Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on the Care leavers’ Local Offer, which reflected the support the Council had in place for young people leaving the Council’s care.

The Cabinet Member stated that the current Local Offer met the statutory minimum requirements; however, internal reviews and an external inspection had recognised that the Council could do more to improve its offer to care leavers. The report put forward a number of initiatives to be included in the new Local Offer, which fell into the three categories of:

·  Additional support already offered that was not reflected in the current Local Offer document;

·  Lower cost initiatives that could be included in an updated Local Offer, to be further considered by the Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration; and

·  Higher cost initiatives with a longer implementation time frame to be considered.

Cabinet Members welcomed the report, referring particularly to the support offered by the NEET Panel to support young people into education, employment and training, and the Council’s strong, ongoing commitment to develop services that reflected care leavers’ voices.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree the updated version of the Care Leavers’ Local Offer at Appendix 1 of the report;

(ii)  Agree to recommend to Assembly that it endorses LBBD Care Leavers resident in the Borough to be exempted from Council Tax up to the age of 25, effective from April 2020;

(iii)  Agree that officers, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration, develop a ‘saving for independence’ scheme for LBBD Care leavers aged 21 to 25 based on a sum equivalent to 50% of the Council Tax exemption; and

(iv)  Agree to delegate authority to the Director of People and Resilience, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration, to develop and approve a bespoke Local Offer for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children as outlined in section 7.3 of the report.