Agenda item

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s social care services for children and young people were judged to be “good” following an Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) inspection undertaken by Ofsted and published in 2022. The peer challenge was completed at the request of the council and focused on young people in care and care leavers aged 16 to 24. This update will provide information on the outcome of the peer review.

This item provided an update on the outcome of the Local Government Association (LGA) Leaving Care Peer Challenge and the Feedback Report, that was received as a result of the Peer Challenge.

The Chair invited Councillor Cusworth, Cabinet Member for Children’s and Young Peoples Services (CYPS) to introduce the report and the following was noted:

·       The Care Leavers Service was an area that required further focus and improvement.

·       There had been an increase in care leavers, this was due to an increase in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in the borough, who were very welcome in Rotherham.

·       The Service asked the LGA to peer review the leaving care service to identify any areas of strength and any areas that required further improvement. The peer review took place between 12-15 March 2024.

·       Work was completed since the peer review in March, to date. An example was provided of the development of a Care Leavers Forum. There was an action plan in place as a result of the Peer Challenge.

·       Some local authorities declared care leavers as a protected characteristic. The Council chose not to implement this in Rotherham, to ensure children would not be discriminated against in any way because they were leaving care. The service listened to the voice of care leavers who advised that they did not want leaving care to be a protected characteristic, because they did not want being a care leaver to define them. Instead, the Service developed a Care Leaver Offer. The offer ensured that the support in place for children leaving care would continue by preparing them for adulthood, providing opportunities for children to reach their full potential, providing wrap around support for housing and access to skills and opportunities.

The Chair invited Monica Green, Assistant Director for CYPS to lead on the presentation and the following was noted:

·       The Council had been judged by Ofsted as a Good local authority in an Ofsted Inspection in June 2022.

·       In January 2023, a new judgement for Care Leavers was introduced to the Ofsted ILACS inspection framework, this was the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers. The new judgement focused on the things that mattered the most to care leavers lives and included the following:

o   Relationships and access to social and recreational opportunities.

o   ability to influence the services they are offered.

o   health and emotional well-being.

o   learning and employment opportunities.

·       Inspections also considered whether local authorities were making good decisions for care leavers, and what they were doing to support them into adulthood.

·       The LGA Peer Review took place between 12th to 15th March 2024. A care leaver was a young person aged 16-25 years old who had been 'looked after' at some point since they were 14 years old and were in care on or after their 16th birthday. The Service invited the LGA to complete a peer review as they felt that there were challenges in the level in demand and diversity of the group of young children becoming care leavers. The cohort consisted of migrant children from abroad and Eastern European children, the service wanted experts from outstanding local authorities to judge the service, to assist its journey in becoming an outstanding local authority. The scope of the review incorporated off site and on-site activity, including case file auditing and interviews with staff, partners and young people.

·       The key messages from the peer challenge were as follows:

o   A clear commitment of senior leaders and staff in children’s services and local health and accommodation services.

o   A high level of passion and determination to meet the needs and improve outcomes for care leavers.

o   Services made a real difference to the lived experience of care leavers.

o   Performance measured against national indicators and were generally high.

o   Some variability in quality and consistency of pathways plans.

o   The range of accommodation services needed for care leavers in the borough was insufficient.

o   Comprehensive local offer for care leavers.

o   There was no health support post 19.

o   There was missed opportunities for coproduction with young people in care and care leavers.

·       There Peer Challenge Team developed the following recommendations:

o   Develop a dedicated leaving care strategy and update the sufficiency strategy to create a SMART delivery plan.

o   Develop a business case for the development of a dedicated 16 Plus Service.

o   Review the membership of the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board.

o   Consider the development of an integrated performance data dashboard.

o   Increase the number of young people allocated a personal advisor at age 16.

o   Improve the quality of pathway plans to ensure consistency.

o   Improve the effectiveness of engagement with care leavers.

·       The service had developed an action plan which focused on implementing the recommendations. The progress of the action plan was discussed, and detail was provided to the Commission on where each action was at currently.

·       In relation to the recommendation to develop a dedicated leaving care strategy and update the sufficiency strategy to create a SMART delivery plan. The following progress had been made:

o   The identification project resource to drive development and delivery was complete.

o   The undertaking of a care leaver needs analysis was on-going.

o   The identification of appropriate actions to develop accommodation options was on-going.

o   The implementation of a joint accommodation working group was complete.

o   The engagement of the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board and wider stakeholders to inform the strategy was on-going.

·       In relation to the recommendation to develop a business case, for the development of a dedicated 16 Plus Service, the following progress had been made:

o   This review of the current structure had been completed and was scheduled to be presented to the Directorate Leadership Team shortly.

o   The assessment of the need for additional capacity was complete and awaiting an outcome.

·       In relation to the recommendation to Review the membership of the Corporate Parenting Partnership Board, this was completed, and the new membership was in place.

·       In relation to the recommendation to consider the development of an integrated performance data dashboard, this was on-going.

·       The Cabinet Member for CYPS would ensure that the actions would be driven forward and that officers would be held to account.

·       In relation to voice and influence and the improvement of the effectiveness of engagement with care leavers, the following progress had been made:

o   The agreement of a more impactful approach to coproduction was on-going and had been incorporated into a review of voice and influence activity. 

o   The development of a separate Care Leavers Forum was complete.

o   The implementation of a dedicated participation resource was on-going and had been incorporated into the review of voice and influence activity.

·       In relation to ensuring an increase in the number of young people that would be allocated a Personal Advisor at age 16, this was on-going.

·       In relation to the improvement of the quality of pathway plans, the following progress had been made:

o   Personal Advisors would be provided with specific training on their role. This would include how to develop high quality and meaningful pathway plans. This was on-going, initial training sessions were held on the 10 May and 4 June 2024. This training was additional to the current training offer. Following evaluation of the training with Personal Advisors after the sessions had taken place, further training was planned.

The Chair thanked the relevant officer for the presentation and invited questions, this led to the following points being raised during discussions:

·       There were thirteen Personal Advisors in place, all cases would be allocated to Personal Advisors by September 2024.

·       Health Passports were a suite of documents provided to young people who were leaving care and ready to transition into adulthood. The documents enabled the young people to access GP Services, dental practices and to understand their own health history.

·       Did not have ability to accommodate all care leavers in Rotherham, there was now more accomodation in Rotherham and therefore more care leavers could be accommodate in the borough and enables them to have a connection to Rotherham.

·       The Cabinet Member had visited the services accomodation Hallowgate and Roundabout young person’s accomodation. Assurance was provided that the staff at the accomodation were committed to the young people and were available to support the residents 24 hours a day.

Resolved:- That the Improving Lives Select Commission:

1)    Note the outcomes of the peer challenge and the progress made on the recommendations.