People Cabinet Member – Minutes – 14 March 2013

59  (59) EMPLOYMENT BASED FOSTER CARER SCHEME – The Director of People submitted a report seeking approval to set up an employment based foster carer scheme.

A review of the council’s sufficiency strategy had identified that there was a need to target the recruitment of foster placements for older children and young people.

The scheme would initially recruit four paid foster carer households, where one individual within the household would enter into a contract of employment and would be recruited and approved via fostering national standards, regulations and recruitment process. Each paid foster carer would receive a salary of £21,000 plus fostering allowance relevant to the age of the child/young person.

The report identified that an employment based scheme would enable the fostering service to expand its range of foster carers and provide employment opportunities within value for money.

Resolved – That the proposals for the introduction of an employment based foster carer scheme be approved.

The corresponding report of the following items (Minutes 60 and 61refer) contains exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

60  (60) REVIEW OF RESOURCES – SCHOOL’S SERVICES PEOPLE DIRECTORATE – The Director of People submitted a report which sought consideration of the statutory duties, function, priorities and challenges within the Schools Services team and Children’s Advocacy function and to proposeorganisational changes, which would effectively meet future demands.  The purpose of the proposed changes was to streamline management arrangements to ensure prioritisation of resources to frontline service delivery.

The report explained that Schools Services Team was directly responsible for ensuring the Local Authority (LA) fulfilled three key functions in respect of the Director and Lead Member for Children’s Services statutory duties.  These statutory duties were:

  • Admissions to Schools
  • Schools Transport
  • Capital and Buildings

The review had been instigated as a result of a number of recent local and national policy initiatives, and the report outlined how functions identified in paragraph 2.1 of the report could be organised more effectively in order to support the Council’s strategic priorities.

Resolved –  That option 1 as detailed within the report, to make the changes to the establishment detailed in Appendix A of the report be approved and implemented with effect from 1 April 2013.

61  (61)  REVIEW OF EDUCATION SERVICES FOR HEARING AND VISION IMPAIRMENT AND PHYSICAL DISABILITYThe Director of People submitted a report to inform the Cabinet Member of the outcomes of stakeholder consultation, sought approval to formally withdraw North Lincolnshire employees from the joint arrangements with North Lincolnshire, Hull, North East Lincolnshire and East Riding,  and sought approval of the review of the education support team for visual impairment.

In June 2012 Cabinet noted that all four Local Authority partners in the Joint Arrangement for services for children and young people with sensory and physical impairments wished to withdraw from that arrangement. This opened an opportunity to create new arrangements in North Lincolnshire.

Details of the proposals were outlined within the report and appendix.

Resolved – (a)  That the end of the Joint Agreement, withdrawing North Lincolnshire employees from the Joint Agreement and relocating them to a Council base be finalised, and (b) that the staffing structure outlined in Appendix A to the report for a North Lincolnshire Council education support team for visual impairment be implemented.

Note: Reports are in Portable Document Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe website (full instructions for downloading the reader are provided on the site).

Where there is no report this is because it is exempt, as it contains information which is considered to be of a confidential nature, as detailed in the Local Government (Access to Information) Act.