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Chapter 53: The new structures and resources

Introduction

53.01  The statements in this chapter are based on the written evidence of the successor authorities to the former Clwyd and Gwynedd County Councils submitted to the Tribunal in December 1997 and some figures which were supplied by them early in 1998. We emphasise that some of the information is subject to frequent change and we have given relevant dates wherever possible.

53.02  Under the provisions of section 1 of the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 and Schedule 1 to that Act six new principal areas of local government were established in North Wales on 1 April 1996. These were the four counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire (which adopted the single name of Gwynedd on 2 April 1996), Anglesey, Denbighshire and Flintshire and the two county boroughs of Aberconwy and Colwyn (subsequently called, singly, Conwy) and Wrexham.

53.03  The relative approximate sizes and resources of the new areas and councils in April 1996 are summarised in the following table:

CouncilPopulationArea (hectares)Size of CouncilTotal net budget (£000s)Percentage expenditure on Social Services
      
Anglesey68,50071,5004062,580*17.2
Conwy110,700113,0006079,00020.4
Gwynedd118,000255,00083107,00018.4
Denbighshire89,000**84,0004883,50018.4
Flintshire145,00043,70072117,80021.5
Wrexham123,50049,90052101,42219.5

* This is the budget for 1997/1998 because we were not given the figures for the previous year

** Denbighshire lost the area of Llangollen Rural (population about 1,800) in April 1997 to Wrexham. The population and area given exclude Llangollen Rural.

Broadly speaking, the first three areas replaced the former county of Gwynedd and the latter three replaced the former county of Clwyd but Conwy includes parts of Clwyd.

  53.04  Five of the six new councils appointed a Director of Social Services from the senior or departmental management team of their former county (in Conwy, the new Director was from the former Gwynedd). Wrexham, however, brought together Housing and Social Services under a Director of Personal Services, with a Chief Social Services Officer as one of three officers directly under him.

Anglesey

  53.05  The Social Services Committee is one of eight service committees. It does not have a Children's Sub-Committee but has various panels and boards working under it.

  53.06  The Council has appointed a Children's Services Manager as the senior child care specialist, who is not a member of the Departmental Management Team. She is responsible to the Assistant Director (Client Services), who is one of two Assistant Directors working immediately under the Director. Children's services were formerly provided in the short term by a generic duty team and in the long term by a dedicated children's team. There are now two dedicated children's teams, one dealing with short term and the other with long term services. The children's services management team, which meets "on a three week cycle", comprises the Assistant Director (Client Services), the Children's Services Manager, the Reviewing and Development Officer (Clients) and five Team Leaders, covering such areas as family support, hospital services and learning and physical disabilities as well as the children's teams. A child care consultancy service has been set up using the services of the former Area Manager.

  53.07  According to the Council's evidence to the Tribunal, it has also responded to Adrianne Jones' recommendations by increasing significantly the level of expenditure on children's services. The Council says, for example, that its disaggregated purchasing budget for these services from the former Gwynedd was £514K but this was increased to an actual figure of £654K for 1996/1997. The Council estimates that the apportionment of the Social Services budget for children's services has risen from under five per cent to a current figure of about ten per cent (including an element of disability budgets).

  53.08  The age group 0 to 18 years represents about 23 per cent (15,800) of Anglesey's population (the percentage aged 65 years and upwards is probably now about 20). On 15 January 1998 the county had 61 looked after children, of whom 21 were the subject of full or interim care orders. Only four of these children were placed in Anglesey's sole community home, Queens Park[867]. The other 57 children were fostered, six of them outside the county; and Anglesey has 60 approved foster carers. It follows that none of the children were placed in residential homes or similar establishments outside the county. At the time when the county's Children's Services Plan was written there were seven children in residential care, of whom three were placed outside the county.

  53.09  According to the Director of Social Services, Queens Park is a four bedded unit for adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years. It does not provide emergency placements and is available only where foster placements are unsuitable. The future of the unit is said to be under review. It is intended that Anglesey should enter into an agreement with Gwynedd for the joint management of children's residential services for both authorities.

  53.10  Anglesey has established a contingency fund of £100,000 to meet unexpected and expensive placements in addition to a revenue budget of £41,000. When the Director's evidence was submitted to us in 1998 there had been no such placements for two years but guidelines for the use of them were being developed jointly with Gwynedd.

  53.11  Anglesey has already developed a number of relevant joint arrangements with Gwynedd. Thus, from 1 September 1997 Gwynedd has provided a contracted inspection unit for Anglesey, absorbing the staff that previously served Anglesey's own inspection unit, which was formed after re-organisation. The inspection unit applies the same standards in the local authority sector as it does to private and voluntary establishments. It has representation from the independent residential sector on its advisory committee and lay assessors work with the inspection teams.

  53.12  Other joint ventures are in the out-of-hours emergency service and fostering. The former is with Conwy and Gwynedd, Conwy acting as lead authority: a duty team based at Conwy co-ordinates the response by social services to any emergency occurring after 5 pm or at weekends. In relation to fostering, there is a joint agency agreement with Cartref Bontnewydd Fostering Services Unit[868] and Gwynedd. The Unit has responsibility for recruiting, assessing and supporting foster carers and currently employs four staff with one other from each of the two counties. In 1997 it was involved in the placement of 110 children (77 in Gwynedd and 30 in Anglesey). Anglesey also participates with the other five North Wales counties in the North Wales Child Protection Forum and the joint guardian ad litem service.

  53.13  Anglesey's Fostering Panel is presided over by the Children's Services Manager. It meets monthly to consider all applications for approval and to review foster carers. The Children's Service Manager chairs also the Adoption Panel, which includes an elected member, three social workers and three independent members. Inter-authority adoptions are arranged through a specialist agency, the Catholic Children and Family Care Society (Wales).

  53.14  The evidence of the Director of Social Services is that members of the Council (presumably, that is, of the Social Services Committee) are expected to assess the quality of care provided for children in residential care and to monitor the implementation of the county's policies on their statutory visits. The members have practice guidelines and training in respect of these duties.

Conwy

  53.15  The Social Services Committee is comprised of 30 members of the Council (that is, half the total membership). It has three sub-committees, one of which is the Services for Children and Families Sub-Committee, with 15 members.

  53.16  The management structure within the Social Services Department was modified in 1997 because of financial constraints. From 1 October 1997 there were three Assistant Directors immediately under the Director, of whom one was the Assistant Director (Children and Families), a member of the Directorate Group, which itself met weekly and with certain elected members monthly. There was also a Departmental Management Group, including Service Managers, which met monthly. Similar arrangements continue but since 1 April 1998 the number of Assistant Directors has been reduced to two, one for Adult Services and the other for Children and Support Services. The latter is now supported by two (instead of one) Service Managers.

  53.17  The Social Services budget for Conwy was increased by £1,160K between 1996/1997 and 1997/1998 and the increase in the Child and Families component in this was £216,000, raising its percentage of the Social Services budget to 14 (the percentage allocated to services for older people was 48.3).

  53.18  The Registrar General's mid year estimates of population in 1995 for the areas now within Conwy indicate that about 26 per cent of the total (29,000) were within the 0 to 18 years group, whereas about 33.5 per cent were beyond the standard retirement age of 65 years. Welsh Office migration figures showed net migration into Conwy of about 4,000 in the preceding four years, one of the highest in Wales in terms of the number and as a proportion of the total population.

  53.19  On 15 January 1998 Conwy had 105 looked after children, of whom 47 were subject to full or interim care orders. Of the total of 105, 97 children were boarded out, including six placed outside the county; and the number of approved foster carers within the county was 78. There were only two children placed in a community home in Conwy: they were at Llwyn Onn, Rhos on Sea[869], which had maximum accommodation for three. Conwy, however, uses also a plan, piloted in some inner cities, under which accommodation is provided by local authorities and housing associations to enable a family or a young person to live under the supervision of a "live-in" social worker and with appropriate support. At the time when the Council's evidence was submitted in 1998 there were three such houses, each accommodating one young person. At least one of the balance of three looked after children was placed out of county with Corvedale Care in Shropshire because there was no suitable resource within Conwy.

  53.20  Conwy had inherited two residential units, Llwyn Onn and Belgrave Road[870] at Colwyn Bay, from Clwyd. However, it employed external consultants to review its residential services in 1996. As a result of the review both the former units were closed and Llwyn Onn was re-opened to fulfil the earlier function of Belgrave Road, providing semi-independent accommodation for three young persons with a staff group formed into a Leaving Care Team. The remaining part of Llwyn Onn was developed into an education unit (jointly resourced with the Education Department) providing education for six pupils who had been excluded from full time education. A joint strategic planning panel has been formed of representatives of both departments for the development of further projects as well as planning joint responses to individual cases.

  53.21  Like Anglesey, Conwy County Borough Council sets aside a contingency fund of £100,000 for out of county placements. The revenue funding in 1997/1998 was insufficient to meet the cost of such placements (we have been told of five for varying periods between 1 March 1997 and 24 March 1998), even though they are exceptional and the county policy is to keep children within or as close as possible to their own communities.

  53.22  As we have said in paragraph 53.12, Conwy is the lead authority in the joint out-of-hours emergency service. It is not involved in other joint arrangements, except the North Wales Child Protection Forum and the joint guardian ad litem service, both of which embrace all six new unitary authorities. Conwy has its own Registration and Inspection Unit with three full time and two part time Registration and Inspection Officers working under the head of the unit, who is also the Departmental Complaints Officer. There are eight lay assessors, who attend inspections, and an Advisory Panel established in line with Welsh Office guidance[871].

  53.23  Conwy decided to manage its own fostering service and formed a Family Placement Team. It consists of four qualified social workers and it has reviewed all the foster carers inherited from the former County Councils under the supervision of the Team Manager. A major recruitment campaign has also been undertaken. The Fostering and Adoption Panels are presided over by the Service Manager and include some councillors and a representative of a voluntary organisation. Recommendations for approval of foster carers are made to the Director, who is responsible for the decision.

  53.24  Members of the Social Services Committee resolved in April 1997 that members of the Children's Sub-committee should take the lead in visiting children's residential facilities on a monthly basis, but without excluding other members of the committee from doing so, if they wished. Seminar training is given to members, who are provided with a pro forma for visits, which are monitored. The focus is on the quality of the residential provision and an annual report to the Social Services Committee, based on members' returns, is prepared. As a back up to this, a senior manager visits the establishments monthly and completes the statutory checks.

Gwynedd

  53.25  The Social Services Committee is one of six service committees. The Council's committee structure includes also five corporate committees, three Area Committees and four boards responsible respectively for particular services such as civil engineering and environmental services. There is no Children's Sub-Committee (three statutory panels of marginal relevance report to the Social Services Committee). The Area Committees are responsible for areas co-terminous with the old district boundaries of Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionydd. In relation to Social Services the functions delegated to Area Committees are:

(a)  monitoring the standards of service delivery;

(b)  identifying and examining local service needs for the area;

(c)  examining the scheme for care in the community;

(d)  considering any inspection reports with particular regard to the area; and

(e)  making appropriate recommendations to the Social Services Committee in the light of (a) to (d).

  53.26  The Departmental Management Team is the principal planning group and is comprised of the Director, his Executive Officer, three Area Directors, the Head of the Policy Unit and the Finance Manager. It is the Area Director for Arfon who has the lead responsibility for children's services. Initially, there were only two Children's Services Managers provided for in the management structure but Adrianne Jones drew attention to the potential weakness of this provision and there are now four such managers. One has responsibility for operational management in Arfon; another has the same responsibility for the two other areas; the third is responsible for the operational management of Cartref Bontnewydd as a community home and also, by agreement with Anglesey, for Queens Park (she is also responsible for policy and development for children looked after); and the fourth is responsible for policy and development in the field of child protection and family support. Four additional full time social workers and three administrators (two part time) have been appointed in response to Adrianne Jones' recommendations.

  53.27  According to the figures presented to the Tribunal by the Director of Social Services, the social services budget for Gwynedd was increased by £2,447K in 1997/1998, of which £446K was in respect of children's services, an increase of about 28 per cent in the latter. It is noteworthy, however, that the budget for children's services in 1996/1997 was one of the lowest in Wales and only just over half the Welsh average[872]. The increase in the Department's total net expenditure was due to the transfer of All Wales Strategy funds to the Revenue Support Grant. Expenditure on services for the elderly was reduced by 2.7 per cent to 47.7 per cent.

  53.28  The Registrar General has estimated that in mid 1996 24.7 per cent of Gwynedd's population were under 19 years of age and 24.5 per cent were aged over 60 years. On 15 January 1998 there were 67 children being looked after, of whom 23 were subject to full or interim care orders. The number of children being boarded out was 60, of whom nine were placed outside the county; and there were 69 approved foster carers in Gwynedd. Of the remaining seven children, five were in residential care at Cartref Bontnewydd[873], which has accommodation for seven adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years and is Gwynedd's only community home.

  53.29  Gwynedd, like Anglesey, had no out of county placements in residential care between 1 April 1996 and 31 March 1998. However, it too has established a contingency fund of £150,000 for the purpose and has increased the annual budget provision to £50,000.

  53.30  Gwynedd's joint agency arrangements are those outlined in paragraphs 53.11 and 53.12 in the section of this chapter on Anglesey. It has Fostering and Adoption Panels chaired by the Children's Services Manager and the Area Director for Arfon respectively. The joint inspection unit has been operative since 1 September 1997: in effect, it is the Gwynedd Inspection Unit that undertakes the role of inspection unit on behalf of Anglesey. It comprises a Head of Unit, three inspectors, a review officer, an administrator and a clerk. Gwynedd has also appointed ten lay assessors to accompany the inspectors during the formal annual inspections of residential homes for the elderly and for children.

  53.31  The Director of Social Services said in his written evidence to the Tribunal that his Department recognises the vital role of elected members as "responsible parents" for children in the authority's care. The provision of information to members is being enhanced progressively and has been facilitated by the formation of local children's service groups from April 1997. The Arfon Area Director has formulated guidelines for members on their role and responsibilities as visitors to residential homes, which were approved in June 1997. Seminars for members have also been arranged.

  53.32  Cartref Bontnewydd is visited regularly by the Arfon Area Director (bi-monthly) and the senior Children's Services Manager.

Denbighshire

  53.33  The Social Services Committee, one of five service committees, has 28 members. It has established 12 panels, eight of which relate to children. There is also a Children and Families Sub-Committee of 12 members, the minutes of which go to the Social Services Committee and thence to the full Council for confirmation. Inspection reports on children's homes go to this Sub-Committee.

  53.34  The Social Services Directorate is one of six directorates (the other five combine several related functions). The designated senior manager of services for children is the Head of Client Services, who is a member of the Departmental Management Team (with the Director, the Head of Strategic Planning and Support Services and all Services Managers), which meets every three weeks.

  53.35  Under the Head of Client Services, are five managers, one of whom is the Children's Services Manager, who in turn is responsible for five units or teams as well as the two residential units and a finance officer. Two units are concerned with child protection, there are two child care teams and, finally, a resources team.

  53.36  In response to the Adrianne Jones report, Denbighshire has established a Child Care Planning and Operations Management Group, chaired by the Head of Client Services, the main functions of which include identification of the need for revised policies and procedures, monitoring the implementation of key tasks identified in the Children's Services Plan and consideration of strategic issues within children's services. We have not been told the composition of this Group. There is also a separate Denbighshire Strategic Planning Forum for Children, involving senior officers from the Health Service, Education and Social Services, which meets monthly.

  53.37  The Social Services net budget for Denbighshire of £15.7m for 1996/1997 was increased by £1,270K for 1997/1998 whereas the increase in the overall budget was only £889K. The amount allocated to Children and Family Services rose from £2,187K (13.9 per cent) to £2,289K (13.5 per cent).

  53.38  Following the transfer of Llangollen Rural area to Wrexham, it was estimated that 18,900 (21.3 per cent) of the total population were under 18 years of age (26.6 per cent were over 60 years). On 15 January 1998 there were 70 looked after children in this county of whom 28 were the subject of full or interim care orders. Of the 70 children, 54 were boarded out, including one only placed outside the county; and Denbighshire had then 76 approved foster carers. Six of the other children were placed in community homes within the county, of which there are two, and six others were placed in residential care outside the county.

  53.39  The residential children's homes in Denbighshire in 1997/1998 were Medea Drive, Rhyl[874], which provides placements for two children, and 8 Llys Garmon, Llanarmon yn Ial[875], which accommodates four children of the same family. We were told that it was intended to rehabilitate the latter four children with a member of their family and to replace the two residential units during 1998/1999 by a more flexible single unit provided by NCH Action for Children with accommodation for a maximum of four children.

  53.40  The out of county placements by Denbighshire were almost wholly in North Wales. One boy was with Corvedale Care in Shropshire, following the breakdown of foster placements, but four were at private establishments in the Wrexham area[876] and one at Ynys Fechan Hall[877]. The county does not have a contingency fund for such placements and finances them out of revenue.

  53.41  The North East Wales Registration and Inspection Unit, which serves Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham under a formal service delivery contract, was set up in April 1996; and it is accountable to a joint management board comprising of the Chairman of the Social Services Committee and the Director of Social Services for each of the three counties. The Head of the Unit is line managed by the Director for Denbighshire, who provides managerial support. The former was responsible in his previous appointment for the inspection of children's homes and his team includes an inspector responsible for children's services, who is responsible to a senior inspector with wide experience of children's services. The Unit has a team of lay assessors and a joint advisory panel; and the Head of Unit presents an annual report to each Social Services Committee. An independent auditor appointed by the three Chief Executives audits the work of the Unit. The same standards are applied to local authority, private and voluntary homes. The county also participates in the North Wales Child Protection Forum and the guardian ad litem service for all six authorities.

  53.42  Denbighshire has its own Adoption and Fostering Panel, which decides whether an applicant is suitable. The Panel includes three elected members. Final approval is given by the Director of Social Services. A programme of post approval training is offered to foster carers.

  53.43  Members of the Social Services Committee undertake rota visits. A progress report on these visits was presented on 1 April 1997, following which a number of improvements were introduced. The Children's Society was commissioned to review these visits from the perspective of children and young people and further improvements followed. A seminar with elected members, led by the Children's Society, to focus on children's rights issues has been arranged.

Flintshire

  53.44  The Social Services Committee, with 36 members, is one of 13 Council Committees. There is no sub-committee structure: the policy is "to appoint ad hoc or standing consultative bodies of varying membership to permit wide consultation into the policy formulation and services delivery" of each committee. One such body is the County Task Group for Children and Young People. There are also an Early Years Forum (planning service delivery to children aged under five years) and three panels, two of which are appeals panels.

  53.45  The Director of Social Services applied for early retirement in July 1997, only 15 months after the Department had taken over its responsibilities, and this was approved with effect from 30 November 1997. At the time when the Tribunal's hearings were concluded no suitable replacement had been found and the Senior Assistant Director was continuing to perform the duties of the Director.

  53.46  The designated senior manager of children's services is the Assistant Director (Children's Services), who is one of only two Assistant Directors immediately under the Director. The other is the Senior Assistant Director, who is responsible for Adult and Corporate Services. Under the Assistant Director (Children's Services) the structure provides for two managers and a co-ordinator, responsible respectively for Children's Social Work (field social work services), Children's Planning and Support Services (including Adoption and Fostering and Residential Services) and Child Protection. It is perturbing to record that, when the Council's evidence was presented to the Tribunal none of these three posts was filled: one was to be advertised early in 1998 and two were to be re-advertised. The post of Team Manager (Adoption and Fostering) was also vacant.

  53.47  The Directorate Management Team, which meets weekly, comprises the Director, the two Assistant Directors, three operational service managers and five senior managers from finance, planning and corporate services. There are also monthly meetings of all Directorate managers.

  53.48  The Social Services net budget for 1996/1997, after reductions as the result of a mid-year review, was £17,977K (a reduction of £292K). Of this amount £2,541K (14.1 per cent) was allocated to children's services, excluding components of the Community Care and the All Wales Strategy budgets. The Social Services budget was increased by £653K for 1997/1998 and the allocation for children's services by £69K, reducing the percentage to 12.65. The comparison in percentage terms is distorted, however, by a change in the treatment of a special grant provision for mental handicap and illness, which gave rise to an apparent rise of £1.51 million in the allocation for learning disability. We were told that 36.3 per cent of the children's services net budget for 1996/1997 was used to support children accommodated away from their home in foster care or residential care.

  53.49  According to mid 1996 estimates, 23.2 per cent of Flintshire's population were then under the age of 17 years and only 14.7 per cent were aged over 65 years. On 15 January 1998 91 children were being looked after, of whom 59 were the subject of full or interim care orders. It is difficult to reconcile the various figures put forward in the Council's evidence[878] but we were told that, on 15 January 1998, 83 of these children were fostered within the county and the other eight fostered outside the county.

  53.50  Flintshire has no "traditional" residential homes for children but it does provide respite care and family support in three units, namely:

(1)  Cornel Clyd, Connah's Quay, for children with substantial disabilities, which can accommodate three children;

(2)  Clivedon Road, Connah's Quay, for difficult to manage young persons, with accommodation for two;

(3)  New Parade, Greenfield, for one child at a time preparing for alternative family care.

The county's written evidence stated that 34 children received a respite/shared care service under Flintshire Family Link Scheme for children with a disability and three children with emotional and behavioural difficulty were the subjects of shared care packages with their families.

  53.51  Flintshire has entered into a service level agreement with NCH Action for Children for the provision of residential services at these three homes from about 1 April 1998.

  53.52  There is still a need for out of county placements for some of the children looked after and we have been supplied with a list of out of county placements by Flintshire in 1997 and 1998, supplementing the list of five such placements in their written statement[879]. It appears that three children were placed with their extended families in Cheshire and Liverpool and four children of one family were placed with or by the North West Foster Care Association in Oldham. At least six other children were placed in private residential homes in Cheshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire; and one 15 year old child was placed in secure accommodation in County Durham.

  53.53  We were not informed of any contingency fund set aside by Flintshire to fund out of county placements.

  53.54  Flintshire participates in the North East Wales Registration and Inspection Unit with Denbighshire and Wrexham[880] and the North Wales Child Protection Forum and the guardian ad litem service with all five other authorities. Like Denbighshire, it has its own Fostering and Adoption Panel, which receives all applications and makes recommendations to the Director of Social Services. The Department's adoption agency operates independently of the county's family placement service and is staffed by 15 social workers.

  53.55  Six seminars were organised for members of the Social Services Committee covering all aspects of the Department's activities and we are told that 36 reports on child care matters had been presented to the Committee by the date[881] when the Council's evidence was submitted. Members of the Committee undertake monthly visits to the three homes listed in paragraph 53.50. Following a decision made on 3 December 1996, a pool of 12 elected members has been established to undertake visits to all of the Council's residential and day care facilities; and a training programme was provided for them in June 1997.

Wrexham

  53.56  The Council has a structure of nine committees and the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee has five sub-committees. The Chairman of the Social Services Committee is Councillor Malcolm King, the former Chairman of Clwyd's Social Services Committee.

  53.57  The Director of Personal Services (one of five Directors) is responsible for two Departments, namely, (a) Social Services and (b) Housing and Building Maintenance, each with its own Chief Officer. The Director of Personal Services, however, has the statutory role of Director of Social Services. The Director, the two Chief Officers and the Resources Manager meet weekly as a Directorate Management Team. The Resources Group provides development and support services and a Planning and Development Team, which includes two posts specialising in children's services.

  53.58  The Chief Social Services Officer has a Social Services Management Team comprising four Senior Managers, including the Senior Manager (Children and Family Services) and the Performance Review Officer. The Senior Manager (Children and Family Services) took up her appointment as the senior children's officer on 5 January 1998.

  53.59  Delivery of social services has now been planned on the basis of three localities, Wrexham Town, Wrexham North and Wrexham South, each with a "Locality Team". However, the structure depicted in the Council's evidence[882] shows four Team Managers, the Child Protection Co-ordinator and the Reviewing Officer directly under the Senior Manager (Children and Family Services) and responsible to her. One of these Team Managers is responsible for children looked after, residential care, fostering, adoption and leaving care.

  53.60  The Social Services net budget for 1996/1997 was £19,422K, which rose to £21,893K (20.83 per cent of the net total) in 1997/1998, but the increase was accounted for by changes in the treatment of Government grants. The Council had to absorb substantial cuts in both years and the savings found in social services were £585K in 1996/1997 and £1,068K in 1997/1998. Wrexham did not supply us with a breakdown of Social Services expenditure in these two years but it appears that 19.8 per cent was allocated to children and families in 1996/1997. The Council stated that a specific provision of £100K was made in 1997/1998 to strengthen children's services and that an additional £130K was planned for this purpose in 1998/1999.

  53.61  The population figure for Wrexham of 123,500 given in the table in paragraph 53.03 appears to be the estimated figure in 1994 rather than mid 1996 and does not include the population of 1,800 in the Llangollen Rural area, which was added to the county borough in April 1997. Of the 1994 total, 24,600 (19.9 per cent) was the estimated number of children aged under 15 years (24 per cent are now said to be under 18 years[883]) and 20,200 (16.4 per cent) were aged 65 years and upwards.

  53.62  On 15 January 1998 Wrexham had 107 looked after children of whom 47 were the subject of full or interim care orders. We were informed that on that date 73 children were placed with foster parents, including three placed outside the county borough; and 11 children were in residential care within the county borough. We were told also that four children were in residential care in England but an amended list refers to seven such children, two of whom were in a secure unit for "offending behaviour" and another at Aycliffe Young Persons Centre for the same reason. Two were at schools, which were regarded as the most suitable placement; another was undergoing drug rehabilitation; and the seventh was on remand.

  53.63  Wrexham has four residential homes for children, but one (Tan-y-Dre in Wrexham) is temporary, having been opened in November 1997 to provide care and accommodation for three young children from one family who could not be placed with foster parents at that time because of severe behavioural difficulties following the breakdown of their family. The other three are Cherry Hill[884], 15 Norfolk Road and 21 Daleside Avenue[885]. Cherry Hill can accommodate up to six young persons and the other two homes two children each. Cherry Hill is for young persons in the age range of 14 to 17 years who cannot be placed in families and whose behaviour will often be challenging. The other two homes are for children with disabilities, Norfolk Road providing long term care and Daleside Avenue short term care.

  53.64  Wrexham does not have a contingency fund to provide for out of county placements. It states, however, that "where there is a decision that a residential placement out of county best suits the needs of the individual, two or three way agreements are made between the Social Services Department, the Education Department and the Health Authority". It says also that recently a joint panel for the education of children looked after has been set up and that this will provide a formal mechanism for reaching decisions about the educational placements of children looked after. It is intended that the panel will be incorporated into a Joint Children's Services Planning Framework drawn from senior management of all the main statutory agencies and voluntary organisations, which was launched in April 1997.

  53.65  Wrexham participates in the North East Wales Registration and Inspection Unit described in paragraph 53.41. The Chief Social Services Officer has the responsibility to act in response to the Unit's recommendations but the Director of Personal Services, who is a member of the Unit's joint management board, oversees the implementation of action plans and reports to members of the Social Services Committee.

  53.66  The Council is also a member of the North Wales Regional Child Protection Forum; and the guardian ad litem service is provided jointly with the five other North Wales Councils. Revised child protection procedures have been developed jointly with Flintshire and Denbighshire.

  53.67  The recommendations of Wrexham's Adoption and Fostering Panel go to the Chief Social Services Officer, who is responsible for making all decisions in consultation with the Chairman of the Social Services Committee.

  53.68  A panel of six members of the Social Services Committee has been appointed to fulfil the statutory duty of elected members to visit the Council's children's homes. The visits are monthly and written reports on them are submitted to the Chief Social Services Officer. The Director of Personal Services meets the latter together with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Social Services Committee fortnightly and issues arising from the rota visits are discussed at these meetings. Summary reports on rota visits are presented to the Social Services Committee. Members of the Committee serve also on four members' panels dealing with such matters as appeals, representations and complaints.

Footnotes:

867   See Chapter 36.

868   See paras 40.05 to 40.07.

869   See para 4.30(11).

870   See para 4.30(24).

871   Welsh Office Circular 68/94.

872   Report of SSIW on Inspection of Child Care Procedures and Practice in North Wales, August 1998.

873   See Chapter 37.

874   See para 4.30(26).

875   See para 4.30(25).

876   Wilderness Mill Farm and Prospects: see paras 4.24 and 13.03.

877   See paras 5.10 and 5.12.

878   In paras 7.4.1 and 7.4.2 of the statement.

879   In para 7.3.3.

880   See para 53.40.

881   December 1997.

882   See para 4.6.3.

883   Report by SSIW on Inspection of Child Care Procedures and Practice in North Wales, para 9.1, issued in August 1988.

884   See para 4.30(6) and Chapter 16.

885   See para 4.30(10).

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