Children in care
First and foremost, it means
that the council as a whole is the corporate parent for these children
and young people. This means that the
entire council – councillors and officers:
- accept responsibility for children and young people looked after
- make their needs a priority
- seek for them the same outcomes any good parent would want for their own children
As a corporate parent, councillors
have a right and duty to question the authority as to whether children and
young people are safe, well looked after and supported. The Local Government Information Unit suggests that councillors use the following checklist to help them in this:
- Do you know about children in your area?
- Are they safe?
- How well does your council look after these children?
- Are they well supported by council and other services?
- What support is there when they leave care?
- Is your council putting in enough resources?
Sheffield has established a corporate
parenting panel, which is made up of elected members overseeing the
role of corporate parent to make sure that the interests of children come
first. Elected members
review strategies for all provision on behalf of Children in Public Care, including
Education, Residential Care and Health.
The Corporate Parenting
Panel receives regular reports from Officers and will challenge the quality of
provision as any other parent would.
The panel receives reports on fostering and residential services for
children and young people in Sheffield and on issues that impact on their
lives.
Downloads
This document describes the national legislation and the services that Sheffield provides to support looked after children. (172 KB)
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