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Welcome From Mark Lines
I just wanted to use this opportunity to introduce myself as
the new Head of Children’s Social Care.
I started on 8th May and have had a hectic first
week of briefings and meetings. I'm now in the midst of planning so that
I can get out and about into the teams and learn more about Devon and our
unique challenges over the coming weeks.
I will be particularly interested in finding out more about
children and young people’s journeys through care, and about how we support and
develop carers, to ensure we achieve the best we can for every one of our young
people.
Mark Lines
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CHILDREN’S SERVICES REVIEW
Senior Management have asked a
team of ex Ofsted Inspectors to undertake a service review to test the progress
made in Children’s Services so far and make sure we are focusing on the right
areas for further improvement going forward.
The service review team will be
arriving in Devon next Monday 22nd May and will be spending time
with teams across Devon during the week. They will be tracking the cases they
selected for the case audit through meetings with workers for the cases and
their managers and will also be sampling other cases from across the County and
our teams. It is possible that when they are tracking cases they may wish to
speak with staff and carers within Fostering Devon.
A timetable is being developed
for the reviewers, and I would ask that you please make yourself available to
meet with the reviewers if needed and it is likely we will not have much
flexibility in their schedule for the week.
In addition, the review team
will be conducting a number of focus groups to understand our practice and the
wider context in Devon. Many thanks for your cooperation in advance.
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Fostering Service Meetings
We would like to invite all Foster
Carers to one of 3 fostering service meetings to discuss a number of topics
which are relevant to service development.
The 2 topics that we plan to
cover are Service Redesign and Criteria for Tier 3 Payments.
We want to use this time to
inform carers of the changes taking place in the structure of the fostering
service.
We also sent out to you, in
the newsletter of 7th April, about the criteria for tier 3 payments
and we would like to discuss this with you together with other potential
changes in respect of Foster Carer allowances.
The dates and venues are as
follows -
Monday 5th June 11am
- 2pm Newcourt Community Centre, Exeter.
Wednesday 14th
June 10am – 1pm Follaton House, Totnes.
North & Mid Devon TBC
Please can you confirm your
attendance by email to -
childsc.fosteringoperationsmanager-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
Stating which area and date
you will be attending, we will endeavour to get the North & Mid Devon date and
venue out as soon as we can.
STAND UP SPEAK UP
We need to ensure that all carers know about Devon’s
participation website which gives valuable information for looked after
children.
The website contains a whole host of information which
is relevant to looked after children. Please can you ensure that as a carer you
visit the website to familiarise yourself of its content and promote this for
your looked after children.
https://www.standupspeakup.org.uk
In partnership with care experienced children
and young people in Devon the participation team have developed this website to
help provide looked after children with the information, advice and guidance
that looked after children may want and need. The site has also been designed
to give looked after children a chance to tell the participation team what they
think about what’s important to them and how well we at Devon County Council
are doing. It will also be a way for looked after children to hear how what
they are saying is making a difference, how they are listening to them and what
they are doing about the issues raised.
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Training Courses Dates
Training Courses up until December - Click Here
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Fostering
Devon Key Contacts
Strategy
Group Members
Peer
Guides
Devon Duty
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