The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help introduced the report.

The Chair referred to the Care Review and the recommended investment of £76 million pounds to recruit 9000 more foster carers over 3 years, the Chair noted that Thurrock have already started an ambitious foster care recruitment policy and questioned whether this would affect their targets in any way.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help stated that investment in funding for the recruitment of foster carers is always welcome and explained that the recruitment of foster carers is a national issue. The Review makes recommendations about the use of family members and trying to use them first and she explained that we know children will often drift back to their families as they get older.  It is being looked at how kinship carers can get the same support as stranger foster carers. It might be that we can increase our kinship carers alongside our foster carers. The feeling within the report is that lots of people want to be foster carers and if more is done to support them then we will get more foster carers. The renumeration in Thurrock to foster carers is very good, it is reviewed regularly, and it is in line with agency foster carers. Thurrock foster carers council tax is paid and they are supported through supervising social workers and therapists.

Councillor Coxshall referred to the unregulated care placements for under 18’s and questioned how many we use in Thurrock currently and how the recommendation to rule out unregulated placements for under 18’s will affect Thurrock.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help confirmed that currently we have two young people in an unregistered placement. It is always a last resort, they are reviewed regularly, Ofsted are informed and increased visits to these placements are completed. The priority is always to place a child in foster care, if this is not possible then they will look at a Residential placement and they will always try creative ways to make a placement work.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services explained that in the Care Review they are suggesting supported accommodation for over 16’s will need to be regulated and provide “care”. Some older young people don’t want to be in a care arrangement and supported accommodation is allowed under the current legislation. Thurrock has quite a few children in supported accommodation and that would be a big shift which would be resource intensive as it would probably mean fees would increase so those placements can comply with the regulations that Ofsted require and they will probably need more staff. The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help added that some young people would struggle with that level of intensity.

Councillor Panjala queried what is the current position on the recruitment and retention of social workers.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help confirmed that there is a consistent supply of permanent workers. The majority of managers are permanent. In terms of the social worker work force there are a number of agency workers.  Compared to Thurrock’s statistical neighbours and nationally the retention rate is pretty good at around 20%. There is a challenge nationally around recruiting and retaining social workers.

Councillor Worrall asked whether kinship carers are paid.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help stated that if Children’s social care are making an arrangement for a child to live with a family member then we would complete a reg 24 assessment to make sure it is appropriate and if it is then the kinship carer would be paid a fostering allowance.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services clarified that this would not necessarily be the case if it was a family arrangement.

Councillor Worrall asked whether further funding is expected to be received.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help confirmed that in the report the author does state the figure that would be required to make these changes. That figure however is an estimate for what will be required nationally and it is not known what proportion of that Thurrock would receive. Commitment from the Government is required and the Government’s response to the review is not known yet.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services confirmed that in the review there are 80 recommendations and there will be fundamental changes to the way they work and for families also. The Government’s response is required by the end of the year. The Government may not accept all of the recommendations but they may accept some and some of the changes would require legislative change.

Councillor Anderson referred to the recommended investment of £2bn in family help, he questioned how much funding will be distributed between different Local Authority’s and the mechanism for deciding how much each Authority will receive.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services confirmed this is yet to be confirmed but looking at other programmes she suspects there may be trailblazing which is where Local Authority’s will bid and say that they can start to deliver a project and funding will then be awarded to them for this. There will also be some criteria applied around finance which will be applied across the whole country. Thurrock were recently included in the Family Hubs pilot and there is funding that goes with that and it is very much about family support and help. The Assistant Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help confirmed 75 authorities have been put forward and are eligible for the family hubs £300 million funding over 3 years. It is not known what proportion Thurrock will receive from that yet.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services stated that in the National Safeguarding report they are looking at the introduction of multi-disciplinary teams. The Independent Chairperson & Scrutineer Thurrock LSCP is on the panel and Thurrock would be well placed to pilot some of this.

The Chair commented that the report is very new and the Government will be reviewing it by the end of this year and so hopefully we will get a more complete picture as to how if will affect Thurrock in the New Year.

At 19.45 The Independent Chairperson & Scrutineer Thurrock LSCP left the meeting.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

1.       Are involved in discussing the Review (s) proposals and recommendation and the impact these will have on service delivery over the next few years.

2.       Provide challenge and input into the development of the recommendations through the government consultation, and to be involved in the reshaping of children’s social care services in the next five years.