Contact: Rachel Hughes, 01962 845232. [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to introduce the new county policy on the education of children looked after, as detailed below and to consider the action plan which addresses the statutory requirements of Section 52 of the Children Act 2004.

1.2 This policy and action plan supports:

_ Aim one of the Corporate Strategy: Maximising life opportunities

_ Aim three of the Corporate Strategy: Achieving economic prosperity

_ Aim four of the Corporate Strategy: Building strong and safe communities

_ Aim five of the Corporate Strategy: Improving services

_ Aim six of the Corporate Strategy: Developing councillors and staff, by providing awareness raising seminars and the role of the `Corporate Parent' and duty under the section 52 of the Children Act.

2. Background

2.1 There are approximately 1050 children and young people in the care of the local authority, referred to as children looked after. The Council as a whole is the corporate parent and as such we will demonstrate the strongest commitment to helping every child we look after, wherever the child is placed, to achieve the highest educational standards of which he or she is capable.

2.2 We expect all 1050 to achieve their maximum potential and we want them to:

_ Be healthy

_ Stay safe

_ Enjoy and achieve

_ Make a positive contribution

_ Achieve economic well being

2.3 Nationally and locally the majority of children and young people who are looked after achieve less than their peers in all aspects of their lives including education. The Social Exclusion Unit's report A Better Education for Children in Care identified five key reasons why children looked after underachieve:

_ Their lives are characterised by instability

_ They spend too much time out of school

_ They do not have sufficient help with their education if they fall behind

_ Primary carers are not expected or equipped to provide sufficient support and encouragement for learning and development

_ They have unmet emotional, mental and physical health needs that impact upon their education.

2.4 The Children Act 2004, section 52, places a duty on the local authority to promote and support the educational achievement of children and young people looked after. The guidance is issued under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 which means that it must be followed by local authorities unless there are exceptional circumstances that justify departing from it.

2.5 Section 52 outlines the actions which local authorities are expected to implement which includes the expectation of schools to take a proactive approach to co-operating with and supporting local authorities in discharging this duty.

3. Action Plan

3.1 The attached action plan details what Hampshire County Council will do to meet the duty under Section 52. The actions within it will enable us to narrow the gap in achievement for children looked after and ensure that they receive the care and support to achieve outcomes comparable to their peers.

4. Measures of success

4.1 All departments within the County Council will work together to promote and support the educational achievement of children looked after to ensure that:

_ Children looked after of all ages achieve educational outcomes comparable to their peers

_ Strategic and day to day processes throughout the County Council demonstrate robust procedures and a culture of proactive commitment to secure the highest educational outcomes for our children looked after.

_ All children looked after are encouraged to have high expectations of themselves and to achieve their full potential

_ Training, development and support for carers and all Hampshire's staff ensure that they understand the needs of children looked after.

5. Monitoring

5.1 The new framework for the inspection of Children's Services requires detailed reporting on how far services are working together to secure positive outcomes for children. In any Annual Performance Assessment, Joint Area Review, and annual priorities discussion, services both to children looked after and children with learning difficulties and disabilities are being examined in detail. Monitoring outcomes for children looked after will remain a high profile issue for the County Council. The action plan will form the framework on which to build better outcomes for children looked after and be monitored through the emerging Children's Services scrutiny procedures.

6. Legal implications

6.1 Section 52 of the Children Act 2004 places the duty on local authorities to promote the educational achievement of children looked after. It is issued under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 which means that it must be followed by local authorities unless there are exceptional circumstances to justify departing from it.

7. Financial implications

7.1 Meeting the statutory requirements of section 52 will be met within existing resources and the current budget.

8. Personnel implications

8.1 To properly fulfil our role as `Corporate Parents', staff at all levels of the organisation will need to be made aware of the new duty and consider ways in which, through their work, they can improve outcomes for children looked after.

9. Impact assessment

9.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

10. Crime prevention issues

10.1 There is a danger of stereotyping children looked after as being more likely to commit offences and this needs to be avoided. The baseline proportion of children aged 10-17 cautioned or convicted is 3.62% nationally. The figure for Children Looked After is 7.6¹. In fact few children looked after engage in crime and in order to reduce the numbers even further, efforts are being made to ensure that children looked after are fully engaged in education with a full time school place, and that they have access to positive recreational activities after school.

11. Views of the Local County Councillor

11.1 None.

Recommendations

That the Children's Services Policy Review Committee advise the Executive Members for Education and Social Care:

1. To agree this policy and action plan on improving educational outcomes for children looked after.

2. To request at least six monthly updates on progress against the key data set until scrutiny procedures for monitoring the outcomes for children looked after are established.

3. To support work on the establishment of scrutiny procedures based on the LGA and Audit Commission toolkit.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None