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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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. 14
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. 15
Page 1 and 2: The Islington Plan for Looked After
Page 3 and 4: Foreword The In Care Council As Cha
Page 5 and 6: 1. Introduction This is a multi age
Page 7 and 8: Being Healthy 98.2 % of children l
Page 9 and 10: 3. Islington’s Children Looked Af
Page 11 and 12: The total number of children looked
Page 13: 5. Our Priorities Priority 1: To in
Page 17 and 18: Priority 2: To ensure children look
Page 19 and 20: Children). Run by an independent ch
Page 21 and 22: Priority 3: To improve the health,
Page 23 and 24: experiences. A survey demonstrated
Page 25 and 26: Priority 4: To improve educational
Page 27 and 28: i. The number of children in year 1
Page 29 and 30: with SEN. The database enables the
Page 31 and 32: i. Islington has for some years pro
Page 33 and 34: e. Young people require encourageme
Page 35 and 36: e. To address the needs of care lea
Page 37 and 38: g. Partners are engaged in the deli
Page 39 and 40: foster carers and ensure that there
Page 41 and 42: . Islington has made significant pr
Page 43 and 44: 6. Monitoring and Quality Assurance
Page 45: Appendix One: Pledges to Islington

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?