UPDATE NO 355 07 June 2019

UASC Specific Outcomes Star – Launch 10th July 2019

Launch of UASC Specific Outcomes Star (10 July 2019 10.00-15.30 IOM 297 Euston Road) –  The Outcomes Star is an evidence-based tool that supports and measures change when working with people (children and adults). The South East Strategic Partnership for Migration in partnership with Triangle and Pathways to Independence UK has worked develop an outcome star for use specifically with UASC. The work has been grant funded by the Centre for Controlling Migration and this includes provision for training and licencing costs for all South East Authorities. 

The event is for managers leading work with UASC and more information about the event or the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration contact Roy Millard at South East England Councils – roymillard@secouncils.gov.uk – 01304 872186. The work of SESPM is funded by the Home Office. 

Forced Marriage Unit – Annual Report

Forced Marriage Unit – Annual Report – In 2018, the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage in 1,764 cases. Since 2012, the FMU has provided support to between approximately 1,200 and approximately 1,400 cases per year. The number of cases in 2018 represents a 47% increase compared with 2017 and is the highest number since these statistics were first in the current format in 2011. The report includes reference to 146 cases in the South East. The full report is here.

The Forced Marriage Unit ( FMU ) is a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office unit which leads on the government’s forced marriage policy, outreach and casework. … The FMU operates a public helpline to provide advice and support to victims of forced marriage as well as to professionals dealing with cases. Contacts: telephone: 020 7008 0151; email: fmu@fco.gov.uk; email for outreach work: fmuoutreach@fco.gov.uk; Facebook: Forced Marriage page; Twitter: @FMUnit

Data Tools Survey

This is a project we are undertaking with the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, the Christie Foundation, and Social Finance Digital Labs. East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and Bracknell Forest are initially involved in this project. We are interested to find out what tools have been created by LAs, what they are used for, and how far they have spread to other LAs. We have a pretty broad definition of ‘tools’ – anything the sector has created to do analytical or data management tasks and which can be used repeatedly.

Well known examples would be the ChAT, the East Sussex Annex A Child Selector or the Medway LAC 903 Statistics Predictor tool.

We are hoping to find out a bit more about what tools get created, what barriers exist to maintaining and sharing them, and what people might like to see developed in future.

The first steps in this are a survey and colleagues from the What Works Centre and Social Finance have been talking directly to some DCSs. If they get in touch, please take the call and please try to help them help us share better practice across the region.

For more information please contact Alastair Lee (details below).

Education Data Group

One of the priorities identified in the Regional Improvement Plan is “Development work to scope education data benchmarking, to be produced by the end of December 2019”. Daryl Perilli of Brighton and Hove has agreed to lead the conversation about how we might tackle this task.

Daryl is convening a first meeting to discuss priorities on 4th July. If you would like to propose someone to attend the group please contact Daryl Perilli.

National Stability Forum (NSF) Meeting in Oxford 24th June 11.30-15.30 County Hall Oxford

The NSF have decided to hold their next meeting in Oxford as part of an initiative to get out in to local authorities and also to hear about our SESLIP Complex LAC project. The NSF has been established with the aim of improving stability for all children in the orbit of the care system, leading to better outcomes for those children and to more children finding ‘a permanence in their care and sense of belonging, which lasts well beyond the age of majority.’ It is a relatively new body which has Indra Morris, Isabel Trowler, Alan Woods, President of ADCS and others among its membership. 

The meeting will be held on Monday 24 June 11.30-15.30 at County Hall in Oxford. The agenda for the meeting will include a substantial item on the Complex LAC project alongside showcasing work going on in Oxfordshire and input from provider colleagues. We would like to extend an invitation to a couple of DCSs to attend the meeting to support the presentation in relation to the regional Complex LAC project. If you would like to attend please contact Lucy.Butler@Oxfordshire.gov.uk.

For more information about the regional Complex LAC project, please contact mark Evans or Rosemary Perry (details below). We have also posted the recent DfE grant application on the DCS restricted part of this web site. 

Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme

The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme – This is a new consortium, led by Research in Practice, together with The Children’s Society and University of Bedfordshire. It has been appointed by the DfE to develop and deliver a new programme to tackle child exploitation. The Tackling Child Exploitation (TCE) Support Programme is a significant investment and aims to support local areas to develop an effective strategic response to child exploitation and threats from outside the family home, including child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation, such as county lines drug trafficking.

The not-for-profit consortium will work with a number of skilled Delivery Partners, comprising local authorities, charities, academics and independent subject matter experts, to deliver support to local areas.

Over the next three years, every local authority area will be able to apply for ‘Bespoke Support’, and in addition a website will be developed providing open access learning materials. Bespoke Support projects will help local partners including social care, health, police and education, to understand the risks and harms facing children and young people outside the family home and develop a more effective response.

More information about the project can be found at:

https://www.rip.org.uk/news-and-views/latest-news/research-in-practice-to-deliver-tackling-child-exploitation-support-programme/

and

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-programme-to-protect-children-at-risk-of-exploitation

SEND System Leadership Board – Vacancy for National Chair – closes 9 June

On Friday 24 May the DfE  reopened applications for the Chair of the new SEND System Leadership Board. The Chair will play a pivotal role in driving this newly formed Board, which works across DfE and DHSC and whose remit involves:

• Clarifying and communicating the principles which should underpin all SEND commissioning and the good outcomes we are seeking to achieve for children and young people with SEND.
• Encouraging improved joint working, commissioning and planning by and between education, health and social care partners.
• Identifying where partners can better share data, insight, guidance, good practice and peer support to help encourage improved commissioning and planning, working to alleviate the long-term high needs budget pressures.

The candidate pack is here; details on how to apply are here.

Following one round of applications DfE are reopening the competition to access a broader range of candidates. Previous applications will be considered alongside new applications from this round, and do not need to be resubmitted. Further information on the role of the Chair and the person specification, alongside application details, can be found here. Applications close on Sunday 9 June.

The DfE are continuing to build on the work of the preliminary meeting of the Board which took place on 13 March. This includes through the recent joint Ministerial SEND stakeholder roundtable on 20 May, which was co-chaired by Ministers from DHSC and DfE and which discussed workforce, joint commissioning and specialist commissioning.  

Supporting families: investing in practice programme – EoI deadline 19 June 2019

The supporting families: investing in practice programme is looking to expand 2 projects from the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme. Modelled on existing Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) and a programme known as Family Group Conferencing, the innovative new projects will be rolled out in up to 40 new council areas. The Government announced (on 22 May) up to £15 million over the next year, following the emerging success of these existing programmes.

Local authorities who are interested in these projects should email an expression of interest (EOI) form to wwcprogrammes@nesta.org.uk by midnight 19 June 2019.

£15 million investment available to be shared by up to 40 local authorities – The DfE launched this new programme on the 22 May. “Children at risk of being taken into care are set to benefit from programmes that tackle the root cause of family problems, by strengthening the expert support available from social workers, addiction specialists and psychiatrists. The new programme, Supporting Families; Investing in Practice, will help families work on issues together, including those impacted by domestic violence, substance misuse or addiction, in order to help create stability in the home for young people and prevent them being taken into care, where that is in their best interests. This is part of wider Government work to improve outcomes for children in need of support of a social worker, by creating home and school environments in which they can thrive.

Complex LAC Project

There will be a project meeting for the Complex LAC Project on Wednesday 17 July 2019 – venue somewhere in London. Because all 19 authorities in the South East are now involved (see below) we will need to restrict attendance to 2 people per authority. Please contact Rosemary Perry – details below – to arrange your places.

Progress on the Project

The most exciting news is that, following our very positive meeting with the DCS group in March, all of the 7 remaining authorities in the south east have joined us. So welcome to Bracknell Forest,Buckinghamshire, Medway, Reading, Slough, Surrey and Windsor & Maidenhead.  This group of authorities are now completing the data collection exercise so by the time we all meet again in July, we will have analysed data from over 1200 cases………

The completed DfE grant application was submitted by the deadline and a copy is available via the DCS restricted page of this website

We met with the outgoing and incoming Chief Executives of ICHA recently and they are very interested to work in partnership with us on the project; this was reflected in the DfE bid which was submitted this week.  We have also made contact with other organisations, including TACT, to gauge their interest in being involved.

We have started some work with East Sussex, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Southampton to identify ways of recording the views of looked after children themselves, using existing groupings and children in care councils.  We also want to use this workstream to identify how young people themselves can be involved in our project.  If any other authority would like to be involved in this and/or has experience of incorporating the views of looked after children into the delivery of similar projects or the actual governance of such projects, please do let Mark Evans (details below) know.