El principio de cooperación entre administraciones

range of residential children’s houses

Services are provided in partnership with parents and seek to enhance rather than substitute the family’s capacity to care for their child. No child or young person, therefore, should become or remain Looked After and Accommodated where it is within the Council’s or Partner’s means to provide services which would enable them to live with their family.

We recognise the serious consequences for children and young people who are separated from their families. A decision for a child or young person to become Looked After and Accommodated will only be made when family and community networks have been extensively explored, when it is clear that the child or young person’s situation will be improved by being accommodated and when there is no alternative to securing the safety and wellbeing of the child or young person.

Being a good Corporate Parent means:

 Taking responsibility for our Looked After children and young people  Ensuring their needs are a priority

 Seeking the same outcomes for Looked After children and young people that any committed and responsible parent would want for their own children and young people

The main Corporate Parenting priorities for achieving Outcome 2 are 2, 3, 5 to 10 and priority 12 but they are not exhaustive.

What we need to do to deliver this outcome:

2. Improve educational attainment and achievements of Looked After children and young people including community learning, and social and emotional development

3. Improve the health and wellbeing of Looked After children and young people 5. Ensure we have adequate and suitable provisions for all children and young

people who require to be accommodated and those leaving care

6. Develop a range of high quality foster carers and adoptive parents and families to meet the individual needs of children and young people

7. Deliver high quality fostering and residential care which we are continuing to improve

8. Reduce the length of time that children and young people are waiting for permanent and adoptive placements

9. Ensure the length of time children and young people are accommodated is appropriate and reducing the number of placement changes they may experience 10. Maximise the opportunities for children & young people to live with their families

or extended families in the community

12. Make available independent advocacy that promotes the voice of children and young people including Young Carers and Care Leavers

Actions

 Develop our residential children’s houses to ensure adequate and modern care provision including appropriately qualified and skilled members of staff to meet current and future need

 Improve foster carer and adoption recruitment

 Have a flexible service which can meet emergency needs  Improve permanency planning arrangements

 Continue to build community capacity to sustain children and young people in their own communities

 Strengthen our Looked After and Accommodated monitoring and reviewing process

 Ensure all Partners understand their additional responsibilities when making decisions made about housing and the housing support needs of Looked After children & young people

 Identify at the earliest opportunity young people who are at risk of becoming homeless

 Establish an improved foster care fees and allowance scheme

 Provide and promote access to independent advocacy for children and young people through commissioned arrangements with external providers

 Continue to provide and or commission services that support carers and young carers

 Working closely with Partners and Further Education Colleges to ensure care leavers are properly supported to take up opportunities in further education  Recognise all the achievements of Looked After children & young people and

continue to listen to their voice

 Ensure all Looked After children & young people are registered with their local health care services including GP services, dentists and opticians

 Embed the COGS (Continuous Opportunities for Gathering & Sharing) model within our Partnership-working arrangements

 Improve the tracking of care leavers and communication between Partners  Strengthen the scrutiny, planning and reviewing decision making of external

children’s placements through the multi agency Outwith Placement Screening

We will know we have achieved Outcome 2 by 2015 if we have...

• Modernised our residential children’s provision, providing houses which are of high quality and provide a stable, homely and warm environment with capacity for flexibility to meet different needs (year1)

• Embedded a qualified, skilled, trained and professionally developed residential workforce which meets the regulators (SSSC) requirements by 2014

• Decreased our dependency on external residential and fostering placements (years 1 to 3)

• An efficient and timeous permanency process which is meeting service standards (year 1)

• Improved the resources of Kinship Carers in local areas (year 1)

• Developed a range of housing options and supports which meet the different needs of care leavers (years 1 and 2)

• Established a competitive fee and allowance scheme with separate Child Allowances which increases our foster carers income (year 1)

• Introduced an enhanced fostering level which provides alternative families for children and young people with complex needs, challenging behaviour or who have experienced serious trauma (year 2)

• Further developed our multi agency support arrangements to help young people sustain their tenancies or other housing options are in place (year 1)

• Implemented the recommendations, which are appropriate to East Ayrshire, of the report: Supporting Care Leavers in Scottish Further Education Colleges, 2011(years 1 and 2)

• Improved the dental, physical and emotional health of Looked After children and young people (years 1, 2 and 3)

• Reduced early pregnancies of Looked After children and young people (years 1, 2 and 3)

• Improved the mental health and wellbeing of Looked After children and young people (years 1, 2 and 3)