1. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Corporate Parenting Seminar Tuesday 16 December 2008 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting

2. 2 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department

3. 3 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department What is “Corporate Parenting”? The formal and local partnerships between local authorities and associated agencies (we can and must do better Report). The single most important thing that will improve the futures of Scotland’s looked after children and young people is for local authorities to focus on and improve their corporate parenting skills. Extraordinary lives Report Working across department and partner agencies especially Community Planning partners to provide for children and young people’s needs Accepting responsibility for the children in the care of the Western Isles Council Making their needs a priority Seeking for them what any good parent would want for their children:  successful learners  confident individuals  effective contributors  responsible citizens

4. 4 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department What is “Corporate Parenting”? Elected Members, Senior Council Officers and Community Planning Partners should be well informed about: the number of children we care for; the reasons why they are looked after; the profile of looked after children ad young people (race, gender, disability); how many accommodation and education moves they have had; is information shared between and within agencies (integrated service); does a clear plan for outcomes exist for each child.

5. 5 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department What is getting in the way of this child achieving their potential? Four Questions What can I do to help this child? What can my agency do to help this child? Do I need to share or seek any further information to construct a plan? Does this child need any help from any other agency? GIRFEC

6. 6 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Who are Western Isles “Looked After Children”? Children and Young People living with their own families, who are subject to a supervision requirement from the Children’s Hearing: because their needs for care, education supervision support with their development are not being fully met (non-offence grounds); because they have committed offences (offence grounds). 12 Children in the Western Isles are currently on Home Supervision

7. 7 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Who are Western Isles “Looked After Children”? Children and Young People who are staying in a care placement away from home as a condition of a Supervision requirement (Looked After and Accommodated) Children and Young People who are staying in a care placement by agreement with their parents (including children who have regular extended short breaks and respite stays) Why Western Isles children are living away from home ……..just now

8. 8 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Where are Western Isles “Looked After and Accommodated Children living”? 14 children are living in a foster home 3 are staying in a specialist independent education and care placements No children are with prospective adopters Hillcrest is providing residential placements for 5 children. A major challenge for Western Isles Council is that we are not able to provide the range of placements for children and young people in need on the islands. Further concern is that some children have too many changes of placement.

9. 9 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Where are Western Isles “Looked After and Accommodated Children living”? Foster care and Kinship care (staying with relatives or friends) 3 have foster children living with them Western Isles has 10 foster placements (3 are available to provide care and the remaining 4, for a variety of reasons cannot be used at this time) 7 kinship carers The real challenge for Western Isles Council is to provide a family home for very young children and for teenagers with challenging behaviour Currently Western Isles Council and Action for Children are looking at how the Action for Children Project Gael Og might become a live resource on the islands.

10. 10 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Where are Western Isles “Looked After and Accommodated Children living”? Of the children on the Child Protection Register, 2 are under a supervision requirement All of Western Isles Looked After Children are White, British Their ages are:  0 are aged under 1 year  5 are aged 1 – 4 years  11 are aged 5 – 11 years  19 are aged 12 – 15 years  4 are aged 16 – 17 years 30% of the total number of Looked After Children have disabilities or specialist health needs, mainly due to social, emotional or behavioural difficulties Substance misuse in families is not commonly the main reason children need to be Looked After in the Western Isles

11. 11 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Additional Support Needs for Western Isles Looked After Children Factors giving rise to additional support needs include disability or health needs; social or emotional factors; family circumstances; the learning environment. The school support needs are provided through a process of “staged intervention”. This involves “assessment” and a “least intrusive” approach to action planning (including more individualised planning, access to additional resources/time etc.) This process is “inclusively” applied to pupils who are Looked After. In addition a Looked After Child would have a named key worker/contact within school. This helps to ensure that the relationship between the care plan and any identified additional support needs is well co-ordinated through the process of personalised planning within school.

12. 12 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Other areas of Risk which Elected Members and Community Planning Partners ought to be aware of? Capacity Risks Supported accommodation Fostering Services Areas of Risk Financial risks (of mainland Western Isles placements) Individually very expensive – up to £200,000 per annum Unpredictable/uncontrollable - may be a Supervision requirement Over Budget -

13. 13 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department Resource Issues Ring-fenced funding for the prevention and specialist services (Changing Children’s Services fund) New resources have to be directed to very high level and high risk needs: children needing mental health services (CAMHS) The Community Planning Partners need to build a strategic approach to planning and delivering Children’s Services that does not rely on Child Protection as the vehicle to drive forward. (Western Isles Children’s Services Strategy Group.)

14. 14 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department How will we know if we are succeeding and have created a Corporate Parent culture? Have we ongoing support? Do all community planning partners recognise they have responsibilities? Is there a corporate parenting group or committee and a named senior person in each department to ensure corporate parenting responsibilities are fulfilled/ have we a statement of intent? Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare forum

15. 15 Looked After Children and Young People: Corporate Parenting Brian J Fearon Interim Head of Service Children’s Services Department We can and must do better for these children and young people