Removing profit from the care of children looked after: board discussion October 2024

Our programme for government contains a number of commitments that set out our vision for children’s services in Wales. Our ambition is for whole system change and, at its heart, we want to see more children and young people being enabled to live with their families and in their home neighbourhoods with many fewer needing to enter care. We also want to ensure the period that young people are in care is as short as possible.

We are committed to keeping families together. Our vision is to redesign how we look after children and young people so we can do the best for our young people, their families and communities by providing services that are locally based, locally designed and locally accountable.

The initial focus of our proposals is on the private provision of residential care for children, alongside independent sector foster care and secure accommodation.

A multi-agency Programme Board has been established to progress the technical and development work to support our legislative options, shape our future approach and deliver market stability.

Progress in relation to the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill:

• Stage 1 scrutiny sessions had concluded with reports expected from all three committees by 11th October. The Minister for Children and Social Care would then be leading a debate on the general principles of the bill on 22nd October.
• Subject to the vote outcome on the 22nd stage 2 (the amending stage) would then commence and run through until mid-December before the further amending stage 3.
• Since the previous programme board meeting the minister has written to Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) requesting updated placement commissioning strategies from each local authority and an outline of their future funding plans. The responses received to date have been helpful in informing Welsh Government budgetary considerations for eliminate for future financial years.
• A series of one-to-one meetings were also being held with each authority to discuss their plans for eliminate and likely funding needs.
• Consideration of implementation planning continues with plans in progress for The Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSSC) to provide additional support to local authorities.

National programme plan and national local authority implementation plan:

Officials had prepared a draft template for a national programme plan to be co-owned by Welsh Government and the programme board which was shared prior to the meeting.

The plan set out high level detail around milestones, actions and timescales that it is expected will be taken forward.

To run alongside the national programme plan, would be a national local authority implementation plan. The development of which is planned to be supported by ADSS Cymru and incorporate some local level plans.

Members agreed to the principle of developing a national programme plan overseen by the Programme Board. Members did however emphasise that further detailed plans would be needed.

Risk register and lessons learned log:

At the previous meeting of the Programme Board changes made to the risk register had been highlighted by officials and it had been reviewed again to ensure it reflected the concerns raised through committee scrutiny sessions.

A template lessons learned log had been shared with members ahead of the board meeting. The purpose of this document was to reflect where lessons could be learned throughout the course of the work.

It was proposed that the risk register be shared with workstream members ahead of workstream meetings and any risks specific to certain areas could then be fed into the programme board via the workstream chairs.

It was generally agreed that the updated condensed risk register, was far easier to review and consider.

Members raised concerns surrounding the current risk score given to market stability and felt the rating should be higher to reflect the potential risk in this area.

No comments were made on the lessons learned log and so the template shared was agreed as a document to be reviewed and updated regularly.

Communications:

Two documents were circulated in draft prior to this meeting for members thoughts and consideration. These were:

• a tailored communications document aimed at children and young people, which is part of a series of targeted communications for specific groups which are being developed as a part of this work
• an ‘easy read’ guide to the bill, which had been developed as a result of discussions surrounding interpretation and understanding of the bill

It was noted that additional communications were in the process of being developed for foster carers and residential care workers. These communications would be made available prior to any communications for children and young people being released, so as to ensure that those who support children and younger people were fully equipped to support and answer any questions they may have.

Members felt that both documents shared would require further refinement before being circulated further and it was agreed any specific comments or feedback would be shared and incorporated.

Phase 3 workstream updates:

Workstream meetings had continued under ‘phase 3’, with the previous workstream 1 and workstream 4 merged into a single group. Workstreams 2 and 3 remain largely the same with slightly reviewed memberships and work programmes.

Legacy reports and renewed terms of reference documents had been produced for each workstream for discussion at future meetings.