The local authority has a duty to act as a good parent to looked after children. This entails commitment and collaboration across a range of council agencies, including housing, leisure and education as well as social services. Councils need to ensure that mechanisms are in place to lead and manage a 'cross-cutting' approach and to ensure that all the right players are involved. See Good Practice Middlesbrough. Imaginative thinking, and good collaborative work across the council, can lead to solutions that are cost effective as well as promoting better outcomes.

Councillors can, and should, demonstrate their own commitment, by ensuring that designated elected members are assigned responsibility for overseeing services for looked after children. Most councils have established 'corporate parenting groups' which are responsible for developing and driving the council's strategy in this area. This component provides some questions and tools for council members who have this role.

It covers:

Leadership
Listening to children
Partnership working
Cross-cutting issues:

• Education of looked after children
• Health of looked after children
• Housing issues
• Leisure and youth services
• Leaving care

Achieving Leadership

Councillors and senior officers across the council need to understand their responsibilities as corporate parents, and give their commitment to exercising these. In 1998, the Secretary of State reminded councillors of their responsibilities in a letter which is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/pub/docs/doh/members.pdf.

'Think Child!', a useful guide for councillors on Quality Protects, was published by the Department of Health in 2000 and is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/pub/docs/doh/thinkchi.pdf.

There is also a useful section on corporate parenting available in the children's welfare CD-ROM - 'The informed councillor: Modern members' issues in children's welfare' produced by I&DEA and available from: http://www.idea.gov.uk/publications/?id=cg0017. These links will be of interest to councillors and senior officers in Wales who should also refer to letters from National Assembly Ministers for Health and Social Services which can be found on (www.childrenfirst.wales.gov.uk)

Councils should make the welfare and wellbeing of looked after children an explicit priority, and should have strategies in place to ensure that the right services are available and the right outcomes achieved. Some questions are:

• Does the council's corporate strategy give high priority to corporate parenting?
• Who has lead responsibility within the council for corporate parenting? Do some elected members have special responsibilities in this area, and how do they exercise these?
• Does the council have a corporate parenting group, with high status within the council and a clear remit? Does this group include representatives from a range of council agencies? How is it resourced?
• Is there a corporate parenting strategy? Have specific priorities, objectives and targets been set? Does the strategy address the range of factors which might impact on the quality of life and wellbeing of looked after children? Has it been shared with partner agencies? How are they engaged?
  

Listening to children

Looked after children are the consumers of the service. They know what it is like and they know what could be done differently to improve their experience. Taking their views into account is essential to ensuring that the service is effective. There should be mechanisms for looked after children to discuss the service with councillors and senior staff.

References
Listening, Hearing and Responding Department of Health Action Plan: Core Principles for the Involvement of Children and Young People June 2002
Available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/qualityprotects/info/publications/listen.pdf.

Listen then Commission, published in 2003 by the Who Cares Trust and the Fostering Network is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/choiceprotects/listen.pdf.

Listening to Children is an attractive Choice Protects publication which contains many examples of good practice.
http://www.doh.gov.uk/choiceprotects.

Some questions to consider:

• How does the council know the views of looked after children on their needs and the services they receive?
• Is there an effective Children's Advocacy service? Is the service in contact with all the council's looked after children (including those who live elsewhere)? How does it engage with children and young people? Is there a newsletter to which the children and young people are able to contribute? Is there a website?
• Has the council tried a range of methods for engaging with looked after children? As well as surveys and focus groups, what about regular meetings and outings, or fun days in which they can express their views in a relaxed setting?
• Do the children and young people actually feel consulted and engaged? Do they also feel valued? Are their achievements recognised and celebrated by the council?
• How are children and young people helped to communicate their views to councillors, the corporate parenting group and senior managers?
• What specific changes has the council made, in response to the views of children and young people themselves?
  

Partnership working

A range of agencies are involved in delivering services to children generally and in supporting those looked after. These include - for example - local, general and specialist health services, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health service, substance misuse services and the voluntary sector. The corporate parenting group, therefore, needs either to include representatives from partner organisations or to establish close links with them.

Ongoing structural changes in some council areas may make it easier to ensure effective collaboration across sectors. What is important, regardless of local structures, is that local agencies agree about the outcomes they wish to achieve and work together to deliver them. Some key questions are:

• Is the work of the corporate parenting group clearly linked to other children's planning structures, to avoid duplication?
• Are local joint planning structures well understood across all sectors? Who is involved, and is there commitment across all the relevant agencies? Do children's and young people's partnership boards have a clear remit, and are their members empowered to take key decisions on behalf of their respective agencies? Do they have clear strategies, with specific objectives and targets?

The most effective Partnership Boards are finding ways of sharing resources across agencies. This is particularly important in those areas where there have traditionally been tensions about who is responsible for funding services. (For example, placements for looked after children with very complex needs are often jointly funded by health, social services and education). In these areas, partner agencies should:

• Explore the potential to jointly plan and commission cost-effective services to meet local needs.
• Establish timely and effective arrangements to jointly assess the needs of individuals, including those with disabilities, mental health needs or challenging behaviour.
• Establish effective arrangements for making decisions about how placements will be funded; these decisions often need to be made quickly, to avoid delays or distress to the children or families concerned. See Services for Disabled Children.
  

Cross-cutting issues

Ensuring good outcomes for looked after children will entail commitment from a range of council agencies, and good partnerships within the council. This section examines some of the issues which should be considered.

Education of looked after children

Having good education qualifications is a very significant factor in improving people's life chances, as children who do well at school are less likely to need local authority social services as adults. Investing in the education of looked after children is therefore a good long term investment. Many councils have appointed designated officers to oversee arrangements for the education of looked after children, and often these posts are jointly funded and managed between Social Services and Education. Some key issues are:

• Looked after children often have other needs, but this should not prevent them from achieving at school. Most looked after children attend school but too few do well. They may need additional support. Each child should have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) identifying what additional support will be provided to help them to achieve their potential. Every school should have a designated teacher for looked after children whose role is to assist to develop and implement the PEP.
• It is more costly and less effective in terms of education attainment for a child to be outside mainstream education. Investing additional support to help a looked after child remain in mainstream education should be the first priority.
• A minority of looked after children have problems engaging with education and it is important that their needs are addressed and education provision made. Imaginative ways of engaging young people can be effective and contribute to better outcomes, including finding training and employment, and reducing offending. This means less cost to the community.

Social Services and Education Departments are required to monitor their performance in this area. Councillors should therefore have easy access to statistical information about school absenteeism, exclusion, and the qualifications being achieved by looked after children. These data can provide a starting point for further inquiry into how looked after children are being supported in their education. See National Performance Indicators.

References:
Guidance on the Education of Children and Young People in Public Care issued in 2000 is available in England at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/incare/
A summary of the guidance in England for children is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/qualityprotects/work_pro/kidsbook.htm.

The guidance for Wales is available at www.wales.gov.uk/subieducationtraining/content/circulars/0201/0201-e.pdf

Health of looked after children

Children looked after should have their health needs met. Where there are difficulties social services must work with health to ensure that these are tackled effectively. The minimum requirements are:

• registration with a GP;
  
• routine immunisations;
  
• a health assessment, and
  
• regular dental checks.

Social Services Departments are required to monitor their performance in these areas and statistical information should be available to councillors. See National Performance Indicators.

Looked after children have often missed out on basic health care and this is particularly likely if children move. For example:

• Looked after children can miss out on treatment and follow up of hearing and sight problems.
• Some children will need specialist assessment and treatment. Ensuring that looked after children have access to child and adolescent mental health services where needed, is an important contribution to ensuring that their needs are met locally, and also to preventing mental health problems in adulthood.

References
Guidance relevant to promoting the health of looked after children is summarised at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/lookedafterchildren/promotinghealth.htm.
The full document is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/lookedafterchildren/promoting.pdf.

The equivalent guidance for Wales will be published in 2004; draft guidance is available on
www.childrenfirst.wales.gov.uk

Housing issues

Housing has an important role to play in enabling children to live locally and avoid high cost alternatives.

There are several factors to consider:

• Children with disabilities can be supported locally, either in their own homes with additional services, or in local foster homes, if special needs housing and adaptations to properties are available to parents and foster carers.
  
• Helping foster carers with housing (either extending their homes or assisting them to move) to enable them to take additional children, including sibling groups, can be cost effective, despite initial capital investment. Over the long term, the cost benefits of local placement are significant.
  
• Councils have a responsibility to ensure that care leavers are helped to access high quality and appropriate housing, including 'move on' accommodation if this best meets their needs at first. Having somewhere to live is a prerequisite for getting a job and achieving financial independence. Many councils now ensure a quota of their own housing stock is available to those leaving care each year.

Leisure and youth services

Play, leisure and recreation provide skills and experience needed in adulthood. They can help overcome social exclusion and lead to positive outcomes in health, educational attainment, employment and crime reduction.

Some ways to take this further:

• Work in partnership with the arts and leisure department:
  
  • Encourage carers to take children to local theatres, libraries, museums, galleries and sports clubs.
    
  • Explore ways in which local libraries might provide support for homework.
    
  • Consider providing leisure passes for looked after children and foster carers and their children.
    
  • Ensure that creative arts and sports learning partnerships offer opportunities for looked after children.
    
  • Check that local leisure and youth services are accessible and used by children with disabilities.
    
• For individual looked after children, check that care plans:
  
  • Encourage the inclusion of cultural and sporting achievements in their personal education plan.
    
  • Give attention to ways of sustaining a child's interest and participation?
    

Leaving care

Young people who have been in care face particular challenges when they become independent and the Local Authority is required to offer them the kind of support that a good parent would to their own children as they reach adulthood. Because looked after children may have little family support, many have missed out on opportunities for education and face stresses which make them potentially vulnerable in early adulthood. Good support in relation to housing, training, education and employment can make the difference between achieving independence and requiring long term support and care as an adult.

Councils must keep in touch with care leavers until they are at aged 21 and beyond if they are in education.

References:
Secretary of State's letter to councillors setting out the legal requirements October 2000: http://www.doh.gov.uk/qualityprotects/work_pro/lccouncil.doc.
A summary and the Act, Regulations and Guidance for England are available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/qualityprotects/work_pro/project_5.htm and the Guidance for Wales is at www.wales.gov.uk/subisocialcarers/content/CLC%20Act%20guidance.pdf
A young person's Guide is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/surviveoutthere/index.htm.

Monitoring and scrutiny

Services for looked after children are well monitored in many councils, partly because of the demanding targets set by the Department of Health and Welsh Assembly Government in Quality Protects and Children First. Councils will wish to supplement these targets with their own local targets, based on local priorities and needs. A holistic approach should be adopted, which looks at the quality and costs of services and the outcomes being achieved, as well as levels of activity. Examples of good sources of intelligence are:

• National and local performance indicators.
  
• Social work data - e.g. statistics relating to referrals, outcomes of referrals, assessment activity and reviews.
  
• Local and national research. (References to some important national research are included in this module).
  
• National and local inspection findings.
  
• User satisfaction surveys.
  
• Consultation and dialogue with children, young people, families, and their advocates.
  
• Consultation and dialogue with other stakeholders including foster carers, adoptive parents, voluntary sector representatives and partner agencies.
  
• Visits to services and establishments.
  
• Unit cost data. See link to Costing children's placements.

Good corporate parenting groups and Scrutiny Boards are finding ways of using a variety of types of intelligence to check on the progress being achieved.

Achieving Best Value

Concerns about the costs of placements for looked after children have led many councils to carry out Best Value Reviews of this service area. However, many of these reviews have fallen into the trap of looking at this service area too narrowly. This module encourages councils to look carefully at the links between different service interventions; most importantly, the most cost effective approach is one which supports children and families in their communities, and aims to prevent family breakdowns and the need for children to be placed. See managing the demand for placements.

Best Value Reviews of children's services, including services for looked after children, also need to be based on a 'cross-cutting' approach rather than being carried out entirely within Social Services Departments.

Councils may find it helpful to use the Checklist included within this module, and the other tools and references, to scope their Best Value Reviews.

Reference
Further guidance is contained in a joint publication by the Joint Review Team, SSI and the ADSS: Getting the Best from Best Value. Experience of applying Best Value in Social Care (2002). This is available at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/ssi/bestvalue.pdf