Coventry City Council Blank Template

abc 8Public report

Cabinet Report

Cabinet 8th November 2011 Name of Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member (Children and Young People) Director Approving Submission of the report: Director of Children, Learning and Young People Ward(s) affected: All Title: Recommissioning of the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service Is this a key decision? No- although this matter covers the City in its entirety. It is not anticipated that the proposals will

have a significant impact on residents or businesses within the City. Executive Summary: Barnardos currently deliver the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service under a joint contract until 30th June 2012, to both Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council. This report is for Cabinet to consider options/recommendations put forward for the future delivery of a Children's Rights and Independent Visitor service in Coventry. Recommendations: Cabinet is recommended to approve:

a) the procurement of the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service jointly with Warwickshire County Council on the basis of open competition, in preparation for a new contract starting 1st July 2012.

b) delegate to the Director of Children, Learning and Young People to negotiate and then

award jointly with Warwickshire a contract for a term from 1st July 2012 to 31st March 2016, with an option to extend firstly until 31st March 2017 and secondly to 31st March 2018.

c) funding at the current existing budget provision of £135,417 per annum (pro rata first year and excluding any negotiated change). This is equivalent to a total cost of £778,648 over the term of the contract up to March 2018.

List of Appendices included: Appendix 1: Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) Other useful background papers: None Has it been or will it be considered by Scrutiny? No Has it been or will it be considered by any other Council Committee, Advisory Panel or other body? No Will this report go to Council? No

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Report title: Recommissioning of the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service 1. Context (or background) 1.1 The present Children’s Rights and Independent Visitor Service contract is due to expire 30th

June 2012, and is jointly commissioned by Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council from Barnardos. This service has supported both Looked After Children (LAC) and Children in Need (CIN) from either Local Authority over the last 6 years, to access independent advocacy support and independent visitors where required.

1.2 The Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service are two distinct services under the

umbrella of one contract. Tendering of both services is seen as complimentary and will enable economies of scale to be achieved through a combined contract.

1.3 The objective of the Children Rights element of the Service is to empower children and

young people in need to participate in the decisions that effect their lives, particularly Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child ‘Say what you think and be listened to by adults when they make decisions which affect you'.The Service ensures the voices of young people are heard by promoting children’s rights and providing advocacy to young people as individuals or part of groups e.g. siblings.

1.4 The Independent Visitor Service ensures LAC up to age 18 with no quality contact with their

birth family, are matched with a volunteer with whom they can develop a long term relationship, that enhances their quality of life and contributes to the welfare of the child and promotes the child’s developmental, social, emotional, educational, religious and cultural needs.

2. Options considered and recommended proposal 2.1 Options 2.1.1 The options considered are as follows:

A. Recommission the service jointly with Warwickshire County Council and Solihull

Borough Council. B. Recommission the service jointly with Warwickshire County Council. C. Commission the service independently of Warwickshire County Council. D. Consider bringing the service In House. E. Commissioning through aggregation of similar services across Council Directorates.

2.1.2 Option A was explored and ruled out on the basis Solihull have a contracted children's advocacy and independent visitor service until 30th March 2013, and this would not align with the need for Coventry and Warwickshire to recommission the service ahead of the ending of the current contract on 30th June 2012. Option B appears to offer the Local Authority the greatest benefit after discounting option A, by achieving greater financial economies of scale through a joint service with Warwickshire County Council. A jointly commissioned service may be also be more attractive proposition for a provider to invest additional resources, in the same way that the existing provider has contributed 81K per annum of additional financing . The perception by young people is also that the current service has a level of independence from the Local Authority, and is therefore more credible.

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2.1.3 If the Local Authority pursues option C significant overhead costs would be incurred and would lead to lower levels of direct service hours and a reduced service.

2.1.4 Although option D is considered available research 1 has indicated that Children’s Rights

Officers who are directly employed by the local authorities are often worried about challenging their employer and the in-house advocate can be placed in an invidious position should a formal complaint be required. This research has also shown that ensuring advocates are independent and not influenced by the views of other professionals has been recognised as a matter of concern for children and young people.

2.1.5 In exploring the feasibility of option E, Children's Commissioning consulted with Community

Services regarding the potential to jointly commission advocacy with adult services through aggregation of similar services. It was identified that current providers do focus specifically on children's or adults but not both. Whilst work could be undertaken to try to develop the market, given the specialist nature of each area, this does not appear practicable, particularly as children's and adult's advocacy are operating under distinctly different legislative frameworks. It is considered that commissioning children's advocacy and independent visitor services with Warwickshire County Council together with a longer term contract, will enable a combined volume to be achieved that will be more attractive to providers, and increase the level of competition.

2.2 Proposal 2.1 Cabinet is asked to agree:

a) the procurement of the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service jointly with Warwickshire County Council on the basis of open competition, in preparation for a new contract starting 1st July 2012.

b) delegate to the Director of Children, Learning and Young People to negotiate and then

award jointly with Warwickshire a contract for a term from 1st July 2012 to 31st March 2016, with an option to extend firstly until 31st March 2017 and secondly to 31st March 2018.

c) funding at the current existing budget provision of £135,417 per annum (pro rata first year

and excluding any negotiated change). This is equivalent to a total cost of £778,648 over the term of the contract up to March 2018.

3. Results of consultation undertaken 3.1 The consultation that has taken place involved young people directly using the service, and

key stakeholders and was undertaken within the umbrella of an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) of the service. A Briefing Report dated 7th September 2010 titled 'To consider options and priorities for managing the increasing workload within Children's Rights and Independent Visitors Service was also issued for consultation to a number of stakeholders that both looked at the present and future requirements of the service.

3.2 The results from the consultation exercise identified the need to:

A) Raise awareness of service to key professionals Promoting an understanding of children’s rights and advocacy is essential for key

professionals that work with LAC and CIN to avoid individual young people and groups being disadvantaged. Social care professionals must receive training about children’s

1 'A scoping report on advocacy services for children and young people in England' Office of the Children's Commissioner- July 2011

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rights, appreciate what advocacy is and how it can benefit LAC and CIN (including its safeguarding benefits). They must be able to appropriately signpost children to advocacy services. Advocacy also needs to be regarded as complimentary to social work practice rather than oppositional.

B) Increase accessibility There is concern that many LAC do not know about the availability of advocacy and therefore cannot benefit from the support and challenge it can bring. The need for greater awareness raising for LAC, and professionals who often act as gatekeepers to services, is seen as a priority. Northern Care is an independent provider of residential services to Coventry City Council providing in excess of 30 LAC placements. The consultation identified a need to improve the awareness of young people within this service of the availability of advocacy services.

C Improve methods of communication

A particularly effective communication tool is the use of a mail shot through the Participation Team within the Directorate of Children, Learning and Young People (DCLYP), which is sent regularly to all LAC and will promote availability of children's advocacy services. It is intended the provider will utilise this method of communication to enhance the reach of the service.

The Provider will periodically attend all District Teams within DCLYP to promote the use of children's advocacy to social workers.

3.3 The results of the consultation are being embedded within a revised tender specification

and an EIA Action Plan has been drawn up to address these key areas and is included in the EIA attached at Appendix 1.

4. Timetable for implementing this decision 4.1 If the recommendations are approved the service will be jointly commissioned with

Warwickshire County Council in preparation for a new contract starting 1st July 2012. 5. Comments from Director of Finance and Legal Services 5.1 Financial implications 5.1.1 The funding for this service is currently contained within existing budget provision. The total

contribution of each Local Authority over the duration of the contract will be £778,648 (excluding any inflation uplift agreed) with an annual budget of £135,417.

5.1.2 This contract is currently delivered by Barnardos who top up the funding they receive with a

voluntary contribution of £81K. If Barnardos are not successful in the retendering of this service this additional contribution will be lost. This may impact on the level of service delivered

5.1.3 The total predicted costs are:

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Service

Funding Allocation %

Coventry Full Year Funding Contribution

Coventry Funding Contribution Over Duration of Contract

Total Joint Funding over Duration of Contract

Children's Rights 72% *£97,500 £560,625 £1,121,250 Independent Visitors

28% *£37,917 £218,023 £436,046

Total Funding

100% *£135,417 £778,648 £1,557,296

*First year pro rata based on 9 months 5.2 Legal implications 5.2.1 In England, potentially all LAC, care leavers and those assessed as CIN have a legal right

to advocacy support when they want to make a complaint or representation under section 26A of the Children Act 1989. Statutory guidance has further extended the scope of advocacy to looked after children in the care planning and review process, and to care leavers particularly when moving from their care placement.

5.2.2 The Local Authority looking after a child also has a duty to appoint a person to be a child’s

Independent Visitor where it appears to them to be in the child’s interest to do so under the Children's Act 1989, as amended by the Children and Young Person Act 2008 which widened the definition of circumstances in which an independent visitor may be appointed for the child. Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review 2010 has recently reinforced requirements on Local Authorities to consider Independent Visitors for young people.

5.2.3 The contract procurement will be carried out in accordance with Council's Rules for

Contract and the Public Contracts Regulations 2006.

6. Other implications 6.1 How will this contribute to achievement of the Council's key objectives / corporate

priorities (corporate plan/scorecard) / organisational blueprint / Local Area Agreement (or Coventry Sustainable Community Strategy)?

This service supports the delivery of the vision and values set out with the Coventry

Children and Young People's Plan 2011-2014, by ensuring young people needs are met in an effective and timely way. This includes involving young people in the decisions that impact their lives, ensuring their voices are heard and they are fully engaged, empowered in decisions that affect them.

6.2 How is risk being managed? 6.2.1 Legislation changes over recent years has extended the duty of the Local Authority to

provide both a Children's Rights and Independent Visitor service .This has increased the eligibility criteria for both services and resulting in increased numbers of LAC and CIN accessing the service.

6.2.2 The key risks to the service will be monitored and managed within a Risk Log.

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6.3 What is the impact on the organisation? 6.3.1 TUPE will apply if the proposal to recommission the service is approved by Cabinet. The

full impact cannot be determined until the award of contract. If the present provider is unsuccessful this could result in redundancies within the service, if the successful provider is unable to commit additional financial resources above that the financial funding provided by both local authorities.

6.4 Equalities / EIA 6.4.1 The public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equalities Act 2010 came into force

on 5th April 2011. Decision makers must have ongoing due regard to avoid discrimination and advance opportunity for anyone with the relevant protected characteristics which are disabilities, age, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. "Due regard" requires more than just an awareness of the equality duty. It requires rigorous analysis by the public authority, beyond broad options.

6.4.2 An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) has been undertaken in advance of this report, and

the results of the consultation undertaken as part of the EIA are identified in section 3 of this report . The EIA has identified a need to address some equalities issues. Key actions are outlined in the Equality Action Plan included within the EIA attached at Appendix 1 to this report.

6.5 Implications for (or impact on) the environment

None 6.6 Implications for partner organisations?

None Report author(s): Name and job title: Russell Garcia, Senior Contracts Officer Directorate: Children, Learning and Young People Tel and email contact: 02476 834146 [email protected] Enquiries should be directed to the above person. Contributor/approver name

Title Directorate or organisation

Date doc sent out

Date response received or approved

Contributors: Sheila Bates Children's

Champion Children Learning and Young People

27/09/11 28/09/11

Tracey Scotney Senior Commissioning Officer

Children Learning and Young People

27/09/11 28/09/11

Names of approvers:

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(officers and members) Director: Colin Green Director Children Learning

and Young People 27/09/11 10/10/11

Finance: Richard Adams Lead Accountant

Finance & Legal Services

27/09/11 5/10/11

Julie Newman

Solicitor Finance & Legal Services

27/09/11 27/10/11

Members: Jim O'Boyle Councillor Cabinet Member (Children and Young People)

27/09/11 27/10/11

This report is published on the council's website: www.coventry.gov.uk/councilmeetings

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http://www.coventry.gov.uk/councilmeetings

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA)

SERVICE FORM 2010-2011

Background/ Scope

Name of service

Children's Rights and Independent Visitors Service

Directorate

Children Learning and Young People

Head of EIA Team

Russell Garcia

Other members of the EIA team

Sheila Bates, Andy Bell

1. Is this EIA being carried out on:

X An existing service

A new service, or significantly changed service 2. Who are the stakeholders? Are there any other services, directorates,

organisations or groups involved in the delivery of this service? Please list below.

Direct Beneficiaries Looked After Children (LAC) Children in Need (CIN) subject to Child Protection Conference or Family Group Conferences. Any child receiving a social care service from Coventry wishing to make a complaint or a representation Independent Visitors provision following relevant legislation. Children Learning and Young People Directorate Safeguarding Team 15 plus Team Looked After Children's Team District Social Care Teams Commissioning Team Fostering Services

EIA Service form 2010/11

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Participation Team Youth Offending Service Respect Yourself team LACES Mentoring Service Supported Accommodation and Floating Support Services Providers Other Stakeholders Coventry Leaving Care Service (Shaftesbury Young People) Other private, voluntary, independent service providers supporting the delivery of children's advocacy and independent visitor services.

3. Briefly describe the purpose of this service.

This is an existing service. The contract with the current Provider end 31st March 2012, although an extension is currently being sought to 30th June 2012.This EIA informs both the current and future service to be commissioned from 1st July 2012. The objective of the Children Rights Service is to empower children and young people in need to participate in the decisions that effect their lives, particularly Article 12 of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child ‘Say what you think and be listened to by adults when they make decisions which affect you'. The Service ensures the voices of young people are heard by promoting children’s rights and providing advocacy to young people as individuals or part of groups e.g. siblings. Advocacy is also seen as an essential part of the looked after system within Coventry because of its positive benefits for the child. Many benefits arise from the process of being given a voice and a better understanding of choices and decisions. While children may require help to understand why an outcome they sought was not possible, they often gain a lot from engaging in the process itself in terms of understanding their rights, confidence at speaking up and a greater understanding of their situation and options. The Independent Visitor Service ensures LAC up to age 18 with no quality contact with their birth family are matched with a volunteer with whom they can develop a long term relationship that enhances their quality of life and contributes to the welfare of the child and promotes the child’s developmental, social, emotional, educational, religious and cultural needs.

4. Who does this service affect or benefit, and in what way? e.g., school children,

all Coventry residents etc.

Principal Categories Supported Looked After Children, (LAC) Care Leavers Children in Need (CIN) Children with disabilities Asylum Seekers


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Including LAC in residential or fostering, qualifying Teenage Parents who are pregnant or have children, those qualifying from Youth Offending Services. Other stakeholders as listed in question 2.

5. What do you know about any equalities issues for this type of service both in

Coventry and nationally? Children's Rights In England, potentially all LAC, care leavers and those assessed as CIN have a legal right to advocacy support when they want to make a complaint or representation under section 26A of the Children Act 1989. Statutory guidance has further extended the scope of advocacy to LAC in the care planning and review process and to care leavers particularly when moving from their care placement. However, there has been no corresponding development for CIN other than already provided for in ‘Working Together 2010’ in relation to support at child protection conferences. Nationally Recent reports from the Office of the Children's Commissioner 'A scoping report on advocacy services for children and young people in England' 2011 and NSPCC 'Safeguarding looked after children through advocacy' 2011 highlight a number of aspects with their respective reports that many children and young people still find it difficult to access advocacy. The reasons for this vary. Lack of knowledge about advocacy – Recent research by Ofsted (2010) reported on 1,113 children’s knowledge as to how to get hold of an advocate: 56% said they did know but 30% of those interviewed did not know what an advocate was. This research also found that there has been a big reduction in the numbers of children who said that they had made a complaint. This has reduced from 43% in 2008 to 25% in 2010. They concluded this might be because children are now more confident about resolving issues without having to make a complaint; alternatively this could be linked to children not knowing about advocacy.

Communication barriers – When children are very young or have communication difficulties it is essential that they are able to access advocacy support. The level of understanding of some young people could affect their ability to access the service directly this includes the younger age group and disabled children. Language barriers – There is a very real barrier for children who speak very limited English, especially when the advocacy service does not have immediate access to adults who speak the same language, translators and/or a translation service. Emotional barriers – Children’s lack of confidence in themselves and/or the adults responsible for their care can become emotional barriers that make it difficult to ask for advocacy support. Linked with this, is children’s concern and fear that using an advocate will cause problems and issues with their social worker, foster carer and other significant adults whom they rely on for care and support.


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Different faith or belief. Although at present research in this area is limited it is recognised faith and belief could impact on accessing advocacy services. The challenges of long distance placements Children placed out of county were identified as particularly vulnerable group and posed challenges for advocacy services. Being out of county meant they were more likely to be isolated from family, friends and familiar networks. For advocacy staff it means travelling further often to see one young person and therefore the cost of providing this support increases. The question of whether such young people could be supported by an advocate in any other way needs consideration as well as possible reciprocal arrangements with other advocacy providers Local Position Table 1 identifies the total number of young people from Coventry that could potentially have accessed the service in the period March 2010- July 2011 dependent on the nature of issue.

Table: 1: Total Number of Young People Eligible for Accessing the Children's Advocacy Service

Mar-10Mar-

11Jul-

11*Children In Need 2404 2856 2986Child Protection 292 357 392Looked After Children 590 585 607

Looked After Children & Children In Need In 2009/10 referrals from both 'CIN' and 'LAC' were approximately equal in 2010/2011 61% were 'CIN' and 39% 'LAC',For those LAC referrals received, the issues are widely spread, although participation at LAC Reviews, Care Plans and contact remain the areas that advocates provide most support. Child Protection Case Conferences take up 59% of the direct work of the advocates and Family Group Conferences 8%. Gender Females represent 52% of referrals and males 48%. Disability 21% of referrals have been for children and young people with a disability. Of these 9% were learning disabilities, 6% of young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and 4% with behaviourally based disability. Ethnicity 77% of referrals are White British with 23% from BME groups Age Of all referrals 35% are aged 12-14, 32% aged 7-11,20% 15-16,9% aged17+ and 4% aged 4-6.


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Independent Visitors National Position Section 23ZB(1) of 1989 Act, as amended by the Children and Young Persons Act 2008, widens the definition of circumstances in which an Independent Visitor may be appointed for a child. Regulation 47 sets out the way in which the appointed Independent Visitor is not connected with the responsible authority. The amendment under the above act could potentially increase the numbers eligible for a service in the future and this will need to be closely watched. Local Position New regulations that came into force from 1st April 2011 will mean that the range of LAC who can be offered an Independent Visitor will be wider and therefore referral numbers should increase. The present Provider is currently discussing the changes to the Care Planning Regulations and has begun to meet with teams in Coventry about the changes. Please see section 8 for local data on young people that are being matched or are matched to Independent Visitors.

Consultation

This section on consultation should be completed if this EIA relates to a new or significantly changed service- please see the guidance note on how to carry out consultation

6. Please state who you have consulted with about this service, how you have consulted, whether consultation responses have been received, plus any other relevant information.

This EIA does not relate to a new or significantly changed Service. The Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitors Service is an existing service to be recommissioned. The young people are defined by statutory legislation and the groups to which this refers have not changed from the previous EIA. Consultation has been undertaken to inform the Service Specification Young People On behalf of commissioning the Participation Team has consulted with various young people eligible for the service. This has included undertaking visits to Northern Care (Independent Provider). The Provider seeks to consult with individual children and young people on an ongoing basis at the point of case closure through evaluation/feedback surveys. For the year 2010-2011 eighty-six users submitted evaluation/feedback surveys across both local authorities of these:


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• Knowledge Rights increased 97% • Your advocate listened to you 99% • Happy with the help the advocate gave 98% • Felt empowered to speak up for themselves 33%

The figures are used to inform current practice and to ensure that advocates continue to focus on enabling independent participation for all service users. Current young people at those 'In House' units -The Grange –residential, Gravel Hill residential- Broad Park House (Respite Unit for disabled young people) have monthly meetings with advocates at the individual units, this can involve both group and individual work with the advocate. Where issues/concerns require further support from the advocate this are followed up. These meetings also enable wider consultation that enables the service to be discussed as part of service improvement. All the young people with an Independent Visitor who were evaluated (43) across both Coventry and Warwickshire. All the active matches scored a 100% rating on the following outcomes:

• Satisfied with service • Felt listened to and views respected • Felt having an IV improved an aspect of their life • Enjoyed having an IV

Consulted stakeholders A Briefing Report dated 7th September 2010 titled 'To consider options and priorities for managing the increasing workload within Children's Rights and Independent Visitors Service was issued for consultation to a number of stakeholders that both looked at the present and requirements for a future service. Judgements about the Service have been informed by the following stakeholders:

• Safeguarding Team • Complaints Team • 15 plus Team • Looked After Children's Team • Children's Disability Team • Unaccompanied Asylum Team. • District Social Care Teams • Participation Team • Respect Yourself Team • CAMHS Service • Leaving Care Service (Shaftesbury) • Fostering Services • Youth Offending Service • Family Group Conferencing • Northern Care (residential units)

7. Please summarise the outcome of the consultation exercise.


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Raising awareness/increasing access Promoting an understanding of children’s rights through advocacy is essential for key professionals that work with LAC and CIN to avoid individual young people and groups being disadvantaged. Social care professionals must receive training about children’s rights; appreciate what advocacy is and how it can benefit LAC and CIN (including its safeguarding benefits). They must be able to appropriately signpost children to advocacy services.

Advocacy needs to be regarded as complimentary to social work practice rather than oppositional Reaching Looked After Children (LAC) There is concern that many LAC do not know about the availability of advocacy and therefore cannot benefit from the support and challenge in can bring. There is a need for greater awareness raising for LAC and professionals, who often act as gatekeepers to services, is seen as a priority. Methods of Communication A particularly effective communication tool is the use mail shot through DCLYP Participation Team which is sent regularly to all LAC and will promote availability of children's advocacy services. It is intended that the Provider will periodically attend all District Teams within DCLYP to promote the use of children's advocacy to social workers and IRO's. LAC with Northern Care Northern Care is an independent provider of residential services to Coventry City Council providing in excess of 30 LAC placements. The consultation identified the need to improve the awareness of young people within this service.

Data collection

8. What is your data telling you about your service with regard to equalities?

Please consider issues relating to race, gender (including transgender), disability, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, poverty, looked after children, and any other issues that you consider to be relevant- inequality is disadvantage in all forms.

Children's Rights Data relates to 2010-2011 Section 5 outlined the local position regarding key equalities groups. The service has demonstrated that it reaching key disabled people including:

• Physical disabilties • Learning disabilities


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• Mental ill health. Specific involvement of advocates with BME groups has not highlighted any specific needs not already identified, and 23% of young people accessing the service come from BME groups. There is an even distribution in the age profile of young people accessing the service in the age range aged 7-11, 12-14 and 15-16. It is noted the smaller number of young people 16+ accessing the service and this is being discussed further to ensure there are no barriers to accessing the service. It is noted that 51% of referrals originate from young people that are placed with parents with 19% originating from those placed in foster care and 14% of young people in residential and 4% in B & B. The Local Authority are keen to ensure that young people are only placed in B &B in exceptional circumstances and the Local Authority will continue to track this data to ensure there is no upward pattern which could point to wider placement issues. The primary issue on referral is the request to support young people at child protection case conferences with a figure of 59%. It is acknowledged that the support of an advocate at case conferences is considered a vital service by IRO's. A further 10% of referrals are to support LAC reviews Independent Visitor Service Table : Demand/Matching of Coventry LAC to Independent Visitors

Year 2006-

07 2007-

08 2008-

09 2009-

10 2010-

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2011-2012 at 1st July

Coventry Demand 24 16 10 21 19 24 Coventry Matched 17 7 13 17 17 16

Table : Age profile of those young people currently awaiting matching/matched with Independent Visitors Age 7 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+ Total

Young people

Number awaiting matching /matched

2 1 3 3 3 2 4 4 4 24

Male and female young people referred to the service are equal at 50%, with 50% white British and 33% from other ethnic groups and a further 17% from Black/British Caribbean At 1st July 2011 of those undergoing a match or matched to an Independent Visitor 11 young people had some form of disability, this represented 46% of all young people. Of these 13% had sight impairment, 13% a behaviour based disability and 20% a learning disability. The project is very successful in maintaining established matches and young


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people who are under 14 when referred have particularly good outcomes when it comes to building enduring positive relationships with Independent Visitors. The project asks its volunteers to give a 2 year commitment. 46% of the young people have been matched for over 2 years with 12% over 5 years

9. Is there any way in which you think you need to improve your monitoring systems, so that you can collect better equalities data for this service?

Please refer to the Council's Equality Monitoring Guidance for further information (available on the intranet or from your Directorate Equality Officer)

The Provider has robust equalities monitoring mechanisms in place for reporting equalities data to the Local Authority which is presented within quarterly and annual performance reports. The only alteration the Local Authority would wish to make is to ensure Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors is reported as a separate group with equalities data. Quarterly Provider Monitoring Reports are provided on Age; Gender; Ethnicity; Disability; Referral Source; Fieldwork Team; Placement Type; Primary Issues; and Type of contact (meeting, telephone, text, email)

Assessment

10. How does this service positively promote equality?

Vulnerable children and young people should have ready access to professionals and services that can support them in having a real say in decisions affecting their lives. Advocacy is essential for them and this can make a vital contribution to safeguarding and promoting their welfare and rights of young people. This EIA identifies the current status of advocacy provision within Coventry and provides a summary of statistical data about numbers, ages, gender, disability and ethnicity of children using advocacy services benchmarked against national trends and provides intelligence and evidence to inform the development of the Children's Rights and Independent Visitor Service into the future. This has been done by gathering detailed information about the provision of professional advocacy services for children and young people within Coventry and identifying further outstanding issues and information that needs to be addressed to inform the development of the future service requirements.


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The Independent Visitor Service aims to improve quality of life (that is, the physical health, and social, educational and emotional wellbeing) of LAC requiring the support of an Independent Visitor by ensuring they experience a nurturing relationship with a volunteer who befriends and supports them.

11. How does this service contribute towards improving relationships between different communities?

12. Are there any areas of low or high take-up by different groups of people? X Yes No

Where advocacy is provided, the Provider will work with the young people to develop their self-confidence such that they are more confident to advocate for themselves. The degree to which this can be achieved will be specific to individuals, and may relate to their experiences as part of a minority group. In this way, providing advocacy has the potential to influence relationships between individuals and those who they interact with. Opportunities for promoting good relations between groups may arise where services are delivered in group settings. The Provider should recognise and respond to opportunities for creating group sessions which bring together young people with a range of experiences including but not limited to those with protected characteristics, such that all young people accessing the service could have an opportunity to compare their experiences with those of other service users. The range of views must be captured and reported to the Local Authority by the Provider.

If yes, please give details.

In 2009/10 referrals from both 'CIN' and 'LAC' were approximately equal in 2010/2011 61% were 'CIN' and 39% 'LAC' .Presently all eligible young people eligible are able to access the service, however the Local Authority will need to ensure that this service is promoted to all LAC young people. Only 4% of young people under the age of 7 currently access the service. The service will need to ensure where children that are very young or have communication difficulties they are able to access advocacy support. It had been noted the level of understanding of some young people could affect their ability to access the service directly this includes the younger age group and disabled children. The Provider will be required to ensure that social workers and other relevant workers are fully informed that there is no age limit to accessing the service.


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13. Does analysis by ward or area show that there are different parts of the city that are particularly disadvantaged or excluded?

Yes X No


14. Are there any barriers to equal access?

Yes X No


Data provided by the current Provider since 2006 has not led the Provider or the Local Authority to conclude that there have been any adverse or negative impact indentified to any particular group in accessing the service. The service has worked hard to ensure the reasons why young people may find difficulties accessing advocacy services outlined in section 5 do not provide an obstacle locally. Some young people referred late for an Independent Visitor at 16+ sometimes struggle to engage with an Independent Visitor and this has resulted in the young people withdrawing from the project within the first 6 months of a match. New criteria and procedures recently drawn up seek to address this area, to ensure this group are able to sustain Independent Visitors for the longer term.

15. Are there any barriers to equality of outcomes for different service users?

Yes X No


For young people with protected characteristics, there is potential for inadvertent discrimination if the service provided is not equipped to respond to the needs relating to their protected characteristic. The current service has worked hard to ensure those with protected characteristics are not disadvantaged.

16. Has there been any improvement?

The Children's Advocacy service continues to demonstrate high levels of performance against a range of equality indicators. Young people continue to express the view that the service is meeting their needs, and that the service has had a significant and positive impact on problems/issues they were experiencing. Social workers have indicated a confidence in the service and that it has made a


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valuable contribution to supporting young people, this has been particularly valued in CP work by IRO's who have noted the professionalism of the service. The work of the advocate has also been highly praised by the family group conferencing workers.

Summary

17. Please indicate which of the following best describes the outcome of your EIA. You may tick both the first two boxes if both are applicable. X This service is having a positive equalities impact X This service has identified a need to address some equalities issues

There wasn't enough information to be able to draw any conclusions.

This service is having no equalities impact

Developing equality actions

If this EIA has identified that this service needs to be improved in order to promote equality and diversity positively, please explain how you plan to do this. You should develop equality actions and insert the key actions in the table below. Strategic equality actions should be embedded into operational plans.

Action

Timescales/ Milestones

Who will monitor this?

How/ where will this be embedded?

Raising awareness/increasing access Promoting an understanding of children’s rights and advocacy is essential for key professionals that work with LAC and CIN to avoid individual young people and groups being disadvantaged. Social care professionals must receive training about children’s rights, appreciate what advocacy is and how it can benefit looked after and CIN (including its safeguarding benefits). They must be able to appropriately signpost children to advocacy services

1) Present Service 01/11/2011 2) New contracted service from 01/07/2012 Complete by 01/07/11

Russell Garcia 1) The manager of the service will be required to attend District Team Meetings/ Safeguarding Team Meetings periodically. This will also be a requirement in Service Specification and will be a reporting requirement in quarterly and annual contract monitoring information. 2) The Provider will also at commencement of new contract consult with those key stakeholders identified in section 6.

Reaching Looked After Children The need for greater awareness raising for Looked After Children, to address the concern

1) Present Service 01/11/2011

Russ Garcia

1)Manager to meet with Children's Champion to discuss implementing a strategy for


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that many Looked After Children do not know about the availability of advocacy and therefore cannot benefit from the support and challenge in can bring.

2) Ensure that manager promotes Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitor within next mail shot 3) By 01/11/11

Russell Garcia Russell Garcia

communicating with young people 2) A particularly effective communication tool is the use mail shot through DCLYP Participation Team which is sent regularly to all LAC and will promote availability of Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitor service to all LAC. 3) The manager to discuss with Northern Care Service Manager (independent Provider of residential services to Coventry City Council providing in excess of 30 LAC placements) how best to promote service to these young people

The proportions of minority group young people participating in surveys/consultations should be monitored and compared with the proportions in the client group. Under-representation of any minority group in the survey/consultation sample should be investigated and an action plan drawn up to increase participation of the particular group(s).

Present Service 01/11/2011 New contracted service from 01/07/2012

Russell Garcia Requirement condition of new specification Will be embedded in the quarterly and annual contract monitoring information

The number of young people feeling able to speak for themselves needs to be increased. Any over representation of minority groups among these young people should be addressed



The specification for the IV service must be explicit in requiring the matching procedures for IVs to accommodate any needs of the young person which relate to them having a protected equality characteristic. Where appropriate, the Provider should make every effort to recruit an IV with the same protected characteristic. Where this is agreed with the referrer as not appropriate, or where this cannot be arranged within required timescales, the Provider will ensure that the IV will have sufficient knowledge to be able to establish a good relationship founded in a full awareness of the particular needs of the protected characteristics of the referred young person.

New contracted service from 01/07/2012


The specification for the IV service must be explicit in requiring the to ensure that any IV has an awareness of the possible needs of any young person relating to their protected

Present Service 01/11/2011 New contracted

Russell Garcia Requirement condition of new specification


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characteristic, and to be confident in responding in an appropriate and supportive way to any related issues a matched young person might raise with them. To achieve this, the must make available to IVs adequate training and resource material

service from 01/07/2012

Will be embedded in the quarterly and annual contract monitoring information

The should recognise and respond to opportunities for creating group sessions which bring together young with a range of experiences including but not limited to those with protected characteristics, such that all young people accessing the service could have an opportunity to compare their experiences with those of other service users. The range of views must be captured and reported to the Local Authorities by the .



Quarterly Monitoring Reports on the diversity of users will include all protected characteristics. Young people will be advised that ‘Prefer not to say’ is an acceptable response to any request for this personal information, but that the data is anonymised and is collected to enable us to plan for a more tailored service appropriate to their needs.

Present Service 01/11/2011

Russell Garcia Requirement condition of new specification

New contracted service from 01/07/2012

Will be embedded in the quarterly and annual contract monitoring information

Approval This EIA has been completed by: Signed (Head of EIA Team) Name (please print) Russell Garcia Date 20th October 2011

Countersigned: (Director/ Head of Division) __________________________ Date: 27th October 2011_________________________ Please brief your Head of Service on the results of this EIA, as soon as possible.

It is essential that this EIA is also discussed by your Directorate Management Team, and remains readily available for inspection.


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A copy of this signed review should then be forwarded to your Directorate Equality Officer.


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Coventry City Council Blank Template

Documents

Transcript of Coventry City Council Blank Template