The Corporate Director - Children submitted a report the purpose of which was to update the Cabinet Committee on the progress made to develop a refreshed “Strategy to reduce the number of Looked After Children and Young People in Bridgend, now known as the “Looked After Children - Placements and Permanency Strategy”.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support advised that Members would be aware that throughout the last decade, there had been a significant increase in the overall number of Looked After Children in Bridgend, which had resulted in major pressures upon Safeguarding and Family Support Services and associated budgets. Consequently, in order to direct a strategic response to the growing numbers of Looked After Children, the Council intended to publish its “Placements and Permanency Strategy” within which one of the primary aims was to reduce the number of Looked After Children (LAC) but also to take a whole systems approach to preventing the need for children to become LAC in the first place. 

He added that previously Committee had received comprehensive reports on statistical data and analysis of Looked After Children (LAC) in Bridgend, together with details of associated costs.  Members requested that an update on the newly developed Strategy be presented to Committee in order for Committee to comment and provide feedback.

            Attached at Appendix 1, to the report was the latest draft of the Council’s “Looked After Children - Placements and Permanency Strategy”.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support stated that this Placement and Permanency Strategy described the placements the Authority wanted to provide and commission for its LAC, and focused on how to improve current arrangements to in turn improve outcomes for children in care.

Children’s Services were driving a ‘whole system’ approach to supporting LAC and keeping families together, and together with the Early Intervention and Prevention Strategy, these would form a multi-agency response to driving improved outcomes for children, he added.

            The focus in the Strategy was on describing what will change in relation to work with children in care or at risk of coming into care. The Strategy contained an action plan for the future rather than an attempt to cover every detail of the current services and support.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support concluded his submission by advising that the Council had awarded additional funding of £66,169 from the Change Management Programme Fund to cover the associated costs for a project manager to lead the Permanency and Placement Strategy from the date this person takes up her post, i.e. mid-June 2014.

            The Deputy Leader noted the key objectives of the Strategy as outlined on page 8 of the Appendix to the report, and asked if Substance Misuse should also be included as an added objective.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support confirmed that consideration would be given to this.

            The Chairperson whilst commending the Strategy, felt that it should also refer more to other key agencies that the Social Services Department worked with, i.e. partners to  include other departments of the Council.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support confirmed that this could be addressed within the Strategy.

            A Member noted within the document that though there was reference to domestic abuse by the father in a family environment, there was no statistical evidence to suggest abuse having been committed by the mother, which was sometime the case.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support advised that situations of such abuse was pre-dominantly committed by the husband/boyfriend to his wife/partner, and the data contained within the report to this end, had been supplied by organisations such as Women’s Aid.  As for husbands being abused by their wives, though there were in all probability cases of this it was hard to obtain any such data confirming this, as sufferers did not often look to seek help in terms of the problem, due to perhaps feeling inadequate or embarrassed to seek such help.

            The Head of Regeneration and Development advised that it was positive to note that more Adult Supported lodgings were being made available as this could be linked to the Council’s Supporting People Programme where there were avenues of funding available to support cases of tenancy rescue/tenancy crisis.

            It was important she stated to ensure that young people had available to them their tenancy opportunities, i.e. that were low as opposed to high in cost.  She felt that this could be developed further with Registered Social Landlords, with possibly capital revenue support being pursued for this purpose, e.g. adapting three bedroomed accommodation to one and two bedroom accommodation, where there was greater need for this for young people in particular. 

RESOLVED:         That Committee both noted and considered the report and associated appendices and agreed to receive a follow-up report on the development of the Strategy in nine months time.