Agenda item

To consider evidence as part of the Board’s inquiry into Kinship Care

The Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a report which presented evidence as part of the Board’s inquiry into Kinship Care.

The following information was appended to the report:

-  Update on the development of services and support to kinship carers in Leeds

-  Kinship Care Family and Friends Policy

-  Kinship Care Guide for England

-  Forgotten Children, Children growing up in Kinship Care (Grandparents Plus)

-  Relative Experience, Issues and Challenges for Kinship Carers (Grandparents Plus / Family and Parenting Institute / Family Lives)

-  Staying Put (The Fostering Network)

-  Kinship Care case studies

-  Kinship Care and Special Guardianship newsletter (Autumn-Winter 2014).

The following representatives attended the meeting:

-  Jane Dowson, Deputy Executive Board Member (Children and Families)

-  Steve Walker, Deputy Director of Children’s Services (Safeguarding, Specialist and Targeted Services)

-  Sarah Johal, Assistant Head of Service (Looked After Children)

-  Val Hales, Team Manager (Fostering and Adoption)

-  Wendy Sanderson, Team Manager (Kinship Care Team)

-  Stephen Boorman, Section Head, Legal Services

-  David Cousins, Grandparents Association

-  Bridget Lindley, Family Rights Group

-  Andrew Walker, The Fostering Network

-  Ann Pemberton, Home Start Leeds

-  Ann Russell, Kinship Carer.

The key areas of discussion were:

·  An explanation regarding the legal framework, particularly the Children Act 1989.

·  Formal and informal arrangements, special guardianship and child arrangement orders.

·  Main reasons why children become looked after; parents go to prison, mental health issues, alcohol and substance misuse and child neglect.

·  Advantages to kinship care, particularly that the child had an existing relationship with the carer.  Research indicated that outcomes were slightly better than those in foster care / unrelated care.

·  Impact on sibling arrangements – often siblings stayed together under kinship care arrangements.

·  Kinship care retained family history and provided greater stability.

·  The need to develop work with schools as existing work with clusters was considered inconsistent.

·  Complex family arrangements and challenges associated with children placed abroad.

The Scrutiny Board watched a 5 minute Youtube case study video by Grandparents Plus ‘Tony and Christine’s story – Keep families together’.

The Chair then invited kinship carers in attendance to share their experiences regarding kinship care and the support arrangements in place.

Other key points discussed were:

·  Greater support needed to help with children’s emotional and behavioural issues.

·  The need to develop and publicise the range of support available, particularly ensuring that services were easily accessible. 

·  The need to develop links with the mediation service to support breakdowns in kinship care arrangements.

·  Data gathered in relation to kinship care – often older carers with health issues and limited support network.

·  Development of family and friends policy – emphasis on early support was extremely important.

·  Role of the Young Carers Group.

·  ‘Mockingbird model’ being developed – pilot project which provided kinship support.

·  Confirmation that support for transition from primary to secondary school was undertaken by Targeted Adolescent Mental Health Service (TAMHS) – a city-wide service available across all schools.

·  Clarification sought whether suitable and timely support was available via Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and TAMHS?  The Scrutiny Board was advised that this area could be improved.

·  Work being undertaken by NSPCC and University of Bristol regarding unification with birth families.

The Chair thanked representatives for their attendance.

RESOLVED – That the above issues be incorporated into the Board’s final inquiry report.

(Councillor K Renshaw left the meeting at 12 noon and Councillor S McKenna at 12.05pm during the consideration of this item.)