The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing presented a report, in order to inform the Cabinet Committee of the work being undertaken by Welsh Government to develop reduction expectation plans with each local authority across Wales.

The report also described the process in place to take this forward and the local activity underway to progress this.

A presentation on the local headline data/key findings contained in the preparatory framework documents was attached at an Appendix to the report. This had been shared with Welsh Government

The report confirmed, that as at March 2018, there were 6,407 looked after children in Wales. This was an 8% increase on the previous year. Over the past 15 years, the number of looked after children has increased by 34%; this increase cannot be attributed to austerity alone.

In 2018, the number of children starting to become looked after decreased by 2%, however the number of children leaving the care system also decreased by 10%.

National data also highlights some other noteworthy patterns. For example, 24.6% of looked after children are placed out of county (1,575) and 5% are placed outside Wales (320). There will be good reasons why some of these children are placed out of area (e.g. placement with family or friends or the development of regional approaches to specialist provision), but it is recognised that others are placed further afield because there is no suitable provision locally. Some of the underlying issues have begun to be addressed through the National Fostering Framework, the Children’s Residential Care Task and Finish Group and other work strands within the Improving Outcomes for Children programme.  However, Welsh Government also wants to take this opportunity to explore with local authorities the factors that influence decision making around out of county and cross-border placements, to ensure that more children can be placed closer to home where this is in their best interests. It was confirmed that there were more LAC in Wales than in England, however, there was no concrete evidence that could fully confirm this.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing, advised that Welsh Government would like to work in partnership with local authorities across Wales to better understand the context in which organisations are working and to co-produce realistic and bespoke reduction expectation plans which focus on safely reducing the numbers of children in care whilst continuing to improve outcomes for those already in or leaving care. This will require close analysis of existing data at a local, regional and national level to help better understand the pressures within the system and how these can be best relieved.

A visit to Bridgend County Borough Council took place on 10^th May 2019 where officials from Welsh Government met with the Chief Executive, Corporate Director of Social Services and Wellbeing, Cabinet Member for Social Services and Wellbeing, Corporate Director of Education and Family Support, Head of Children’s Social Care, Head of Education and Family Support, and colleagues from legal.

A conversation framework developed from this that covered the following themes:-

• Reducing the need for, and number of, children entering care;
• Looking to provide positive, stable placements (including details of key questions on this issue;
• Enhancing exit strategies that better enable exit from care;
• Managing the business;
• Co-production of Bespoke Targets

When all the visits have been completed, an overarching report will be collated and shared with a technical group established, prior to it being presented to the First Minister. The overarching report, will highlight the key messages and also identify some actions to be taken forward nationally. The technical group will also be considering monitoring and review.

A Member referred to page 62 of the report and instances of repeat pregnancies. She asked how these can be prevented in respect of young women.

The Head of Children’s Social Care, advised that there was a project called Reflect that had been in place around the last 12 months initiated by Welsh Government based on a model in England. This initiative attempted to encourage young women to pause and think of the consequences and responsibilities attached to becoming pregnant, for example if they were too young to be able to sufficiently care for a child, due to reasons for example, of being unemployed and not having their own home etc. The Project also stressed preventative measures they could turn to to prevent pregnancy, such as contraception. A report on this Project could be submitted to a future Committee meeting she felt.

The Chairperson considered it important to monitor the numbers of LAC in the County Borough going forward.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that the situation regarding LAC had been stable in Bridgend for some time, and numbers were actually starting to slowly reduce. Out of County/Out of Wales placements were also reducing she added.

The Head of Children’s Social Care added that there was also attempts being made to reduce Court Order Looked After Cases.

The Leader asked why there was an increase in the percentage of LAC within the age range of 5 to 9 years old, particularly due to the good work that had taken place which had led to a reduction of a third of young people  coming into the care system during the last few years.

The Head of Children’s Social Care advised that this was going to be looked into by herself and the Head of Education and Family Support, as there was no apparent reason substantiating the above increase.

The Deputy Leader asked if there was any data that confirmed not only the number of children who had entered the care system, but if their parents/guardians had also.

Officers advised that they would look into this and collate the appropriate data accordingly, and provide the Member with this outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED:                        That the Cabinet Committee noted the information contained in the report.