This meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel included reports and presentations on the work of the Supporting Solutions Service, the Independent Reviewing Officer Service, and the Independent Visitor Service, as well as the numbers of Children in Care and Care Leavers, a performance update, and updates from Ofsted.

Supporting Solutions

The Supporting Solutions Service provides support to young people and families in a number of ways.

One of the services provided is Edge of Care support. This service aims to provide intensive support to families where there has been a relationship breakdown and the young person is at risk of going into care.

“Edge of care (EoC) support – intensive interventions to young people, parents and carers where there has been a relationship breakdown and without this support it is likely that the young person (YP) may need to become looked after or experience a placement move."[1]

[1]: This quote is from a report on the Supporting Solutions Service that was included in the public reports pack provided for this meeting.

The report pack included information on the number of young people and families who had been referred to the service, broken down by the ages of the young people, the type of placement they were in when they were referred, the factors that led to them being referred, and the outcomes of their involvement with the service.

It also included information about the development of a new Edge of Care Home called The Lighthouse, the use of the Teen Outcomes Star and Family Star Plus tools to assess the impact of the service, a regional network of Edge of Care services, and the Investing in Children quality improvement scheme.

The Supporting Solutions Service also includes the ERASE team. This team provides support to young people at risk of exploitation and who go missing from home or care. The team includes Missing from Home Co-ordinators and Child Exploitation Workers.

“ERASE is responsible for:

(a) Completing return home interviews on all children who have been missing in Durham (with the exception of those open to early help). (b) Working with children who have been identified as high risk of exploitation, who have an allocated social worker in the Adolescent Safeguarding & Exploitation Team (ASET), Families First or Children in Care Services.”[2]

[2]: This quote is from a report on the work of the ERASE team that was included in the public reports pack provided for this meeting.

The report pack included information on the Child Exploitation Matrix which is a tool used to assess the risk of exploitation to children, the Child Exploitation Vulnerability Tracker (CEVT) meeting which reviews referrals made using the matrix, the Child Exploitation Group (CEG) which oversees children identified as at significant risk of exploitation, mapping which is used to identify and understand the risks of exploitation to young people outside the home, and the Return Home Interview (RHI) which is offered to children who have gone missing.

The report pack also included a summary of the number of children referred to the ERASE team for exploitation and missing from home, broken down by the type of exploitation concern.

Independent Reviewing Officer Service

The Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Service is responsible for monitoring the care plans of children in care and ensuring that their needs are being met. IROs chair child protection conferences, looked after children reviews, secure accommodation reviews, private fostering reviews, and foster carer reviews.

The report pack included information about the number of children in care in County Durham, the timeliness of reviews, the number of children subject to child protection plans, the number of children who had a permanence plan within 6 months of entering care, and the number of complaints received by the service.

The report pack also included information about children's participation in their reviews, IRO visits to children in care, advocacy, and the Dispute Resolution Process which is used to challenge decisions made about children's care plans. It included information about the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) which provides advocacy services to children in care in Durham, and Aycliffe Secure Centre (ASC), a secure children's home.

There were several examples of case notes provided in the report that were anonymised, and that described the interactions of IROs with the children they were working with.

“E – aged 9

In her review E shared she “understands her plan, is happy with the way things are and scored a 10 out of 10.”[3]

[3]: This quote is taken from the annual report of the Independent Reviewing Officer Service included in the report pack for the meeting.

Finally the report pack included the IRO service's development plan for 2024/25.

Independent Visitor Service

The Independent Visitor Service provides independent visitors (IVs) to looked after children. IVs are volunteers who visit, befriend, and advise children in care.

“Being an Independent Visitor is considered a long-term commitment with a young person and after four years of service, the service has begun to examine the impact of the involvements on volunteers, young people and with social workers.”[4]

[4]: This quote is taken from the report on the Independent Visitor Service that was provided to the meeting, which can be found in the meeting's report pack.

The report pack included information about the number of volunteers recruited to the service, the number of referrals received, the number of matches made, and the average waiting time for a match. It also included a case study of one of the matches made by the service, a description of the impact of the service, and plans for the future development of the service.

Care Leavers Service - Custody Audit Summary Update

The Care Leavers Service is responsible for supporting young people leaving care.

“The Care Leavers Service wanted to gain a better understanding of the needs of care leavers in custody and to consider what could be done to prevent offending and further increase the offer to those young people."[5]

[5]: This quote is from a report that was provided to the meeting about an audit of the needs of care leavers in custody. The report can be found in the meeting's report pack.

The report pack included a summary of a recent audit that was undertaken of all care leavers in custody in County Durham. The audit looked at the reasons why they were in custody, the support they were receiving, and the plans in place for their release.

The audit found that a Custody Project that was developed in partnership with HMP Durham was having a positive impact on the care leavers it had reached. The project provided support to care leavers in custody from prison staff and Young Person's Advisors in Durham.

The report pack included an action plan to improve the support offered to care leavers in custody.

Performance Update

The report pack included a performance update on the work of the Children's Services Department in County Durham.

“The purpose of the presentation is to provide the Corporate Parenting Panel with an overview of performance in relation to children in our care and care leavers."[6]

[6]: This quote is from the report about the performance update in the meeting's report pack.

The report pack included information on a number of performance indicators, including: the number of children in care, the number of children in care who had been missing, the number of care leavers in suitable accommodation, and the number of care leavers in education, employment, or training. The report also included information about the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire, a tool used to measure the mental health of children, and the Local Government Association’s Key Lines of Enquiry for Corporate Parenting Panel members.