Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Social Services which was presented to update Members on the progress made in relation to the implementation of the Safe Reduction of Children Looked After Strategy 2017-2020.

The Head of Children’s Services spoke to the report and highlighted that the Strategy to Safely Reduce the numbers of Children Looked After had three objectives:-

1.      To support families to stay together.

2.      To manage risk confidently and provide support at the edge of care.

3.      To provide affordable high quality placements.

In response to a Member’s question regarding foster carers, the Head of Children’s Services said that it had been a challenge over the summer for the recruitment campaign. Heads of Service across Wales had been developing a national approach for local authorities to recruit foster carers.  The brand ‘Foster Wales’ had been developed and funding of £300,000 had been allocated by the Welsh Government to support the 22 local authorities, and an official launch would take place next year.  The number of foster carers in Blaenau Gwent remained constant, however, enquiries had increased in January/February 2020 but slowed in March due to the pandemic.  The challenge for the Service was to transfer enquiries into approved foster carers as not all applications were successful.  Consultation had been undertaken with existing foster carers regarding how they had been supported over the summer and the feedback had been extremely positive.

A Member enquired regarding the £400,000 overspend on legal costs, the Head of Children’s Services explained that there were many different elements to each case and some may need a number of independent assessments that were commissioned through the court such as assessments of parents or of a sibling group.  Another part of that overspend was the full year costs associated with external legal services as the Council’s Child Care Solicitor had left the Authority.  The Legal Department had gone through the procurement process to enquire if neighbouring authorities were interested in taking on this legal work, at that time there had been no take up of the offer, however, a neighbouring authority had since expressed an interest and the Directorate were now exploring this option.

In response to a Member’s question regarding the Integrated Care Fund monies and how the Directorate was meeting the three objectives, the Head of Children’s Services said that the Welsh Government had given verbal confirmation that the Integrated Care Fund would continue up to April/March 2022.  In relation to meeting the three objectives, this was evidenced by a reduced number of children coming into care and demonstrated the important work of the Supporting Change Team in supporting families and how to manage risk confidently.  As there was further work to be carried out, the Directorate was in the process of developing a five year strategy.

With regard to legal fees a Member felt that the Welsh Government should look at legal fees with a view to providing support for local authorities.  He also enquired if collaboration with other authorities to bear part of the costs would take place.  The Head of Children’s Services said that each local authority had to manage their own budgets in relation to every aspect, including legal costs.  In relation to collaboration with a neighbouring authority, work gathering information on the numbers of court applications made over the last five years was being undertaken to help the neighbouring authority manage capacity.  Work was also being undertaken to identify how costs were attributed to solicitor’s fees, assessments commissioned during the court process and application fees to the court. When collated all the information would be provided to the neighbouring authority and discussions would be ongoing.

The Chair said that given the complexity and nature of the legal cases it was difficult for local authorities to be able to procure legal services at a lesser cost and felt that collaboration with partners may help alleviate some of the burden.

With regard to recruitment of Child Care Solicitors, the Director of Social Services said that it was difficult to recruit legal professionals into local authorities as the Council was competing against private companies who paid higher wages.

Members felt that it was a positive report with great strides being made in safely reducing the number of Children Looked After, but there were still some concerns regarding legal costs.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1, namely that the information contained within the report be accepted.