Strategy to Support Looked After Children
A REPORT detailing the council’s strategy for supporting Reading’s looked after children will be considered at a meeting of the Adult, Children’s and Education Committee next week.
The Corporate Parenting Strategy 2016/17 contains the council’s key achievements, the results of consultations with children and young people, what the council intends to do to meet the needs of looked after children and how the council intends to deliver the plan.
The strategy reports there were 220 children in the care of Reading Borough Council as at the end of March 2016, which is broadly in line with the national average per head of population. A majority of children are placed with foster carers, with others being placed with relatives or friends, in residential settings or placed for adoption.
Key achievements for the Children’s Social Care section include introducing a restructure to establish smaller social work teams, the creation of a specific team for looked after children, care leavers and court work, improved outcomes for children, improved performance against key performance indicators and increasing the number of permanent social workers to 80 per cent by the end of September 2016.
Future challenges identified include meeting the specific needs of looked after children, increasing the number of in-house foster carers, addressing the housing needs of care leavers and ensuring looked after children receive their health assessments.
Consultations with children in care are undertaken regularly and their views, which feature throughout the document, have been central to the development of the strategy and foster carers have also been consulted.
The service’s strategic objectives include: supporting families to stay together where it is safe to do so; delivery of sufficient placements; ensuring all looked after children achieve their full potential in education, employment and training; improving the physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of our looked after children and keeping them safe; listening to and acting on the views of looked after children and young people; supporting our young people through the transition to adulthood and encouraging corporate colleagues to understand their corporate parenting responsibilities.
The council intends to deliver the plan and monitor performance through the Corporate Parenting Panel, comprising elected members, and the Corporate Parenting Operational Group.
Councillor Jan Gavin, Reading’s Lead Councillor for Children’s Services, said:
“We are passionate about supporting our children and young people in care and our care leavers.
“All Reading councillors are committed to being good corporate parents to our young people and have signed a pledge promising to do our best for them.
“We have made sure the views of our young people and foster carers have been listened to and included within the new Corporate Parenting Strategy.
“The children’s social care team have achieved a lot in the last year and this strategy sets out how we will remain focused on promoting the health and wellbeing of our children and giving them the best chances we can offer.”
Members of the Adult, Children and Education Committee will be asked to agree the refreshed Corporate Parenting Strategy at a meeting on Monday 4th July.
