Pembrokeshire council has the highest number of children in its care that it has ever had as a formal strategy to reduce the numbers is presented for scrutiny.

Head of children’s services Darren Mutter said that there are currently 222 Looked After Children (LAC) under local authority care, and increase from 184 the same time last year and 153 in 2017.

He presented a formal three-year strategy to reduce the number of LAC with a focus on family work, prevention and return to home, to members of the Pembrokeshire County Council social care overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday (March 23).

Questions were asked about private and council foster carer assessments, poverty, and out of county placements costs.

Reducing the number of LAC was important because being in care have lower outcomes compared to other children, “that’s got to be front and centre in our work in children’s services,” said Mr. Mutter, adding that reducing poverty was also key with Pembrokeshire having the highest level of child poverty in Wales.

“We need to do something about that, there are children going hungry in Pembrokeshire and we should all pause for reflection on that,” he said.

“Demand on food banks has increased exponentially everywhere, including Pembrokeshire. Any strategy has to include a central theme to address poverty – the impact and the causes. It’s not enough to paper over the cracks, we also have to look at the issues that cause poverty.”

The strategy includes recruiting and retaining more foster carers – with a national campaign due to launch in May – development of a regional option for specialist accommodation to reduce the number of children sent out of county, and the huge costs associated with this, partnership working across departments and a focus on “strong corporate parents.”

Early intervention and prevention before a child is removed from their home is key to the plan, with Mr Mutter saying during lockdown this aspect of the work had been reduced, with young people “presenting higher up the tariff” currently and requiring more care.

“There’s always been an understanding that prevention is better than cure and this is a written strategy, a definite plan,” he added.