21 The Views of Looked After Children and Young People in Southampton PDF 307 KB
Report of the Director, Legal and Governance
enabling the Panel to develop their understanding of the views of
looked after children and young people in Southampton.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Panel received the report of the Director,
Legal and Governance which enabled the Panel to develop their
understanding of the views of looked after children and young
people aged 4-18 years in Southampton and the improvements planned
following the publication of the findings.
Councillor Paffey, Cabinet Member for
Aspiration, Children and Lifelong Learning;
Sharon Hawkins, Interim Service Lead, Children’s Social Care;
and Phil Bullingham, Service Lead, Safeguarding, Improvement,
Governance and Compliance; were present and,
with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel.
In discussions with the
officers, the Panel noted the following:
- Placement stability
was improving.
- The cohort that were
surveyed this time included more complex cases who cannot have
contact with parents which would have influenced the increase in
children saying they want more contact.
- Where there was no
contact with siblings, this would have been agreed through
assessment and the court process, where there were siblings and
plans for adoption togetherness was assessed
thoroughly.
- The question of
contact with family had been added to each child protection or care
plan review.
- A social worker had
been allocated to pick up all new court proceedings and deliver
life story work with the children.
- The Children in Care
Council had carried out a review of the use of language by
Children’s Services and would be reporting to the Corporate
Parenting Board on Language that Cares for Southampton
children.
- The Mind of My Own
App, that enabled looked after children to communicate with their
social workers had been successfully implemented.