Issue - meetings

Background:

This report provided details of the annual refresh of the statutory Sufficiency Report. This detailed how the Council, through working with all its partner agencies, would meet the placement needs of current and future Children in Care and Care Leavers and improve their outcomes, in light of the Council’s understanding of their needs and the current provision.

The report marked an interim year as Medway mobilised and embedded initiatives needed, as a matter of urgency, to address the pressures created by the highest number of children in care Medway had seen. The work being undertaken would set the benchmark for the five-year improvement plan and the report set out high level outcomes for the service.

The Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the report on 7 January 2021 and its comments were set out at section 4 of the report

Reasons:

Publication of the updated Sufficiency Report will enable the Council to fulfil its statutory requirement to take steps to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation for Children in Care within the local area and will enable Medway to act strategically to address gaps in provision and meet the demand.