Agenda item

To submit a report by the Director of Social Services.

The report of the Director of Social Services incorporating the Children Looked After and Leaving Care Strategy 2023-2028 was presented for the Executive’s consideration and approval.

Councillor Gary Pritchard, Portfolio Member for Children, Youth and Housing Services presented the report highlighting that the role of corporate parent to children and young people looked after by the Authority is one of the most important duties a councillor has; it means doing the best for those children in the Authority’s care in the same way as any parents would do for their own children. Every child and young person on Anglesey should have the best possible start in life and be given every opportunity to thrive, and as a corporate parent it is the Council’s vision that this should apply equally to the children and young people it looks after. Councillor Gary Pritchard said that the strategy is the first of its kind for Anglesey’s Children and Families’ Services and has come about as a result of an internal audit review which showed that although the Corporate Parenting Panel was working well a strategy was needed to give direction and focus to the work. The Children Looked After and Leaving Care Strategy has been produced to set out how the Council collectively intends to challenge itself as corporate parent over the next five years and has been developed with input from the Corporate Parenting Panel. It is a working document and will be reported on annually to the Panel and from there to the Executive. Councillor Pritchard emphasised that corporate parenting is a whole Council endeavour and extends beyond the Portfolio Holder, the Executive and the Children and Families’ Service with the strategy therefore applying across the Council and to all elected members.

The Director of Social Services thanked all those who had contributed towards developing the strategy. He confirmed that the Council currently looks after 150 children and 63 care leavers who have come into care not through choice but due to circumstances which have required the intervention of the Authority. It is right therefore that the Council does its best by these children and young people and provides them with the care and attention they need. Approval of the strategy represents the start of the journey with annual reports to be issued on how the Council is meeting the strategy’s priorities.

Councillor Douglas Fowlie, Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee reported from the Committee’s 19 April, 2023 meeting at which the Children Looked After and Care Leavers Strategy was scrutinised. Councillor Fowlie said that the issues raised by the Committee at that meeting included the link between the Strategy and the newly adopted Council Plan 2023-28, the strategy’s affordability in the current climate and the risks arising and measures planned to mitigate the impact on children and young people looked after. Questions were also asked about the wider impact of the strategy on the people of the Island and about the degree to which children who are looked after attain and achieve. Having considered these matters and the responses provided, the Scrutiny Committee had confirmed that it was satisfied with the contents of the strategy and had recommended the same to the Executive.

Executive Members acknowledged the importance of the strategy and the corporate parenting responsibility which falls to each elected member ensuring that the needs of the children and young people whom the Council looks after are identified and met. Councillor Robin Williams pointed out that the strategy is the result of the Council taking it upon itself to  review its corporate parenting arrangements and in that process recognising the need for a strategy to formally set out its vision for the children and young people in its care and the means by which it will be delivered, which shows the Council to be self-aware and to be capable of challenging itself to make improvements where it sees necessary.

It was resolved to accept and approve Ynys Môn’s Children Looked After and Leaving Care Strategy 2023-28.