REDCAR &
CLEVELAND
CORPORATE PARENTING
BOARD
TERMS OF REFERENCE (JUNE
2021)
1. PURPOSE
& PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE
The overarching purpose of the
Redcar and Cleveland Corporate Parenting Board is to ensure that
the Council provides the care, education and opportunities for all
the Children in its Care and Care Leavers that would be afforded to
their own children.
In order to thrive, children
have certain key needs that good parents generally meet. The
Children and Social Work Act 2017 introduces Corporate Parenting
Principles, which comprise of 7 needs that local authorities in
England must have regard to whenever they exercise a function in
relation to Children in Care or Care Leavers.
The 7 Principles
are:
i. To
act in the best interests, and promote the physical and mental
health and wellbeing, of those Children in Our Care and Care
Leavers.
ii. To
encourage those Children in Our Care and Care Leavers to express
their views, wishes and feelings.
iii. To take into
account the views, wishes and feelings of those Children In Our
Care and Care Leavers.
iv. To help those
Children in Our Care and Care Leavers gain access to, and make the
best use of, services provided by the local authority and its
relevant partners.
v. To
promote high aspirations, and seek to secure the best outcomes, for
those Children in Our Care and Care Leavers.
vi. For those
Children in Our Care and Care Leavers to be safe, and for stability
in their home lives, relationships and education or work; and
vii. To prepare
those Children in Our Care and Care Leavers for adulthood and
independent living.
The Corporate Parenting
Principles do not exist in a vacuum. They should shape the mindset
and culture of every part of a local authority in how it carries
out all its functions in relation to Children in Our Care and Care
Leavers. They describe the behaviours and attitudes expected of
councils when they are acting as any good parent would do by
supporting, encouraging and guiding their children to lead healthy,
rounded and fulfilled lives.
The principles intend to ensure
that all councils have high ambitions for the children in their
care. In doing so, the application of the principles must respond
to the individual needs, vulnerabilities or disadvantages of
children in care and care leavers. This will assist in securing
that such children and young people are not placed at significant
disadvantage when compared with the support a non-looked after
child may receive from their family.
2. FUNCTION
The Redcar and Cleveland
Corporate Parenting Board should:
•
Support and make recommendations to the Cabinet Member for Children
on matters related to Corporate Parenting.
•
Advise, guide and provide leadership to the Borough Council on
issues relating to Children in Our Care and Care Leavers, its
corporate parenting responsibilities and the associated application
of the principles.
To meet its purpose, the
Corporate Parenting Board has the following aims and
objectives:
i) To
ensure that the profile of the corporate parenting agenda is
incorporated into key plans, policies and strategies throughout the
Council as appropriate.
ii) To raise
awareness across the Council and the wider community by promoting
the role of Members as Corporate Parents and the Council as a large
corporate family with key responsibilities.
iii) To raise the
profile of the needs of Children in Our Care and Care Leavers
through a range of actions, including through the organising of
celebratory events for the recognition of achievement.
iv) To ensure that
leisure, cultural, further education and employment opportunities
are offered and taken up by Children in Our Care and Care
Leavers.
v) To make
sure that the voice of the child and young person in our care
influences both policy and the services that they receive, and that
young people are engaged with any action intended to develop and
improve services or to recruit key staff members.
vi) To monitor the
ongoing commitment to providing support, training and clarity of
expectations to foster carers, to achieve excellent, high-quality
care.
vii) To participate and
promote participation of Elected Members in a range of Quality
Assurance activity, including monitoring visits to teams and
provision related to the services for Children in Our Care and Care
Leavers, to improve understanding of the functioning of the service
and contribute to service development.
viii) To oversee and monitor the
key performance indicators for the health, well-being and education
of Children in Our Care and Care Leavers.
ix) To consider
the outcomes of regulatory visits and inspection reports on
provision for Children in Our Care.
x) To
ensure that children in the care of the local authority are offered
the protection of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2
September 1990.
xi) To establish
and maintain specific task groups and receive recommendations, as
necessary.
3. REMIT
The Redcar and Cleveland
Corporate Parenting Board will:
•
Provide leadership across the Borough to create more effective and
efficient health and wellbeing for Children in Our Care and Care
Leavers.
•
Take responsibility for the quality of services for Children in Our
Care and Care Leavers.
•
Work effectively with and through partnership bodies, with clear
lines of accountability and communication.
•
Agree the strategic priorities for services for Children in Our
Care and Care Leavers.
•
Promote high aspirations for Children in Our Care and Care Leavers
to prepare them for adulthood and independent living.
The Redcar and Cleveland
Corporate Parenting Board will not:
•
Manage work programmes or oversee specific pieces of work –
acknowledging that operational management needs to be given the
freedom to manage.
•
Be focused on the delivery of specific services – the Board
will concentrate on the “big picture.”
•
Take responsibility for the outputs and outcomes of specific
services – these are best monitored at the level of the
specific organisations responsible for them.
•
Be the main vehicle for the voice of Children in Our Care or Care
Leavers – this will be the responsibility of the Children in
Care Council. The Board will however regularly listen to and
respect the views of individuals and the wider Children in Our Care
community.
4. GOVERNANCE AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
The Corporate Parenting Board
will report to the South Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership and
the Children and Families Scrutiny and Improvement Committee as
required, in order to demonstrate progress against its strategic
priorities.
5.
MEMBERSHIP
There will be standing
membership of the Corporate Parenting Board, including the Lead
Member for Children, to provide continuity and consistency.
Standing membership will consist of up to 12 Elected Members from
across all political parties and will be reviewed on an annual
basis.
Membership will also include
the Corporate Director for Children's Services; representatives
from the Children in Care Council; and a Redcar and Cleveland
foster carer.
All the above members of the
Board will be entitled to vote and the Chair will have a casting
vote.
Co-opted membership:
The Board may co-opt
representatives, without voting rights, from significant services
involved in corporate parenting, including:
•
Health provision – including CAMHS
•
Family Hubs
•
Schools
•
Colleges
•
Police
•
Youth Justice
•
Private sector provision
•
Voluntary sector provision
•
South Tees Safeguarding Partnership
•
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council Executive
•
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council Children and Families
Directorate
The Board can make changes to
the co-opted representation at any time.
6.
CHAIR
The Chair and Vice Chair of the
Board shall be elected from the membership of the Board and agreed
by full Council annually.
The Chair has been named as
Councillor Karen King.
The Vice-Chair, who shall act
as the Chair in their absence, has been named as Councillor Alison
Barnes, Lead Member for Children.
7.
QUORUM
It is an essential requirement
that for each Corporate Parenting Board there are sufficient
Elected Members to contribute to fulfilling the role of the Board.
Therefore, quoracy will only be met if there is a minimum of 3
Elected Members in attendance.
If the meeting is not quorate
then there is nothing to stop those in attendance discussing
Corporate Parenting matters, but it cannot be classed as a Board
meeting and formal minutes will not be taken. As a consequence,
non-quorate decisions cannot be ratified.
8. CONFLICTS OF
INTEREST
Where there is a potential
conflict of interest for individual members about any specific item
under consideration by the Board, mechanisms are in place for these
to be openly and explicitly declared. At the discretion of the
Chair, the level of interest expressed could result in the
exclusion of the Board Member or partner from either the discussion
or decision-making element of the meeting for that particular
agenda item. The conflict of interest must be declared before the
topic is discussed in the meeting.
9. DIVERSITY AND
EQUALITY
The Corporate Parenting Board
recognises that everyone has their own unique needs, skills,
qualities and abilities and the Board believes that this diversity
must be valued in accordance with the protected
characteristics.
In order to meet
everyone’s needs, the partnership will treat everyone as an
individual and it will not unfairly discriminate on any grounds,
such as: ability and disability, age, appearance, background,
caring responsibilities, criminal convictions, cultural behaviour,
religious belief, gender, geographic location, health status,
marital status, personality, political affiliation, sexual
orientation or socio-economic status.
To take account of
members’ diverse backgrounds and expertise, the use of jargon
and abbreviations should be minimised as much as
possible.
10. FREQUENCY OF MEETINGS
The Redcar and Cleveland
Corporate Parenting Board shall meet no less often than 4 times a
year at a venue to be agreed.
In addition, child-led sessions
shall be scheduled in between formal meetings (no less than 4 times
a year) to provide further opportunities for challenge, discussion,
creativity and innovation. These additional sessions should
contribute to the strategic direction for services and help fulfil
the functions of the Board.
The Chair will agree the
frequency and duration of any supplementary Task and Finish Groups,
introduced to undertake a specific piece of work.
11. SUPPORT
Administrative and governance
support to the Corporate Parenting Board will be provided by
Democratic Services. A Democracy Officer will be responsible for
organising meetings, publishing agenda papers, attending meetings
and publishing minutes of each meeting. This officer will also
advise the Board on constitutional procedures where
necessary.
Technical support in preparing
reports for the Board and giving advice to the Board in relation to
Children in Our Care and Care Leavers will be provided by the
Children and Families Directorate.
All stakeholders are
responsible for proposing agenda items and ensuring relevant papers
are considered by the Corporate Parenting Board. Where possible,
agenda items and papers should be sent through to the appointed
officer, no less than ten days prior to the meeting.
To allow creativity, innovation
and up to date/timely information, there will be a degree of
flexibility and papers can follow or be tabled at the meeting where
required, though this should be kept to a minimum. The lead officer
for the agenda item should take responsibility for late
papers.