Agenda item

The report of the level of support for care leavers and the revised local offer is attached.

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Care Leavers and Support for Care Leavers & Care Leavers' Local Offer which described the current position regarding the levels of support for care leavers in the key areas of housing; education, training and employment; health; involvement and the transition from being a looked after child to young adulthood. The report also referred to the revised local offer and the new Care Leavers’ financial policy and guidance. The Panel received an overview from the Head of Adolescent Services, Early Help and Children’s Social Care, Hannah Doughty.

It was highlighted that the total of young people being supported in Children’s Services had reduced from 848 in March 2020 to 765 in January 2021.

Officers noticed a dramatic rise in numbers due to the implementations of the Children’s Social Work Act 2018. The service had reviewed the numbers and noted the high numbers of care leavers opened to the service and not in need of support at that time. The service had reviewed this and contacted those care leavers to provide them with information that they required should they be in need of support. The service was also moving towards a joint allocation of a social worker and a personal advisor for young people from the age of 15 and a half years.

Officers informed Panel Members that there were 56% of care leavers who were former unaccompanied children, of which two thirds were male.

The current voluntary arrangement was for each local authority to accept up to 0.07% of the child population that was unaccompanied asylum seeking children, which meant sixty-six children for Croydon Children’s Social Care, though currently the service supported two-hundred and ten children due to the location of the home office – Luna House in Croydon.

There were fifty social workers who were trained to conduct the human rights assessments to determine whether, young people had their appeal rights exhausted and had no legal right to remain in the UK, and, to continue to receive support though the service. It was said that should the assessment state otherwise, the unaccompanied children would return to the Home Office for support in accommodation and charities which repatriation was considered. Currently there was approximately sixty-five young person ages 21 – 25 who had status, which gained an average cost of £11,500 per annum to service per child.

Officers further informed with regards to housing that more work was required around the housing offer to care leavers. Currently the majority of young people resided in private sector accommodation which was secured by housing. All care leavers would be offered accommodation upon their 18^th birthday which would be within their assessment and heard at the housing panel. Young people with no recourse to public funds would be offered shared accommodation. The cost to children’s services for young people accommodation procured by housing was due to a surcharge of 25% of rent of each young person with recourse to public funds at the charges agreed to offset non-payment of rent, for the reason of a shortfall in housing benefit claims. Additionally, there were sixty-nine young people who were currently residing with their former foster carers under a staying put arrangement and there was more encouragement for social workers to consider the staying put policy as a preferred first step towards independence.

Lastly, officers highlighted the local offer for care leavers and also work that the service had in place for care leavers which included a championship scheme, education, training and employment and the transition from children looked after to leaving care services.

The Panel welcomed the report which was very informative and the proposals put forward, and commented on what was presented to them within the report.

The Co-optee Member and Care Leaver Representative had asked questions with regards to whether the proposals were made at the time of the Council’s financial constraints, and whether the proposals were still achievable a priority. There were also comments on the new local offer which provided an undesirable review where care leavers saw this as a directory for other services and not what care leavers were entitled to. The financial policy and guidance was not clear within the local offer, and there were other missing information such as the drive-in support. Officers responded and addressed that the proposals had been written since the financial landscape had been known, and the service had ensured that they had retained quality of service upon review which was value for money and filled their statutory obligations. Officers also noted the comments raised by EMPIRE of the design and accessibility of information of the local offer which would be reviewed and included the financial offers. Further comments referred to the previous local offer where it was directed by the young people for the young people, and it was noted that the local offer should stick to what was working to represent young person’s voice and experience within that. The Co-optee Foster Carer representative informed that foster carers would be available to help support social workers as they spent more time with the young children and many had built a good relationship with them; the Foster Carers Association were also previously involved in the last local offer. Members welcomed the idea for the local offer to be more user friendly.

Panel Members had put forward their concerns relating to whether the service was able to deliver within the financial difficulties the Council was under. Further with regards to affordable housing, officers informed that there was a quota as part of the allocation scheme, and Croydon had nomination rights intending to use the local housing association vacancies. Additionally, the service would often review whether there was relevant housing associations that had a separate waiting list, as this would indicate that they had their own rules on how they allocated accommodation.

Other questions from Panel Members was related to the housing costs that ranged from £600 to £1200 per month, and whether the service had influence within their purchasing power. There were also questions relating to choices being made with the council using low quality accommodation when the high quality accommodation was sat empty. Lastly questions were raised on the Staying Put arrangements, as it was noted that there was a low uptake, as Staying Put was not popular.

The Chair reminded the Panel of the commitment that was set in relation to increasing the number of council opportunities for young people to be put onto the Council register to access housing, which included some of the Brick by Brick sites; however though there was communications with senior officers within the service on the progress, there was complex issues with the Brick by Brick sites and this meant that services did not operate in the same way.

Officers informed that there were different reasons for Staying Put arrangements, which depended on the individual of the young person, the foster cares and their ability or willingness to be able to provide, or even the expectation and preparation of what would happen after leaving home. More work was to be considered around Staying Put to ensure young people considered this option. Officers also raised new information from the budget proposal where the housing cap was raised from 22 year old to 25 years old from June 2021, which meant a care leaver would get a one-bedroom accommodation rate up until their 21^st birthday. This would provide security though consideration would need to be considered with those dependent on housing benefits. Officers were working with Housing to get the right arrangements in place and address issues where it would be value for money for young people (tenants) residing at the units provided.

Members were positive of the ethos of children services who engaged with young people and listening to their voices.

ACTION – To be presented with a concrete setting of the nature and extent of the dialogue and engagement with young people relating to the local offer.

The Chair thanked officers for their report.

The Panel RESOVED to agree the arrangements confirming the role of adult services in preparing for care leavers and the local offer and to return to the next panel.