Children in care

23

WQ.60/2019

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 29th JANUARY 2019

Question

Will the Minister state how many children in the care of his department (or who have left its care in the last 10 years) are being housed in accommodation other than their family home; will he further state the cost of that accommodation; and will he explain to members what issues, particularly mental health issues, are experienced by such children and what support they consequently receive from his department?

Answer

Mosaic (the electronic care record system in Children's Services) was implemented in November 2017, and since that time 155 individuals have been looked after or recorded as a Care Leaver. Of this cohort, 20 are known to be accessing support from CAMHS, 7 are supported by Adult Social Care, 12 receive Speech and Language Therapy, 5 are open to Occupational Therapy, and 6 are supported by a CAMHS Alcohol and Drug Worker. We are unable to give further information on the nature of the support required as this would risk disclosing identifiable information.

A number of individuals in the cohort receive support from the following community services, but numbers are too low to disclose: Alcohol & Drug (adult service), Learning Disability Service, Positive Behaviour Support, and Adult Mental Health.

Multi-agency transition support into adult services is available for those who wish to access such support, for example, if they have continuing mental health challenges or are experiencing social isolation, anxiety or depression.

Analysis of the full list of individuals who left care over the last 10 years is not possible as sophisticated recording systems were not in place prior to implementing Mosaic, and this would therefore require an extensive examination of manual records.  

In 2018, the number of children in care housed in accommodation other than their family home, and the costs are: