Consultation Hub

In West Sussex, we want to make sure that children who are looked after and care leavers get the best possible support and help when they need it. We have been working on putting together a new strategy which sets out how we are going to do this. We wanted to know what you thought of our strategy.   Your views are important to us as we want to make this the best strategy we can create – one that has the greatest impact   on making young people in care and care leavers lives the best they can be.

We were very grateful for your responses to our consultation.

100% of people that responded were  children looked after

100% of people who responded to the consultation said they strongly agreed or agreed with the principles outlined in the proposed strategy.

50% of people who responded to the consultation said they felt there was nothing that needed adding to the strategy, while 50% said they were unsure.

We also spoke to young people from the Children in Care Council to gather their views on the strategy.

100% of them agreed with the seven priorities set out in the plan. They also gave feedback on areas they felt were missing in the plan.

We’ll listened to your views and consider these when we create the final version of the strategy. This has now been passed to the Corporate Parenting Panel

In West Sussex, we want to make sure that children who are looked after and care leavers get the best possible support and help when they need it. We have been working on putting together a new strategy which sets out how we are going to do this. We wanted to know what you thought of our strategy.   Your views are important to us as we want to make this the best strategy we can create – one that has the greatest impact   on making young people in care and care leavers lives the best they can be.

We had a great response to our survey.

82% of people that responded were either a professional working with young people in care and care leavers or a foster carer or family friend of children in care and care leavers. We know that you have a lot of experience and knowledge in what doing the best means for our children.

94% of people who responded to the consultation said they strongly agreed or agreed with the principles outlined in the proposed strategy.

98% of people who responded to the consultation said they strongly agreed or agreed with the seven priorities set out in the draft plan.

63% of people who responded to the consultation said they strongly agreed or agreed with the with the statement "The strategic priorities outlined can be met where relevant by my team, service or

partner agency"

63% of people who responded to the consultation gave a rating of 5 or 4, (where 1 represents 'not at all confident' and 5 represents 'extremely confident), in relation to how confident they were that they were able to help implement and achieve the West Sussex’s commitments to improvement where relevant to their professional role.

We specifically noted that you had mentioned the following areas in your responses:

You wanted the service to be more explicit in how we will ensure children and young people are placed closer to their homes and communities.

Children and young people keep the same social worker

More emphasis on education

Young people learn independent skills earlier

We did:

We’ll listened to your views and consider these when we create the final version of the strategy. This has now been passed to the Corporate Parenting Panel

• Incorporated your feedback into the service plans where appropriate
• Moved the structure of the service from early help to children social care
• Brought in a worker who will focus on improving our work with our partners particularly Health, Education and Housing

We asked for your views on proposals to change the character at The Forest School, Horsham from a single sex boys school to a co-educational school with effect from Septmeber 2021.

A total of 638 responses were received in response to the consultation for The Forest School,  Horsham.

No responses were received after the closing date of 29 June 2020.  The responses showed 69% of respondents supported the proposals, 26% were against and 5% were uncertain.  Many of those in favour referred to the high quality pastoral care available at The Forest School also benefiting girls; a belief that boys will develop and improve better in co-educational schools and that co-educational provision better reflects modern society and is beneficial for both educational and social reasons.  Those against commented that there are already two other co-educational schools in Horsham and so a boys only school was needed, uncertainty about how it would work if Millais remained a single-sex girls’ school and a belief there was a place for both co-educational and single sex schools.

In July 2020 the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills took a decision to approve the conversion of The Forest School, Horsham to become a co-educational school with effect from September 2021.  (decision reference ES5(20/21)).

In accordance with Department for Education guidelines, the County Council published statutory notices for the required four week period confirming the intention to make the prescribed alteration to change the character of The Forest School, Horsham from a single sex boys’ school to co-educational school from September 2021 entry.  Following the closure of this four week period there have been no representations received on the proposals that are deemed to provide new or significant information.  In this respect no further decision by the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills is required and the proposals will be implemented as described in the previous decision ES520/21.