Agenda

To approve the record of the meeting held on 12 June 2024.

The Chairperson will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct. Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 4.

At the 2 March 2023 meeting it was proposed and agreed that as a result of work undertaken in partnership with the Local Government Association the Committee adopt a hybrid model moving forward.

This would be based on the assumption that meetings will last no more than three hours, with two hours focused on the theme and the remaining time on general matters that need to be reviewed by the Committee as existing ongoing business. 

Following consultation with the Director of People, Children and Adults’ Services it was agreed that this meeting would be Children’s Social Care Themed with reports on Medway Youth Justice Plan 2024-25, Adoption Partnership South East, Regional Adoption Agency Annual Report 2023/24, Annual Fostering Report 2023-2024 and Regional Care Co-Operative (RCC) and Aut Even Development Update.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998, requires Local Authorities to have a Youth Justice Plan, which is updated annually to set out how youth justice will be delivered locally within available resources.

This plan (attached at Appendix 1) is a completely new plan in line with guidance distributed to local authorities in March 2024. The Format of the plan follows guidance and headings provided by the national Youth Justice Board in the guidance mentioned, detailing best practice in the Youth Justice Plans completion.

Adoption Partnership South East is a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) providing adoption services for Medway, Kent, and the London Borough Bexley.

The fourth RAA Annual Report attached provides information and an overview of the adoption service activity and practice development for the period April 2023 – March 2024.

The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the business and operations of Medway Fostering Service during the 2023-2024 period. The report also sets out our aims and objectives for the next financial year.

This report seeks to inform the Committee of and outline Medways involvement in the Regional Care Co-operative (RCC) pilot (Southeast region) and subsequent successful DFE Capital Grant awarded to Medway Council (These are subject to Cabinet approval on 30 July 2024).

This involvement is a significant next step to developing Medway’s Sufficiency Strategy 2023-25 ‘A Place called home’ to develop a suite of in-house Children’s Homes for Medway Council.

This report presents a consultation document in the preparation of the new Medway Local Plan. The consultation document sets out proposals for potential growth across Medway and policies to manage development. The Local Plan has implications for our residents, environment and businesses. The Council is seeking to gather comments from a broad range of people and interests in helping to draft the new plan.

This report presents the results of the first round of the Council’s capital budget monitoring process for 2024/25.

This report presents the results of the first round of the Council’s revenue budget monitoring process for 2024/25. The Council’s summary position is presented in section 5, with sections 6 and 7 providing the detail for the service areas within the remit of this committee.