Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Children’s Services which was presented to update the Social Services Scrutiny Committee on the progress made in relation to the implementation of the Safe Reduction of Children Looked After Strategy 2020 – 2025.

The Service Manager Children Looked After spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

A Member commented that there had been no increase in the numbers of children coming into care and enquired if that was due to the lockdown.  The Service Manager said that the long term impact of the pandemic had yet to be seen, the Supporting Change Team had continued to visit children who were deemed to be at risk.  Staff had worked hard to prevent children coming into care and had also managed to help children exit care via discharge care orders.

A Member referred to the number of foster carers in Blaenau Gwent and enquired regarding the progress of recruitment of foster carers.  The Service Manager explained that most of the assessments taking place at the moment were kinship carers.  In relation to recruitment the Foster Wales brand had been officially launched and they were looking at how to collaborate and work together to strengthen Blaenau Gwent’s position in the market for recruitment of foster carers to make it more of a Wales-wide approach rather than local authorities working in isolation against the independent providers.

With regard to recruitment of foster carers from independent providers the Service Manager explained that in terms of the differential of spend, when on-costs were factored in there would be minimal potential savings and felt that there would be better management and support of the Authority’s own foster carers.

In response to a Member’s question regarding the number of existing and new children coming into care in Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5, the Service Manager said that the overall population would include children who had been in care for some time and would be a rolling figure, children coming into and leaving care those figures would be unique to that month.

With regard to the ages of children coming into care, the Team would look to assess all potential options for that child which could include rehabilitation to parents if the parents could make changes, placement with extended family could be considered or adoption.  She assured Members that there were mechanisms in place to ensure that plans put in place to support the child did not drift and children move out of the system as safely and quickly as possible regardless of age.

A Member commented that in comparison to other Authorities what was Blaenau Gwent’s position in relation to vacancies within the service.  The Service Manager said that the vacancy situation was comparable with other Gwent Authorities, particularly for Children’s Services and felt it was a national problem and Blaenau Gwent’s offer to social workers needed to be comparable with other Authorities and highlight what Blaenau Gwent was good at, she felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9