Agenda and minutes

Councillor David Benson declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor of Uxbridge High School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Lindsay Bliss declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Brookside Primary School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Judith Cooper declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Charville, St Andrews and St Mary’s Schools. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Catherine Dann declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Newham Junior School and Bishop Ramsay C of E School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Tony Little declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor at Harlington School and Pinkwell Primary School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Susan O’Brien declared a general non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School and was working at Ruislip High School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor John Riley declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor at Field End Infants School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

It was confirmed that all items would be heard in Part 1.

Reference was made to the Children in Care Award’s which were recently held and the Committee wished to place on record its admiration for the children who had been honoured in the awards.

 The Minutes of the meeting held on 12 September 2012 were agreed as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

Members were provided with the scoping report on Safeguarding Children who are reported missing which contained information on the key issues surrounding missing children in the local and national context.

The purpose of the report was to enable the Committee to gather evidence as part of their major review into Safeguarding Children who are reported missing.

In addition, Members were also provided with the report of the all Parliamentary Group on the Joint Inquiry into Children who go Missing from Care, which provided details of the national picture in relation to children missing from care.

Witnesses

To assist Members with this review Detective Inspector Graham Hamilton, Borough Police; Marie Fleming, Youth Worker and Manager of Fountains Mill; and Stephen White, Registered Manager of Hillingdon Children’ Resource Centre aka Mulberry Parade were present to provide information to the Committee.

Issues raised included:

Police

·        DI Hamilton presented comparisons between the periods 1 September 2010 – 31 August 2011 and 1 September 2011 – 31 August 2012 which showed an increase from 18% to 20% in the proportion of missing children in the Borough being made up of children in care. These figures were made up from children at 6 residential care homes in the Borough.

·        An additional 5% of missing children were made up from residential care homes in the Borough which housed children from outside of the area.

·        In the first period there had been 286 reported missing children compared to 327 in the latter period. However, it was noted that these figures were largely made up of children who were repeatedly reported missing. One child had been recorded as missing 33 times in a single year.

·        The search for missing children could have a significant impact upon Police resources with substantial financial implications.

·        Hillingdon had seen 22 high risk cases over the last 12 month period with 8 of these being made up of children from residential care homes.

·        Concern was expressed at the lack of information the Police had on those neighbouring local authority Looked after Children who were placed within the Borough’s children’s homes, together with the unaccompanied children who arrived at Heathrow.   

Youth Worker

·     The Manager of Fountains Mills and Youth Worker informed Members that she worked with children and young people from the age of 11 to 21, but her primary focus was on 13-19 age group.         

·          Many of the children and young people she worked with had   complex needs and she often signposted them to other services.

·        In her experience, the majority of children who run away from home have done so because of conflict in the home. Part of her role was providing mediation with the children and their families.

·        Feedback from children was that they needed practical support; they needed something to do and somewhere to go.

·        Many children who have run away from home have required practical assistance such as guidance on how to open a bank account. These children also often require mentoring. 

·        Much of the support and services offered by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

Officers noted the following points with regards to the draft final report of the Committee’s review into the Leaving Care Procedure and Grant:

• The Council already had an Officer who dealt with housing for care leavers but the designation of a Housing Officer for care leavers would provide a helpful clarification of the role in taking forward the recommendations of the review.
• That Recommendation 7 be removed from the final report as the receipt of the Leaving Care Grant did not have any tax implications for care leavers.
• That Recommendation 10 be re-worded so that the designated Housing Officer for care leavers was required to include information on joining a credit union and household insurance in the care leaver’s Leaving Care Plan.
• That the reference to the “Community Care Grant” in Recommendation 12 be replaced with the “Local Social Fund” as the Community Care Grant was in the process of being decentralised.

It was noted that an implementation plan for the recommendations would be presented at the next meeting.

Members noted that the recommendations relating to the designated Housing Officer for care leavers would be submerged into a single recommendation with sub-points for ease of reference.

Officers noted that the revised report would be amended as above and circulated to Members via email.

RESOLVED –

1.   That with the amendments suggested, approval be given to the draft final report and its submission to a future Cabinet meeting for consideration.

Members noted that the Annual Report was generally positive but that the relatively low spend on early intervention and the high turnover of staff was of concern.

Officers advised that the retention of front-line Social Workers was difficult across the sector but that work was being undertaken to resolve this in the Borough.

It was noted that the Chairman of the Committee, in liaison with the Democratic Services Manager and the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Housing produce comments on behalf of the Committee to accompany the presentation of the report to Cabinet in November 2012.

RESOLVED –

1. That the report be noted and Chairman of the Committee, in liaison with the Democratic Services Manager and the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Housing produce comments on behalf of the Committee to accompany the presentation of the report to Cabinet in November 2012.

Noted.

Noted. It was agreed that an item should be included at a future meeting, updating Members on the progress of the implementation of recommendations from past reviews of the Committee.