Looked After Children

Wednesday 14th March 2012, One Wimpole Street - London, 08:45 - 16:20

Looked After Children: Improving the Outcomes for Young People in Care

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Overview

Statistics published by the Department for Education in September 2011 show that there are over 65,000 children in care, an increase of 5,000 in the last decade, while the number of adoptions has declined.

Children in the care of local authorities are one of the most vulnerable groups in society. The proportion of care leavers not in education, employment or training increased to 33 per cent in 2011. Furthermore, looked after children are more likely to suffer emotional or mental health problems, with estimates between 45 to 60 per cent compared to 10 per cent of children on average.

As part of a renewed focus on looked after children, the government is supporting local partnerships to develop a range of intensive cost effective and evidence-based interventions for children in care or custody. Further initiatives to improve the outcomes for children in care include the Give a Child a Home national campaign to increase adoption and fostering rates, and the appointment of a new adoptions adviser, Martin Narey, who will work to reduce delays in the system and help local authorities improve their adoption practices.

The Department for Education published new Children in Care and Adoption Performance Tables in October 2011 to show how each local authority is performing. The government is also helping to support care leavers into education and employment through the successful FromCare2Work programme. Also, The Family Justice Review, due later in the year, will be crucial in tackling the delays and bureaucracy hampering the family courts. In November 2011, the government also announced that it will open a Junior Individual Savings Accounts for every young person who has been in care for more than a year and will shortly be launching a tender exercise to select the best partners to operate the scheme.

Agenda

This forum will provide delegates with a unique and detailed analysis from key decision makers on the latest policy and practice for supporting children in care. Special keynote sessions and best practice case studies will examine strategies to improve the outcome, aspirations and attainment of looked after children.

08:45	Registration and Coffee
09:40	Chair’s Welcome Address Baroness Massey of Darwen, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children (CONFIRMED)
09:50	Keynote: The Government’s Vision for Improving Outcomes for Looked After Children Next steps for government policy for looked after children Improving stability and continuity for children in care Working in partnership with central and local government, education officers, schools and virtual schools, social workers, health authorities and families Supporting educational attainment and aspiration – From Care2Work Programme Strategies for improving increasing the numbers of children adopted and fostered Supporting local partnerships to develop a range of intensive cost effective and evidence-based interventions for looked after children Future funding for looked after children’s services Edward Timpson MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Looked after Children and Care Leavers (CONFIRMED)
10:10	Keynote: Funding for Intensive Cost Effective and Evidence-based Interventions for Looked After Children How can Local Authorities work in partnership to deliver effective care and support? Intensive cost effective and evidence-based interventions for looked after children Pooling budgets: working together to utilise resources better for young people in and leaving care How can service providers improve support for families with complex needs? Funding for looked after children's services - creating an effective and efficient service with limited funding and cuts Kevin Wood, Assistant Director, Children in Care Division, Department for Education (CONFIRMED)
10:30	Questions and Answers Session
10:50	Coffee Break and Networking
11:10	Special Keynote: Children’s Overview of Care - Ensuring that the Voices of Young People in Care are Heard The role of the Children’s Rights Director Following on from the Munro Report – what changes should be made? Providing targeted and individuals response for children in care Listening to policy requests from children – seeing the care and foster systems from the young person’s point of view Dr Roger Morgan, Children’s Rights Director for England (CONFIRMED)
11:30	Give a Child a Home: Increasing Adoption and Fostering of Children in Care Give a Child a Home – implementing a national campaign on fostering and adoption to achieve safe and secure family environments for looked after children Encouraging members of the public to come forward as adoptive or foster parents How the performance of local authorities will be assessed: educational attainment of children in care, placement stability, proportion of children adopted from care and the timeliness of adoption Working in partnership to reduce delays in the system Commissioning services to the private sector for local authorities failing to fulfil their statutory duties as corporate parents Increasing accountability at a local practitioner level for individual children Jeffrey Coleman, British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) (CONFIRMED)
11:50	Developing a Skilled Workforce to Support Children in Care The story so far - training of residential social workers (RSWs), foster carers and others Messages from employers - what is needed? Future Support Sir Paul Ennals, Chair, Children’s Workforce Development Council (CONFIRMED)
12:10	Questions and Answers Session
12:40	Lunch and Networking
13:40	From Care2Work - Supporting Young People In and Leaving Care into Meaningful Employment From Care2Work and Innovation in Employment – supporting young people’s transition to work Raising aspirations – career planning with young people Corporate parenting in action Promoting partnership working to provide services – authority wide strategies to create employment opportunities Developing financial packages that allow care leavers to be better off in work, especially apprenticeships Employer engagement – creating links with business placements Martin Hazlehurst, National Manager, National Care Advisory Service (CONFIRMED)
14:00	Improving Educational Attainment and Aspiration for Looked After Children Improving outcomes for children who are looked after and in care Addressing barriers to further and higher education What can schools, virtual schools and local authorities do to improve educational performance? The impact of recent government changes on educational attainment – changes to maintained statutory guidance, looked-after children's personal education allowance, the pupil premium, and tuition fees Joined-up provision of services – working with foster carers, key worker, social workers, virtual head teachers and director of children’s services Ensuring all looked-after children and care leavers have access to funding Jack Smith, Policy and Research Officer, The Who Cares? Trust (CONFIRMED)
14:20	The Bath In Care Project – The In Care Council Influencing School Practice How can children and young people in care make teachers and other pupils aware of what they experience at school? Developing a sustainable partnership, including funding Agreeing and commissioning activities, including film scenarios Developing and piloting materials Involving the next generation – teachers and care leavers Assessing the impact - In Care Council members and schools Richard Parker, Director, Centre for Education Policy in Practice, School of Education, Bath Spa University (CONFIRMED)
14:30	Questions and Answers Session
14:50	Coffee Break and Networking
15:10	In Our Shoes – Innovating the Corporate Parenting Model for Young People in Care and Care Leavers Winner of CYP now’s Best Corporate Parent and Workforce Development awards Designing an innovative training programme for professionals who work with children in care Involving care leavers in the design and delivery of the programme Ensuring that children and young people are understood by those who take care of them Improving educational attainment in the virtual school setting Effective funding and delivery projects Councillor Clare Campion-Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Bristol City Council (CONFIRMED)
15:30	Case Study: Improving Mental Health Services for Looked After Children – Developing a New Model of Care Improving support for looked-after children with mental health problems Developing coordination of services including foster carers, social workers, psychologists and other professionals Improving identification of need Cost savings achieved by fewer children going into residential care or needing costly out-of-authority specialist placements Funding for looked after children's services - creating an effective and efficient service with limited funding and cuts Yvonne Melia and Anna Nattrass, Principal Clinical Psychologists, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) team, Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (CONFIRMED)
15:50	Closing Keynote: Reducing the Risk of Offending by Looked After Children Early intervention strategies to reducing offending by looked after children and young people Risk factors associated with looked after children and crime Addressing the relationships between looked after children, offending and other factors including mental and physical health, educational background and substance use Multi-agency working with youth offending teams, local authorities, police and children’s services Developing intensive cost effective and evidence-based interventions for looked after children and children on the edge of care or custody Meeting the complex needs of looked after children in custody and supporting their successful reintegration on release Bob Ashford, Head of Youth Justice Strategy, Youth Justice Board (CONFIRMED)
16:10	Questions and Answers Session
16:30	Chair's Summary and Close

*programme subject to change without notice

Audience

Delegates will include heads and members of children’s services directors, children’s safeguarding boards, corporate parenting managers, social workers, family mentoring managers, head teachers and heads of virtual schools, clinical team leaders, designated nurses, foster care and adoption services and will be drawn from central government, local authorities, education, criminal justice, health sector, and voluntary organisations.