To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members’ Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008.

To receive for approval the minutes of 12/01/23

RESOLVED         : That the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet Committee

                               Corporate Parenting dated 12 January 2023 be    

                               approved as a true and accurate record.

The report was presented by the Corporate Parenting and Participation Officer for BCBC. The purpose of which was to provide the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting with an update on the development of Corporate Parenting in Bridgend.

He stated that as the report mentioned, the service were in a position where they had sub group meetings recurring on a quarterly basis, their board meeting had been fully integrated, partnering multi agencies, they were in a position where they had their strategy ready to be launched on Thursday the 27th of April 2023.

The new strategy was designed with a translation into Welsh and explained the purpose of the service, their plans, priorities, how they planned to evaluate progress and understand requirements of the future.

The CPP Officer also stated that they had secured 45 promises within the strategy and those were their commitments as multi agency professionals, leaders and senior managers, stating their intentions in their individual roles to support the Care Experienced children, young people and care leavers. The service was to be held to account by the Youth forum and there were measures put in place by the forum to be able to be supported to question any of these promises and evaluate progress with the support of Tros Gynnal Plant (TGP Cymru) who are advocacy providers and they facilitate the forum along with the CPP Officer. He concluded by inviting all members to attend the Launch planned later on in the month.

The Chairperson commented she was pleased about the process followed and the progress made. She was pleased to know of a robust mechanism in place now for children and young people to be heard and listened to.

She stated that they found it interesting that when they started this journey, other organisations who had responsibility for corporate parenting did not really understand what their responsibilities and duties were. These Organisations have since been more engaged and BCBC have a better focus on what is required by the Care Experienced young people.

RESOLVED                    : The Committee considered the contents of the

                                          report and supported the progress of the

                                          Corporate Parenting development.

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.

The Report was presented by the Peripatetic Group Manager, the purpose of which was to inform the Committee of the progress to date in developing and implementing a multi-agency operational Exploitation Prevention Panel in Bridgend.

She shared a presentation with the committee and invited questions.

The Chairperson stated she was pleased to see progress take form and sought some clarity. She queried if the tools mentioned in the presentation were being used in Early Help and A&E because it was a regional strategy. She stated that the inspection picked up that it was something for all partners and she was looking for reassurance.

The Peripatetic Group Manager responded to confirm that Early Help was on board with utilising the tools mentioned but she assured the committee that she would reach out to Hospitals as well.

A member queried how they intended to gain parental engagement to ensure children are not exploited.

The Peripatetic Group Manager responded, relating to work undertaken in her role in a previous Local Authority, and stated she would be happy to share the resources utilised and thereby share with a wider audience, she however also stated that it was work in progress within the current setting.

A member queried if there has been consideration to extending community engagement towards the night-time economy, namely pubs, night clubs and door supervisors.

The Peripatetic Group Manager responded stating that developing their relationships with the wider community was essential to the strategy and though a slow process, it was work in progress.

The Leader added that such exploitation was masked and hidden where the young people themselves were seen as offenders because they had been exploited to commit offences, he queried the role of South Wales Police, as.  whilst there was a crucial role for the authority in terms of safeguarding and social services, there was an equally important role for South Wales Police to make it clear to people / to the perpetrators, as it was children and young people of the borough that are being exploited. As such, it should be regarded as a crime and therefore requires work with South Wales Police to ensure those crimes are detected and criminals brought to justice.

He stated that he would welcome an update in the future from South Wales Police.

The Corporate Director for Social Services and Wellbeing stated that South Wales Police had their structure and support the work done to prevent and to address exploitation. They had created a central resource in the BCU linked to South Wales Police. There is also a Violent Prevention Unit (VPU) that the safeguarding board had made a bid into, that they had pencilled in the resources for BCBC. She said that BCBC was expected to have more strategic resources at a regional level progressing and developing the strategy across CTM. In addition to that the Peripatetic Group Manager had been expertly leading partnerships to make sure that, operationally, BCBC are where they need to be. She suggested that possibly,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To consider any other item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should be reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

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