promotes health and wellbeing

• Access health assessment, treatment and care

• Develop emotional and social life skills to maintain their own health and wellbeing now and in the future as adults

Improving the health and well-being of looked after children and young people has many advantages, including; reducing substance misuse and unwanted teenage pregnancy, improving the sexual health and mental health of looked after children. http://www.ncb.org.uk/Page.asp?sve=783 National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services is a 10 year programme intended to stimulate long-term and sustained improvement in children’s health. It aims to ensure fair, high quality and integrated health and social care from pregnancy, right through to adulthood. The NSF is applicable to all agencies/services that come into contact with or deliver services to children and young people and aims to result in services that are designed and delivered around the needs of children and families. This places a duty on agencies to work together to provide better outcomes for children and young people. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Policyandguidance/Healthandsocialcaretopics/ChildrenServices/Childrenservicesinformation/index.htm Quality Protects/Choice Protects The Quality Protects programme was launched in 1998, one of the main aims was to improve the well being and life chances of children looked after by local authorities. It highlighted the concept of corporate parenting - the collective responsibility across services and across councils to safeguard and promote the life chances of looked after children.

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Choice Protects was launched in March 2002 to improve outcomes for looked after children through providing better placement stability, matching and choice. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/qualityprotects/ Working Together to Safeguard Children Working Together to Safeguard Children is a guide for inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children produced by the DfES. This describes the arrangements by which agencies should work together to safeguard and promote child welfare. http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/resources-and-practice/IG00060/ Care Matters: Time for Change – the 2007 White Paper As detailed in Appendix Two, Care Matters sets out the Government’s commitment to improving the life chances of children in care and care leavers. It outlines the Government’s plans to invest an extra £300 million to ensure that children in care get a better start in life and sets out a range of expectation, obligations and recommendations for local authorities as corporate parents. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/timeforchange/

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Appendix Two: Care Matters: Time for Change – summary of the White Paper, June 2007 The Paper sets out guidance and expectations for local authorities to improve the life chances of children in care. It sets out a number of expectations across a range of themes:

Corporate Parenting

Local authorities need to develop a ‘Pledge to Care’ setting out what services and support are on offer. Lead Members and Directors of Children’s Services have responsibility for driving improvements. They should be easily accessible to looked after children through the creation of a ‘Children in Care Council’, giving children and young people a stronger voice in service planning. Family and Parent Support Councils should analyse profiles of the care population in order to ensure that appropriate services are available both for children in care and for vulnerable children living with their parents. They should work with birth families whilst children are in care and support families when children return home. The Government will legislate to make it easier for relatives to apply for residence orders to support children to remain within the extended family. In addition, there will be funding to develop therapy programmes for older children and young people on the edge of care. Improving the quality of care placements The White Paper sets out an expectation that out of borough placements are only used if they are in the child’s best interests, and authorities must ensure that equal support is provided to these children. All children in care, regardless of where they are located, should be visited regularly by their social workers. The Government will also introduce a revised set of National Minimum Standards for fostering, adoption and care homes. There will be accompanying guidance issued and improved access to specialist training and support for foster carers. Improving educational opportunities for children in care Local authorities will be expected to arrange appropriate early years provision for under 5s in care. They will have new powers to direct schools to admit children in care, even when schools are fully subscribed. Authorities are expected to ensure young people in years 10 and 11 do not move schools wherever possible. The Government will make it a statutory requirement to have a Designated Teacher role in each school; these

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teachers will be given extra training and guidance on their roles. Both schools and local authorities are expected to develop strategies to improve attendance and reduce exclusions for children in care. Promoting health and well-being Children in care should be given priority access to free leisure and music facilities and a priority status in local youth work. Leisure activities should form part of care planning and a new responsibility will be placed on the Director of Children’s Services to ensure children in care participate equally in positive activities. The needs of children in care will form part of the new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and there will be new standards for pregnant young women and young mothers in care. Supporting the transition to adulthood Local authorities will be prevented from discharging young people prematurely; young people will be fully involved in these decisions. Councils are expected to consider what training and employment opportunities they can offer young people in care or leaving care. Care leavers in education will have the right to support from a Personal Adviser until they reach the age of 25. Furthermore, the Government will introduce a national bursary for young people in care going on to higher education. Developing the role of the practitioner The paper sets out plans to introduce a Newly Qualified Social Worker status to ensure adequate training is provided to new social workers working with vulnerable children. The skills and training of all social workers will be developed and more funding will be allocated to local authorities to enhance investment in ICT so that social workers can work more flexibly. This will allow them to spend more time with children. The role of the Independent Reviewing Officer will be strengthened, with new expectations for them to spend time with each child prior to any review. Furthermore, new legislation will ensure all children in care get the opportunity to have an Independent Visitor, if they would benefit from this relationship. Local authorities should also provide any children and young people who wish to make a complaint about their care with access to independent advocacy support. The Government will support local authorities to meet these expectations by providing a funding package of £305 million nationally over the next four years. They will introduce a new legislative and regulatory framework in the near future to underpin these expectations.

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Appendix Three: Corporate Parenting Group Terms of Reference This group has been set up to take forward the concepts embedded in central government’s Quality Protects programme to transform children’s services. This initiative emphasised the fact that looked after children are not the sole responsibility of social services. The council as a whole is the corporate parent and members and officers must accept responsibility for children in the council’s care, make their needs a priority and seek for them the same outcomes that any good parent would want for their children. Membership:

• The group will consist of members, senior representatives from council departments and partner agencies who provide services for looked after children and their families, officers who provide services directly to looked after children and representatives who can speak either directly or indirectly for looked after children.

• Children and young people will be actively encouraged to give their views and their contributions will be sought and developed in a variety of ways.

• The following council departments and partner agencies should be represented because of their key role in providing services which could benefit looked after children and young people:

� Children’s social care, health, mental health, education, leisure

and housing Links to other organisations:

• The Corporate Parenting Group is a sub-group of the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership. It has responsibility for the oversight of all services for looked after children and has a sub group focussing on the needs of care leavers. The group will report on an annual basis to the parent body, the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership.

• The Corporate Parenting Group acts as the steering group for the HEART team ( the Health and Education Access and Resources Team) and will give the strategic direction to the service.

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• Links between the Leaving Care steering group and the Corporate Parenting Group are maintained by the chair of the leaving care group being a member of the corporate parenting group.

Purpose of the Group

• To agree upon and to co-ordinate the development of specific services and practice initiatives across partner agencies and between different organisations.

• To review the provision of current services to see if they are meeting the needs of looked after children and providing seamless and joined up services

• To jointly consider actions in relation to changes in legislation, guidance and related initiatives.

The steering group will meet on a quarterly basis. Attendance to be viewed by members as a priority and, where possible, arrangements will be made for a substitute to attend if personal attendance is not possible. Because this is a multi-agency group, all members agree to avoid the use of acronyms and language which may inhibit understanding and communication with fellow members. Legal framework: Children Act 1989 The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 The Adoption and Children Act 2002 Guidance on Promoting the Health of Looked After Children Guidance on the Education of Children and Young People in Public care Central government initiatives: Quality Protects Choice Protects Education Protects