The Cared For Children and Care Leavers Committee met to discuss updates from the Shadow Committee and the Corporate Parenting Executive Board, to review the Quarter 1 Scorecard, the Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report, and the Cared for Sufficiency Strategy, and to consider the engagement with frontline services from councillors. The committee noted the updates from the Corporate Parenting Executive Board and the Care Leavers Shadow Committee, received the Cared for Children and Care Leavers Committee Quarter 1 Scorecard for 2025-26, received the Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report for 2024/25, received an update on the Cared for Sufficiency Strategy, and received details of engagement from Councillors with Front Line Services. The minutes of the previous meeting held on 24th June 2025 were approved.

Cared for Children and Care Leavers Quarter 1 Scorecard

The committee received the Cared for Children and Care Leavers Committee Quarter 1 Scorecard for 2025-26.

The scorecard showed that the number of children becoming cared for in Cheshire East continues to fall, which the report said was positive, as it indicates that our work is supporting children to remain living with their parents safely . The council's rate of 66 per 10,000 cared for children is below the national average of 70, but above the average of 60 for its statistical neighbours.

Other key points from the scorecard included:

• 96% of children and young people have seen a dentist, up from 66% last quarter.
• There has been an increase in the making of Special Guardianship Orders¹ (SGO), standing at 17%, which is above the 12% achieved by statistical neighbours.
• There has been a small reduction in the number of children who have experienced three or more placement moves in the last quarter, from 63% to 61%.
• The number of children who have a long-term matched placement has remained stable.
• There has been a significant rise in the reported data in relation to 16-18 year olds that are not in education, employment or training (NEET), with the figure standing at 51. The report stated that this is linked to a number of young people not returning to college after Easter, and a change in how the data is reported.
• 62% of cared for children have an up-to-date Child and Family Assessment².
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires³ (SDQ) completion has dropped from 52% to 46%.

Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report

The committee received the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Annual Report for 2024/25. The report provided an overview of the activity undertaken in Cheshire East in respect of cared for children, young people, and care leavers between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

The report stated that the primary focus of the IRO is to:

quality assure the care planning and review process for each child and to ensure that his/her current wishes and feelings are given full consideration

The report highlighted that performance in delivering timely and effective reviews has decreased by 8% during 2024/25, which was attributed to a period of instability and staff vacancies. Despite competing demands, the IRO's performance around completing recommendations from the review within five days has continued to increase. Participation continues to be a strength, with 96% of children and young people sharing their views.

The IROs have continued to have responsibility for reviewing all care leavers aged 18-21 years. 81% of Pathway Plan reviews were successfully reviewed within timescale. In-person reviews have continued to grow throughout the reporting year, with a 15% increase, currently standing at 55%.

Engagement with Front Line Services from Councillors

The committee received details of engagement from councillors with frontline services. Councillor Sarah Bennett-Wake, Councillor Sally Holland and Councillor Wye visited the Cared for Children service, the Care Leaver service and the Court team respectively throughout July 2025.

The councillors undertook four meetings during each visit, meeting with the service manager, a frontline practitioner, a team manager, and a focus group of approximately six practitioners. After the visits, each councillor completed a report of their findings.

The strengths identified in relation to quality of practice were:

• Staff are dedicated and passionate and enhance the lives of children and young people, and the child's voice is at the centre of practice.
• Social workers feel supported by managers who want to develop staff and also by peers sharing best practice and expertise.
• The implementation of the Court team has had a positive impact on staff in the cared for children service and in the court team.
• Experiences of supervision have improved through preparation or through focus and task-centred approach.
• Artificial intelligence is helping to reduce workload in report writing and to produce higher quality work.

The areas for development identified in relation to quality of practice were:

• Finding time to attend training is a challenge, as is the paperwork required for some process-related tasks.
• Family time is an area of challenge, both in relation to the lack of supervisors and lack of suitable locations.
• Practitioners would like Personal Advisors⁴ to be allocated to young people at an earlier stage to support transitions work and support from adult services for care leavers to be improved.
• Consistency of practice needs to improve, and staff broadly recognise this and the areas of practice which need to be better.
• Sufficiency of foster carers means children are not always living in their local area, and staff are travelling long distances to visit children, working long hours.
• There are not enough good accommodation and care providers for children.
• Improved processes are required relating to work moving into the court team.

The strengths in the experience of working for Cheshire East were:

• Progression routes within their careers.
• Staff feel supported by managers at all levels and by their peers.
• Everyone focuses on getting the best outcomes for children.
• Clarity about the improvement journey and what is best practice.

The areas for development in the experience of working for Cheshire East were:

• Lack of space in Delamere House and conditions are too hot with insufficient fans.
• Meeting rooms are used by other services, resulting in a lack of private space and a lack of confidentiality.
• Long working hours and long travelling time due to out-of-area placement.
• The tone of Cheshire East feels to be funding and data-driven.
• Pay not always correct; agency Social Workers paid more.
• Turnover of senior management creates changes.
• Delay in appointing a Head of Service meant staff felt alone in making important decisions.
• Would like purpose-built care leaver Hubs and family time space.
• Would like training on the use of AI (Co-Pilot).

Cared for Sufficiency Strategy Update

The committee received an update on the Cared for Sufficiency Strategy. The report stated that over the past year, Cheshire East Council has made progress in implementing its 2024–2027 Sufficiency Strategy, with a focus on increasing local placement choice, improving stability, and delivering earlier, more sustainable interventions for children and families.

Progress made includes:

• Joining Foster4, a collaborative working with eight North West local authorities.
• Opening two in-house children's homes. Flude House is rated by Ofsted as Good in all areas and is at full occupancy, and Cherry Tree House was registered in early June 2025 and has one child living there.
• Expanding supported accommodation for 16–25 year olds.
• An edge-of-care framework has supported 46 families in the last year.
• The introduction of a Court Team.
• Adoption Counts partnership growth.

Areas for continued focus in 2025 include:

• Expanding the kinship care offer.
• Growing the in-house foster carer base.
• Reviewing residential capacity.
• Collaboration with regional markets.
• Post-18 accommodation strategy.

Update from the Corporate Parenting Executive Board

The committee received an update from the August 2025 meeting of the Corporate Parenting Executive Board. The meeting covered updates from the three workstream areas and performance updates from the virtual school and corporate parenting scorecard. The board also approved the document in relation to care leavers entitlements, subject to some minor amendments.

The three workstream areas are:

• Good Homes for All
• Good Health and Well-being
• Good Education and Skills

Update from the Shadow Cared for Children and Care Leavers Committee

The committee received a presentation from the Shadow Cared for Children and Care Leavers Committee on work being undertaken. Actions include:

• Developing and improving Independence Packs.
• Being part of corporate parenting workstreams good homes for all, good education and skills, good health and wellbeing.
• Developing and reviewing the local offer with young people.