Placement Sufficiency Statement for Cared for Children

34 Pages·2014·1.85 MB·English

by  Mr System Administrator

Placement Sufficiency Statement
for Cared for Children
May 2014
CHESHIRE EAST BC CHILDREN IN CARE SUFFICIENCY STATEMENT

Foreword

This Sufficiency Statement supports the strategic intentions and ambition for
our children in care and demonstrates further evidence of Cheshire East
Borough Council’s passion and commitment to put children and particularly
children in care at the heart of all that we do.

Children in care are our children and it is our role to ensure they are supported,
nurtured and helped to be and feel safe, achieve their potential and grow into
confident young people and adults.

Ensuring our children can live and grow up in a safe and stable home is key to
ensuring their wellbeing and securing their positive development. The purpose of this
Sufficiency Statement is to support the ambition of ensuring all children in care live
and grow up in homes and with carers that meet their needs.

As this statement notes, all children that come into care have different needs and
circumstances and our services need to be flexible and diverse to respond
appropriately. Our role and focus will be to continue to make sure that children in
care, children on the edge of care and care leavers have the best possible service
from all professionals and that we work together to make sure they can achieve the
best possible outcomes.

Securing sufficient and appropriate accommodation that meets the needs of children
in care is a vital step in delivering improved outcomes - having the right placement in
the right place, at the right time, is an important feature for improving stability that in
turn is a critical success factor in relation to better outcomes.

All professionals, alongside Elected Members, working with children in care have a
corporate parenting responsibility. In practical terms we are committed to developing
this statement to ensure effective commissioning, co-ordination, integration and
delivery of services to children and young people, in order that we can together
support them to achieve the best possible outcomes in life.

Tony Crane
Executive Summary

This is the refresh of the Placement Sufficiency Statement compiled in April 2013. This
document will outline the current position, progress made over the last 12 months, and
plans our commissioning priorities for 2014-15.

The average number of children in care over the first four years of Cheshire East
becoming a unitary authority following Local Government Review was 422. Over the
last year the number of children in care has reduced further from 376 twelve months
ago to 333 as of 31 March 2014. In comparison to our other North West authorities and
based on the 903 data it would suggest this is against the regional trend for local
authorities of a similar or larger size. Even with a reduction in the total numbers in care
a higher percentage of children 82.6% are placed in accommodation that is within 20
miles of Cheshire East. We shall be looking to continually increase this percentage so a
greater number of children are placed closer or within Cheshire East’s boundary. Of
those children in care that are placed with external agencies; 83% are judged to provide
good or outstanding care. Any provision that subsequently becomes inadequate will be
subject to a clear action plan of improvement.

The North West has a collaborative approach to children in care accommodation
through Placements North West and a well established network for senior operational
managers and commissioning managers. Geographically, Cheshire East is on the
fringe of the North West which means that the level, quality and range of available
accommodation for children in care within a 20 mile radius remains insufficient for the
current number of children in care, but is an improving picture. The demand for foster
care beds, for example, compared to availability provides a clear indication that there is
insufficient accommodation, but the reduction in the cared for children population
means that this is less of a pressure but still an area that needs to be addressed.

Given the size of Cheshire East and the pockets of deprivation, the current number of
children in care is still thought to be above that expected. This, along with the current
and predicted future financial position across local government requires us to manage
the flow of children coming in and out of care effectively and appropriately.

The current reduction in the younger age profile, recent trends in the number of children
with adoption plans and those with care planning towards SGO and Residency Orders,
has resulted in a reduction in the overall cared for children population over the last 12
months. Also, the targeting of those young people placed with parents and Section 20
accommodated has contributed to the reduction in numbers. This along with the
developing Early Help Strategy which will offer help to children and families before any
problems are apparent, effective support to children on the edge of care and a range of
alternatives to care, should further reduce the overall number of children coming into
care. The current number of cared for children are 333, this remains slightly higher than
the size of the Borough would suggest. For the reasons outlined above, we have
projected this number to reduce in the longer term to 300. The level of cared for
children will then be more in line with size and levels of deprivation across Cheshire
East. As overall numbers of cared for children reduce it is expected that the levels of
complexity within the overall cohort will be proportionately higher and this needs to be
planned for.
The total number of Cheshire East foster carers has reduced over recent years, but this
decline has stabilised and improved access to those carers is now approved. Having a
greater number of our own foster carers with a mix of skills that can cater for the full age
range and complexity of need is critical to ensuring good quality care and value for
money. Cheshire East is now becoming less-reliant on the independent market which
itself is under-developed. Cheshire East recognises the importance of maximising the
recruitment of our own foster carers. We believe that with the right marketing, incentives
and support we can increase the number of Cheshire East Borough Council foster
carers to provide an additional 40 places over the next two years. This will ensure we
keep children in a family environment and value for money is achieved.

The other main component of our own provision for cared for children is our residential
homes which have increased to 4 homes in the last 12 months and able to cater for 16
children. In order to maintain an effective and efficient blend of internal / external
provision which is in line with the expected numbers and complexity of cared for
children, usage of this resource of 16 internal beds does need to be considered
carefully.

The ability to source good quality education provision which is close to the
accommodation for our cared for children is an important driver in meeting our
sufficiency duty. In order to ensure robust safeguarding arrangements placing our
children in care within the authority boundary is an important factor especially in the
light of the current national issues in respect of child sexual exploitation and trafficking.
As an example, the level of local provision for children and young people with Emotional
and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD) is poor and this complicates and increases the cost
of sourcing care / school accommodation from the market. A new EBD school operated
by Wings is due to open in the north of the authority and the onset of a regional
education framework may see this position improve.

The ‘New Belongings’ project - run by the Care Leavers’ Foundation and funded by the
Department for Education - aims to create the gold standard in supporting care leavers,
which can then be replicated in other areas. In September 2013, Stockport Council,
Cheshire East Council, Wirral Borough Council and Trafford Council signed up to ‘New
Belongings’ with the aim to improve the lives of vulnerable people leaving care. Our
action plan will improve the choice of 16+ accommodation and support thereby
enhancing the pathway to independence for young people.

Improving the transition of young adults with special educational needs and disabilities
(SEND) successfully from Children’s to Adult services is also a key feature that will be
looked at through the LD Lifecourse project and by addressing the new legislative
changes in SEND through the Children & Families Act part 3.

Section 11 of this Sufficiency Statement details the range of actions completed or on-
going over the last year as follows:

Market Management
Quality Monitoring
Placement Sourcing
16+Provision
Residential
SEN
Fostering/Adoption
Transition
This is the first refresh of Sufficiency Statement for Children in Care Accommodation
first published 12 months ago. It is important that the statement is reviewed and
updated on a regular basis as trends / profiles have already started to change and this
will continue over the coming years.

Finally, as corporate parents we are clear that the voice of our children in care should
have a strong influence in the actions taken to meet our sufficiency duties.
1.0 Introduction

1.1 The requirement, under s22G Children Act 1989 for Local Authorities, to
publish an annual Sufficiency Statement for children in care accommodation
was introduced from April 2011. This is Cheshire East’s first refresh of the
statement, published under statutory guidance, and our commitment is to
monitor, update and continuously improve our position against our sufficiency
duty.

1.2 Most children are brought up in their own families, but in Cheshire East as in
other areas a small number of children need to live away from their families
and grow up in a range of alternative care arrangements which include foster
care, residential care and supported independent living. These children are
described as being ‘in care’ and are the responsibility of the local authority
which is, in effect, their ‘corporate parent’. As ‘corporate parent’ for a number
of children and young people, we need to ensure that a sufficient number,
type and quality of accommodation is available in order to ensure the welfare
and emotional / physical well-being of every child and that they reach their
potential.

1.3 All children need a stable home whilst they are growing up. This is even more
important for children in care who have frequently experienced trauma, abuse
and uncertainty that includes moving from their birth family or main carers.
Such events often affect their early development, behaviour, confidence and
ability to attach positively to adults.

1.4 No one service or agency can by itself provide all the support needed by
children in care. It requires all services and agencies to ‘share the care’ and
actively work together to ensure the right support and opportunities are made
available to children and young people in care and their carers.

1.5 The newly developed Children in Care strategy that is about to be published
will be the framework by which agencies and services in Cheshire East will
ensure that children in care have the same opportunities as their peers to
enable them to fulfil their potential, and make a good start in adult life. It sets
out the achievements so far, shared priorities for children and young people in
care, and the actions to be taken over the next 3 years to make a positive
difference to their lives and outcomes focusing on ‘Providing me with a Good
safe home’, ‘Keep me Healthy’, ‘Help me to Achieve ‘and ‘Support me to
Move to Adult Life’.

1.6 As corporate parents we have high expectations for our children and young
people in care and encourage them to have high expectations of themselves.
We want them to leave care with a sense of achievement and security,
looking forward to a future where they will be valued and involved citizens
who are economically independent and able to contribute positively to the
communities in which they live.
2.0 The Sufficiency Duty for Children in Care

2.1 The Statutory Guidance sets out a requirement for Local Authorities to work
with key partners to be in a position to secure, where reasonably practicable,
sufficient accommodation for children in care in their local authority area
which meets the needs of children and whose circumstances are such that it
would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with
accommodation that is in the local authority’s area (‘the sufficiency duty’).

2.2 The sufficiency duty requires local authorities to do more than simply ensure
that accommodation be ‘sufficient’ in terms of the number of beds provided.
They must also have a regard to the benefits of securing a number of
providers and a range of services. Fundamentally, the accommodation
available must meet the needs of children.

2.3 When the sufficiency duty is applied to an excellent standard it should
incorporate the following:

All children are placed in the local authority area, except where this is not
consistent with their needs and welfare.

All children with a plan of adoption are placed with an adoptive family within
12 months of that plan being approved.

There is a diverse range of universal, targeted and specialist services working
together to meet children’s needs, including children and young people who
are already looked after as well as those at risk of becoming looked after or in
custody.

Our Children’s Trust (including housing) work together to secure a range of
provision to meet the needs of those who become looked after at the age of
16 and 17, and to support the continuity of education or accommodation
beyond the age of 18.

Services are available in adequate quantity to respond to children and young
people including predicted demand for a range of needs, and emergencies.

In addition to meeting relevant National Minimum Standards, services are of a
quality to secure the specific outcomes identified in the care planning process
for children and young people.

Services are situated across the local authority area to reflect geographical
distribution of need.

Placement providers (including private, voluntary and public sector providers)
are linked into the wider network of services and work with these services to
offer appropriate support to deliver identified outcomes for looked after
children.
Universal services know when a child or young person is looked after and
have good links with the range of targeted and specialist services which
support them, including placement providers.

There are mechanisms in place to ensure that professionals involved in
placement decisions have sufficient knowledge and information about the
supply and quality of placements and availability of all specialist, targeted and
universal support services within the local authority area.

The local authority and the Children’s Partnership collaborate with
neighbouring Children’s Trusts to plan the market for children in care and
commission in regional or sub-regional arrangements.

3.0 Children in Need and Early Intervention

3.1 The Cheshire East Early Help Strategy sets out Cheshire East’s Children’s
Trust’s ambition for the development of Early Help services; defines what we
mean by Early Help in Cheshire East and sets out the principles that will
underpin the future development of services.
3.2 The Strategy has been developed in response to the national policy context
and the local needs of children and young people in Cheshire East and
applies across the Cheshire East Children’s Trust and its constituent services.

3.3 Overall, Children and Young People who live in Cheshire East have outcomes
that are at or above the national averages across the range of indicators.
However, when this authority level positive picture is taken down to more local
levels, it is clear that in some areas of our borough the outcomes for children,
young people and families are less good than in others. Data from both the
Children’s Services needs analysis and the Joint Strategic Needs Analysis
(JSNA) demonstrate these geographical differences and highlight the impact
and potential domino effect from not having early help. An example of this is
Free School Meal (FSM); the average percentage of FSM in Cheshire East
Primary Schools is 11% yet there are 5 primary schools in Crewe and 3 in
Macclesfield where this figure is over 35%, 4 of which are over 40%. This
level of FSM correlates with the original towns that our cared for children
come from (see A4 – 67% from Crewe and Macclesfield).

3.4 Family income is known to be linked to children’s educational attainment, with
children from less well-off backgrounds, on average, less likely to achieve well
at school than those from families with higher incomes. FSM is a widely used
proxy indicator for deprivation. Research also tells us there is a strong
correlation between young people who are Not in Education, Employment or
Training (NEET) and areas were educational outcomes are less good. Whilst
the vast majority of NEET young people live in relatively few wards in
Cheshire East the areas with highest numbers are predominantly Crewe,
Macclesfield and Congleton. Unsurprisingly, these are largely in the wards
that experience the most challenges.
3.5 Generally, most indicators of children and young people’s wellbeing follow a
broadly similar geographical pattern. The Children’s Trust’s Early Help
Strategy understands this variation across the localities for young people and
is mindful of those parts of the borough where outcomes are less good in
order to have maximum impact.

3.6 Delivery of the Early Help ambition is underpinned by a set of principles that
has been agreed by all agencies and sectors:
1. All of the agencies working with children and families in Cheshire East are
committed to Early Help

2. This means that there are no wrong ‘front doors’ and all agencies are
committed to addressing the needs of families whether it falls within their
immediate area of professional expertise or not.

3. All agencies are committed to identifying families’ needs in a holistic manner
on the basis that the needs of the children in a family are inextricably linked to
the needs of the whole family.

4. This is manifested by a commitment from agencies to support their frontline staff to
take a lead in meeting families’ needs and a willingness to support the multi-agency
processes once families requiring early help are identified by other agencies.

5. In many instances early help is provided by the agency identifying the need
but where that agency feels it needs support from another agency or agencies
mechanisms exist to broker this support

6. Where the support needed involves multiple agencies the Common
Assessment Framework will usually provide the planning and review
mechanism for this work. Where additional support for the CAF process is
required it will be provided by Cheshire East.

7. The overall objective of early help is to address families’ needs to the point
where their needs can best be met from within universal services.

8. Families are central to defining and addressing the problems that they face
and they are key partners in the process.

9. In order to achieve these objectives we all take responsibility for fostering a
shared inter-agency culture that values:-

The identification and the taking of early help opportunities with families
The contributions of all professional staff, volunteers and family
members
Positive challenge and holding each other to account for outcomes for
families
Working to overcome systemic barriers to achieving better outcomes.
Support time for shared learning and ensuring that what we do is
based on good evidence.
3.7 There is recognition that in order to be able to intervene early services need to
be available across the levels of need and age range. We want to prevent
individuals and families reaching crisis point. This means we need to get
better at:

Preventing need by addressing the conditions that contribute to personal or
social problems;

Predicting need, or recognising the early signs and symptoms of decline as it
is happening and responding quickly to prevent decline.

3.8 It also means working with people in a different and more sustained way when
they reach crisis point. We need to tackle the root cause problems that often
lead to chaotic lifestyles, and the ‘revolving door’ in and out of crises. We
need to consider whether we should ever close the case, with families who
present with long-term complex support needs, and we need to consider if our
therapeutic services for victims of abuse or ill-treatment are effective in
minimising long-term harm.

4 Cheshire East Children in Care Commissioning Approach

4.1 Cheshire East is developing a Commissioning Strategy for children in care
and this will ensure that the principles below steer effective commissioning
which will have a positive influence on improving outcomes.

4.2 For those children in our care a happy stable home life and successful
placement supports the achievement of all other outcomes -
Care Matters: Time for Change 2007 states that:

“We need to ensure that children in care are provided with the one thing which
they have told us makes the single biggest difference to their lives: being in
the right placement………

Good commissioning is crucial in raising the quality of placement provision,
allowing good providers to flourish and providing an incentive for those who
perform poorly to focus on improvement. If we are to succeed in our aim of
improving children’s experience of the care system then it is essential that
effective strategies are in place at local and regional level.”

4.3 The priority is to support children to remain with their families; wherever
possible and when it is safe to do so. This means a focused approach to
prevention and early intervention to support all families.

4.4 Through talking to children and young people, along with wider research, it is
clear that what matters to those children and young people who are placed in
care is that they would like: