Endowment for Children in Care

Rep 600 Derbyshire County Council Agenda Item 3 Schools Forum, 4 th November 2014 Endowment for Children in Care

1. Purpose of the report

This report seeks to: explain the endowment initiative for children in care, seek support for the project’s ambitions; and to seek approval for a financial contribution from the DSG for the project’s realisation for all children in care.

2. Information and Analysis

Derbyshire is committed to raising the aspirations, achievements and life chances of children in care. As a better corporate parent, the Council hopes to ensure that more young people from care have high ambitions, such as being able to aspire to university - and to other meaningful education and work progression pathways. The case for change is stark and the vision compelling. Nationally, school-level achievement of children in care is dramatically below national norms. Only about 3% of Derbyshire’s children in care, for example, progress to university. Educational attainment for children in care is improving, with the percentage of children in care achieving 5 or more good GCSEs increasing from 6.1% in 2012 to 19%, and 11% in 2013. However, more must be done to close the gap between children in care and their peers not in the care system.

2.1 Context

Currently, the system for accessing support for children in care to develop and fulfil their potential and ambitions is complex and inhibiting. Not only do children in care engage with a plethora of professionals, each with a particular interest or focus on an aspect of the child’s life, but the financial supports available are also fragmented. There are some supports included within payments for foster carers; some which sit in central budgets available via an application system; some which are tied up in schemes provided by the Authority; some in education schemes such as the pupil premium; and others through district social care teams. Often accessing such financial supports is dependent on the proactivity and confidence of the child’s carers or social workers, leading to inequity in the support available. 2.2 The endowment ambition

Derbyshire’s ambition is for each child and young person in care to receive a financial endowment to liberate ambition and aspiration and to make possible all that might, for example, be available to the child of a middle class family in Derbyshire. The endowment would not be tied to any particular experience or pathway. Each child would be encouraged, alongside their significant adults such as their carer, social worker and school staff, to think about how they might like to spend it, with a view to supporting them in achieving their own educational and life goals. This provides young people in care with choices equivalent to other young people their age, and the foundations for greater aspirations. This ambition to provide an endowment for children in care is unprecedented and pioneering an approach that may be scaled nationally.

2.3 What would the endowment look like?

The endowment would involve an annual financial allocation provided to the carer on the child’s behalf which can be used in support of the child’s life and development plans, with any annual underspend being saved for the future. Allocations would increase with a child’s age, from early years to leaving care. It would also include a lump sum available on graduation from care to support with university fees or setting up for independent life. Provisional allocations are identified in table 1.

Table 1: Endowment Allocations based on age

Annual Annual allocation allocation Age (£) Age (£) 0 500 10 1,000 1 500 11 1,200 2 500 12 1,400 3 500 13 1,600 4 500 14 1,800 5 500 15 2,000 6 600 16 2,200 7 700 17 2,400 8 800 18 2,600 9 900 On graduation 8,000 from care

2.4 What would it be used for? The endowment would be used to meet the individual needs of the child. For example, there is a growing evidence base in Derbyshire for the effectiveness of Creative Mentoring in supporting children with special educational needs to re- engage with education and improve confidence. It could be used to provide rewards or incentives for achievement, to pay for school or other trips in support of the child’s interests, or to support activities in other ways, such as through summer camps. It could be used for music lessons, sports or extra tuition. It is entirely dependent on the needs and ambitions of the child.

2.5 Pilot and feasibility study

In 2013 a feasibility study was undertaken to explore the potential viability and benefits of such an endowment. This study identified that very high numbers of Derbyshire children in care are classed as having special educational needs (SEN). The study identified that, of the population of children in care, there were 52 children (approximately 8% of the total children in care population) who had statements of special educational need exclusively due to behavioural, educational and social difficulties (BESD). Of these children, 51% had low- medium SDQ scores (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, a behavioural screening tool) and 28% had medium to high SDQ. Those children with low- medium SDQ scores are considered to have the greatest scope to reduce the level of need. If a flexible and child-centred resource, such as the endowment, could provide specialised, individualised support to enable even a fraction of these children to no longer require particular SEN support, this would generate efficiencies, savings and improvement for both schools and the local authority. If this proposition holds, the benefits would be threefold: a) Savings in costs of provision; b) Savings in admin costs (processing SEN assessments and plans/monitoring avoided); and c) Improvements in academic attainment and self-esteem. Preventing future needs and reducing escalation of needs whilst in care would generate further benefits and savings.

Following the feasibility study, a pilot is being undertaken to explore the endowment approach including evaluation of the practical and logistical requirements and how the endowment might be used. The aim is that learning from the pilot informs the scaling of the endowment for all children in care. Currently 18 year 9 pupils in care are testing a £2,000 endowment, provided on a debit card, in support of plans that they have created for their own lives. Fig. 1 Example of a child’s plan

2.6 Ambitions for the Endowment

The next stage of the endowment is to seek funding for a pilot for all children in care for two years from April 2015 including a contribution from the Dedicated Schools Grant.

3. Financial Considerations

The annual cost of providing the endowment for all children in care is approximately £1.1m. Much of this will be achieved through de-commissioning budget lines for initiatives and services related to the offer provided by the endowment. These include carer allowances, activities budgets, provision for care leavers, and other smaller budgets. The feasibility study suggests that stopping some of these activities and/or merging them into the endowment scheme would make a significant contribution to realising the endowment for all children in care. The planned de-commissioning excludes any assumed contribution from Pupil Premium Grant. To enable the endowment to be tested with all children in care, a contribution of £250,000 a year for two years is sought from the Dedicated Schools Grant to support its implementation for children in care with special needs and/or in early years provision.

4. Other Considerations

In preparing this report the relevance of the following factors has been considered: prevention of crime & disorder, equality of opportunity, finance, human resources, legal & human rights, environmental, health, property and transport considerations.

5. Strategic Director’s Recommendations

That the Schools Forum notes the report and:

(i) supports the development of an endowment for children in care; (ii) considers committing £0.250m in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 from previous years’ DSG underspends to the scheme; and (iii) agrees to receive a further report on the impact of the endowments towards the end of the pilot.

IAN THOMAS

Strategic Director for Children & Younger Adults