Keeping the Promise - Care Experienced Children and Young People
North Lanarkshire Council · 28 February 2023
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 28 February 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Education, Children and Families Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref Date 28/02/23 Keeping the Promise: Care Experienced Children and Young People From Alison Gordon, Chief Social Work Officer (Education, Families, Justice and Integrated Practice) 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. Several reports to the previous Education and Families Committee, the most recent a report on developments presented in September 2022, 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 currently being updated. It is anticipated that the format will continue to be built around the framework of the Promise and UNCRC. 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 – Progress Update The Champions Board and Promise Partnership 2.1 The North Lanarkshire Champions Board provides a platform for 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 work 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. In addition, two more activity-based groups for younger children and those aged 12-16 also support participation. A Development Worker in Who Cares Scotland supports the groups and work of the Champions Board. This post is financed by the council and its partners. An example of joint work by TNT and the Promise Development Team continue to support the implementation of Promise is the promotion of the online resource to support managers and practitioners on how to improve record keeping and make this more child-centred with a focus on the impact of language – attached as Appendix 1. 2.2 TNT have also produced a helpful quick guide to good corporate parenting, attached as Appendix 2, and in collaboration with the Promise Development Team, facilitated a development session with the NL Promise Partnership: Care Foundation, the corporate parenting task group of the Children’s Services Partnership. Actions, including the possibility of re-naming the group to better reflect the group’s purpose and its collaboration with children and young people, will now be taken forward. 2.3 Following the successful scoping and framing of the key qualities required of mental health support for care experienced young people and presenting this at a national event last year, some of the groups have been involved in the procurement process for
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a counselling service, with its focus and delivery shaped to meet the particular needs and preferences of care experienced young people. This has been a great example of co-production in North Lanarkshire using lived experience to ensure services are targeted effectively and are accessible. 2.4 The Champions Board also support a range of wider activity to engage care experienced children and young people throughout the years, most recently a successful Christmas ‘movie night’ in the Cumbernauld Theatre complex. A number of care experienced children and young people and corporate parents from across the partnership, including elected members, enjoyed a screening of film, Elf and gifts for the children and young people were distributed. 2.5 Celebrating Care Care week was held in October and all of the children’s houses along with TNT ensured this was a great celebration of the achievements of our care experienced population. Each children’s house took a foundation of The Promise as their theme and arranged events celebrating this aspect of care. Who Cares and TNT arranged a showcase event highlighting the talents of our young people. 2.6 Promoting the Promise In collaboration with TNT and the Promise Development Team, the council and its partners have organised a Promise Conference: Building a Promise Community, which will take place on the 03/02/23. The conference was agreed by the Council’s Policy and Strategy Committee in September 2022 as a vehicle to continue to build ownership of the Promise across North Lanarkshire and in line with this aspiration planning for the event has been taken forward by a partnership group and the Promise Team. The conference will provide the opportunity for partners to consider developments to date, to identify future priorities and to engage our communities and partners beyond children’s services in future actions to support delivery. 2.7 Next Steps • Recording practice steering group to take a stock take of achievements and progress to date and develop a revised action plan for 2023/24. • Delivery of the Promise Conference: Building a Promise Community is delivered, actions and legacy identified and incorporated in action planning for the implementation of the Promise. • Further development of the Corporate Parenting Task Group/NL Promise Partnership – Care to allow for a more collaborative approach. This will provide greater opportunity for hearing children and young people’s voices and allow them to shape service design.
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Children’s Houses 2.8 Outreach work continues to be maintained and further developed by those working in the houses to support young people moving to more independent living. The houses have facilitated a ‘return to care’ for a small but significant number of younger adults who needed support at a times of crisis and instability in their lives. To date this has been successful in helping to achieve stability and keeping them safe. The learning will inform how we provide this care for other care experienced young people who are living independently but who are experiencing trauma and crisis. This is in line with the aspirations of the Promise, children, and young people’s right to ‘Return to care’ if necessary but is not without challenge including the impact on the availability of space in the children house and how we manage children and young people 18+ living in a regulated care provision. 2.9 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. 2.10 Over the past 12 months we have worked continuously with the Housing Service including local housing champions in each locality with further focus on identification of satellite accommodation as a vehicle to support young people who are ready to make their first steps to independent living whilst continuing to be support by their children’s house. 2.11 All of the houses have been inspected in the last 8 months; this was following on from there having been no inspections for the duration of the pandemic. The inspections were positive, and the care inspectorate highlighted the strength of staff relationships with young people and commented on the excellent support offered to our unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people. 2.12 In October during care week the First Minister visited Buchanan Street Children’s house and spent time talking to staff and young people. A display of work by care experienced young people across the authority was showcased, with the First Minister expressing her admiration for the work of the young people 2.13 Next Steps • 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 the further development of satellite accommodation linked to our houses as well as further supporting the ‘right to return’ wherever possible.
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Review and Development of Corporate Parenting Services 2.14 The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 defines corporate parenting as "the formal and local partnerships between all services responsible for working together to meet the needs of looked after children, young people and care leavers". 2.15 The 2014 Act introduced new duties and responsibilities for Scottish public bodies defined as corporate parents, effective from April 2015. Statutory guidance on Part 9 (Corporate Parenting) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 was published to provide corporate parents with information and advice. 2.16 Corporate parenting includes children and young people in residential, foster, kinship, continuing, and supported care and those experiencing care at home because they are subject to a compulsory supervision order, as well as the provision of pre and post adoption support. We reported to Committee in September on developing a proposal to review our children’s carers team. We have since extended the proposal to include all aspects of corporate parenting, building on the work already undertaken including residential provision. The anticipated timescale is completion of the review by July 2023. 2.17 Next Steps • Agree representation for the oversight group, identify relevant task groups and focus groups, including engagement across the partnership and with children, young people and families. • Proposed actions arising from the review will be considered and agreed through service management structures and an update provided as necessary to future Education and Families Committee. Virtual School 2.18 The virtual school continues to be key to delivering the Promise Plan 21-24 in offering support to care experienced children to improve educational outcomes including reducing exclusions and a challenge and scrutiny role as well as providing direct support to children, young people and their carers. The increase in staffing and resource, reported to the Committee in September 2022, has strengthened the capacity in particular to offer early support to younger children. 2.19 Two staff members of the Virtual School team have now gained the Forest School Leader qualification which has allowed the further development and extended delivery of this programme, utilising several local green spaces and wider resources. 2.20 A summer project involving a small number of young people resulted in the creation of a welcoming outdoor seating space for families to meet, and the creation of a tranquil forest space with a sensory area for use by young people, families or staff at Virtual School base at The Carers Centre. 2.21 During the current 2022-23 session, the Virtual School has continued to explore new opportunities to support learners. New groups offered over the first term have included a sports-based Health and Wellbeing group for girls of high school age in partnership
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with Active NL and the delivery of the Fire Reach programme in partnership with Fire Service. The Letterbox Club, a reading improvement programme for disengaged or reluctant readers in partnership with BookTrust, is currently being piloted within one cluster. Groups include learners from primary and secondary stages with positive feedback from young people involved, their schools and families. 2.22 Support for young people and their families over Christmas saw the delivery of 94 selection boxes, 49 personalised gifts for young people working with Virtual School and 20 families received a “family fun giftbag” which included a selection of items for use over the festive period to encourage families to spend quality time together. 2.23 One further cluster is currently engaged in the ongoing implementation of the Keeping the Promise award, as part of their Cluster Improvement Plan. 2.24 The Virtual School Lead and Officers have recently visited each high school to meet with Designated Managers and Cluster Innovation and Improvement Leads (CIIL). The focus of the meetings was to provide an update on the service, further enhance partnership working and to discuss expectations around planning for care experienced learners. CIILs will support these discussions with primary designated managers in the coming term. Visits to Social Work localities are also in progress to support and develop staff understanding of the role of the Virtual School, supports available and how this is accessed within the GIRFEC framework. 2.25 Next Steps • Continue to build on visits with relevant partners to provide service update and strengthen joint planning and support for care experienced learners. • Expand the delivery and wider reach of Keeping the Promise Award. • Continue to build capacity within the Virtual School team and with partners, to explore and expand new opportunities for supporting care experienced learners • Continue to monitor outcomes and to support and challenge schools on engagement, attendance and attainment. The Promise Development Team 2.26 The Promise Development team was established in 2021 with 3 FTE development workers and an Assistant Support Worker was subsequently created, the latter funded by NHSL, All the team members are care experienced young people, a model which has since been replicated in other areas. 2.27 The team have focussed on several areas since their inception contributing to culture, system and practice improvement around family time, brothers and sisters, health and wellbeing, record keeping and language. 2.28 The team have spent time with other local authorities including South Lanarkshire, Glasgow and East Renfrewshire sharing ideas, experience, and work plans and they continue to engage with national groups to support the implementation of the Promise. 2.29 Recently it was agreed to create an additional 0.5 support worker and the young person will join the team soon. Office space within the Dalziel Building has been secured and
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the team are looking forward to having a base where they can meet as a team and plan and co-ordinate the work plan for the coming year. 2.30 Next Steps • A team development day to revise our priorities for 2023/24 and to produce a current continuous improvement plan. National Transfer Scheme 2.31 Since the introduction of the National Transfer Scheme in October 2021, North Lanarkshire have supported 19 newly arrived young people all of whom arrived under the age of 18, ten of these young people arriving in the last 6 months. We have continued where possible to ensure young people’s first destination is our children’s houses, to ensure wrap around support and robust assessments can take place prior to moving on to another arrangement suitable to the young person, such as independent living or supported care. There are currently 8 young people residing in children’s houses while 1 is in foster care; 3 of these young people are under the age of 16. For those over 16, they are being supported with future planning towards their next steps. 2.32 It is anticipated that the numbers of young people requiring accommodation and support will continue at least at the same pace. To support the increasing demand, there will be a focus on targeting recruitment of supported carers, as well as upskilling of current carers. Work remains ongoing in respect of other options for supported accommodation to ensure an appropriate and sustainable model can be achieved in the longer term. Our Housing Services are supporting this initiative and are working in collaboration with the Resettlement Team to increase options available for those young people who are ready to move on. 2.33 Next Steps • Recruitment drive for supported carers. • Further develop resource for supported accommodation. Lifelong Links 2.34 Lifelong Links is a project, currently supported by funding from the national promise partnership fund administered by Cora. Temporary funding is supporting two staff based alongside our aftercare hub and family group decision-making teams within intensive services, work with young people in the transition into adulthood and who are preparing to leave care or are care leavers. The broad aim of this work is to support connection and reconnection with those important to them to identify and strengthen support networks. Some young people have a clear objective regarding who and what they want to achieve through Lifelong Links, for some this requires to be established through the work undertaken. 2.35 The progress of Lifelong Links for each young person is at different stages. It is apparent from the initial engagement with the 11 young people that Lifelong Links is a hugely emotional and challenging experience. There is a clear need for this work to
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progress at the young person’s pace with appropriate support to ensure their wellbeing throughout. In all cases the early preparation and initial research has been undertaken to clarify the background information held in formal records. All young people are in the process or have completed ‘mobility mapping’ to establish their understanding of their life story, the people and places they recall. 2.36 Staff are required to support young people with gaps in their life narrative to progress lifelong links. Following this, a number of young people have identified and prioritised the people they wish support to establish or re-establish a relationship with. Staff are preparing and supporting the young people for this, including the potential of a negative response, whilst making connections with the identified individuals. To date, in work with young people this has included an ex foster carer, placement staff, a support worker and family members however for all this is taken forward at both the young person’s pace and carefully and individually planned. 2.37 To support staff, undertake Lifelong Links access to Ancestry, Trace Genie, Geno Pro and specific social media was required to facilitate this work. The staff have access to these applications and the support to utilise these as required. The aims and objectives of lifelong links has been promoted across social work localities, through the carers team, children’s houses and aftercare hub to seek referrals from young people who would benefit from this service. 2.38 Next Steps • It is planned to continue to develop the service and to explore future funding options to extend this beyond the current 12-month period given the early positive feedback but the need, given the nature of the work, for a longer period on which to evaluate its value. 3. Measures of success 3.1 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. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 - The Promise Plan 21-24 https://thepromise.scot/plan-21-24/ 4.2 Appendix 2 – TNT Top Tips for Corporate Parents presentation. Alison Gordon Chief Social Work Officer (Education, Families, Justice and Integrated Practice
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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 Finance? 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. 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. Tariff funding is received from the Home Office for each UASC transferred under NTS to North Lanarkshire. Funding for the lifelong links project is currently via 12 month external funding from Cora/Promise Partnership – further options to sustain this service within existing resource or through alternative partnership resource are being explored. . 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 Resources? 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? 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 made through the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 strengthening duties
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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 significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) 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
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5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Appendix 1 In August 2021, a working group was set up to explore how we could meet the commitment of The Promise to improve the language that we use. Together, with the help of people with lived experience of care of all ages from “Crafty Foxes” “Mad Middles” and “TNT-Today Not Tomorrow” we have prepared a language guide. This guide includes language that needs to be eradicated, and suggestions of alternative more appropriate language. In completing this work, we were guided by participation principles. These principles are: • Adopt a rights-based approach • Create and support opportunities for engagement, participation, and involvement. • Ensure views and opinions are valued and respected • Enable staff to support engagement, participation, and involvement. We are pleased to note that these principles were fully utilised in creating this language guide. Here is a sample of the language that needs to change. This is not a one size fits all approach and language must be tailored to the needs of the people we serve. “Scotland must understand that ‘language creates realities.’ Those with care experience must hold and own the narrative of their stories and lives; simple, caring language must be used in the writing of care files.” (The Promise, Page 69)
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Word and phrases we do not like: Alternative Suggestions Residents Young People Education School or College Contact Family time Unit House Abscond/Missing Ran Away Siblings Brothers and Sisters Placement Home Sanctions Consequences LAC/LAAC Young People, Care Experienced Young People, use their name! Challenging behaviour In distress, reacting to a situation, unmet need, upset Defiant Strong willed Confident in their choices/opinions Aggressive Reactive (reacting to a situation) Attention seeker Looking for help/support Unmet need Vulnerable Cherished It’s their fault they are in care Through no fault of their own Manipulative Assertive, intelligent Putting themselves in danger Seeking reassurance elsewhere Non engaging Not ready – look at organisation & family approach here Non-compliant Social work wean No alternative – just don’t use it! Placing themselves at risk Seeking reassurance elsewhere Promiscuous Seeking reassurance/comfort elsewhere
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Making choices (drug/alcohol related) Poor coping mechanisms, seeking something, survival mode Hard to reach Not approached enough Difficult Struggling to cope This list is not exhaustive – if you have any other ideas, please email Promise@northlan.gov.uk
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Appendix 2
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