A major study helping to improve the lives of care leavers has been published.
The Child & Family Services Overview & Scrutiny Board has now completed its in-depth review of support to care leavers in Swansea and produced a report.
Councillors spent the last 12 months talking to various people to gain a range of views in order to understand the experience and needs of care leavers and consider the effectiveness of support from the local authority and its partners.
The Board’s report captures the main headlines from this work. Importantly, a number of recommendations are also made which the Board feel will assist in the delivery of improvements to services to care leavers.
Overall, the Board found that this was complex area of work and one that the Council has struggled with over the last few years. Personal support to care leavers is currently provided through a partnership with Barnardo’s. Whilst recognising the commitment and dedication to help care leavers the Board found some issues with the way that was working. It was clear that more effective partnership working was vital to delivering positive results for care leavers. The Board also highlighted more that could be done by the Council to help young people prepare and plan for leaving care, and the way performance and outcomes for care leavers are measured.
The report will be formally submitted to Cabinet on 5th April. Cabinet will then have to consider the report and respond to the recommendations. This work will be followed up by the Board later this year.
The full report is available here.
[…] by Brij Madahar July 10, 2012, 14:58 Cabinet has accepted all of the recommendations made by the Child & Family Services Overview & Scrutiny Board in relation to its review of support to care leavers in Swansea. […]