Purpose

West Sussex County Council and
18 other local authorities in the southeast have applied to be one
of the new pathfinder schemes to pilot an approach to the
commissioning of placements for children and young people at a
regional level, in line with the recommendations of the Independent
Review of Children’s Social Care and the government response
– Children’s Social Care: Stable Homes, Built on
Love. 
 
The successful bids will need
to enter into relevant agreements to enable the objectives of the
cooperative to be delivered to secure improvements in the market
for children’s social care placements. 
 
Due to the need for
this matter to be determined as soon as possible, the decision
maker has secured agreement from the Children and Young
People’s Services Scrutiny Committee Chairman for this key
decision to be taken without the required 28-day notice in the
Forward Plan of key decisions (as per the West Sussex County
Council Constitution - Part 4, Section 1, Standing Order 3.57
(Regulation 11) because a delay would prejudice the County
Council’s interests.
 

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Children
and Young People, Learning and Skills has therefore approved the
Council’s participation in the proposed pathfinder scheme
and, in the event of the bid being successful, has delegated
authority to the Director of Children, Young People and Learning
and the Director of Law and Assurance to take any further decisions
relating to the establishment and operation of the Regional Care
Cooperative.