The Report was introduced by The Head of Children’s Social Care, the purpose of which was to provide the Corporate Parenting Committee with an update on:

· Grant funding secured from Welsh Government, under the National Improving Outcomes for Children, Eliminating Private Profit Programme to develop and implement a My Support Team (MyST) service

· The root and branch review of residential and therapeutic services

· The new children’s residential service that is being developed

She stated that it provided the committee with an update on further developments in the placement service, particularly within the residential provision in Bridgend and the therapeutic support that was offered to the Care Experienced Children as outlined in the report.

The Head of Children’s Social Care stated that in the Autumn of 2022, the service submitted a bid to Welsh Government under the eliminating profit agenda to further enhance their existing provision and development being the models that they were hoping to expand on, described in detail within the report.

She stated they had secured funding to expand the staff and establishment across the residential provision in Bridgend so that they could have a greater skill set and more experience in the staff cohort for the homes that currently provide for care experienced children.

The Head of Children’s Social Care elaborated on the role of the “My Support Team (MyST)” service stating that it was about creating a team around the child that will assess their needs, identify the best option for permanence and wrap around support to achieve it. Prior to finalising the role, The Institute of Public Care was commissioned to review the existing approaches delivered to date and sought recommendations how best to maximise funding to build on current processes to provide more support for children and young people with complex needs, who need intensive interventions to overcome trauma. She stated that the aim was to register the new provision “Meadows View” by June 2023 hopefully ready to open with the new team in place. She concluded her presentation and invited questions for herself and/or the officer whose role was Responsible Individual - Children's Social Care.

The Chairperson stated that she felt that the trauma informed model was an excellent model of good practice. She said she felt it to be very flexible to work with the increasing demands and the complexity of cases received. Meadows View was named by Bridgend children and it was her opinion that it was important they have ownership over their own home because essentially that was what it was going to be for them.

The Chairperson expressed concerns that the service were offering employment contracts for the new staff for two years whereas she felt it needed to be sustainable as she could not imagine that the staff would not be needed after that two year period.

The Corporate Director for Social Services and Wellbeing responded to say that as part of the registration process, in terms of the way staff is employed, budget pressures were put forward,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24