Shock as Cabinet Report says suitable education, jobs or training for care leavers is not a priority

Councillors were shocked today at a Council Cabinet report that showed that not only was the council under-performing in ensuring that Care leavers had suitable education, jobs or training and that initial assessments of safeguarding were not being conducted within the prescribed 10 days, but that these failing we're not considered to be priorities.

The information was in the Council's Performance Scorecard which showed that only 44% of care leavers were in suitable education, jobs or training against a target of 72%.

Likewise the report disclosed that although the council has a target of 80% of Safeguarding Initial Assessments should be completed within 10 days, the reality is that only 31.3% are.

Cllr Jon Hubbard, leader of the Liberal Democrat Group who raised the issue at the council meeting described the lack of priority status for these issues as "scandalous".

"The cabinet should be ashamed that they have not made getting this right a priority" Jon Hubbard commented. "I understand the pressures the safeguarding team have been under and there are genuine reasons that lead to the massive increase in the number of assessments that the council is having to deal with.

"It's scandalous that, although we have know of this problem for over 12 months, it is still not identified as a priority on the Conservative Cabinet's agenda.

"I urge the cabinet to radically rethink their priorities and to do the right thing and bring our young people to the top of the agenda."

Note: Paragraph 14 (page 12) of the Cabinet agenda states "Only two indicators were not on target; neither of these are priority targets". Additionally paragraph 13 (page 11) states that "there are 53 indicators being measured, of which 13 are priority indicators included as targets in the current Business Plan."