The Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday 5 November 2026 to consider updates on Family and Youth Hubs, the performance of GCC's Children's Homes, and the Annual Safeguarding Report. The committee will also review its work plan and discuss future meeting dates.

Family and Youth Hubs

The committee is scheduled to receive a progress update on Family and Youth Hubs and hear from providers about areas of development. The report pack indicates that this discussion will cover the assurance position for commissioned Children and Family Centres, Family Hubs, and Youth Hubs, highlighting strengths in community delivery and areas requiring continued improvement. Key areas of focus include targeted family support timeliness, waiting list oversight, workforce capacity, safeguarding, and practice assurance. For Youth Hubs, the report will detail delivery activity, Return Home Interview performance, targeted support, and outreach across the county.

GCC's Children's Homes

An update on the performance of Gloucestershire County Council's (GCC) own children's homes is scheduled for discussion. The report outlines the current position of Barnwood House, Kingsholm House, and Robinswood House, including occupancy, quality of care, children's experiences, workforce, and leadership. It notes that while there is evidence of good practice and positive outcomes for children, areas requiring further improvement have been identified, such as safeguarding practice, management oversight, and workforce stability. The report also details the progress of Hartwood House, a short-break home for disabled children, and the development of Southfields House, a supported accommodation facility, alongside the supported lodgings scheme.

Annual Safeguarding Report

The committee is scheduled to consider the Annual Safeguarding Report from the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership (GSCP). This report details the GSCP's activity and achievements during the financial year April 2025 to March 2026. It aims to provide assurance on the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements, highlighting multi-agency priorities, learning and impact, and evidence of improvement. The report covers strategic priorities such as child sexual abuse, harm outside the home, proportionate intervention, and the voice of the child. It also details learning from reviews and audits, workforce development, and safeguarding in education.

Work Plan

The committee will review its work plan and consider suggestions for future scrutiny items. The agenda indicates that members will be asked to consider the reasons for and expected benefit of scrutiny's involvement when making suggestions, and to assess whether scrutiny can add value to proposed topics. The report pack includes a prioritisation table to help guide members in selecting items for the work programme, considering factors such as alignment with council priorities, areas of poor performance or high spend, and public interest.

Future Meetings

The dates for future meetings of the committee are scheduled to be noted. These are planned for 14 January 2027, 11 March 2027, 27 May 2027, 15 July 2027, 9 September 2027, and 11 November 2027.

Exempt Session

The committee is scheduled to consider items in an exempt session, which means the press and public may be excluded from the meeting. This is due to the likelihood of disclosure of exempt information, where the public interest in withholding the information is considered to outweigh the public interest in disclosing it. The agenda indicates two such items: a private briefing on the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children's Partnership local learning reviews, rapid reviews, and Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, and a private briefing on the contract management of a provider.