Calls for strategy to help vulnerable children in St Helens

In February, councillors met with officers from various council services to discuss how they supported looked-after children to access apprenticeships, and the challenges they face in achieving positive outcomes.

The work, which was ultimately cut short due to the COVID crisis, was part of a review into apprenticeships for looked-after children by the council’s children and young people’s services (CYPS) overview and scrutiny panel.

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As part of this work, the task group, led by Labour councillor and CYPS overview and scrutiny panel chair Trisha Long, also looked at a review on apprenticeships from 2016 undertaken by the environment, regeneration, housing, culture and leisure scrutiny panel.

“The work has its roots in the previous scrutiny work on apprenticeships, which we briefly, briefly reviewed,” Cllr Long told the council’s overview and scrutiny commission this week.

“The issue is massively important because it’s an inescapable fact that care experienced young people face lower outcomes than their peers.

“For example, nationally 40 per cent of care leavers aged 19-25 are not in work or training.”

The 2016 report set out seven recommendations, which were all accepted by cabinet in October pf that year, with actions attached to each.

One of the recommendations was for an apprenticeships strategy to be compiled and implemented.

However, the latest scrutiny report says no formal strategy was ever formally approved.

Writing in the foreword to the new report, Cllr Long said: “After children have left our care, it is vital that the council, employers and other agencies work together even more effectively to ensure opportunities for our young people to have the best possible chance of success.

“A vital next step will be the production and implementation of a strategy that provides consistent support for care leavers to move into education, employment and training.

“The council will also need to take into account the Government’s recently announced post-pandemic funding for young people.

“This interim report is therefore a first step. There is much more ground to cover and we anticipate that the CYPS scrutiny panel will continue to cover this topic in 2020/21.”At the end of February 2020, a total of 511 children and young people were in the care of the council.

Labour councillor Trisha Long led a scrutiny review into apprenticeships for looked-after children This equates to a rate of 138.9 under 10,000 population of the under 18 population within the borough.

It is also substantially higher than the most recently published national average of 65 children per 10,000 population.

Three months before a child in care turns 16 they begin to become a care leaver and the local authority – as the corporate parent – starts to help them plan the pathway to their future.

Speaking on Monday, Cllr Long said it was clear there is a great deal of good work going on, delivered by “passionate, experienced and dedicated officers”.

She highlighted the council’s education, employment and training coordinator, who works closely with care leavers to help with their progression.

The report says funding for the post is only temporary, noting that this was a concern to the task group given the post’s importance.

Cllr Long proposed adding a recommendation to make funding for this post permanent, which was agreed by the commission.

In its conclusion, the report says there are several issues the task group would have liked to address further but were unable to due to the “insufficient time” remaining in the municipal year.

As such, a recommendation is made for the CYPS panel to commission a new task group to enable members to continue the work.

This point was stressed by former council leader Derek Long, who was a part of the task group who conducted the review.

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“This was a first step in terms of nailing down some of these issues but, the timescale and then COVID made it very difficult for us to actually go any further,” he said.

“I think it’s very important that given what’s happened to youth employment, opportunities, since the pandemic, and given our specific responsibilities for people within the borough, I think it’s essential that we ensure that there is a report by the CYPS panel which picks up the second half of these activities that need to be looked at in the coming municipal year.”

The overview and scrutiny commission approved the report and the recommendations, which will now be reviewed by the council’s cabinet.