Minutes for Children's Services Sub-Committee meeting, Oct 1 2009, 2.00PM official page

The Convener welcomed members to the first meeting of the Children’s Services Sub-Committee, and also extended a welcome to Susan Devlin, Interim Head of Children’s Services, Mairi Anne McDonald, Strategist, and Graeme Simpson, Children’s Services Manager, all based within Social Care and Wellbeing.

The Sub-Committee had before it a report by the Interim Head of Children’s Services outlining current and future challenges for children’s services.

The report provided information on the service redesign currently being undertaken within Children’s Services, and on the responsibilities of the Children’s Services Management Team.  Also provided were statistics demonstrating the increase in the number of children on the Child Protection Register, and the number of Looked After Children between September 2008 and July 2009.  The report indicated that the present proportion of children looked after at home was 33%, and away from home was 67%.  The report also identified areas of challenge for the service, namely leadership, staffing, quality of service, increasing and competing demands, and the screening and management of resources.

By way of financial implications, the report set out the likely financial challenges facing Children’s Services in future years, these being (1) the requirement for capital investment to upgrade two existing children’s units;  (2) the likely requirement for additional revenue costs to create additional capacity within residential children’s units from 20 to 26 places;  (3) new duties placed on local authorities by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 coming into effect in September, 2009, in recognition of which £2 million recurring funding had been allocated nationally, with the sum allocated to this Council likely to be around £62,500;  (4) the requirement for local authorities to have in place by March, 2011 arrangements to provide a weekly allowance to Kinship Carers, with the likely allocation to this Council being around £370,000;  and (5) the requirement for additional investment in community based provision to redress the balance of care.

The report recommended:-

that the Sub-Committee –

(a)       note the content of the report and the presentation;  and

(b)       note the financial allocation for the implementation of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and Kinship Care;  and direct that new statutory duties and powers be implemented using the identified resources.

The Sub-Committee received a presentation from the Interim Head of Children’s Services which provided a context in relation to outcomes for accommodated children, redressing the balance of care, and the challenges facing Children’s Service.  The presentation concluded by identifying priority actions for the service.

There followed a question and answer session in the course of which the Sub-Committee discussed (1) the demands on Children’s Services in Aberdeen relative to other comparable cities;  (2) the level of support available to mothers with substance misuse problems;  (3) a report which it was proposed be submitted to the next Committee on eligibility criteria, setting out the tiers of intervention and identifying services to be provided by the voluntary sector;  (4) the thresholds with which Children’s Services should operate in relation to managing risk, these to be agreed as part of an on-going dialogue between members and officers;  (5) the financial constraints within which the social work service was operating, and the need for decisions to be made based on the interests of the child and assessment of needs;  (6) the requirements on the service to provide financial support to Kinship Carers; (7) ways of ensuring the mental welfare of social work staff;  and (8) outcome indicators for the social work service.

The Sub-Committee was advised that further work was required on the financial impact of Kinship Care payments and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.

The Sub-Committee resolved:-

(i)         to approve recommendation (a);

(ii)        to receive further information on recommendation (b) at a future meeting;  and

(iii)       that officers would produce a list of vital reading items for Sub-Committee members, with accompanying documentation.

The Sub-Committee was provided with dates for its meetings in 2010, these being 4 February, 13 May and 16 September, each meeting to be held at 2.00pm

The Sub-Committee resolved:-

to approve the dates and times.

- GORDON LESLIE, Convener.