To consider commenting on the Green Paper: Every Child Matters

The Committee was invited to whether it had any comments on the Green Paper: Every Child Matters which it would like the Executive to take into consideration in preparing its response.

The Head of Social Care (Children) reported that the Green Paper sought to focus on four main areas:  supporting patients and carers, early intervention and effective protection; accountability and integration, locally, regionally and nationally; and workforce reform.  He welcomed the child centred approach and emphasised how important it was that this focus was not lost sight of in discussions of proposals in the Green Paper about new structures.

The Director of Social Care and Strategic Housing commented that the aim must be to develop models of best practice that made things safer for children.  A report on a child concern model for Herefordshire was shortly to be reported to Cabinet and would be brought to the Committee in due course. The Director highlighted the following aspects of the Green Paper:

·         Delivering the support to parents and foster parents envisaged in the Green Paper would require significant investment over time.  The Green Paper was not explicit that resources would be provided.  The Corporate Parent Working Group had already expressed the view that the foster parent role should be enhanced and resourced.

·         In relation to accountability and integration there were proposals to create statutory Local Safeguarding Children Boards to replace Child Protection Committees, which were welcomed, and to require the appointment of a Director for Childrens services, accountable for local authority education and children’s social services and a lead Council Member for children.  The Local Government Association, Association of Directors of Social Services and Chief Education Officers were all requesting that there should be local flexibility in determining these accountability arrangements.

·         It was also proposed that Childrens Trusts be established by 2006 which seemed a very tight timescale.  There was also a question as to whether Herefordshire could sustain a Trust.

·         There was a question mark over how far the arrangements would support every child.  The Green Paper was not wholly inclusive.

·         That the sharing of information between agencies was at the core of safe responses.  This was always problematic and the Director expressed the view that the solution was a national framework imposed by legislation. 

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·         There was a clear need for sufficient finance to support the proposals.

·         There should be a national  framework prescribing arrangements for sharing information between agencies

·         That there should be local flexibility to determine structural arrangements to reflect local circumstances.

·         The Head of Social Care (Children) acknowledged that teachers were in a position to identify problems, but it was important to be able to draw on the experience of other professionals to ensure that a sense of proportion was kept and a consistent approach followed.  The child concern model for Herefordshire sought to provide a framework to achieve these aims.  A change of culture would however be needed for the model to work effectively.

·         That a breakdown in communication between agencies had been at the heart of the Victoria Climbie case.  It was suggested that the response to the Green Paper should be a joint response by relevant major partners within the County.  The Director of Social Care and Strategic Housing reported that it was expected that the Council’s response would reflect the view of the Primary Care Trust but was uncertain as to how feasible it would be to submit a single response

·         That a further report on how Herefordshire might be taking the matter forward should be made to the Committee’s meeting  in April 2004.

·         That when the Government’s intentions were clear the Council should focus on working closely with its partners in the County to implement the requirements.

·         That as the issues in the Green Paper fell within the remit of a number of Scrutiny Committees the Strategic Monitoring Committee should be asked to consider which Committee should have the lead scrutiny role.

·         It was noted that the Green Paper included a target that by March 2004 no homeless family with children should be placed in bed and breakfast accommodation, unless in a short term emergency.  In response to a question the Head of Strategic Housing advised that the Council had set itself a harder target within its Local Public Service Agreement of not using bed and breakfast accommodation at all.  He explained measures being taken to try to attain this target.

RESOLVED: 

That    (a)        the Executive be requested in formulating its response to consider the following points:

·         the need for there to be sufficient resources made available to support the proposals, which affect every child;

·         the need for local flexibility to determine structural arrangements to reflect local circumstances;

·         the need for a national framework prescribing arrangements for sharing information between agencies;

·         there would be strength in relevant major partners in the County submitting a single joint response.

            (b)       the Strategic Monitoring Committee be asked to determine which Scrutiny Committee should take the lead role in scrutinising issues resulting from action taken by the executive pursuant to the Green Paper;

                        and

            (c)        that subject to (b) above a further report be submitted to the Committee in April, 2004.