To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Morgan and Councillor Price.

None.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017.

A correction to the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017 was noted.

The fourth paragraph of item 9 to be amended to read:

“The leader of the It’s Our County! group welcomed the proposal. He commented that the ward member for the proposed site for the new school recognised the need and supported the proposal. He asked what would happen to the private nursery provision which was operating on the site. The interim director of children’s wellbeing responded that notice had not been served on the nursery provider and discussions were ongoing.”

Resolved:       That the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017, as amended, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive questions from members of the public.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Monday 17 July.

Accepted questions will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

Please submit questions to: councillorservices@herefordshire.gov.uk.

No questions were received.

To receive questions from councillors.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Monday 17 July.

Accepted questions will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

Please submit questions to: councillorservices@herefordshire.gov.uk.

Question from Councillor JM Bartlett

Contracts for care packages and commissioned services

Across both the adult and children’s wellbeing directorates, in the last two years how many contracts for care packages and commissioned services have been adversely impacted by provider availability (whether arising from early termination by a provider, no provider submitting a tender or submitted tenders not meeting the required level of service)?

Response from Councillor AW Johnson, Leader of the Council

I am pleased to report there have been no such cases in the past two years in relation to children’s social care.

In relation to adult social care:

•         one procurement exercise, in relation to establishing a zoned model of home care, was unsuccessful due to an insufficient number of tenders meeting the specification; this has not affected service delivery as the existing contract framework continues to be used;

•         one contract in relation to day opportunities has been terminated early; service continuity is being maintained through other contractual arrangements and we are working with providers and service users to ensure their eligible needs will continue to be met;

•         since April 2016 112 individual care packages were ‘returned’ (terminated early) by the provider; in all cases alternative arrangements were made and service users’ eligible needs continued to be met. This should be viewed in the context of there being some 1,200 home care packages provided each year;

•         there have been some occasions when there have been delays in securing a provider from our approved framework for a particular package, usually in rural areas; on such occasions the council can commission an alternative provider as a bespoke arrangement so that the care may be delivered. It is not possible in the time available to provide this figure but I will ask officers to confirm this to you in writing.

Supplementary Question

What arrangements and budgetary resources are in place to assess the risks of further contracts being returned?

Answer from Director for Adults and Wellbeing

The quality assurance team has regular engagement with all providers so that the council has a clear understanding of whether providers are likely to fail and can put alternative arrangements in place.

Where individual packages are returned the council can call upon other providers, sometimes at a slightly higher rate, or on the council’s own rapid response service. The financial impact tends to be really quite small, across the course of the year a few thousand pounds. It is not a significant cost pressure for the council.

To approve a new joint carers strategy for Herefordshire and  agree consequent commissioning intentions for carers and procurement arrangements for commissioned services.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the item.

He thanked all those who had contributed to the strategy and noted the following points:

·         there were barriers to the way in which carers could maintain their own wellbeing and that of the individuals they cared for;

·         in view of resources the council had to deploy smarter ways of working, enhance what it had and promote greater awareness;

·         the strategy recognised the massive contribution made by carers;

·         the strategy included a focus on young carers;

·         the council was proposing to invest in the carers strategy to ensure that carers had access to the best services;

·         there was a focus on strategic change rather than specialist services, due to the high number of carers – estimated to be about 34,000 in Herefordshire.

The strategic wellbeing and housing manager set out further detail on the report. He explained that:

·         the strategy had been prepared in consultation with the clinical commissioning group (CCG) and other partners;

·         the carers strategy formed part of an emerging wider strategic approach to wellbeing and prevention;

·         carers played a key role in preventing and delaying the onset of significant health and care need by supporting the most vulnerable people in society;

·         there had been engagement with carers during production of the draft strategy which would continue during the implementation and commissioning phases;

·         the carers strategy was a medium to long term document which set out the broad direction of travel, vision and priorities and the headline outcomes which were being pursued; details of how outcomes would be achieved, over what timescale and by what means would be set out in the implementation plan;

·         with limited and reducing financial resource to invest in services for carers the council could not focus on providing and funding specialist services for individual carers, the focus had to be on strategic change such as making universal services more effective and accessible and helping carers navigate the system;

·         consultation had highlighted that the most important thing for carers was that the person they were caring for got the services they needed at the right time  and in the right way;

·         need to recognise that carers are individuals with many other roles who may not choose to be defined primarily as carers, the strategy seeks to take a whole person and whole system approach;

·         carers may themselves be vulnerable being either older people or young carers, or have other needs;

·         the strategy focussed on six priorities, some were ongoing from previous strategies, others were new or had new emphasis such as the focus on universal services, information advice and mutual support and networking;

·         there were now statutory duties to assess the needs of carers;

·         needs would be assessed on a strengths basis by identifying what the carer could do, what the person they were caring for could do and what support was available in the local community;

·         there was a need to recommission and re-procure services for carers from April 2018, the fine  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To approve and endorse the Corporate Parenting strategy.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the report and thanked officers for their hard work in putting the new corporate parenting strategy together. He noted that the strategy was the result of consultation with a wide range of partners and members and that the strategy had been the first item on the agenda of the new children and young people scrutiny committee. He reported that it had been a good meeting with two care leavers in attendance to give an account of their experiences.

The chairman of the corporate parenting panel had asked the cabinet member to pass on her view that the input of the panel and of foster carers had been really helpful in producing the draft strategy.

The cabinet member explained that the strategy set out how the council was going to put its Looked After Children (LAC) at the heart of all that it did. The priorities were straightforward and encapsulated why the council should give LAC the best start in life. He highlighted the foreword to the strategy, which noted that our society could not always predict the challenges that a child may face but how society reacted would be a key measure of how well it was functioning.

The cabinet member stated that one of the most important roles the council could play was to provide the best outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children and there was no greater reward than achieving the best for our children who need our help.

The head of looked after children summarised the report. She noted that one of the challenges was in defining what corporate parenting meant. The strategy was intended to ensure that the quality of care and services that LAC received were of a standard that would be good enough if these were our own children.

The head of LAC noted that LAC and care leavers did not achieve as well as their peers in many situations and that they faced many inequalities. The council would seek to remove barriers and give LAC and care leavers opportunities.

The strategy was a refresh of the previous strategy and had been developed in consultation with the corporate parenting panel, officers, members, foster carers and young people themselves. The goal was to challenge the council in how it fulfilled its responsibilities as a corporate parent and to improve outcomes for children and young people. The strategy set out 7 priorities which led onto an action plan with specific areas to be changed, improved and developed. These were informed by the needs analysis which was attached as an appendix to the report.

The cabinet member for financial management and ICT asked how the council would go about reducing the number of LAC to a level below the national average.

The assistant director safeguarding and early help responded that the council had put a series of appropriate steps into place to seek to reduce the number of LAC to a figure more in line with statistical  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To review adoption service performance and approve related documents.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the report. He noted that there were good results highlighted in the report and drew particular attention to the upcoming change to regional adoption agencies. Herefordshire Council was in discussion about joining Adopt Central England (ACE) a combined service with Warwickshire, Coventry, Solihull and Worcestershire. A report on this would be presented to cabinet in due course but it was important to bear in mind that this change would have ramifications for the service.

The head of LAC confirmed that this was a statutory annual report which outlined the functions of the adoption service and the establishment and performance of the adoption team in 2016-17. The adoption service was performing well, with a stable and experience workforce. Some of the key performance indicators in the report related to the time taken for children to be placed for adoption after they became looked after and the time taken to match children with adopters once permission to place was granted. There was a three year average rolling target which was reducing year on year. The head of LAC noted that the council had made progress but was still above the target. She explained that this was partly due to circumstances such as a sibling group who were in the system for a long time before the right placement for them was found.

The head of LAC noted some of the key achievements of the service in 2016-17:

·         placement of some older children and sibling groups which was more challenging;

·         18 children were placed for adoption;

·         a further 24 placement orders were granted;

·         3 very small babies were placed in fostering to adopt places, this was an area the service was seeking to expand on in 2017-18; and

·         the service had worked with adopters and therapeutic services to access the adoption support fund and secure over £25,000 worth of grants.

Priorities for 2017-18 included acceptance into the ACE regional agency and improving the timeliness of children being placed with adopters and adoption orders being achieved.

The leader of the council asked how long a child had to wait on average to be placed for adoption. The head of LAC explained that the report set out the three year average for children waiting less than 16 months between becoming looked after to moving in with their adoptive family. The three year average at 2016-17 was 56% compared to an England average of 55%. The actual number of days for each child varied greatly depending on the circumstances.

Groups leaders were invited to give the views of their group.

The leader of the green group asked if being part of a regional adoption agency would increase the movement of children out of the county and see other children move into the county.

The head of LAC explained that the council already regularly sold and bought adoption placements as it was not always appropriate for children to be adopted in the area of their birth. It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

To review the fostering service performance and approve related documents.

The cabinet member for young people and children’s wellbeing introduced the report. He noted a 15% overall growth in foster carers in Herefordshire which was significantly better than national figures. He stated that this was a sign that the proactive approach taken by the council was very successful. The cabinet member noted that the fostering service had also developed the residential respite. The council was now providing up to 238 nights per year of respite in a residential setting.

The head of LAC commented that this was a statutory annual report. She highlighted that the service had continued to grow with targeted recruitment for areas of need including the overnight short break service, supported lodgings for older young people and care leavers and to meet the needs of unaccompanied asylum seekers. Despite this there was still a need for more foster carers. There had also been a focus on placement stability. The council did well when compared with statistical neighbours but it was a priority for 2017-18 to improve this still further.

The representative of the Herefordshire Independents group stated that he had been impressed with the care and devotion shown by foster carers and praised the work of the fostering team.

The vice chair of the adults and wellbeing scrutiny committee spoke on the improvement in the service. He explained that he had been the chair of the task and finish group on 1 Ledbury Road 18 months ago. Since then the fostering service had seen a turnaround as a result of the work of the fostering team and the cabinet member. Even though 1 Ledbury Road had now closed there were now many more foster carers in place to help the young people who previously depended on that centre.

The leader of the council commented on the good performance and commended the work of the fostering service.

It was resolved that:

(a)  the performance of the fostering service as outlined at appendix a to this report be reviewed, any risks to achievement of objectives noted and relevant mitigating actions approved;

(b)  the guide for young people that are looked after (appendix b) be approved; and

(c)  the statement of purpose (appendix c) be approved.