The Children & Families Scrutiny Committee met on 3 September 2025, and endorsed the Children's Services Improvement and Impact Plan as the framework for improving services and achieving the Stockport Children and Young People Strategy 2024–2027. The committee also reviewed updates on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Stockport, and considered the Scrutiny Work Programme for the coming year.

Children's Services Improvement and Impact Plan

The committee reviewed and endorsed the refreshed Children's Services Improvement and Impact Plan, designed to elevate Stockport's children's services from its current 'requires improvement' rating by Ofsted to 'good' or better. The plan outlines specific actions to improve services for children, young people, and families, aiming for safe, effective, and ambitious outcomes. It addresses findings from the May 2025 Ofsted inspection, internal reviews, and a Local Government Association (LGA) peer review on corporate parenting from July 2025.

The plan focuses on several key areas:

• Early help
• Multi-agency safeguarding and support hub (MASSH) timeliness and risk identification
• Response to significant harm
• Response to neglect and domestic abuse
• Support for homeless 16 and 17-year-olds
• Private fostering assessments
• Support for children with disabilities
• Quality of child protection and care plans
• Timeliness of decisions for children entering care
• Quality of direct and life story work
• Quality of visits
• Permanence planning
• Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs)
• Corporate parenting governance
• Reunification strategy
• Transition planning
• Accommodation for care leavers
• Support for vulnerable care leavers
• Management oversight
• Quality of supervision
• Workforce development
• Participation
• Demand reduction
• Culture

The plan includes actions, leads, and timelines for delivery, with progress and impact monitored by the Continuous Improvement and Impact Board. The committee agreed to support ongoing oversight through regular monitoring and reporting to the board and scrutiny committees.

Spotlight reports were included in the plan to highlight progress in key areas:

• MASSH Timeliness: Implementation of a new Early Help Module (EHM) dashboard and revised timescales have improved the timeliness of responses. The average time to complete a contact form has decreased from 156 hours to 10 hours, and same-day contact authorisation has increased from 58% to 85%.
• Strategy Discussions and Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT): A pilot program using advance practitioners to lead strategy meetings has improved timeliness and coordination. In the pilot locality, 71% of strategy meetings were held within timescales, compared to 23% in other localities.
• Permanence Planning: A case progression manager has been appointed, and a new permanence tracker has been developed. The permanence panel, chaired by Deborah Woodcock, is meeting fortnightly to review cases.
• 16/17 Homeless Process: A working group has developed a new joint homelessness assessment, a young people's rights leaflet, and a guide for social workers. A shared tracker with housing is also being developed.

SEND Update

The committee reviewed a report providing an update on the current position and context of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Stockport. The report highlighted the continued pressure of demand on resources and the impact on families.

Key points from the report:

• National Context: The SEND system in England faces systemic challenges, including underfunding and rising demand. There are difficulties in recruiting and retaining specialist staff, such as SENCOs[^2], teaching assistants, and educational psychologists. [^2]: A Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) is a teacher or headteacher in a school or early years setting who is responsible for co-ordinating the support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
• Stockport Context: Stockport's SEND system is underfunded, with a high needs block cumulative deficit of £43 million at the end of the last financial year, expected to reach £63 million by March 2026. Stockport receives approximately £1,100 per pupil for SEND, among the lowest-funded authorities nationally.
• Demand and Timeliness: The demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) continues to increase. As of August 2025, there were 481 active assessments in progress. The average time to complete a plan is a little over 24 weeks.
• Key Stage Transfers: The council has seen improvements in meeting statutory deadlines for reviewing and amending EHCPs in advance of children transferring between key stages of education.
• Preparation for Adulthood (PFA): The council is working with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) to produce a focused strategy and plan for PFA, with priorities including employment, independent living, community inclusion, and health.
• Inspection Preparation: Stockport is in the window for its next SEND inspection under the new framework introduced in January 2025. The Stockport SEND partnership has undertaken a self-evaluation against the inspection criteria.

The committee noted the continued pressure on resources, improvement activity, positive progress to date, and the position relating to SEND inspection preparation and possible outcomes.

Scrutiny Work Programme

The committee considered the Scrutiny Work Programme for the upcoming municipal year. The committee were asked to identify any reports/updates they would wish to receive in the forthcoming municipal year so that they can be appropriately programmed.

The following items were suggested for inclusion:

• 'Falling Rolls'
• Updated School Assets Management Plan
• Drug and Alcohol Abuse in the borough and hospital information
• Domestic Abuse/Violence
• Assurance and Response to Complex Safeguarding and Child Exploitation
• Report providing details of the work undertaken to date with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTI) highlighting the integrated offer between education, health and care between children and adults in preparation for adulthood to provide support from children's social care to support from adult social care.
• Report providing the figures related to the under 18s who were admitted into accident and emergency where drug or alcohol use was an issue and a description be given regarding the pathway in place to access those figures.
• Briefing paper regarding the Strategic Priority Reserve as it relates to 'Free School Meals Widen Eligibility' and to reflect the take-up of the free school meals and the system used to administer the widening eligibility of the free school meals.
• Report regarding the specific targets relating to the strategy including the new 'data scorecard' that was being developed that would sit alongside the strategy and would be used to report to the Integrated Children In Our Care Board and onto the Corporate Parenting Working Party.

The committee agreed to include these items on the Work Programme for 2025/26.