Councillor Jemima Laing introduced the motion for Plymouth City Council to treat Care Experience as if it were a Protected Characteristic, which was seconded by Councillor Dylan Tippetts.

Following a discussion with contributions from Councillors Carlyle, Cresswell, Harrison, Finn, Patel, Reilly and Smith, The Council agreed to:-

1.    Recognise-

                      i.        Every elected member and employee of the Council was a corporate parent to the children and care leavers in their care;

                     ii.        Councillors were all responsible for providing the best possible care, safeguarding and outcomes for the children who are looked after by then;

                    iii.        That Councils had a duty to put the needs of vulnerable people at the heart of decision-making through co-production and collaboration;

2.    Note

                      i.        A UCL study which showed 70% of care experienced people die early, over 50% of people who are in custody up to the age of 21 have been in care (Become Charity) and a quarter of the homeless population is care experienced (The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care);

                     ii.        That the Government commissioned an independent national review of children’s social care, chaired by Josh MacAlister, and one recommendation was to look at making care experience an additional protected characteristic; another was that all public bodies become corporate parents;

                    iii.        That the Government had not responded to the independent review.

3.    Believe

                      i.        Their children in care and those who have left care have the right to expect everything from a corporate parent that would be expected from a good and responsible parent. This includes how families continue their support, care, and ambition for their children after they leave home and gain independence including through employment opportunities;

                     ii.        That the authority had already taken important steps to support care experienced children and care leavers better such as the work on the Care Leavers’ Covenant but they can always do more;

                    iii.        That they could not wait until the government decided which recommendations to implement and therefore, here in Plymouth, they should act to be the best corporate parents they could be;

                    iv.        That when making any decisions in relation to policies or formulating the Corporate Plan that they should recognise care experienced people as a vulnerable group who face discrimination;

                     v.        That whilst they could not change national legislation, they could use their powers to ensure that the Council consider care experienced people as part of its decision making in order to seek to prevent discrimination and improve life chances, in doing this. This will mean that they’d treat people with care experience the same as those with a protected characteristic.

4.    And therefore resolved:

                      i.        That the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer ensure that all council making decision documentation had in it appropriate sections to allow for the impact upon ‘care experienced people’ to be considered in decision making, where relevant and that:

a. Officers considered how information might be captured and reported upon in a similar way to that of the Public Sector Equality Duty Annual report;

b.Any publication of information relating to people who share a Protected Characteristic also included ‘care experienced people’;

                     ii.        To proactively seek out and listen to the voices of care experienced people of all ages when developing new Council policies and plans and, where possible, those where the Council produces them in partnership with others;

                    iii.        To request that the Chief Executive, as Head of Paid Service, explore with the Director of HR how the Council could seek to guarantee all care experienced persons an interview where they meet the essential criteria of the post applied for;

                    iv.        That the Cabinet Member for Education, Skills, Children and Young People writes to all public bodies represented in the City, the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses in Plymouth to make them aware of this motion and, where possible and within available resources, offer training on corporate parenting and issues facing care experienced people and to work with partners and care experienced population to understand what corporate parenting means for them;

                     v.        That the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Homes and Communities writes to Plymouth’s MPs making them aware of this motion and asks them to press government to amend the law to include Care Experienced persons as a Protected Characteristic and for the extension of Corporate Parenting to all public bodies, following the recommendations of the MacAlister Report;

                    vi.        That the Chief Executive, Assistant Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer attend the first Corporate Parenting Committee meeting in the next municipal year to report on the actions taken as a result of this motion on notice.

For (49)

Councillors Allen, Mrs Aspinall, Briars-Delve, Mrs Bridgeman, Carlyle, Churchill, Coker, Dr Cree, Cresswell, Dann, Darcy, Drean, Evans OBE, Finn, Goslin, Harrison, Haydon, Hendy, Holloway, Hulme, Laing, Mrs Loveridge, Lowry, Lugger, Dr Mahony, McDonald, McLay, Murphy, Nicholson, Noble, Partridge, Patel, Penberthy, Pengelly, Poyser, Reilly, Rennie, Riley, Salmon, Shayer, Singh, Smith, Stevens, Stoneman, Tippetts, Tuffin, Tuohy, Wakeham, Ms Watkin and Wheeler.

Abstain (0)

Against (0)

Absent/Did Not Vote (1)

Councillor Nicholson.