The Islington Plan for Looked After Children and ... - Islington Council

The Islington Plan for Looked After Children
and Care Leavers 2011-2014

Section
Foreword: The In Care Council and Executive Member for Children and
Families
Pages
3-4
Introduction 5
Achievements for 2008-2011 6-8
Islington’s Children Looked After and Care Leavers 9-11
Our ambition and priorities 12
Priority 1: To intervene early to help children and young people achieve
their full potential and to prevent children becoming looked after when it
is safe to do so.
Priority 2: To ensure children looked after and care leavers’ views and
experiences influence how we plan and deliver our services.
Priority 3: To improve the health, well-being and mental health of
children looked after.
13-16
17-20
21-24
Priority 4: To improve educational outcomes for children looked after. 25-29
Priority 5: To ensure young people are prepared for independence and
successful adult lives.
Priority 6: To provide sufficient, suitable and stable care placements to
meet the needs of children looked after and care leavers.
Priority 7: To make the best use of the Council’s resources whilst
achieving value for money.
30-35
36-39
40-42
Monitoring and Quality Assurance 43-44
Appendix: Pledges to Islington’s Children Looked After and Care
Leavers 2011-2012
45
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Foreword
The In Care Council
As Chair and Deputy Chair of the In Care Council we were involved in getting
young peoples views on this plan. The In Care Council had lots of discussions
about it and ran a telephone survey to find out what other looked after children
and young people thought was important to go in the plan. We sit on the
Corporate Parenting Board and were able to talk to managers and councillors
about it and see their commitment to the things that they have said they will do. It
is great to see that young people’s views have been listened to in the plan as it is
all about their lives.
The other good thing is that the In Care Council will be involved in monitoring the
plan to see that the actions set out in it are carried out.
We hope that the plan will help make sure that our looked after children get the
best care and support. There are lots of successful people who were in care as
children and with the right support from carers and social workers our Islington
looked after children can also achieve good things in life.
Ahmed Abdul- Aziz
Chair of the In Care Council
Efrem Semereab
Deputy Chair of the In Care Council
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Cllr Richard Watts Executive Member for Children and
Families
Nothing is more important to Islington Council than how we look after the children
in our care. The Council’s commitment to our corporate parenting duties shines
through this revised Children Looked After Plan for 2011-2014.
I am pleased that looked after children and young people have been involved in
developing the plan and are in support of its aims and objectives. After all, they
are the experts in the services they receive.
I am also pleased that there is a clear commitment from across the range of
partner organisations working with our looked after children to improve the quality
of service they receive.
This plan sets out both how, working together, the Council and our partners will
work to improve the life chances of young people in care through ensuring safe,
nurturing and stable placements leading to our young people making a
successful transition to adulthood.
Richard Watts
Executive Member for Children and Families
Islington Council
4

1. Introduction
This is a multi agency plan that sets out the Council’s and its partners’
commitment to improving the lives of and outcomes for Islington’s children looked
after and care leavers. The plan will support the Children and Families Strategy
2011-2015.
The Children and Families Strategy sets out the Children’s Partnership’s aim to
break the cycle of poverty, social exclusion and disadvantage experienced by
Islington families and improve their quality of life.
The ‘golden thread’ linking the strategy to this Children Looked After Plan
recognises the role of Children’s Social Care as a champion for the promotion of
good life chances for vulnerable children. This plan will support the Strategy by
ensuring that children looked after receive the quality of care necessary to
achieve the best possible outcomes thereby reducing the risk of social exclusion
and poverty once they leave care.
This plan will help the Council to:
Understand the current and future needs of children looked after
aged 0-18 and care leavers aged 18-25.
Reinforce the corporate parenting responsibility of the Council and
partners.
Ensure that the race, gender, disability, sexuality, age, religion and
culture of children looked after and care leavers are considered in
planning to meet their needs.
This plan will be supported by Islington’s Strategy for Ensuring Sufficient
Accommodation for Children Looked After and by Islington’s Early Intervention
and Prevention Strategy.
Partner agencies have been engaged in identifying key service challenges as
well as priorities for future service delivery as set out in this plan.
The plan is supported by a multi agency action plan which has been developed in
order to assist the Council and the agencies responsible for corporate parenting
to achieve the desired goals and impact.
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2. Achievements for 2008-2011
Outcomes for children looked after
The Looked After Children and Young People’s Plan 2008-2011 identified a
number of targets and actions. There have been significant achievements in
relation to the plan that include:
Improvement in the stability of placements.
An increase in the proportion of children with permanent placements through
Special Guardianship Orders or Adoption.
A higher proportion of children and young people now looked after in family
settings rather than in residential care.
More children with up to date immunisations, health assessments and dental
checks.
Improvements in school attendance and a reduction in permanent exclusions.
Improvements in attainment at Key Stage 2 (children aged 7 to 11 years).
An increase in the proportion of care leavers in suitable accommodation.
An increase in the proportion of care leavers in education, training
employment and at university.
Local Standards and targets
In terms of local standards and targets Islington is doing well in the following
areas:
Reducing the number of children looked after as a result of effective early
intervention and permanency planning. Islington had a 32% reduction since
2004 and 4.5% reduction since 2009. 1
Placing children with relatives and friends (an increase of 10.5%).
The availability of work placements and work experience opportunities for
care leavers.
The number of care leavers at university (72 young people).
The proportion of looked after children placed locally with Islington foster
carers (48%).
14 Special Guardianship Order made this year.
1 This does not include emergency accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds presenting as
homeless which has increased since the Southwark Ruling.
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Being Healthy
98.2 % of children looked after had completed Health Assessments, 2 nd
highest in London (London average 86%).
89% of children are fully immunized (London Average 82%).
95% of Strengths and Difficulties questionnaires, used to identify particular
emotional and behavioural needs, were completed (as at March 2011).
The number of children receiving an intervention for their substance misuse
problems increased from 50% last year to 92.9%.
Staying Safe
93% of the looked after population have good school attendance. Only 7%
(11 children) missed 25 days or more of education in the last academic year.
Enjoy and Achieve
There has been consistent improvement in the educational attainment of
looked after children at Key stages 2 and 4. Young people at Key Stage 2
have exceeded the national children looked after average for all subjects
(based on 2008/09 figures).
The number of children in year 11 during 10/11 in full time education or
training has gone up from 77.1% to 96.6 % (as at 31st March 2011)
There has been a 26% increase in the number of pupils at the end of Key
Stage 3 who achieved a level 5.
56% of the looked after population have achieved level 4 in English and 61%
have achieved level 4 in Maths at Key stage 2.
Young people in year 11 received their best ever result for 1 or more A* - G
grade GCSEs, with 93% of the cohort achieving to this standard.
This year also shows the best ever results of pupils achieving at least 5 A* - G
grade GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4.
The percentage of young people leaving care aged 16 or over with 1 GCSE
grade A-G has increased from 49.1% last year to 55.8% this year.
School attendance has improved by 13% over five years, which is higher than
our statistical neighbours and better than other inner London Councils.
Children Looked After are engaging in positive activities: They used 1,172
free gym places in the first three months of this year.
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Positive Contribution
93% of children over 4 years old communicated their views as part of their
child care review. The target indicator was 98%. (7% chose not to contribute).
195 children and young people gave feedback to the Council and partners
through the Children’s Active Involvement Service in the last year on areas
such as the Pledges, the return of Leaving Care Services to the Council, the
proposed move to a new Council building in 2012, the quality of services to
children looked after and care leavers, relationships with social workers and
foster carers, housing and accommodation for care leavers, savings and
pocket money and safeguarding.
Economic Well Being
68.9 % of Islington care leavers aged 19 were in employment, education or
training. This is higher than national and statistical neighbour averages and is
an improvement on the previous year.
The proportion of care leavers aged 19 living in suitable accommodation has
increased between 2007 and 2010 from 83.6% to 93.3%.
The outcomes demonstrate a trend of continuous improvement over recent
years. Most formal performance indicators show performance within the higher
bands and greater in comparison with other authorities.
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3. Islington’s Children Looked After and
Care Leavers
Islington’s vulnerable children
The total resident child population of Islington is approximately 40,500, which is
about 20% of the total population. This is a slightly lower proportion than the rest
of England. The overall number of vulnerable children in any of these groups was
1,718 in 2009/10 of whom 1,262 were Children in Need, 324 were Looked After
Children and 132 children were subject to a Child Protection Plan.
Islington’s Children looked after and care leavers
Children looked after are made up of several distinct groups, although they have
overlapping as well as specific needs. They include:
- Babies and young children (particularly those 0-4 years of age)
- Older children becoming looked after as adolescents
- Disabled Children
- Young people who are parents
- Young people preparing to leave care
- Young people seeking asylum
Children looked after in Islington are a diverse group
Forty per cent of children coming into care are white. Black and dual heritage
children are overrepresented in comparison to the local population. Black
Somali children are underrepresented. Thirty two of Islington’s looked after
children were unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Of these half are of
Black African descent. Numbers of male and female children and young
people coming into care are similar.
One in ten of Islington’s children looked after has a recorded
disability
Eight children have more than one disability. It should be noted that record
keeping in relation to children’s disability could be improved and thus the
actual number of children looked after with disabilities may be higher.
Some children looked after are also parents
Between April 2009 and March 2011, 5 looked after young people aged 16 or
17 were also parents.
There are a total of 302 care leavers in Islington supported by
Independent Futures Leaving Care Service
197 are aged between 18 and 21 years, and a further 105 are aged over 21.
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Seventeen looked after young people have severe and
complex disabilities (As at September 2010)
A small number of these young people who have been looked after on a
permanent basis leave care each year. Young people who require ongoing
statutory support are transferred at 14 years to a specialist Transitions Team
to enable a smooth transition to Adults’ Social Care services. The Transitions
Team can work with young people up to 25 years if required. A 16+ Panel
meets regularly to plan transition for young people who do not qualify for
statutory support from Adults’ Social Care. These tend to be young people
with autism who do not have associated learning or physical disabilities.
Over sixty per cent of the children who came into Islington’s
care in the last two years were under eleven years
The number of very young children coming into care has been stable from
year to year over the last six years (although there is some variation within
each year). These children tend to move from foster care into a permanent
family arrangement, i.e. return home, special guardianship or adoption.
Recently more sixteen and seventeen year olds are coming
into care
There were 63 young people placed in temporary accommodation because
they presented as homeless at age sixteen or seventeen years old. Of these,
25 young people became looked after. Therefore, overall numbers of children
looked after have increased. This is due to changes in statutory requirements
in relation to youth homelessness.
Two thirds of children who come into care do so due to abuse
and neglect
There is little variation in terms of their gender or age. Children of all ages
tend to become looked after due to abuse and neglect. Children over the age
of eleven tend to have higher levels of need, e.g. involvement in crime and on
remand to the local authority, emotional and behavioural difficulties,
substance misuse, involvement in anti social behaviour or gang activity, they
may be pregnant, beyond parental control and/or at risk of homelessness.
43 separate remands were made by the Courts in 2009/10 in
relation to 36 young people
Of these, 35 were remanded into custody, 4 were court ordered secure
remands, and 4 were remanded to local authority accommodation.
Two thirds of children coming into care will leave within a
year. Twenty five per cent leave within four months
A third remain in care for three or more years or until they are eighteen with
older children more likely to stay in care for more than a year. When children
become looked after between the ages of eight to twelve, they are more likely
to remain in care.
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The total number of children looked after has decreased by an
average of 5% per year over the last 6 years
This is largely due to better community based family support services. It is
estimated that the children looked after population will remain stable over the
next five years (assuming no major local or national policy changes). The
number of disabled children and young people looked after has decreased
since 2004. The projection excludes young people presenting as homeless at
sixteen or seventeen years of age.
There has been a rise of 8% in activity levels (i.e. the numbers
of bed nights that children and young people spend in their
placements) from 10/11 and projected for 11/12
Although the numbers of children looked after have decreased over the past
six years and then stabilized, activity levels appear to be rising.
Islington has a disproportionate number of children looked
after compared to our statistical neighbours
Although Islington’s number of children looked after per 10,000 population
has decreased significantly in the last five years from 147.2 to 94, the
proportion of children looked after is still relatively high.
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4. Our Ambition and Priorities
Our ambition for children looked after and care leavers is that they experience
the lives that we would want for our own children. Between 2011 and 2014, we
will continue to work towards achieving this ambition through the delivery of one
strategic objective that is to be a good and effective corporate parent.
Being a good corporate parent requires us to achieve the
following strategic priorities:
Priority 1:
Priority 2:
Priority 3:
Priority 4:
Priority 5:
To intervene early to help children and young people achieve their
full potential and to prevent children becoming looked after when it
is safe to do so.
To ensure children looked after and care leavers’ views and
experiences influence how we plan and deliver our services.
To improve the health, well-being and mental health of children
looked after.
To improve educational outcomes for children looked after.
To ensure young people are prepared for independence and
successful adult lives.
In each of these priority areas, our aim is to narrow the gap in outcomes between
children looked after and their non-looked after peers, whilst ensuring that the
principles of fairness and choice underpin our actions.
To achieve these priorities, we must ensure that corporate parents, elected
members and senior officials effectively champion and meet the needs of
children looked after and care leavers. We must also ensure that those who have
responsibilities for corporate parenting: the Executive Member for Children and
Families, the Corporate Director for Children Services, multi agency practitioners
and agencies working directly with children looked after do the same.
Being an effective corporate parent requires us to achieve
the following strategic priorities.
Priority 6:
Priority 7:
To provide sufficient, suitable and stable care placements to meet
the needs of children looked after and care leavers.
To make the best use of the Council’s resources whilst achieving
value for money.
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5. Our Priorities
Priority 1:
To intervene early to help children and
young people achieve their full potential
and to prevent children becoming looked
after when it is safe to do so
5.1.1 The current position
a. Islington Council believes that children should be supported in their
families wherever possible and that families should be given extra support
to keep them together.
b. Building on the views of children and young people expressed in the last
plan, the Council has continued to develop effective multi-agency early
intervention and prevention services to help more children to stay with
their families.
c. Islington’s aim is to find families in difficulty early and help them to address
their problems. Research has shown that getting involved early to
encourage social and emotional development can significantly improve
mental and physical health, educational attainment and employment
opportunities. Early Intervention can also help to prevent criminal
behaviour (especially violent behaviour), drug and alcohol misuse,
teenage pregnancy and homelessness. Conversely, waiting for problems
to take root and reacting late costs the tax payers billions of pounds.
d. Since the last plan, Islington has piloted a number of innovative family
support initiatives, which have received national recognition for their
approaches and outcomes. The key principle of ‘think family’ has been
adopted to encourage all agencies working with families to take
responsibility for thinking about the needs of all family members rather
than just those of the particular adult or child referred. The Integrated
Disabled Children’s Service continues to improve the multi-agency
partnership of early intervention, support and short break services for
disabled children and their families.
e. The Council is committed to an evidence-based approach to family
support and has achieved multi-agency agreement to provide and
evaluate a range of evidence-based parenting programmes at universal,
targeted and specialist levels of need.
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5.1.2 Summary of outcomes
a. Between 2009/10 and 2010/11, there was an 8% reduction in the number
of initial assessments carried out by Children’s Social Care. This
suggests that families are more often having their needs assessed and
met by a professional in the community, e.g. learning mentor, family
support worker, health visitor through the Common Assessment
Framework (CAF).
b. The number of children becoming looked after has steadily decreased
since 2004 although the rate of decrease has slowed down in recent
years. The annual figures since the last plan are 290 (2008/9, 272
(2009/10), 274 (2010/11). 2
c. The number of children coming into care aged eleven to fourteen years
has decreased since the Adolescent Multi Agency Support Service
(AMASS) was established in 2006 to provide intensive support to support
the parenting of adolescents.
d. Changes in statutory guidance relating to homeless young people aged 16
and 17 years have increased the numbers of 16 and 17 year olds
becoming looked after.
5.1.3 Challenges
a. Successful pilots of the ‘think family’ and early intervention multi-agency
approach have been implemented to support families with multiple needs
over the last few years. These included the Think Family Pathfinder for
families affected by parental mental ill health and the Packington Families
Project for families living in an area of particular deprivation and disruption
due to the rebuilding of their estate. The challenge is to mainstream the
‘think family’ and early intervention approach across all of Islington’s family
support services.
b. The implementation of the Common Assessment Framework has been
slow in the borough and families are still asked to repeat their stories
many times to different professionals.
c. There is a need to make sure that we can deliver effective early
intervention and family support services to families experiencing greater
stress due to the recession whilst operating in a challenging financial
context.
2 These figures exclude asylum seeking children and young people and young people presenting
as homeless aged 16 and 17 years.
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d. The promotion of evidence-based approaches to delivering parenting and
family support requires strategic support at a senior level and careful coordination
and implementation at operational management level if it is to
be firmly established in the borough.
5.1.4 Priorities for 2011-2014
a. Transform early intervention and prevention support for vulnerable
children and families.
All families need support and advice at some stage as their children grow
up. For many families, this will be at times when their lives are changing:
a new baby has arrived or their children are going through a change, for
example, from primary to secondary school or from child to adulthood. Or
additional pressures are affecting their family: there is a disabled child in
the family, a relationship breaks down, a family member gets sick or
unexpected financial pressures mean that they fall into rent arrears or take
on a debt that they cannot manage.
We will develop an early intervention and prevention core offer to families
to:
Encourage stable families where parent(s) are able to meet children’s
needs.
Encourage supportive family relationships and reduce parental stress and
anxiety.
Build families’ resilience and ability to face challenges in bringing up their
children.
Increase families’ networks of support within their community.
Help families to get their needs met and prevent escalation of difficulties.
Get parents and carers work-ready and into work.
b. Co-ordinate support to families with multiple needs (Community
Based Budgets).
Some parents have multiple needs and are more vulnerable to life’s
challenges. They may have a baby at a young age and find it difficult to
cope with the changes that brings. They may have longer standing
problems: a parent’s illness or disability means they struggle to cope or
they experience repeated depression or a more serious mental illness.
These can be compounded by use of drugs or alcohol as a coping
mechanism.
As a Community Based Budget area, we will develop more intensive and
better co-coordinated support to improve the lives of families with multiple
needs, which will include:
Pooling organisational budgets to get better value for money and
avoid duplication.
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Redesigning systems of working with families to achieve more
effective outcomes for families.
c. Ensure evidence based approaches are introduced and sustained in
the delivery of family support.
We will implement the parenting programme framework and develop
proposals for 2011-15 for commissioning and evaluating programmes.
We will increase the co-ordination of family support at specialist and
targeted levels using evidence-based approaches.
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Priority 2:
To ensure children looked after and care
leavers’ views and experiences influence
how we plan and deliver our services
5.2.1 The current position
a. As corporate parents, the Council understands that outcomes for children
looked after and care leavers will be improved if they have opportunities to
influence decision making and the support offered to them during their
time in care and on the journey to independence. The structure for
achieving this has been in the creation of an In Care Council and an
established Children’s Active Involvement Service (C.A.I.S) which offers
inclusive approaches to engaging, supporting and celebrating children
looked after and care leavers.
b. The Children In Care Council is involved in work both locally and
nationally to ensure that the voices of children and young people in the
care of Islington Council are heard at all levels. This has included
meetings with the Minister for Children and other parliamentary officials.
The Chair and Vice Chair of the In Care Council are members of the
Executive Corporate Parenting Board which has given children and young
people greater opportunities to influence improvements to the delivery of
corporate parenting.
c. The Children’s Active Involvement Service (C.A.I.S.) has provided a
consistently positive route for children and young people to get involved in
improving the quality of services available to them. It has also assisted the
Council to understand the experience of being looked after from children
and young people’s point of view and improve or redesign services
accordingly. C.A.I.S has worked closely with the In Care Council to
develop yearly pledges which are monitored by children and young
people. The pledges relate to the standards of service that children looked
after and care leavers can expect to receive.
d. The Quality and Safeguarding Service has updated its approach to
achieve compliance with the revised care planning regulations in relation
to Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO’s). IRO’s maintain their
independence but are located with the Children Looked After Service to
enable greater access to managers so that they can address areas of
concern raised by children or call attention to avoidable delays in
interventions.
e. The Council has commissioned services to support children to raise
issues or concerns independently. VOICE, a charity, has provided an
advocacy service and the Council has commissioned independent visiting
service to support children who have minimal contact with their birth
families. A review of the Independent Visitors Scheme and the Advocacy
Service has been undertaken and work is underway to recommission both
services.
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f. An established Children’s Complaints Service supports children when they
wish to raise concerns or complaints or give compliments related to the
quality of care that they receive.
g. The Council uses a range of methods to engage with children looked after
and care leavers. The methods used to encourage active participation
include:
Annual surveys
Involvement by children looked after in the reorganisation of services
Delivering training to practitioners and partners and foster carers
Taking part in the recruitment of new staff in Children’s Social Care
Attending events and activities arranged by the Children In Care
Council who carry out surveys at those events.
5.2.2 Summary of outcomes
a. 93% of children communicated their views to their reviews. (The 7% who
did not communicate were young people who actively chose not to take
part in their review).
b. In a recent inspection, Ofsted found Islington’s Adoption Service to be
'good with outstanding features' in meeting children’s wishes and feelings,
and equality and diversity. The Fostering Service was judged outstanding
in helping children to achieve well and enjoy what they do, in helping
children to make a positive contribution and in promoting equality and
diversity.
c. Young people were involved at all stages of planning for the return of
leaving care services from delivery by an external provider to the Council
and were represented on the Stakeholder Development Board for Leaving
Care. The views of children and young people were given precedence in
decision making on the model for service delivery.
d. Young people have been instrumental in highlighting inconsistencies in
preparing them to leave care. This has resulted in the development of a
Preparation for Independence Strategy and Toolkit for use by Islington
foster carers, partner agencies, independent agency foster carers, and
providers of supported accommodation.
e. Young people have become more involved in taking control of the
direction of their pathway plans with support from Young Person’s
Advisors and Social Workers.
f. The pledge audit and annual reports of the Children In Care Council
demonstrate a high satisfaction rate for children looked after with the care
and support that they receive.
g. The success of participation approaches has resulted in the Council
receiving a LILAC Award (Leading Improvements for Looked After
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Children). Run by an independent charity, young people who have been
in care are trained to assess the performance of agencies against the
LILAC standards. Young people carry out assessments against stringent
quality standards and consult with children and young people. At the time
of receiving the award, the Council was only the second authority in the
country to have received this award.
5.2.3 Challenges
a. The Council’s ability to continually see and judge the care system from the
point of view of children and young people is dependent on the
effectiveness of participation activity. Although participation activity is
robust within Children’s Social Care, the Council faces a greater challenge
in ensuring that the voices of children looked after can influence beyond
the Executive Corporate Parenting Board to include others in the Council
with corporate parenting responsibilities.
b. Children Looked After have knowledge and ideas that can contribute to
improving the local community and universal services in Islington that is
not currently maximized.
c. A further challenge is to ensure that consultation and participation activity
reflects the views of the diverse range of children looked after. This is vital
if the Council is to effectively challenge inequality affecting particular
groups of children looked after and make improvements specific to these
need groups. One of the emerging groups for whom this would apply are
those children and young people with additional needs arising from their
sexuality.
5.2.4 Priorities for 2011-2014
d. To ensure that partner agencies with corporate parenting
responsibilities fully understand and meet the needs of looked after
children.
We will ensure that the needs and views of children looked after are
understood and acted upon by a wider number of services with corporate
parenting responsibilities. This will be achieved by asking senior
managers in other parts of the Council to act as ‘Champions’ for children
looked after. The role of education champion is the first to be piloted.
The Virtual School will deliver a training programme for those chosen to
fulfill the role of education champion in order to assist them to understand
the education needs of children looked after and effectively meet their
responsibilities. The head of the Virtual School will act in an advisory
capacity to those undertaking this role.
Councillors in their role as corporate parents will also be asked for their
support to encourage local communities to help make a difference to
children looked after by becoming foster carers for Islington Council.
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e. To ensure that the voices of children in care help to drive local
change.
Islington Council is establishing a Youth Council giving young people in
Islington the opportunity to make themselves heard and share their views
with the Council and its partners on issues that affect all children and
young people. The Youth Council will also work to help young people to
tell the Council where and how money should be spent on their services.
Children looked after will be able to apply for youth councillor positions.
The Children’s Active Involvement Service and Children’s In Care Council
will work with the Youth Council to ensure that the voices and views of
children looked after are fully represented in the work of the Youth
Council.
f. To improve participation services to accommodate the more diverse
range of children looked after and care leavers.
We will review our Children’s Active Involvement Service to ensure we
reach and engage a wide range of young people.
We will act on the findings of the LILAC Inspection.
We will ensure that children looked after with additional needs arising from
their sexuality have their views heard and are supported through the
development of a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) working
group. The creation of the group reflects the need to support and
effectively meet the needs of looked after young people who are LBGT or
who are dealing with issues of sexual identity. The group will ensure that
services are inclusive and meet the needs of LGBT young people.
g. To systematically gather information from all young people leaving
care to inform our service improvement plans.
We will develop a systematic process to gather feedback from young
people about their care experiences at the point when they will be exiting
care to ensure that the Council can learn from their experiences at all
stages of their care journey and implement this in improvement planning.
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Priority 3:
To improve the health, well-being and
mental health of children looked after
5.3.1 The current position
a. Over the last three years, the Council and its health partners have aimed
to reduce the health gaps and inequalities between Islington’s children
looked after and their non-looked after peers.
b. A partnership approach has ensured that health services for children
looked after have been delivered locally. The integration of key health and
Children Social Care services has enabled swift access for children and
young people to health and health promotion services.
c. The health service provided to children and young people looked after by
Islington is compliant with the Care Matters and statutory guidance. 3 The
team includes a Medical Advisor, a Designated Nurse for Looked After
Children and Care Leavers who also delivers health assessments for
children aged seven and under and co-facilitates the baby support group
for foster carers, and two Nurse Health Advisors for children, one focusing
on children aged between the ages of 8-14 and the other on those aged
15 and over.
d. The allocation by age group enables the service to take advantage of the
specific expertise of individual staff, for example, the Nurse Health Advisor
for looked after children aged 15 and over is a fully trained sexual health
nurse and offers advice on sexual health screening and contraception as
well as accompanying young people to sexual health clinic appointments.
e. Islington foster carers are trained to fully meet and support a range of
health needs, including complex needs. Both foster carers and children
looked after have access to health information, advice and guidance
including confidential information for older young people.
f. The Council now has access to a comprehensive picture of the overall
health needs of Islington’s looked after children via a specific section of
the Joint Strategic Needs assessment (JSNA) completed by Islington
Public Health (http://www.islington.nhs.uk/jsna.htm). The JSNA provides a
summary of needs and identifies areas for improvements. The JSNA will
assist the Council to meet its responsibilities for improving the physical
and emotional health outcomes of children looked after and to respond
more effectively to their needs.
3 Promoting the Health and Well-Being of Looked After Children’ (DCSF Nov 2009)
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5.3.2 Summary of outcomes
a. Islington’s performance on providing basic health care is good. Our overall
health indicator was up from 91.4 last year to 92.4 this year.
Immunisations were up from 94.1 to 95.4 on the previous year. Dental
checks were down slightly from 87.8 to 86.7. Annual health assessments
were up 95.0 to 98.2 on the previous year.4
b. The number of Islington’s children looked after who have been immunised,
had their teeth checked and who have a completed annual health
assessment compares favourably to the London and National averages.
See table 1 below.
Table 1 Percentage of children looked after by Islington who have a record
of up to date immunisations, teeth checked by a dentist, and an annual
assessment for Islington, London and England March 2010. 5
Number of
CLA looked
after for at
least 12
months
% of CLA
whose
immunisations
were up to
date
%of CLA who
had their
teeth
checked by a
dentist
% of CLA
who had their
annual health
assessment
England 44,400 77 82 84
London 7,500 72 87 88
Islington 220 95 89 95
c. Improvements have been made as a result of diligent attention to
addressing the wider aspects of wellbeing arising from the last plan. For
example:
A total of 1,172 free gym places were used in the first three months of
2011 by looked after children.
Children and young people have their emotional and behavioural
needs checked through the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaires
(95% return rate).
76 foster families have attended intensive specialist training to assist
them in promoting positive behaviour and relationships with their
looked after children.
d. An Ofsted Inspection of Islington’s Fostering Service in April 2011 found
that the service was ‘good’ in respect of health and that “children and
young people live in a healthy environment and their health care needs
are well met.”
e. An evaluation of the health assessments offered by Islington’s Children
Looked After Health Team indicated a high level of satisfaction with the
service delivered and young people did not report any negative
4 OC2 Return {Figures for 2009/2010}.
5 Source: DfE: Children Looked After by Local Authorities in England (including adoption and care
leavers OC2 Data 31/3/10
22

experiences. A survey demonstrated that adults and carers who
accompanied children and young people to their assessments were also
satisfied. All respondents rated the quality of the health assessment to be
“good, fully comprehensive and age appropriate”.
5.3.3 Challenges
a. Although the Council has successfully coordinated the health care
provided to children looked after and improved the delivery of health care
there are still challenges in the following key areas:-
Preventing teenage pregnancy: Nationally and locally, young
women who are looked after are more likely to be become pregnant as
teenagers or as care leavers between the ages of eighteen and 24. 6 .
The challenge is to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy in Islington’s
looked after population.
Our monitoring of the mental health needs and emotional needs
of Children Looked After: Despite the improvements in completion
rates for Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires, the information
could be used more effectively to support the early identification of
emotional and mental health problems and interventions or to identify
causal links, for example, between difficulties and placement and
educational factors.
Children Looked After with substance misuse problems: Although
we can identify children looked after with substance misuse problems it
is challenging to get them to accept the help and support that is
available.
Our health intelligence data: Better longitudinal data is needed in
order to evaluate the health outcomes of children looked after and
promote a full understanding of their health needs, identify where there
is deterioration and deliver improvements accordingly.
Access to health services for older looked after children: There is
a need to ensure that older children and those preparing to leave care
have access to services that can support their physical and mental
health needs in compliance with the NICE guidance recommendations.
6 SCIE research briefing 9: Preventing teenage pregnancy in looked after
children (2004)
23

5.3.4 Priorities 2011-2014
a. To further reduce health inequalities and ensure that Children
Looked After and Care Leavers in Islington are physically and
emotionally healthy.
Preventing Teenage Pregnancy:
To continue to work to reduce rates of pregnancy in Islington’s children
looked after population and support pregnant teenagers to access
targeted support services for example the Family Nurse Partnership.
Mental health and emotional needs:
To analyse SDQ scores and use this to identify and assess the mental
health needs of high scoring children looked after and offer them targeted
interventions.
Substance Misuse:
To improve the uptake of children looked after engaged with substance
misuse services in order to minimise harm.
b. To ensure that the health needs of Children Looked After are fully
understood across Children’s Social Care and Whittington Health.
This will involve improvements to the collation, flow and accuracy of health
information across Children Social Care and Whittington Health in order to
ensure a full understanding of what the health needs of children looked
after are and to assist the Council and health partners to analyse and use
this to plan services accordingly.
c. To ensure timely access to appropriate health and mental health
services for Children Looked After and Care Leavers (in compliance
with the NICE guidance).
This will require improvements to the gathering of a child’s health history
to inform transition planning for older looked after children and stronger
efforts to ensure the attendance of older looked after children at health
assessments. 7
7 NICE Guidance recommendations 22 and 48
24

Priority 4:
To improve educational outcomes for
Children Looked After
5.4.1 The current position
a. As a corporate parent, the Council recognises that it is crucial to support
the education of children looked after and to encourage them to aspire to
and achieve high standards.
b. A solid framework for narrowing the education gap between children
looked after and their non-looked after peers is established in partnership
with Cambridge Education@Islington and delivered via the Virtual School,
a multi disciplinary education team, managed by Cambridge Education
and Integrated within the Children Looked After Service.
c. The foundation for this framework is placement stability and placing
children looked after locally. This has ensured that Islington’s children
looked after experience the least possible amount of disruption to their
education.
d. The Virtual School has supported the effective delivery of corporate
parenting to improve the educational attainment of children looked after.
The School supports foster carers and practitioners to become good
advocates for children in terms of their education and assists them to
understand their roles and responsibilities towards children at the key
stages of their education. The Virtual School has provided information,
advice and guidance to foster carers and social workers on a range of
education related areas.
e. Children looked after with complex needs are supported by Cambridge
Education in partnership with Children’s Social Care through jointly funded
care and education packages and, where applicable, with Health partners.
f. At the end of year 11, the work to support the continued engagement by
children looked after in further and higher education has been undertaken
by Independent Futures in partnership with the Children Looked After
Social Work Teams, Connexions and Career Start to encourage
successful pathways to further/higher education, training and employment.
g. This integrated approach to service delivery has achieved the following:-
Provided consistent support to meet the education needs of looked
after children.
Offered greater opportunities for tracking and monitoring their
educational attainments.
Identified young people who are underachieving in the key exam
stages and prepared personalised additional packages of support.
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5.4.2 Summary of outcomes
Attendance
a. The Virtual School has improved systems to support the school
attendance of all children and young people in the care of Islington,
resulting in over three quarters of all children looked after having
attendance levels of 95% or greater. Primary school aged children looked
after have better attendance rates than their non-looked after peers.
b. Attendance has improved by 13% over five years which is higher than our
statistical neighbours and better than other inner London Councils.
c. Of the 51 children looked after where there were high concerns about
attendance, only eleven were persistently absent (i.e. with less than 80%
attendance) and eighteen young people had 100% attendance for the
entire 2009/10 school year.
d. The persistent absence figure was 6.7%, this represents an increase of
one young person from the previous year.
e. Two new internet based frontier web sites have been launched by the
Virtual School. Both sites offer resources, advice and information and
guidance for children looked after, foster carers and Designated Teachers
that is relevant to the key stages. The sites will assist the Council to
improve links and communication between the Virtual School and foster
carers particularly those who live outside of London and who have not
been able to access training from the Virtual School. It will also support
and increase participation and engagement by children looked after by
giving them the opportunity to provide feedback about the site and its
resources.
f. The Virtual School was chosen to lead a one year Peer Mentoring pilot
scheme commissioned by the London Mayoral Office. The project
provided individualised support and on going training to mentors, who are
care leavers, to enable them to raise the aspirations and educational
attainment of younger children looked after. The project worked with 8
children looked after and recruited 6 Islington care leavers to become
mentors. The mentees were overwhelmingly positive abut the project.
Attainment
g. Young people in year 11 achieved their best ever result for 1 or more A* -
G grade GCSEs, with 93% of the cohort achieving this. This year also
shows the best ever results of pupils achieving at least 5 A* - G grade
GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4.
h. There have been consistent levels of improvement in the educational
outcomes of children looked after at Key stages 2 and 4. Young people in
Key Stage 2 have exceeded the national children looked after average for
all subjects (based on 2008/09 figures).
26

i. The number of children in year 11 during 2010/11 in full time education or
training at the 31st March has gone up from 77.1% to 96.6 %.
j. There has been a 26% increase in the number of pupils at the end of Key
Stage 3 who achieved a level 5.
Exclusions
k. There have been no permanent exclusions of Islington children looked
after during each of the last three years. Notifications of permanent
exclusions were received but these were all avoided or rescinded with the
Virtual School negotiating packages of support with the school or by
identifying a provision more suitable to the young person’s needs.
l. There are still repeated incidences of fixed term exclusions for a small
number of children looked after (approximately 10 a year) and addressing
this is a priority for the Virtual School in the next year.
5.4.3 Challenges
a. We must ensure that our children looked after continue to have stable
experiences in care which will in turn support them to have stable
experiences in schools. Although there has been considerable success in
attainment, further improvement is needed to ensure that Year 11 children
leave school with 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and Maths.
The Virtual School has identified that some children who are capable and
are predicted to receive these grades experienced placement breakdown
which had an adverse effect on their predicted grades and in some cases
they did not take exams.
b. The Virtual School can now identify which children at the end of Year 9
are predicted to obtain 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths. We
must ensure that they are targeted from this school year and make sure
that the Team Around the Child (TAC) champion their educational needs.
c. Understanding the barriers to progression for children looked after at key
stages is crucial to improving their educational outcomes. This requires
the key services responsible for supporting the education of children
looked after and care leavers to better co-ordinate their work to ensure
seamless progression routes for children looked after from the age of 3 to
25 and to ensure that this is reflected in the appropriate plans at key
stages.
d. Ensuring that the Pupil Premium, funding provided to schools for
vulnerable children, is used to meet the needs of all children looked after
will be challenging. The Council will need to consider how to exercise its
corporate parenting responsibilities to provide appropriate support and
challenge to schools.
27

e. Children looked after with who have special educational needs (SEN) are
nine times more likely to have a statement than the general pupil
population. 8 Although children might have SEN not all will be long
standing or enduring and could be met within a mainstream school
environment without additional educational support (school action and
school action plus). Islington has forty eight children looked after who are
statemented due to enduring special educational needs. Thirty eight of
these children are placed out of borough and it is a challenge to ensure
that their needs are met.
5.4.4 Priorities 2011-2014
a. Raising attainment at Key Stage 4.
The focus will be on Key Stage 4 children to ensure that they get the
predicted grades, that they should, as identified by their schools.
The Virtual School and Children Looked After Service will increase its
monitoring of levels of attainment in Key Stage 4 via the development of
pupil progress meetings, attendance at all Year 11 Personal Education
Plan (PEP) meetings and increased PEP monitoring, negotiating
appropriate levels of support with schools and feedback to the Children
Looked After Service of individual Year 11 pupil’s progress.
b. Ensuring that the needs of children in care are effectively targeted,
monitored and supported in school settings.
The timeliness and quality of Personal Education Plans will be monitored
by the Virtual School and linked to the pupil premium to ensure it is used
effectively to support the specific needs of children looked after and
enhance their attainment.
c. Improving the quality of Personal Education Plans.
The quality assurance processes used to ensure that schools, social
workers and foster carers meet the needs of children looked after will be
improved to ensure that they are able to support educational targets set by
the ‘home’ school. This will include children with statements or SEN needs
wherever they are placed.
d. To ensure that our tracking and monitoring systems can identify
children and young people at key stages and with individual needs.
The Virtual School has developed a robust database for tracking and
monitoring children at key stages in an effort to be responsive to their
needs at the right time and improve their outcomes. This includes tracking
and monitoring children who are statemented or who have been identified
8 Guidance on Looked After Children with Special Educational Needs placed outof-authority
(Jan 2010)
28

with SEN. The database enables the school to track attendance and
attainment for all pupils including those who are home schooled and
collate information that will support the delivery of effective Personal
Education Plans (PEP’s). The database can only work effectively if data
requirements are understood and communicated to the Virtual School.
The Virtual School will aim to improve coordination of the education
information held by key services which in turn will support the Virtual
School to improve its tracking information and allocate timely resources to
meet needs.
29

Priority 5:
To ensure young people are prepared for
independence and successful adult lives
5.5.1 The current position
a. For most young people who have not been looked after, leaving home is a
gradual process and they have the opportunity to return to the family
home for short or longer periods of time. Young people who have been
looked after, although more vulnerable and disadvantaged in comparison
with their non-looked after peers, have in the past been driven towards
independence by their age, rather than their readiness.
b. This is despite the fact that they are a diverse group of young people with
a range of support needs and with differing levels of the practical and
emotional skills needed for independent living.
c. In recognition of these factors, significant changes to the way in which
children looked after move from care to independence are now enshrined
in legislation. Local authorities’ support for young people must now mirror
that of a reasonable parent.
d. The most prominent changes in the legislation relate to:
Extending care placements for young people past eighteen years;
Enabling young people who have left care and who have not achieved the
education or training they need to return for a leaving care service after
the age of 21.
e. In response, we have redesigned the way in which children looked after
are supported to leave care.
f. Management of leaving care services returned to the Council after six
years of delivery by a provider. This has supported a better integration of
services to children looked after as they prepare for independence.
Responsibility for the care management of young people up until the age
of eighteen is now held by the Children Looked After Service within
Children’s Social Care, with the input of an Independent Futures personal
advisor.
g. A Preparation for Independence Strategy and Toolkit has been introduced,
supported by integrated training for practitioners, foster carers and partner
agencies. The aim is to ensure that young people are suitably prepared
and skilled to manage the physical and emotional challenges of
independent living and that practitioners, foster carers and partner
agencies can act as good parents in supporting young people towards
increased independence as they prepare for adult life.
h. We have improved the way in which advice and support in relation to
education, employment, and training is provided within the Independent
Futures Service.
30

i. Islington has for some years provided opportunities for children to stay on
in care past their eighteenth birthday, however, this has primarily been
offered to those children who will be going onto university. Our new
Staying Put Policy will support a wider range of children to stay on in their
care placement after their eighteenth birthday. A Supported Lodgings
Scheme will also offer an alternative accommodation option to foster care
for young people who require time limited support to help them make a
successful transition to independence.
j. Resources have been committed to ensuring that education, employment
and training opportunities and housing and accommodation packages are
available to meet the needs of care leavers.
k. Savings for children looked after are encouraged and foster carers ensure
that money is put aside for children looked after to be received upon their
18 th birthday thereby ensuring that they are financially supported upon
leaving care.
l. A financial strategy is in place to ensure fairness and transparency, setting
out the financial arrangements for young people moving to independence.
m. A small number of young people with severe and complex disabilities who
have been looked after on a permanent basis leave care each year.
Young people who require ongoing statutory support are transferred at
fourteen years to a specialist Transitions Team to enable a smooth
transition to Adults’ Social Services. Procedures are in place for the
transfer of other disabled young people to the Independent Futures
Leaving Care Service.
n. Islington has improved its practice in relation to supporting looked after
young people with disabilities placed outside of Islington who wish to
remain in the authority where they are placed, after the age of 18. This
has enabled them to access Adults’ Social Services from the host
authority.
o. The duties of local authorities in relation to homeless young people aged
sixteen and seventeen were clarified in statutory guidance issued in April
2010 following the House of Lords' judgment in the case of R(G) v London
Borough of Southwark (2009). Children’s Social Care and the Housing
Department developed and implemented a joint policy in response to
ensure that the housing and support needs of these young people were
assessed and met.
5.5.2 Summary of outcomes
a. Independent Futures provides financial support to young people attending
college (e.g. travel, books and equipment for their courses) and an
Islington Bursary of £3,000 per year to young people who attend
31

university. A financial policy sets out clearly entitlements for eligible young
people and has been recently reviewed.
b. 72 care leavers are at university.
c. A corporate scheme, Career Start, has offered work experience and
employment opportunities to eligible looked after children and care
leavers. 154 young people have successfully engaged in Career Start
over the past 5 years. 84% of Career Start service users continued on to
education, training or employment.
d. A higher proportion of Islington care leavers aged nineteen were in
employment education or training as at March 2010 compared to the
national and statistical neighbour averages.
e. The proportion of care leavers aged 19 living in suitable accommodation
has increased between 2007 and 2010 from 83.6% to 93.3%.The 10/11
performance is 91.8%.
f. 63 % of young people aged 18 who left care were housed within Islington.
(as at March 2010)
5.5.3 Challenges
a. In relation to accomodation and support for young people, a greater clarity
of roles and better co-ordination of support is required between Children’s
Social Care and Supported Housing providers within the borough.
b. Finding suitable emergency accommodation for sixteen and seventeen
year old young people presenting as homeless has been challenging
despite a strong partnership between Children’s Social Care and Housing.
A proportion of young people have been difficult to place or to maintain in
their accommodation due to anti-social behaviour.
c. There are currently pathways in place into adult social care for Fair
Access to Care Services (FACS) eligible young people however there
would appear to be a lack of provision and funding for co-coordinated
transition support and pathways for vulnerable young people that are not
eligible for adult social care. Particularly in relation to those with Autism or
with more mild needs and those who require adult mental health services.
A number of the issues in relation to transition into adulthood are outside
of the direct control of the Council making it a challenge for the Council to
exercise its corporate parenting responsibilities.
d. Young people leaving care need consistent support to manage their
money effectively, which includes ensuring they are in receipt of the
correct benefits and allowances and that they are engaging in activities
along a pathway to employment. We must also encourage care leavers to
maximise their savings and assist them to develop realistic plans for their
financial futures.
32

e. Young people require encouragement to build their self-reliance and use
the support available in their local community, shifting away reliance on
the leaving care service towards universal and targeted services who can
offer ongoing support during their adult life.
f. Once a young person makes the transition from care to indepedendent
living their vulnerability can be increased as they no longer benefit from
the protective framework built around the care of children looked after. It is
therefore more challenging to monitor and safeguard their welfare.
Independent Futures have run groups for care leavers (both young women
and separately for young men) where the trusting and nurturing
environment has enabled women to talk about their concerns about their
relationships with partners who present with intimidating and controlling
behaviour which has or could potentially lead to domestic violence.
Work is required to ensure that the welfare of care leavers continues to be
safeguarded and that they are linked into community and Council led
strategies that educate and promote the welfare of young women and men
at risk of violence as well as prevention work to educate young men in
relation to their attitudes to and treatment of women.
5.5.4 Priorities 2011-2014
a. Improving access to accommodation and support for young people
approaching independence.
We will ensure that our social work staff are clear about young people’s
needs in relation to accommodation and support in their pathway plans
and use this information to purchase the right services.
We will work with Adults’ Services to develop a new Young People’s
Pathway for accommodation and support, whether that is supported
accommodation, their own tenancy or another option.
We will participate in the procurement of in borough supported
accommodation to ensure that it can deliver to young people who have
been looked after if they have continuing support needs such as autism or
less severe needs.
We will continue to work in partnership with Housing to support young
people presenting as homeless aged sixteen and seventeen and to find
the best possible options for them in terms of accommodation and
support.
33

. To improve our partnership work with Adult Mental Health and Adult
Social Care.
A joint Transitions Board has been established which will lead on actions
to ensure services are available to young people who cannot transition to
Adult Social Care Services.
Transition for mental health young people is managed between Children
Services and the Camden and Islington Foundation Trust (FT). There is a
joint working protocol in place with the Children and Adolescent Mental
Health Services (CAMHS) and Adult Mental Health Services. A CAMHS
Strategy Action Plan 09 – 12 is in place which includes actions “To
improve support at transition points – between different Children’s
Services and for those moving from CAMHS into adulthood”.
We will review the protocol and action plan to ensure that young people
moving to independent living at 18 or older who may not meet the
threshold for onward referral to Adult Social Care Services continue to be
supported.
A specialist mental health practitioner will continue to work with the leaving
care service to identify and respond to the mental health and emotional
wellbeing needs of care leavers.
c. To support care leavers to maximise their income and manage their
money effectively.
We will support children in care to develop the skills to manage their
money via the preparation for independence ‘toolkit.
We will conduct a review of how we save for children to ensure that those
savings are maximized for children at the end of their time in care.
We will provide a financial policy to care leavers covering all entitlements
for young people transitioning from care and those who can return for a
leaving care service once they have left care.
We will ensure care leavers claim the benefits to which they are entitled.
d. Further increase the number of care leavers in education,
employment or training from ages 16 to 21.
We will monitor care leavers not in education, employment or training by
age group through the new Education, Employment and Training team
and support them to re-engage with work, training or education.
We will use the Community Based Budgets partnership with Job Centre
Plus to achieve better employment opportunities and support for care
leavers in terms of their pathways to work.
34

e. To address the needs of care leavers who may be affected by
serious violent crimes.
We will ensure that the needs of care leavers are incorporated into the
actions plan developed as part of the Violence against Women and Girls
Strategy 2011-2015. The strategy is focused on supporting women and
girls affected by serious violent crimes with a requirement to also address
the needs of men and boys who may be affected by serious violent
crimes.
We will develop a young mother’s group which along with the young
women’s’ groups will work to support vulnerable care leavers and ensure
that they are linked to other community based protective initiatives within
the borough offering information, advice, guidance and support.
We will ensure that practitioners within Independent Futures are given
support and training that will assist them to recognize and work with care
leavers who may be at risk of violence.
We will ensure that Council’s Sex and Relationship Education Policy is
implemented in social work practice.
35

Priority 6:
To provide sufficient, suitable and stable
care placements to meet the needs of
children looked after and care leavers
5.6.1 The current position
a. Once a decision is made for a child to become looked after, the Council is
committed to ensuring a successful route out of care via a return to birth
parents if it is safe and appropriate to do so or by ensuring that alternative
family solutions can be found in a timely way thus avoiding drift and
unnecessary delay.
b. Changes have been made to the regulations and National Minimum
Standards to ensure that the Adoption Services works more effectively for
all children in care who would benefit from this as an option for
permanence. This would involve less delay and timely matching
particularly for children from Black and Ethnic Minority groups (for whom
consideration of all needs must take precedence over matching ethnicity)
and better use of the voluntary sector.
c. There have also been changes to the statutory guidance on family and
friends care to ensure that children who are unable to live with their birth
parents and who are living with relatives or friends receive the support that
they and their carers need to safeguard their welfare. The essence of the
guidance is that local authorities should have a family and friends policy
setting out the support available for family and friends carers and that
these families receive equitable services.
d. The Children Looked After Service has focused its efforts on ensuring that
wherever possible children looked after do not experience instability and
unhelpful placement moves. This is achieved through providing
placements that are of a high quality and which promote the development
of strong and secure attachments and where good parenting is
championed.
e. There are currently 145 Islington foster carers (as at 31st August 2011),
including family and friend carers, delivering corporate parenting to looked
after children. A sustained programme of training and development,
including achieving the Children's Workforce Development Council
(CWDC) standards and the management of emotional and mental health
issues has been provided. A key goal has been to ensure that the
parenting offered by Islington foster carers, external fostering agency
carers and family and friend’s carers is consistent, effective and supports
children and young people to feel safe, secure and achieve their full
potential.
f. The support offered to carers has been a key factor in maintaining the
stability of placements. This has been achieved through the commitment
of the partner agencies within the integrated Children Looked After
Service who work together as a team to support each placement.
36

g. Partners are engaged in the delivery of corporate parenting via the
integration of key services and through agreed protocols and policies.
Hence, roles and responsibilities are clear at strategic, operational and
frontline levels.
5.6.2 Summary of outcomes
a. Placement stability has improved over recent years and is at an
acceptable level. The number of children who have experienced more
than three placements in a year fell from 12.3% in 09/10 to 7.1% in 10/11.
Long term stability has remained at 68.8% for the last two years just below
the target of 70%.
b. There has been an increase in the proportion of children looked after living
with Islington foster carers (now at 48%).
c. The number of children placed with relatives and friends has increased
from 12% in 2005 to 14% in 2010.
d. Fourteen Special Guardianship Orders were made this year. For older
children looked after in Islington, the use of Special Guardianship Court
Orders has increased. This provides a permanent relationship between a
young person and members of their extended family and means that the
young person no longer needs to be looked after by the local authority.
e. The proportion of children placed in Islington or within 8 miles has
increased by 9% since 2006/7 (from 53% to 62%). This corresponds to the
increase in Islington’s in-house foster carers.
f. The number of children looked after placed for adoption within 12 months
of the decision) has begun to improve, with nine children placed for
adoption since April 2011.
g. Islington’s ten year relationships with the North London Adoption
Consortium has assisted in improving the timeliness of adoptions.
h. Islington have used Coram’s concurrent Planning Project to achieve
stability and timely permanence for babies and children under the age of
two. Coram offer 12 placements a year at least half of which are used by
Islington to place children for whom adoption is the plan with foster carers
who will go on to adopt them.
5.6.3 Challenges
a. Research has identified that local placements generally produce better
outcomes for children looked after whether provided by the Local Authority
or the Voluntary or Private Sector. The exception is where there is a need
for a specialist placement or for a child to be placed outside of their
authority. Local is classified by Islington as within 8 miles of Islington
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ecause the borough is very small. Children who are placed in
neighbouring local authorities are still able to maintain their school
placements and access Islington’s high quality multi agency services. The
challenge is to ensure that children placed further away from local
provision receive equitable services where they are placed.
b. Ensuring a sufficient supply of local placements is challenging due in part
to the national shortage of foster carers and a shortage of foster carers
across North London. This is compounded by the fact that private and
voluntary providers are not able to offer a ready supply of local
placements including for those children with complex needs. Robust
recruitment strategies and more joint working with neighbouring local
authorities are integral to meeting this challenge.
c. A key challenge is to ensure that children who come into care, particularly
those who come in an emergency, are initially placed in care placements
that are suitable and able to meet their specific needs so that placement
stability is not comprised. Ideally the caring resources of extended family
should be investigated before children become looked after, however the
circumstances in which some children are removed from their parents can
impact on the willingness of parents to work in partnership with the
Council to identify extended family at the earliest opportunity.
d. The timeliness of permanency planning is a key requirement to meeting
the Sufficiency Duty. The requirement is that all children with adoption
plans be placed with an adoptive family within 12 months of the decision.
The challenge is to achieve this for all children in particular siblings and
boys of black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Although the changes to
the NMS support a more flexible approach to achieving timely adoption for
children of black and minority ethnic backgrounds it is still imperative that
Islington recruits a diverse range of adopters to meet needs this in turn will
ensure that timely care and permanence planning can be achieved for
these children.
5.6.4 Priorities for 2011-2014
a. To develop a robust process for commissioning placements for
children and young people.
We have developed a strategy to ensure sufficient accommodation for
children looked after, care leavers and 16/17 homeless young people. The
strategy is supported by a comprehensive action plan that will assist the
Council to ensure that there are sufficient local placements for children
which offer choice, improve their outcomes and deliver value for money.
A key aim of the strategy is to develop a range of accommodation
providers in the local area and to ensure that a full range of safe and
suitable accommodation is available that is capable of meeting different
needs.
We will ensure that we spread the message more widely to corporate
parents about the need to support the continued efforts to recruit local
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foster carers and ensure that there is a robust fostering recruitment
strategy in place to target local families.
We will ensure that the needs of children placed further away from
Islington are prioritised under the strategy and that their ability to access
and receive good quality services and support is not compromised by the
location of their placement.
We will produce a yearly needs analysis and diversity profile for our
children looked after which will be used when commissioning placements
to ensure that a more diverse range of placements can be readily
available to meet specific needs.
b. To improve the support available to family and friends carers.
We will develop a Family and Friends Policy in partnership with the Child
In Need Service which will aim to ensure that children do not become
looked after solely for financial reasons (as recognized in the NMS). The
policy will set out arrangements for supporting friends and family carers to
meet the needs of children in the community.
c. To continue to improve adoption collaboration with neighbouring
authorities and adoption agencies.
We will continue to work with the North London Adoption Consortium to
recruit a diverse range of adopters to meet the needs of children. This will
include joint advertising to target specific adopters.
We will also continue our work with Coram to ensure that those children
for whom adoption is the agreed plan experience stability and consistent
care leading to adoption.
d. We will improve the timeliness of placing children for whom adoption
is the agreed plan.
We will implement a robust Adoption Recruitment Strategy to target
adopters from diverse backgrounds for children looked after.
For children of Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds we will widen our
search of possible adopters, from other backgrounds, after 3 months of
family finding.
We will improve our tracking of children for who adoption is the plan by
continuing to conduct six weekly tracking meetings.
The Adoption Panel will track the timescales of children coming to the
Panel for their adoption plan and for matching to adopters.
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Priority 7:
To make the best use of the Council’s
resources whilst achieving value for
money
5.7.1 The current position
a. For 2011/12 the net budget for Children’s Social Care services in Islington
is £36,495,630. There are three main areas of spend with the social care
budget:
Services to support children in need: these are all the costs associated
with keeping children safe (child protection) and providing family support
in the community to children in need. The main expenditure is on staffing
and direct support services with a budget of £11.9m (33% of the overall
CSC budget) for 2011/12.
Services for looked after children and care leavers: within these
budget areas the main areas of spend are staffing (£5.55 m and £1.23m
respectively for 2011/12) which represents 19% of the overall budget, and
placement costs which are detailed below.
The placements budget is £15m split into two main areas, in-house and
external. The in-house budget allocations total £5,935,650 and the
external component of the budget totals £9,111,424. The following table
details the areas of spend:
Current Budget
11/12
% of overall CSC
Budget
£ %
In House
Adoption 1,324,855 4%
Residence Order 760,483 2%
Special Guardianship Order 665,751 2%
Fostering 3,184,561 9%
5,935,649 16%
External
JAP Funded 1,910,576 5%
Looked After Children (non JAP) 5,371,885 15%
Disabled Children 835,279 2%
Care Leavers 393,702 1%
Southwark Judgement 600,000 2%
9,111,442 25%
15,047,091 41%
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. Islington has made significant progress in reducing its unit cost for children
looked after placed in foster or residential care. The unit cost includes
direct staffing and overheads. This has been achieved through preferred
provider arrangements with independent agencies, more efficient payment
processes to suppliers and clearer and more focused procurement of
services.
c. Increased efficiency has been delivered in the following areas:
Intensive support to children and young people on the edge of care
through the Adolescent Multi Agency Support Service (AMASS)
has reduced the numbers of eleven to fourteen year olds coming
into care.
Stronger management oversight in relation to decision making in
relation to children becoming looked after and the placement and
support package agreed.
Good partnership working with preferred providers to deliver
effective packages of care without always incurring unnecessary
additional costs for ‘extras’.
More efficient processing of payments and monitoring of placement
expenditure through the use of tailored software.
Concentrated attention on areas of high spend including family
assessments and value for money on external contracts.
5.7.2 Challenges
a. Despite tighter controls, expenditure on placements continues to be
challenging to manage with the budget.
b. Although the trend in terms of the number of children becoming looked
after has begun to reduce and more recently stabilise, the needs of the
children who do come into care are high and they often require specialist
packages of care and support.
c. The statutory requirement to support children after their eighteenth
birthday will be a pressure on the Council’s resources.
d. Internal business processes could be strengthened further across services
and support functions.
e. The current preferred fostering providers’ arrangement is at an end and
although anecdotally, it appears that the contract has delivered some
financial savings in terms of ‘extras’, it has failed to deliver placements for
the majority of children requiring them (only a quarter of the children
looked after by carers employed by external agencies were through
preferred providers as at March 2010).
f. Neither preferred fostering providers nor other external agency providers
have delivered a significant number of local placements (i.e. within eight
miles) to assist Islington in meeting our responsibilities under the
sufficiency duty.
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g. Work has begun to demonstrate the return on investment for services
such as AMASS but a Council-wide agreed approach has yet to be
implemented.
5.7.3 Priorities for 2011-2014
a. Implement Islington’s Strategy for Ensuring Sufficient
Accommodation for Children Looked After to include:
Developing a reliable tool for undertaking regular placements projections
in terms of predicted cost and types of placements required to inform
commissioning.
Working with the North London Strategic Alliance to negotiate with
providers in relation to particular specialist packages of care and support.
Reviewing business processes across the Children In Need and Children
Looked After Services and the support from the Finance department in
relation to placement commissioning.
Reviewing the functions and effectiveness of teams supporting the
commissioning of placements (planning, purchasing, monitoring cost and
quality, evaluating).
b. Implement a procurement strategy for placements
To agree a procurement approach and implement it, either as a single
authority or in partnership with the North London Strategic Alliance.
To prioritise a partnership approach to achieving savings in relation to the
higher cost interventions.
c. Develop tools to demonstrate return on investment and value for
money
Ensure cost avoidance/ costs savings tools are used in relation to
preventative services.
Investigate the use of the care calculator to ensure transparency in costing
children’s placements.
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6. Monitoring and Quality Assurance
6.1 The Executive Corporate Parenting Board
6.1.1 The established Executive Corporate Parenting Board (ECPB) has
provided effective leadership and direction of the work required to improve
the care experience and outcomes of children looked after and care
leavers.
6.1.2 The commitment of elected council members to corporate parenting in
Islington has strongly contributed to the trend of continuous improvements
for children looked after and care leavers and this commitment will
continue under the ECPB who will retain a strong strategic focus on all
issues that affect children looked after and care leavers.
6.1.3 The ECPB is co-chaired by the Executive Member for Children and Young
People and meets bi-monthly. Membership of the Board consists of the
Chair and Vice Chair of the In Care Council, Councillors and the head of
Islington Foster Care Association. The Board also has multi agency
representation.
6.1.4 The ECPB will oversee the delivery of the Children Looked After Plan
2011-2014 and monitor and review the progress of the action plan. The
Head of Service for Children Looked After and the Operational Managers
and Team Managers who work under this service will take lead
responsibility for overseeing the delivery of actions identified in the Plan.
6.1.5 A more detailed outcomes focused delivery plan will be provided to the
ECPB to support the effective monitoring of actions under the Plan.
6.2 Pledges
6.1.6 The Children’s Active Involvement Service (C.A.I.S) and the In Care
Council have worked with children looked after and care leavers to
develop yearly pledges. Children and young people audit and monitor how
well the Council has met its responsibilities under the pledges.
6.1.7 The pledges developed over the life of this plan will be reviewed annually.
6.3 Quality Assurance Monitoring
6.3.1 Measuring the impact of service delivery is central to achieving improved
outcomes for children and reducing the impact of disadvantage for
vulnerable children and young people. Islington has in place a strong
quality assurance system that evidences whether or not services are
being delivered effectively and is used as an effective tool to raise
standards.
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6.3.2 Our framework for quality assurance and service improvement is both
reflective and pro active. By examining past service delivery against
good practice standards and considering service users’ views about the
services they have received we can measure the impact and quality of
service delivery.
6.3.3 We have developed a number of practice evaluation tools (known as QAF
tools), to help managers assess the quality of core social work processes.
Examples of some of the tools in our QAF toolkit are: assessments,
planning, reviewing and there are also tools to support direct observations
of staff in practice. These tools were developed in partnership with
practitioners and managers and aim to establish clear standards of good
practice against which core social work practice can be assessed.
6.3.4 Our key performance indicators and a number of agreed local indicators
are captured in our monthly Local Performance Information Report (LPIR).
These are reviewed by the extended CSCMT management group every
month.
6.3.5 The quality assurance framework and toolkit and LPIR will be used to
quality assure the work undertaken as part of this plan and assess levels
of improvement in the outcomes of children looked after and care leavers.
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Appendix One: Pledges to Islington’s
Children Looked After and Care Leavers
2011-2012
Pledges
1. You will be able to trust your social worker and turn to them when you
need help.
2. We will help you work towards your personal goals, including supporting
you with your education and leisure activities and give you guidance and
support to help you become an adult.
3. We will take your views about your placement seriously and will do our
best to give you a choice.
4. If you are studying at college or university your pathway plan will be clear
about the support you will receive, including financial support.
5. We will make sure you know your rights and give you a copy in writing.
6. We will make sure you know how to tell us if you are unhappy about
anything or have a complaint, and how to get independent support from an
advocate.
7. We will do our best to listen to all of your views, take them into account
when we are making policies and support the In Care Council to be more
representative.
8. We will help you prepare for leaving care and becoming independent,
supporting you with your accommodation needs, education, health,
employment and training.
9. We will work with housing providers to make sure accommodation for
young people aged 16+, is of an acceptable quality.
10. We will ensure that care leavers with children of their own have as much
support as possible through their local community services.
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