Agenda item

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 a total cost of £8.7m at 2023/24 outturn.

·         Engagement in Project Skyline would be a complementary facet of Bury’s sufficiency strategy whilst we also develop plans for our own residential provision and build the number of fostering households and the range of needs that foster homes are able to meet.

Alternative options considered:

·         Do nothing - The Council is exploring the Skyline model before committing to enter into a Partnership Agreement, it would be prudent to explore this option fully.

·         Develop in house provision - The Council has already approved the development of its own residential provision in November 2024 and Project Skyline should be seen as complementary to the Council’s own proposal, rather than either being an alternative to the other. Project Skyline aims to provide up to 24 homes for children across GM and the Council’s own development provides for the development of 6 homes for children. These figures should be seen in the context of close to 600 children in private sector residential homes across GM and 46 children currently in the care of Bury. One can see that this is the beginning of a broader rebalancing of provision between public and private sector.

·         Furthermore, as part of the plans across GM, Project Skyline envisages developing specialist children’s homes for children vulnerable to extra-familial safeguarding risks and with acute mental health/behavioural concerns. This provision would differ from the type of homes that Bury itself would be seeking to establish.