Royal Borough of Greenwich: Corporate parenting partnership

Greenwich Council and its partners wanted to embrace corporate parenting principles alongside their relentless drive to achieve excellence for every child together.

An ambitious, co-produced corporate parenting partnership strategy has been implemented by a dynamic CP partnership board. Children and young people, being a driving force, co-chair the board with the leader of the council with them taking part and leading the debates which impact their lives. 

The CP Partnership Board consists of elected members and senior decision makers from across the council’s directorates, such as Housing and Safer Communities, Regeneration and Environment, Finance and Legal Services, Children’s Services, Health and Adults Social Care, as well as partners from the local Integrated Care Board (ICB), NHS and Health Providers, Probation, Education, foster carers and Community and Voluntary Sector. The Board has three multi-agency action groups (Education Employment and Training; Health and Well-being; Independence and Resilience). Each group is chaired by a director from either the Council or its partners and young people are an integral part of the groups. 

Greenwich’s collaborative and compassionate approach has had a positive impact in improving support and the lived experience of children in our care and care leavers. Locally, we have achieved:  

• Led by young people, the council unanimously agreed to treat care experience as a protected characteristic.
• A strengthened housing offer for care leavers.
• Expanding mental health support for care leavers locally, including establishing a co-located mental health team, jointly with our local Integrated Care Board (ICB), to support the mental health needs of care leavers who do not meet high thresholds for adults’ mental health services.
• A ‘network for life coordinator’, funded by Public Health, works with care leavers to strengthen their relationships and personal support networks. 
• Greenwich Virtual School provides a mentoring service for children in care and care leavers, funded by the Department for Education. 
• An increase in the number of care leavers in education, employment and training including those in apprenticeships.
• The number of children in local foster placements has increased with a consistent level of stability.

Quarterly  the CP partnership board is overseeing the partnership action plan. The board and sub-group chairs meet regularly to reflect on the progress of the plan. The board reports to the council’s CYP scrutiny meeting. Additionally, a workshop is organised to bring all partners together to reflect on the past year with a focus on planning for the year ahead.