Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Young People attached.

Councillor L Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People presented the report regarding Project Skyline which involves the ten Greater Manchester local authorities, NHS Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) which will create an increased supply of specialist children’s homes for children in care in the Greater Manchester region for some of our most vulnerable young people. This will see ten new homes that can accommodate up to 24 children with complex mental health issues or Emotional Behavioural Difficulties. GMCA is leading the procurement to appoint the care home operators on behalf of the ten GM local authorities.

The Leader of the Council, wished to highlight regarding some of the local residents’ concerns and acknowledged that some elected members may also share these concerns. Members were informed that this report should be seen as an opportunity and it is important the Council listens and assures local residents. Councillor L Smith added that discussions regarding planning permissions for Childrens Homes is taking place with the Department for Education currently.

Decision:

Cabinet:

·         Noted the proposed arrangements for the delivery specialist residential care in Greater Manchester for Looked After Children (“LAC”) and to agree that Bury Council should continue its due diligence prior to agreeing participation in the scheme.

·         Dependent upon due diligence, agree to delegate authority to the Chief Executive/Executive Director Children & Young People, in consultation with the portfolio holder for Children and Young People, and Director of Finance to negotiate and finalise the Partnership Agreement and all other contractual and ancillary arrangements.

·         Delegated to the Director of Law and Democratic Services to enter and complete the documentation necessary to give effect to the recommendations.

Reasons for the recommendations:

·         To enable Bury to participate in progressing plans to invest in new regional provision that will be protected for GM children and seek to develop a portfolio of new publicly owned residential provision to support children in care to GM authorities in need of residential provision.

·         At its core, creating dedicated GMCA provision is seeking to mitigate the exposure to market forces, particularly the escalating cost of provision and sometimes sub-optimal outcomes for children. The Project aims to establish 10 homes for up to 24 children and young people. Whilst this is a small number relative to the number of children in care to GM authorities in private sector children’s homes (slightly less than 600 currently), it represents an important shift and a return to the children’s homes market for GM local authorities.

·         Bury is the only Local Authority in Greater Manchester that does not currently have internal residential homes, so we are the most challenged of all GM authorities in terms of sufficiency of specialist homes and our subsequent exposure to market forces, we have seen a marked increase in the number of residential placements currently at 46 having seen an increase in volume of 21% over the past 12 months, with an weekly average cost of £5,834 per child at the end of Q1 2024/25 and with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 305