The Corporate Parenting Panel of Harrow Council met on Thursday 1 February 2024 to review updates on the participation of care-experienced young people, the performance of the Corporate Parenting Service, and reports on missing children, virtual school performance, and the health of children looked after. The panel noted the positive outcomes and ongoing work in these areas, with no specific decisions made beyond noting the reports.

Update from Participation Service and Care Experienced Young People

The Panel received an update from the Participation Officer, Joy Bell, who presented key findings from the 2023 Care Leaver Survey. The survey highlighted concerns among young people regarding the rising cost of living, feelings of loneliness, and uncertainty about housing availability. In response, the council has provided £100 supermarket vouchers to all care leavers as part of the Household Support Fund, and initiatives to combat loneliness include a Care-Experienced Christmas Dinner and a Care Leavers Forum. Support for winter clothing has also been provided through a discretionary clothing allowance.

The presentation also detailed the participation service's activities over the past year, including providing free gym memberships to 62 young people, delivering training sessions led by care-experienced individuals to social workers, hosting 14 events and activities for children looked after, and distributing 691 Christmas presents. The officer highlighted the success of the Christmas campaign in December 2023, which saw the highest number of donations to date. Future plans include hosting a Care-Experienced Award Ceremony and rolling out a Transport For London travel initiative for care leavers.

Update and Performance for Corporate Parenting Service

Jacinta Kane, Assistant Director – Corporate Parenting, presented an update on the performance of the Corporate Parenting Service. Harrow Council's performance was noted as strong in comparison to statistical neighbours and national averages, particularly in areas such as placement stability, suitable accommodation for care leavers, and care leavers in education, employment, and training (EET).

Key performance indicators (KPIs) were discussed, including the timeliness of Children Looked After (CLA) reviews, with 90% completed within the required timescale in quarter 2. While this is not a published KPI, the target is 95%. The report noted that 18 reviews were late in Q2, but the majority were completed within two weeks of being due.

Performance regarding dental and health checks for CLA was also reviewed. 83.3% of CLA had up-to-date dental checks, which is better than the statistical neighbour and England averages. The primary challenge identified was teenagers refusing dental appointments, with social workers working to encourage attendance. The target for up-to-date dental checks is 90%.

The panel was informed that there was a decrease in the number of children placed more than 20 miles away from home, with 85% of these being long-term placements. An update on missing episodes indicated that 8.6% of CLA had at least one missing incident in Q2. The report also touched upon placement sufficiency challenges, noting that sibling groups and parent and child placements remain difficult to source.

Missing Children Report

Lauren Stephenson and Donna Kitchen from the Adolescent Safety Development Team presented a report on missing children activity between April and December 2023. A new system has been introduced to improve the reporting of missing children. Return Home Interviews indicated that the top five risk factors were concerns with family/friends contact, drugs, criminality, alcohol misuse, and child sexual exploitation. The report highlighted a significant increase in repeat missing episodes, with the ten most frequently missing children accounting for 77% of all reported episodes. The common age for young people going missing was 16-17 years old. The panel requested an annual report detailing actions taken to reduce missing episodes and a breakdown of persistently missing children.

Virtual School Performance Update

Mellina Williamson-Taylor, Headteacher of the Harrow Virtual School, presented an update on the school's performance. Attendance for statutory school-aged pupils in Autumn 2023 showed 70% with 90% or better attendance, and 19% with 100% attendance. 30% of pupils were persistently absent, with a higher proportion being male. The number of pupils with at least one suspension had reduced to 5%, which is below the England average. No child had been permanently excluded. Performance at Key Stage 4 showed improvement, with 77% of students receiving GCSE passes (Grades 1-9), an increase from the previous year. The number of students achieving a good GCSE pass in both English and Maths also increased.

Update and Performance on Health for Children Looked After

Christine Nichols, Named Nurse for Children Looked After in Harrow, presented key performance indicators for Initial Health Assessments (IHA) and improvement plans. The report noted that while targets for IHAs and Review Health Assessments (RHAs) were met in some months, challenges remained with late requests and young people refusing appointments. The CLA team is working to improve these timescales through fortnightly meetings with local authority colleagues and reminder text messages. A positive case study was shared, illustrating how collaboration between the CLA nurse and a support keyworker at MACE led to a young person engaging with health services.

The panel noted the reports and acknowledged the work being done by the various services to support children looked after by Harrow Council.