Keeping the Promise- Care Experienced Children and Young People
North Lanarkshire Council · 13 September 2022
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 13 September 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Education, Children and Families Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref AG/MF Date 13/09/22 PO44.1 Keeping the Promise: care experienced children and young people From Alison Gordon, Head of Children Families & Justice Social Work Services/Chief Social Work Officer E-mail gordonal@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 332001 Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the key developments to deliver the Promise: Care Foundation to support care experienced children and young people. The council’s commitment to improving outcomes for our care experienced children and young people has been explicitly reflected in its endorsement of Keeping the Promise and is integral to the Plan for North Lanarkshire’s aspiration to support all children and young people to realise their full potential. A number of reports to the previous Education and Families Committee, most recently a report on developments in Aftercare Support presented in November 2021, have updated members on the range of work being progressed to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people experiencing, or who have experienced care in North Lanarkshire. This report updates further on number of key areas including on how our Children’s Champions Board and Promise Development Team are ensuring lived experience is central to the change process. The critical role of support offered within our Children’s Houses is highlighted as is planned activity to further enhance our Children’s Carer Service and the wide-ranging work of the virtual school in improving educational opportunities, attainment, and wider outcomes. Recommendations It is recommended that the Education, Children and Families Committee: (1) Note the content of this report and the challenges and ambition of The Promise and the Promise Plan 21- 24 within the context of North Lanarkshire (2) Endorse the actions highlighted as next steps in section 2 of the report The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Support all children and young people to realise their full potential Ambition statement (7) Enhance collaborative working to maximise support and ensure all our children and young people are included, supported, and safe
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1. Background 1.1 The Council has a longstanding commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people who are experiencing care or who are care experienced. This is reflected in the current Children’s Services Plan (2021-23) and the programme of work supporting the Plan for North Lanarkshire. The Council is also a signatory to the Scottish Care Leaver’s Covenant with sets out a range of commitments to improving support for care leavers. Since 2018, an elected member has been appointed as a Care Experience Champion. 1.2 Following the publication of the Promise in February 2020 which set out the findings of the Independent Care Review and a path for a 10-year transformation programme for the delivery of care and family support, full council also passed a motion in August 2020 confirming a commitment to Keeping the Promise to Scotland’s children, young people and their families. The Promise Plan 21-24, published on 31st March 2021 provides a national framework for the first phase of this transformation programme and a benchmark for local improvement activity. 1.3 Our Children’s Services Plan 2021-23 is built around the framework of the Promise and UNCRC and to support delivery the previous Corporate Parenting Task Group has been reconfigured to the NL Promise Partnership – Care. Whilst the delivery of the Promise in North Lanarkshire requires whole system change and a wider focus on holistic support for families, a commitment to support the best possible outcomes for the 668 children who currently experience care across a range of settings, including those supported at home, remains fundamental. 2. Report Improvement Activity 2.1 The Champions Board The North Lanarkshire Champions Board provides a platform for the most senior leaders across services and partner organisations to engage with, listen to and work alongside care experienced young people to develop policy and inform local service development. The Today not Tomorrow (TNT) Group is an established group of older care experienced young people who works with the Champions Board. The Promise Development Team provides support to TNT, assisting them to take forward developments and providing a link to the Council and its partners, as necessary. Two other more activity based groups for younger children and those aged 12-16 also support participation. The Life Changes Trust (LCT) provided funding to support the development of the Champions Board and TNT with this supporting the employment of a Development Worker in Who Cares Scotland to support the groups and work of the Board. This funding ended in December 2021 with a local partnership agreement made to continue core funding. A key development led by TNT over the past 12 months has been the production of an online resource to support managers and practitioners on how to improve record keeping with a focus on the impact of language. A number of young people were also involved in scoping and framing the key qualities required of mental health support for Care Experienced Young People, work they had the opportunity to showcase at a
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national event, Tending the Light, which formed part of the festival of care in February 2022. The Champions Board and TNT held a development session in May 2022. The session reviewed progress and agreed priorities moving forward which are reflected in ‘next steps’ below and provide a focus for further work. The session also provided the opportunity for members of the Champions Board to sign a pledge to reaffirm their commitment to our care experienced children and young people. Next Steps • Collaboration with all partner services to further improve record keeping, taking account of the impact of the use of language. This includes testing in one of our children’s houses, a more personalised framework for recording which meets the needs of the service, but also accessibility and the current and future needs of children and young people. This development includes the introduction of ‘memory boxes’ which children and young people will take with them when they move on. • Hearing children and young people’s voices regarding family time (previously referred to as contact) to inform practice. This is already leading to a move away from standardised arrangements and a greater focus on venue and arrangements which support individual and family needs and sustaining key relationships in particular where brother and sisters are unable to stay together. Both the auditing of care plans and direct feedback from children, young people and their families will be used to measure progress in this area. 2.2 Children’s Houses A successful programme of summer activities tailored to the needs of the children and young people in each house is being delivered in addition to other activities that the children have accessed, including, for example the summer hubs. The activities aim to enhance memories for those living in the houses, contribute to relationship-based practice and provides opportunity to introduce new experiences which enhance their wellbeing Our children’s houses are also involved in a pilot project funded via the CORRA Foundation’s Promise Partnership Fund. This project is being led by Aberlour and Kibble, two organisations who have successfully reduced their use of safe holds and is in line with the aspiration within the Promise Plan to become a nation who don’t restrain their children. A core group of 8 staff have been identified to take the work forward and to ensure a whole system approach in implementation locally there is also representation from education and police. 6 of these staff are participating in The Promise Design school training across July and August to ensure that any developments are taken forward in line with the Scottish Approach to Service Design The houses have continued to develop their outreach work to young people moving to more independent living. We have also been able to facilitate several young people returning to the houses as younger adults, because of trauma and crisis in their lives. This is in line with the aspirations of the Promise, children, and young people’s right to ‘Return to care’ if necessary. To date this has been successful in helping achieve stability for the young people, as well as providing a nurturing experience and keeping them safe.
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Over the past 12 months our Children’s Houses have also been critical to supporting the increase in the number of our unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people who have been placed through the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). The managers and practitioners have been responsive to the needs of the children and young people, who have experienced considerable trauma and disruption. An additional 8 young people under the age of 18 have been placed since the introduction of the new national rota linked to the NTS in October 2021. Whilst some of these young people have been able to move on relatively quickly to supported care or extended family arrangements, receiving young people into our children’s houses has ensured wrap around support is available whilst they settle in, and that their individual support needs are more fully assessed. Next Steps • Continuation of the collaborative work with Aberlour and Kibble to eradicate physical interventions/safe holds. This will include the involvement of children and young people and the Promise Development Team. • Continued development of best practice in supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people, to assist them to reach their potential as young citizens in our communities. • Prioritisation of practice development to promote lifelong relationships, including increasing the capacity for and the consistency of ‘outreach’ work when young people move on including support to parents and children when children return to their families. This will also include consideration of the development of satellite accommodation linked to our houses as well as further supporting the ‘right to return’ wherever possible. 2.3 Review and Development of Children’s Carers Services A Carers Centre was established in North Lanarkshire 13 years ago. The Centre then housed the fostering and adoption team, whose focus was the completion assessments, pre-assessment, and post assessment support to foster carers and adoptive parents. The purpose was to ensure regulations were met and a high standard of care was provided for children and young people who could not live with their parents. In recent years the scope of the carer’s service has been expanded though reconfiguration and the addition of additional teams focussed on supported care and kinship support. The ambition of the Promise includes whole family wellbeing support which stresses that this applies to all families including fostering, adoptive, kinship as well as birth families. We are currently scoping work and engaging with families with a view to reviewing the support offered though the carer’s service recognising the importance of flexible and accessible support which is responsive to changing needs including for adoptive and other families who may experience challenges at particular life stages. The recruitment of sufficient local foster carers also remains a challenge and is reflected across Scotland. Our recruitment strategy has been reviewed and an annual programme of activity in this area is being developed and will include local information sessions across the authority to generate local interest and raise awareness of the range of care provided for children and young people who cannot live with their families, including supported care, short term care and foster care as well as strengthening our support offer.
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Next Steps • To explore how we can create better synergy across our current, fostering, adoption, kinship care, supported care and residential teams to work more effectively as a children’s carers service, to improve the experience of children and young people who cannot live with their parents. This will include consultation with carers on support needs. • Implementation of actions to support carer, particularly foster care recruitment and including targeted recruitment including for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. • Review of carer allowances 2.4 Virtual School The Promise Plan 21-24 demands that schools know and cherish their care experienced children and that school improvement plans recognise the needs of care experienced children with robust tracking of progress so that support can be provided early. The Plan also targets an end to both formal and informal exclusions of care experienced children. The virtual school is central to the support being offered to care experienced children and young people, to ensure a collaborative approach to improving educational outcomes and overall improvements for care experienced children and young people’s wellbeing. Additional short-term resource of 70k has been agreed for the Virtual School from Covid recovery funds to bridge a reduction in funding allocation from the CECYP Grant due to a decrease in the number of children experiencing care, mainly care at home, during the pandemic period. Furthermore, current teacher staffing levels have been increased by 1.0 FTE for session 2022-23 bringing the total number of teachers to five (two primary and three secondary). These teachers are centrally funded and not from CECYP Grant. This enhancement will allow key activities to be sustained and the further provision of teaching support to children and young people who require additional input in order to access learning and achieve qualifications. This model has been successful, in particular for senior pupils identified as at risk of leaving school without formal qualifications. Over the past three sessions, teachers have been able to work with many of these young people individually, resulting in 75 young people achieving over 150 national qualifications. This increases employment and further educational opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged and trauma-impacted young people. The Virtual School has continued to develop vocational opportunities with a wide range of partners. Where possible, vocational learning is accredited, and young people achieve qualifications to support future career choices. A video has been produced outlining the children and young people’s experiences and the positive impact on their wellbeing. Forest School and Outdoor Learning has been a successful approach in engaging a number of children and young people in learning packages, tailored to meet individual needs. Engagement and attendance in these activities continues to be high. Young people enjoy the experience of being outdoors and all participants work towards a qualification. Feedback from young people, their families and schools indicate a positive impact on relationships, emotional regulation, and readiness for learning.
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A base has been created in the Carers Centre which provides space for Virtual School staff to work, meet with children, young people and their families and offer learning experiences. It also provides the opportunity to strengthen links with counselling services, providing a safe and nurturing environment to meet. The space available has been utilised well by Virtual School staff and young people visiting or learning who report that they enjoy their time there and feel welcomed by all staff. A successful summer activities programme has again been delivered, supporting young people and their families to enjoy experiences together including activity camps and family trips to the cinema, local leisure facilities, Glasgow Science Centre, World of Wings and Amazonia. This summer over 400 families have received direct or indirect support from Virtual School via the Intensive Summer Offer from Education and Families. Additional finances and practical support are provided to ensure families can participate. Ongoing work with schools towards fulfilling the ambition of The Promise to end school exclusions has resulted in significant reductions over the past three sessions. • 48% reduction in exclusions for care experienced learners • 59% reduction in days lost due to exclusion for care experienced learners • 39% reduction in number of care experienced learners excluded from school This will continue to be a focus for Virtual School. The Virtual School has initiated and implemented a Promise Champions model in schools across the authority, with schools being recognised for their promotion and work to deliver on the ambitions of the Promise. Currently two clusters have been involved in the Keeping the Promise pilot (over 200 school staff). The model, which has attracted national interest, was developed in collaboration with the Promise Development Team and will continue to be embedded across the authority. Next Steps • Build on what has worked to improve educational attainment, providing opportunities to sustain care experienced children within their communities. • Continued evaluation of the impact of the Virtual School in supporting the wellbeing of care experienced children and their families. • Continue to support the ambition of the Promise to end both formal and informal exclusions of care experienced children. A key role of the Virtual School going forward is to continue to support and track all North Lanarkshire’ schools to progress in this area. 2.5 The Promise Development Team Update The Promise Development Team was established within the Education and Families service to strengthen the infrastructure to support the delivery of the Promise. The establishment of Promise Development Worker and Assistant Support Worker posts targeted at those with lived experience of care has been successful in attracting talented and highly motivated individuals who are committed to improving care withing North Lanarkshire.
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Since its establishment in March 2021, the team has successfully driven a number of actions to support the delivery of the Promise. A team member is the co-lead for the corporate parenting group, the NL Promise Partnership: Care. Team members have significantly contributed to raise awareness of the Promise across the Council and its partners, as well as with care experienced children and young people. The team has taken lead roles in developments including recording practice, family time, enhancement of aftercare provision, support to the Today not Tomorrow group and the Champion Board, as well as contribution to national developments to support the delivery of the Promise, for example the children’s hearing improvement programme. The team have also committed to work alongside the national Promise Team and to participate in the Promise Design School. A team development session took place in May 2022 and provided the opportunity for some ‘blue sky’ thinking and identifying future priorities including, • Further engagement and more input from care experienced Young People and their involvement of strategy and development • Promote and deliver principles of trauma informed practice across services • Family support – all families including kinship, foster and adoptive, needs to link with adult services, parents – mental health, addictions – whole systems approach • Raising awareness strategic groups NL Partnership Board, community boards. Next Steps • Review the team’s workplan, identifying priorities moving forward, taking account of actions from the 2022 development session. • A short-life working group has been established with members of the team to plan for a conference in November 2022. The conference will focus on local achievements and future delivery of the Promise. 4. Measures of success A range of measures relation to specific strands of work described above have been detailed in previous reports to committee and are also reflected in the current Corporate Parenting Strategy and the strategies Improvement Plan the NL Promise Delivery Plan 21-24. These are aligned to the NL Children’s Services Plan, 21-23. 5. Supporting documentation The Promise Plan 21-24 https://thepromise.scot/plan-21-24/ Alison Gordon Head of Children, Families and Justice Social Work Services/ Chief Social Work Officer Education & Families
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The commitment to the Champions Board for the ongoing support to TNT is being delivered though reconfiguration of existing service budgets and contributions from partners. The enhanced after care provision is delivered as noted by national investment in community mental health and wellbeing. Virtual school funding is primarily though the Care Experience Children and Young People element of SAC funding but as noted above has been supplemented for 2022-23 from recovery funds. Allowances for children’s carers carer’s allowances require to be reviewed in the light of cost-of -living pressures as these were last uplifted in 2018 but will need to be considered within available resources. This is to ensure we are well placed to recruit carers and develop enough resilience to meet the demands of our “Closer to Home” policy which seeks to retain care for our children and young people within our own internal care provisions. Proposals will be subject of a further report. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The developments described within this report support the Council to fulfil its corporate parenting duties as set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The Promise, published in 2020 and Promise Plan (21-24) remain the main national drivers for the activity outlined in this report. Specific legislative changes have been
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made through the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 strengthening duties with respect to brothers and sisters and it is anticipated further changes including to the Children’s Hearing system will follow. 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? Mirroring the national picture and work undertaken by the Independent Care Review there are significant human costs as well as financial costs on services locally should work to improve outcomes and support for care experienced young people to succeed and participate fully in community life fail. In the medium term however, there is uncertainty about any additional investment available to support and sustain some of the change required to deliver the Promise in North Lanarkshire. The continued support for our unaccompanied asylum-seeking children although funded through the Home Office as previously reported to Committee is also impacting on capacity in our children’s houses which can impact on ability to meet other demands,