To receive and consider the recommendations of the Cabinet (Minute 449(b)) as an amendment to the following Notice of Motion submitted previously to the Council by Councillor Hannaford and referred thereto in accordance with Standing Order 8(2), namely;
This Council notes that:
1. Last year 780 young people (aged 16 or over) left the care of Devon County Council and began the difficult transition out of care and into adulthood.
2. A 2016 report by The Children’s Society found that when care leavers move into independent accommodation they begin to manage their own budget fully for the first time. The report showed that care leavers can find this extremely challenging and with no family to support them and insufficient financial education, are falling into debt and financial difficulty.
3. Research from The Centre for Social Justice found that over half (57%) of young people leaving care have difficulty managing their money and avoiding debt when leaving care.
4. The local authority has statutory corporate parenting responsibilities towards young people who have left care up until the age of 25.
5. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places corporate parenting responsibilities on district councils for the first time, requiring them to have regard to children in care and care leavers when carrying out their functions.
This Council believes that:
1. To ensure that the transition from care to adult life is as smooth as possible, and to mitigate the chances of care leavers falling into debt as they begin to manage their own finances, they should be exempt from paying council tax until they are 25.
2. Care leavers are a particularly vulnerable group for council tax debt.
This Council, therefore, resolves:
1. To use the county council’s convening powers and expertise in corporate parenting to work with all council tax collecting authorities to exempt all care leavers in the county from council tax up to the age of 25, sharing any arising costs proportionately.
Having had regard to the aforementioned, any factual briefing/position statement on the matter set out in Report (CSO/20/1) and other suggestions or alternatives considered at that meeting the Cabinet subsequently resolved:
(a) that Council note that in April 2020 there will be an evaluation of the first-year operation of the scheme established by the Devon Local Government Steering Group (targeted support including exceptional hardship funding and/or discretionary Council Tax write offs); and
(b) that this review establish how the Council continue to support care leavers by establishing how many care leavers have been assisted, how they have benefited, the costs to the Collection Fund and to inform a further consideration of alternative options available for the future of support for care leavers.
Minutes:
(Councillor Connett declared a personal interest in this matter by virtue of being a Member of Teignbridge District Council)
Pursuant to County Council Minute 456 of 5 December 2019 relating to the Notice of Motion set out below as previously submitted and formally moved and seconded by Councillor Hannaford that:
This Council notes that:
1. Last year 780 young people (aged 16 or over) left the care of Devon County Council and began the difficult transition out of care and into adulthood.
2. A 2016 report by The Children’s Society found that when care leavers move into independent accommodation they begin to manage their own budget fully for the first time. The report showed that care leavers can find this extremely challenging and with no family to support them and insufficient financial education, are falling into debt and financial difficulty.
3. Research from The Centre for Social Justice found that over half (57%) of young people leaving care have difficulty managing their money and avoiding debt when leaving care.
4. The local authority has statutory corporate parenting responsibilities towards young people who have left care up until the age of 25.
5. The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places corporate parenting responsibilities on district councils for the first time, requiring them to have regard to children in care and care leavers when carrying out their functions.
This Council believes that:
1. To ensure that the transition from care to adult life is as smooth as possible, and to mitigate the chances of care leavers falling into debt as they begin to manage their own finances, they should be exempt from paying council tax until they are 25.
2. Care leavers are a particularly vulnerable group for council tax debt.
This Council, therefore, resolves:
1. To use the county council’s convening powers and expertise in corporate parenting to work with all council tax collecting authorities to exempt all care leavers in the county from council tax up to the age of 25, sharing any arising costs proportionately.
and having had regard to the advice of the Cabinet set out in Minute 449(b) of 15 January 2020:
Councillor Hart MOVED and Councillor McInnes SECONDED that the Cabinet’s advice be accepted and that whilst the Notice of Motion is welcomed, it be amended as follows;
(a) Council note that in April 2020 there will be an evaluation of the first-year operation of the scheme established by the Devon Local Government Steering Group (targeted support including exceptional hardship funding and/or discretionary Council Tax write offs); and
(b) that this review establish how the Council continue to support care leavers by establishing how many care leavers have been assisted, how they have benefited, the costs to the Collection Fund and to inform a further consideration of alternative options available for the future of support for care leavers.
The amendment in the name of Councillor Hart was then put to the vote and declared CARRIED and subsequently thereafter also CARRIED as the substantive motion.