Agenda and minutes
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Media
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Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests Minutes: No disclosures of interest were made. |
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Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips Minutes: No declarations were made. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting(s) PDF 321 KB To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree
as an accurate record. Minutes: Panel agreed the minutes of the meeting on 13 December 2021 as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Public Question Time Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon
on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must relate to
items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period. Minutes: No questions were submitted. |
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Performance Highlight Report and Emergency Staffing Plan PDF 195 KB Elliott King, Cabinet Member – Children Services Julie Davies, Head of Child and Family Services Additional documents: Minutes: Julie Davies, Head
of Child and Family Services attended to brief the Panel on this item. Discussion Points: · Performance Monitoring - More families are being
supported through early help hubs which is indicative of them being more
proactive in their approach. Continuing to have higher number of children
registered on child protection register at birth which continues on an upward
trend. Noticeable reduction in average
number of days children on child protection register. · Officers confirmed the figure for Number of
Days on Child Protection Register indicated a more driven proactive approach to
support families so children are not on the Child Protection Register any
longer than they should be. · Panel noted the increase in unborns being taken into care and queried how much
explanation is given to the mother. Officers stated the Directorate looks at
every case individually, the focus always is on working with parents to try and
enable the baby to stay in the family unit. · Panel concerned about support for refugees
and asylum seeker families as many families are placed temporarily and are then
moved to a different part of the city.
Panel queried if any special provision is made and what the support system
is for them. It was confirmed that if they meet the statutory threshold or come
through the Early Help Hub, the Directorate works together with the Council’s
services and local services to offer support to families they are aware of. · Panel stated that the figures are impressive
in terms of the way the numbers of looked after children have been reducing,
especially in current circumstances, which is a credit to the Department. Department
is satisfied that in terms of re-referrals and registrations, they are still
comparatively low. · Emergency Staffing – Directorate has still
not recruited to vacant social worker posts in locality teams. Had more success in Front Door as able to
appoint support workers which is easing some of the pressure in the locality
teams. Department continues to pull in support from across the Service to
ensure key statutory duties are met and independent social workers if needed
for key tasks. · there are not sufficient placements
available, so the Department is having to use a lot of its own staff to provide
care and support for children in unregulated placements and more children are
being placed in England. Part of the problem
is the Welsh Government initiative to eliminate profit from children’s social
care resulting in some providers deciding to stop future plans to move into
Wales to develop placements or deciding they are not going to continue offering
placements to children in Wales. · The Directorate continues to work with local
universities so that for newly qualified social workers it can get a more
direct feed into the Service to work on lower-level cases. · Officers confirmed that the current pandemic
has not affected staffing as much as feared and that the Covid contingency plan
had been re-introduced. · Panel sought confirmation that independent
fostering companies are looking at stepping away from Wales and heard that some
providers are stepping away because of uncertainty in terms of what the
programme will mean in terms of elimination of profit from children’s
residential care. · Panel queried if Welsh Government are
thinking along the lines of re-investing the profit into education of looked
after children in order to help fund this type of provision for the most
vulnerable young people. Cabinet Member
stated that it is a Welsh Government desire to remove profit from children’s
social care but believes investment from Welsh Government will be in the long
term. |
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Work Programme Timetable 2021-22 PDF 126 KB Minutes: Panel noted items on
the work programme for the remainder of this municipal year. |
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Letter to Cabinet Member (25 January 2022 meeting) PDF 183 KB |