Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Director of Children’s Services providing the Corporate Parenting Board with an overview of the Hampshire Approach practice framework, plans for future development and its impact on children in care.

The Board received a report from the Director of Children’s Services, providing an overview of the Hampshire Approach practice framework, plans for its future development and its impact on children in care.

The Board heard that the framework had been developed since 2017-18 and that an iterative strengths based approach had been used in its development.  The language had shifted to ‘what you can do’ and the Board were given examples of positive outcomes from the Intensive Worker Schemes.

The Board heard about the future development of the Approach which included:

·         the creation of resources for families, partners and practitioners

·         revamping the toolkit so it is easier to access and use

·         continuing to evaluate the training and support packages.

The Board heard how the work would be embedded and evidenced and that the Approach would be filtered to all areas of practice.

As a result of questions, Members heard that:

·         Ultimately, the aim was a reduction in the number of children in care.

·         It would be difficult to determine exactly which parts of the system had made a difference to which outcome, as it was a whole system change.

·         There were plans to have more engagement with children and collate information systematically to demonstrate improvements and document how children feel involved.

·         The Team had worked with partners including those across county borders and assurance was given that, although the tools and ways of working with families had changed with the framework, the core fundamentals are the same in each area. 

·         Staff were highly skilled and trained and that social work practice ensured that they guarded against ‘hearing what they wanted to hear’ and missing risks.

·         That although the language had changed, staff could still identify and manage risks using the Approach.

The Chairman thanked the officer for the report and presentation and remarked that the work was all about keeping children at home.

Resolved:

The Corporate Parenting Board noted the update on the Hampshire

Approach.