The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing presented a report, so as to inform Cabinet (further to the report on 30th January 2018) of the methodology and findings from the consultation that has been conducted over a twelve week period in relation to financial support provided to care leavers.

The report also reminded Cabinet that this report was also written in light of Welsh Government’s response to the ‘Diamond Review’ – a review of the student support and higher education funding in Wales that will begin to be implemented in the this academic year (2018/19).

Finally, the report sought approval from Cabinet to proceed in writing a policy pursuant to the preferred option 3, as referred to (together with other options) in the report.

She explained that as noted in the previous report of 30^th January 2018, the Local Authority has, for many years, provided young care leavers with financial assistance to attend university and higher education courses.  This financial support has enabled young people to meet the costs of term time and vacation accommodation, pay for tuition fees and receive weekly maintenance payments.

The next sections of the report, confirmed that there was an aim to look to increase the number of young people leaving care arrangements to go onto University or seek employment opportunities, hence now looking at the present policy that was in place and review this in accordance with the Diamond Review, some of the proposals of which, were outlined in this part of the report.

Turning to the present situation, the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that a consultation regarding the proposals was conducted over a 12 week period from near the end of February to middle/end May 2018, and as part of this, 3 options were proposed upon which respondents were asked to give their comments on.

The headline figures in terms of the respondents to the consultation were outlined in paragraph 4.7 of the report, including the nature of these together with the respondents age and gender etc, as well as certain other data. The options in question were shown in full in paragraph 4.9 of the report.

Paragraph 4.28 of the report, then reflected how BCBC currently supports students in comparison to four other named neighbouring authorities, and following this, the reasons why Option 3 was the preferred option to pursue as far as the local authority were concerned.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing concluded her submission, by outlining the implications of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, as well as the report’s financial implications.

The Deputy Leader applauded the Childrens Social Care Practitioners for their support in the number of young people leaving care and going into higher education, and the increase in the number of these.

The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration advised that Option 3 mirrored mostly what parents would provide, whilst the Cabinet Member – Wellbeing and Future Generations supported the discretionary element of the preferred option, where there was less of a cost for students.

The Leader concluded debate on the item, by stating that Members should be proud as corporate parents on the reports proposals which were both fairer and consistent than what was presently in place. He felt that it was important to support the young students with ‘start-up costs,’ in order to allow them to purchase basic equipment such as an iron or a kettle etc, and that this be incorporated in the scheme.

He also felt it was important to review the scheme as it progressed in order to consider its impact, and that there is an increase in learners engaging with the scheme. This was a matter that could be discussed further at a future meeting of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting he concluded.

RESOLVED:                   That Cabinet approved Option 3 as described in the report, to enable implementation of the new appropriate policy.