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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2/3, Civic Offices Angel Street Bridgend CF31 4WB. View directions

Contact: Mr. Mark Anthony Galvin  Senior Democratic Services - Committees

Items
No. Item

153.

Declarations of Interest

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.

Minutes:

The following Declarations of Interest were made:

 

Councillor DBF White declared a personal interest in agenda 4 - Children with Disabilities Transformation Programme as a member of the governing body of Heronsbridge School and agenda item 5 – Monitoring the Performance and Progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service as he is employed by Children’s Services of Swansea Council which is part of the Western Bay region.

 

Councillor J Gebbie declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 – Monitoring the Performance and Progress as she is employed by Children’s Social Services of Neath Port Talbot Council which is part of the Western Bay region.

 

Councillor C Webster declared a personal interest in agenda item 4 – Children with Disabilities Transformation Programme as a family member is in receipt of Social Services support and is a member of NAS.

 

Councillor J Radcliffe declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 – Monitoring the Performance and Progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service as he is currently going through the adoption process with Western Bay. 

154.

Approval of Minutes pdf icon PDF 63 KB

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee dated 19 April 2017.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:           That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting of 19 April 2017 be approved as a true and accurate record.

155.

Children with Disabilities Transformation Programme pdf icon PDF 77 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported on an update of the work undertaken to implement a new model of specialist 52-week provision for children and young people with complex needs and requested that the Statement of Purpose developed for the new provision which received Cabinet approval in July 2017 be noted.

 

The Head of Children’s Social Care also reported that following approval to develop specialist 52-week provision, the project team initiated plans to take the project forward reporting on progress to the Children with Disabilities Programme Board.  She stated that the children and young people attending Heronsbridge School were asked to provide suggestions for the new facility and who proposed the name ‘Harwood House’, which is the surname of the current caretaker and is in-keeping with how the other buildings are named. 

 

The Head of Children’s Social Care informed the Committee of the progress made by the following work streams established:

 

·         Procurement and Construction

·         Placements/transition planning

·         Registration (including staffing structure and rota)

 

The Head of Children’s Social Care summarised the key points contained within the Statement of Purpose with the registration process commencing with the CSSIW in June 2017 and scheduled to complete by September / October 2017, when it was planned that the first cohort of individuals would be placed within the provision. 

 

The Head of Children’s Social Care reported that the project to develop specialist 52-week provision at Heronsbridge School had been undertaken alongside the remodelling work at Bakers Way, which provided short break provision for children with disabilities.  

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing commented on the importance of the project to deliver specialist 52-week provision which should enable a reduction on the dependence on high cost out if county placements.  She stated that she would communicate to Members details of the official opening of the facility once arrangements had been finalised.  The Committee thanked the project team for their work in delivering the project.  The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing also thanked Gail Summerhayes, the Residential Manager for her part in seeing the project come to fruition.   

 

The Committee questioned whether anything can be done in relation to providing signage to divert students attending Bridgend College away from the new specialist facility and whether there would be allocated parking.  The Head of Children’s Social Care stated that she would look at this issue of signage and commented there would be allocated parking for Harwood House.  The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing also commented that the practice at the property next to it, namely Heron House which is a facility for adults with learning disabilities would be looked at in order to see how issues of parking are managed.  

 

The Committee asked how many out of county placements existed at present.  The Head of Children’s Social Care informed the Committee that there were currently 11 out of county placements where they did not meet the criteria to be accommodated within Harwood House.  She stated that once a second child had been identified to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 155.

156.

Monitoring the Performance and Progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service pdf icon PDF 86 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Regional Adoption Manager presented a report on the performance and progress of the Western Bay Regional Adoption Service, which included the Annual Report on Regional PI Performance for 2016/17. 

 

She informed the Committee that adoption continues to receive high levels of attention from the UK and Welsh Governments and the creation of a National Adoption Service is one of the key policy strands of the Welsh Governments as enacted by the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014.  This provides powers for local authorities to collaborate in relation to adoption services.  The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that the Western Bay regional service is hosted and managed by Swansea Council and is integrated into the National Adoption Service.  She highlighted the management and oversight arrangements of the National Adoption Service of which, Cardiff Council is the lead and host authority. 

 

The Regional Adoption Manager reported that the Western Bay Adoption Service became fully operational in April 2015 and provides a range of services and interventions across five key domains.  She highlighted the key achievements of the regional adoption service, which had seen more children placed within the service than with Inter Agencies (IA), with 13 placements taking place in Bridgend with WBAS and 11 with IAs.  The length of time taken from becoming looked after to placement had reduced from 19.5 months to an average of 15.3 months, which had not met the national bench mark of 13 months. 

 

The Regional Adoption Manager reported that the average time it takes for children who wait longer than six months from Should Be Placed Decision to placement has increased from 9.25 months to 10 months.  She stated there had been considerable successes with a number of children placed within very short timescales.  She also informed the Committee of the greater collaboration between Family Finding and the Adoption Support to put together packages of support for more complex children or where placements need additional support.        

 

The Regional Adoption Manager informed the Committee that the average time to approve adopters from the inquiry stage to Agency Decision Maker had decreased from 10.1 months last year to 9.7 months.  She stated there had been a small increase in the number of children presented to panel where there was evidence of Life Story Materials.  Performance in the number of Birth Parents referred and offered a service had been sustained.

The Regional Adoption Manager highlighted the challenges / developments that the service will need to undertake in the forthcoming year.   

 

The Committee questioned whether patterns or trends had emerged where enquiries had been made by prospective adopters but did not proceed with adoption.  The Regional Adoption Manager stated there was no specific evidence of why potential adopters did not proceed to adoption. 

 

The Committee referred to the new collaboration proposals whereby this Council would partner with the Cwm Taf Health Board and questioned the performance of their adoption service.  The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed the Committee informed the Committee that a decision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 156.

157.

Urgent Items

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.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items.

158.

Exclusion of the Public

The Report relating to the following item is not for publication as it contains exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 12 and 13 of Part 4, and Paragraph 21 of Part 5, Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

 

If following the application of the public interest test Cabinet resolves pursuant to the Act to consider this item in private, the public will be excluded from the meeting during such consideration.

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:           That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business as it contains exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 12 and 13 of Part 4 and Paragraph 21 of Part 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

 

Following the application of the public interest test in consideration of this item, it was resolved that pursuant to the Act referred to above, to consider the item in private, with the public being excluded from the meeting as it would involve the disclosure of exempt information of the nature as stated above.

159.

Child Practice Reviews

 

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