Working with Providers the approach continues Ben Davies Service - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Working with Providers – the approach continues Ben Davies – Service Director, Cornwall Council June 2020

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Fostering, Residential and Education:

Increasing need in Cornwall for:

• Children and young people with complex needs
• Parent and child family assessment centres
• Sibling groups
• Children’s residential homes that have some degree of

flexibility in admission, e.g. same day placement

• Placements within or closer to Cornwall

In 2018/19 the directorate expenditure was:

• Residential Care for Children and Young People - £6.022m
• Fostering Placements for Children and Young People -

£3.714m

Commissioning for the best outcomes

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Our Relationship-Based Approach

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• Cornwall wants to work together with independent agencies as partners to

provide the best available fostering placements and residential placements.

• We want to take a co-parenting approach to fulfil our shared ambition to

improve the outcomes of children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences and for those with special educational needs.

• We want you to join us in asking “would it be good enough for our own

child?”

• This overarching service specification has been developed from what children

and young people have told us, taking into account the views of parents/carers and through dialogue with representatives of independent providers.

• It sets out our approach to working collaboratively with our trusted providers,

based on a shared responsibility to match children with the right placement and to work together to do the best we can to improve their outcomes, fulfil their potential and give them a chance of a brighter future.

Our approach

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• Access to our core curriculum for your staff
• Access to our Placement Support Team
• Support if you are struggling with the regulator
• Quality assurance visits, including pre-Ofsted preparation

visits

• Payments in advance in certain circumstances
• Inflation
• Payment by results for performance
• Participation in corporate parenting
• Continued commitment to joint working to support the

best outcomes for Cornish children

Our support to providers

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• Working with providers in a collaborative manner is key to

meeting the needs of Cornish children

• Developing relationships with locally based providers
• Ensuring sufficiency to meet the needs of children

together

• Looking to further develop the market
• Providing support to providers as infrastructure is an

issue

• Being transparent and clear
• Developing our relationship – shared understanding of our

children and young people

What we have learnt working with placement providers

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Commissioning embedded with

• perations

Knowledge and understanding

• f the needs of children, young

people and families Understanding of the market – good relationships Developing the market Confidence to champion children

Key success factors

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Meur Ras Thank you

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Cornwall’s Response to COVID-19 and update on placements

David Roose Head of Service Children in Care & Care Leavers June 2020

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What we are doing

• Workers and managers are working from home
• Children and care leavers are being seen through

WhatsApp and other forms of communication (weekly)

• Supervisions and guidance continues
• Workers are seeing children where it is necessary for

safeguarding and welfare

• PPE has been distributed within teams
• Money and store cards have been distributed within teams

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Management Oversight

• COVID 19 plans in place and have been reviewed once.

Focus on education, health and contingency plans. Managers approving.

• Heads of Service and Service Managers auditing plans and

approving.

• Performance management continues for strategy

discussions, CIC visits, Children missing episodes, CP visits.

• Ben Davies undertaking monthly seminar for managers.
• Virtual team meetings with staff.

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Children in Care

• Numbers have remained stable 470
• Important because increase would place great strain on

system

• Independent partners working well with us
• Not fully implemented fostering and residential DPS

framework

• Carefully monitoring government guidance
• We are moving children where it is in their interests (welfare

and safeguarding)

• Health assessments continue
• Laptops for CIC being worked on

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Care Leavers

• Run In house supported lodgings.
• Use Young Devon Provision.
• Increased emergency and assessment provision by 8
• Concerns about care leavers getting back into education,

training and employment.

• Generally not been moving young people during COVID 19
• Have a Care Leavers protocol with Housing.
• Do not generally commission Care leavers provision and not

part of DPS.

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Family Placement

• Area of high concern 80 foster carers shielding out of 180.
• Lost 10% of placements (18 carers).
• Teenage placements an issue.
• Advertised for carers during COVID 19 and had over 40

responses.

• Priority for adolescent carers bring 10 through in the next

couple of weeks.

• Managed to cope well and most carers continued. ‘Part of

family’.

• Put in place a flat in St Austell for emergencies.
• Have a foster carers annex in Sennen for emergencies.

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Family Placement

• Developed an unregistered placements procedure should

we need it.

• Specialist fostering support team providing practical support

for carers which is helping maintain placements.

• Discussing with carers who are shielding about children

going to education. Individual approach.

• Independent agency placements holding up.
• Providers looking within own resources when breaking
• down. Thank you.
• Good relationships with fostering providers continue –thank

you.

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Residential

• No in-house provision. All through DPS, current

arrangements continue.

• Good use of residential within Cornwall. 21 Beds.
• Stability of residents – thank you.
• Shortage of placements for teenage girls –mental health
• Carer and child placements required.
• Generally commissioning and getting responses.
• We appreciate the difficulties you are under Match, COVID

19 etc.

• Thank you.

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Summary

• Will be working differently until September
• Mitigating placement difficulties
• Looking to maintain care leavers in ETE. (we have averaged

1st over last five years)..

• Working to ensure that CIC attend school from September.
• Working closely with Health, education, independent and

voluntary sector colleagues

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Moving to DPS

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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Why are we moving to a DPS?

• To help drive high quality, affordable placements
• Help stimulate market development
• Join without committing to vast framework

agreements

• Bid for digestible amounts of work
• Apply to join at any time

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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DPS Opportunity

• Work in partnership strategically
• Develop existing and new relationships to enable the

best for our children and young people

• Primary method of sourcing placements
• Potential opportunities around soft block contracts

through the DPS

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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Establishing the DPS

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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How does a DPS work? (Call-Off)

Placement Requirement Advertised

www.cornwall.gov.uk

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Mobilising and Useful links

• DPS training and support package:

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/health-and-social- care/childrens-services/commissioning/fostering- residential-and-send/

• Register with Supplying the South West:

www.supplyingthesouthwest.org.uk

• Support and guidance on e-tendering:

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/business/commercia l-services-and-selling-to-the-council/e-tendering- and-contract-management/