Corporate Parenting Board for Highland's children and young people

23rd March 2018

A Corporate Parenting Board is to be established which will have a duty of care for currently around 500 ‘Looked After' children and young people in Highland.

Members of the Highland Community Planning Partnership’s, Community Planning Board have this week (21 March 2018) agreed to establish a Corporate Parenting Board the purpose of which will be to:

• promote the corporate parenting role of statutory agencies and awareness of the duties towards care experienced young people in Highland.

• consider matters brought forward by the CHAMPS board and assist with a related action plan.

• take forward the Care Leavers’ Covenant and support the Corporate Parenting plans of statutory agencies.

The new Board membership will comprise elected members, senior officers of relevant agencies, care experienced young people and representatives from key relevant Third Sector agencies.

David Alston, Chair of the Community Planning Board said: "The Corporate Parenting Board will report to the Community Planning Board so that we can make sure that we are meeting the needs of those children and young people in Highland for whom we have responsibility as corporate parents."

Bill Alexander, Highland Council’s Director of Care, Learning and Housing said: “The Community Planning Board has always been a very good corporate parent. One of the successes has been the establishment of the CHAMPS Board which has achieved many successes through its young person led structure. In discussion with the CHAMPS Board it will become a less informal structure supporting young people’s interests and a more formal structure in the form of the new Corporate Parenting Board will be formulated.”

The new Corporate Parenting Board’s will be responsible for:

• maintaining a strategic overview of developments, plans, polices and strategies for care experienced young people and make appropriate recommendations for action.

• ensuring there are good working arrangements between services and agencies in support of the plans and strategies.

• providing a forum for care experienced young people to influence policy and to share their experiences of services they’ve received.

• promoting the Corporate Parenting role and responsibilities across all relevant bodies in Highland.