ITEM EX8
EXECUTIVE
– 28 MAY 2002
CHILDREN
AND FAMILIES – LEAVING CARE
Report
by the Director of Social Services
Introduction
1.
The purpose of this report is to detail the progress being made
on the implementation of the Leaving Care Act and the financial implications
for the Authority.
2.
The Children and Young Persons Sub-Committee received a report
in September 2001 on the new Leaving Care Act and a seminar for Members
was held in October 2001. The Sub Committee report and seminar detailed
the County Council’s responsibilities under the Act and highlighted the
impact of other government initiatives, which affect this developing service.
3.
The final guidance issued subsequently by the Department of Health
confirms the draft guidance issued last year, and emphasises local authorities’
statutory duties to provide new and enhanced Leaving Care services to
those young people aged 16 and over who have left, or will leave, care
after 1 October 2001. They will be entitled to services until they reach
21, or 24, if they are in higher education.
4.
The Act’s main objectives are to:
·
Delay young people’s discharge from care
·
Provide better preparation and support for young people
leaving care
·
Provide better personal support after leaving
·
Improve financial arrangements for Leaving Care
To
summarise, the intention is to ensure that the whole of the local authority
accepts its role as a corporate parent and acts in the same way as good
parents would in this situation.
5.
The Act is not retrospective; the Council will therefore have
differing responsibilities for care leavers depending on their status.
Annex 1 provides a
summary of the Act and details the County Council’s responsibilities.
The guidance confirms the eligibility criteria for services under the
Act as all those who are in care at 16 and have spent a total of 13 weeks
in the looked after system since their 14th birthday. The
guidance also confirms the County Council’s financial responsibility for
all care leavers aged 16 plus and its statutory duty to support those
care leavers in higher education.
6.
The interagency model of service agreed by the Children and Young
People’s Sub-Committee was based on consultation with care leavers, service
users, social workers, carers and other professionals. The model agreed
was to develop an integrated Specialist Leaving Care Service between the
Social Services Department and the Connexions Service. This includes
deploying four new social worker posts, created from the Leaving Care
Grant, within the Children Looked After Teams and the Connexions Service.
7.
Numbers of young people
Since the last report, further
work has been done on identifying the potential number of young people
qualifying for leaving care services. Numbers of young people qualifying
for Leaving Care services will grow with new entrants to the looked after
system if they stay in for more than 13 weeks. Unaccompanied asylum seekers
and young people remanded by the courts may well create an increase in
these numbers. On the information available it is estimated that in April
2002, 83 young people were eligible for services under the new Act. It
is anticipated this will rise to approximately 120 during this financial
year. 32 young people have moved to independent living since the 1 October
2001, 16 of whom are totally financially reliant on the social services
department, with the others being partially reliant for some elements.
This group includes 12 unaccompanied minors, who, in conjunction with
their entitlements from the asylum seekers team, will become eligible
for services.
8.
In addition to these young people the local authority is also
responsible for providing services for about 150 young people who qualify
for support and Leaving Care services under the Children Act 1989. These
young people will have access to the support, guidance and some financial
support eg setting up home grants, help with educational equipment, emergency
accommodation.
9.
The fluid nature of this client group makes it difficult to predict
the exact size of the group, and it may be necessary in the future to
consider an increase in the numbers of staff in the Leaving Care Team
given the fact that the commonly accepted ratio is 1 Personal Adviser
to 15 – 20 care leavers. The numbers of young people qualifying for Leaving
Care services will be monitored to assist in predicting what the future
demand is likely to be. This will be necessary to ensure each young person
who is eligible for Leaving Care services has a personal adviser, in effect
this means all young people in and leaving care aged 16 plus. Current
calculations have been based on the assumption that some young people
will want to use their current carers as personal advisers.
Progress
10.
The Children and Families Division has recently (March 2002),
been inspected by the Department of Health’s Social Services Inspectorate
as part of a national programme of inspections. Although the County Council
has yet to receive the full report on the outcome of the inspection, the
headline feedback states that “the Leaving Care team appeared to be a
positive initiative”. Progress so far is as follows:
·
Briefings on the new Leaving Care responsibilities and
related service initiatives have been organised with service users, for
councillors; residential and field social workers; foster carers; Connexions
staff and key educational and housing staff. An interagency launch of
the service is planned when the full team is in place.
·
Recruitment of half the new team has taken place successfully.
This has been achieved in conjunction with care leavers and staff from
Education and Health. Recruitment for the other posts is in process.
·
There are 83 young people who are eligible for services
under the Act. 29 have a pathway plan in preparation, as required by
the Act; the remainder will have pathway plans developed with them as
the Leaving Care team becomes established.
·
The service level agreement with Connexions has been finalised
and a joint training programme for relevant staff is being developed.
·
Guidance for the Leaving Care team is complete. Work has
been undertaken to link Education and Health plans with Pathway Plan,
to ensure that all young people have a health, education and careers assessment
as part of their plan.
·
Protocols for clarifying the roles and responsibilities
for care leavers in LEA and CFE provision are being completed.
·
Designated staff have been identified in the colleges to
champion the needs of this group of young people and negotiations taken
place to ensure young people get access to hardship grants and other dispersed
grants. Prior to the dissemination of funds to schools and colleges the
education department shared the costs of supporting care leavers in higher
education.
·
The Strategic Housing Officer appointed to create more
accommodation options for care leavers is due to start in May. One of
the main tasks for this post will be to build on the housing developments
to ensure that consistent strategies and operational procedures exist
across the county.
·
Care leavers, themselves, have been trained to contribute
to the implementation of the Act and teams in Oxfordshire. They have
already made a valuable contribution to the work of the department. In
addition to participating in the recruitment of care leaving staff, they
have also helped to recruit the Children’s Fund co-ordinator, run a seminar
for staff and prospective volunteers for the Independent Visitors scheme
on children’s rights. They will be participating in a joint Connexion/Social
Services partnership to establish a consultation group for care leavers
and young people in the Looked After system. It is anticipated that this
group will produce more interested young people, and lead to the establishment
of a permanent consultation group.
·
The consultation group of care leavers is reviewing the
materials available for young people.
·
The department is contributing to national research on
the educational achievements of care leavers and issues around care leavers
who become parents. Oxfordshire has contributed to the development of
regional guidance and practice and will participate in a review of our
services in conjunction with our regional group in the Autumn.
·
Work to establish a database and Leaving Care register
has been started with the appointment of a temporary administrative assistant.
Financial Implications
11.
As previously reported to members we had predicated a spend for
2001-02 in line with the grant allocation and had determined an initial
budget allocation for 2002-03 based on a known grant of £2.130 million.
The outturn position for 2001/02 is consistent with the prediction of
spending within budget.
12.
The implications for 2002-03 are in line with what was previously
reported. Until we are able to see the pattern being established in the
number of young people qualifying for Leaving Care services over the next
year it is difficult to predict accurately what the future demand will
be. Recent announcements regarding the courts being able to remand 12
– 16 year olds to local authority care could have a significant impact
on the numbers of young people qualifying for Leaving Care services.
Dissemination of funds to the institutions providing further education
have restricted the Education Department’s ability to support this group.
As Oxfordshire does not qualify for education maintenance grants, funding
for this subset are limited. As educational achievement improves for
this group it is likely additional financial pressures will be experienced
because Social Services Department will be the only positive source of
income. Young care leavers aged 19 will be disqualified from accessing
benefits.
13.
If we continue to spend at the same rate as we did in 2001-02,
and aim to deliver the new services, we will have a significant financial
pressure. The aim is to reduce current service spending to facilitate
an affordable solution. Increases in the number of young people qualifying
for this service may realise a spend in excess of the grant position.
The government grant has been designed to include funding for all services
to children aged 16 plus who are looked after and who are leaving or have
left care. Calculations for allocating it involved reducing the County
Council’s SSA and reintroducing it as the main element of the grant; new
money, and money transferred from Benefits.
14.
For 2002-3, the Department has been allocated a grant of £2.13m.
The table below illustrates how the grant has been allocated. Particular
pressure on this funding comes from the rent increases brought about by
the implementation of supporting people and any increase in the numbers
of young people remanded to local authority care. The local authority
has limited control on these factors.
|
Leaving
Care Grant 2002-03
|
Estimated
Allocation £
|
|
Support Services.
Finance and administration
|
|
|
New Services.
Housing Costs, Support for further/higher education
|
420,000
|
|
Social Worker
Posts
|
142,000
|
|
Current Services.
This is the element of the grant that was reduced from the SSA
|
1,502,000
|
|
Total
|
2,130,000
|
It
is difficult at this stage to establish the full effect of the Act, which
is dependent on the pattern of young people who qualify for the service.
Implications
for People Living in Poverty and People from Ethnic Minorities
15.
People living in poverty are over-represented within the Leaving
Care population. The principles of the Leaving Care Act should help this
group.
16.
Children from ethnic minorities are over-represented within the
Leaving Care population. The principles of the Leaving Care Act should
help this group.
RECOMMENDATIONS
17.
The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:
(a)
endorse the action taken to implement the Leaving Care
Act as described in the report;
(b)
instruct officers to report back to the Executive if there
is a shortfall in funding for this group of young people.
STEPHEN
WILDS
Director of
Social Services
Background
papers: Nil
Contact
Officers: Phil Hodgson, Assistant Director, Children & Families, Tel:
(01865) 815833
Fran
Fonseca, Service Manager, Placements, Tel: (01865) 815005
May
2002
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