The Nottingham City Council's Children and Adults Scrutiny Committee convened on 10 September 2025, to discuss safeguarding and education. The committee reviewed the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership (NCSCP) Annual Report 2024/25 and scrutinised the standard of alternative education provision in the city. The committee also discussed and noted the work programme for the municipal year 2025/26.

Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership (NCSCP) Annual Report 2024/25

The committee scrutinised the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership (NCSCP) Annual Report 2024/25, which highlights the work and challenges faced when protecting and supporting children in Nottingham. The NCSCP is responsible for coordinating safeguarding services, identifying and responding to the needs of children, commissioning local child safeguarding practice reviews, and ensuring the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements, in accordance with the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.

The safeguarding partners include Nottingham City Council, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board, and Nottinghamshire Police. An Independent Scrutineer provides constructive challenge to the partnership.

The report outlined the NCSCP's vision:

• Children and young people are safe from harm, inside their home, outside their home and on-line.
• Children and young people have access to the right help at the right time.
• There is effective partnership working to improve safeguarding outcomes for children, young people, and their families.

The NCSCP's business plan for 2023-2025 identified four priorities: exploitation, making the system work, enhancing cultural competency and confidence, and domestic abuse.

Key achievements noted in the report included:

• A cross-authority initiative to address neglect, including the development of a Neglect Action Plan.
• Establishment of a Participation & Engagement Subgroup to strengthen how children's voices are heard and responded to in service design.
• Delivery of the first multi-agency practitioner event, the Safeguarding Today Event, providing local and national safeguarding updates.
• Safer Sleep Webinars to support frontline staff in using the revised Safer Sleep Toolkit and navigating sensitive conversations.

The report also acknowledged several challenges, including financial and governance issues at Nottingham City Council, the ongoing independent review and police investigation into Nottingham City maternity services, and the need to address the high rates of non-school attendance and permanent exclusions.

Independent Scrutineer's Report

The committee also reviewed the Report of the NCSCP Independent Scrutineer. The Independent Scrutineer, Steve Edwards, acknowledged the significant challenges faced by children, families, and partner organisations in Nottingham, particularly the impact of austerity on disadvantaged communities. He noted that rates of non-school attendance and permanent exclusions remain significantly higher than the national average, disproportionately affecting children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Despite these challenges, Steve Edwards reported being impressed by the way senior leaders own and accept the challenges they face and by their willingness to be open and transparent with each other. He also praised the professionalism, commitment and passion of colleagues across the partnership in providing services to vulnerable children and families.

Steve Edwards highlighted the need for the partnership to have the right infrastructure and capacity to drive forward improvement, including permanent and stable administrative support and capacity to analyse partnership data.

Recommendations

The committee was asked to make any comments or recommendations to the Independent Scrutineer and/or Safeguarding Children Partnership, and to consider any issues arising from the report that the Committee may want to consider as part of its Work Programme.

Ensuring Alternative Provision is of Good Standard

The committee scrutinised the provisions in place to ensure that alternative provision in Nottingham City is of a good standard. The report presented to the committee outlined the council's role in accrediting alternative provision and the planned strategic commissioning review ahead of the current accredited framework ending in 2027.

Nottingham City Council manages the quality assurance framework for unregistered alternative provision and publishes a list of accredited providers. The council operates a tender process whereby prospective alternative providers must complete an application tender to be vetted and included on the Accredited Alternative Provision Directory. Compliance forms part of the annual quality assurance checks, and providers are judged to be meeting standards, working towards meeting standards, or failing to meet standards.

The report noted that the majority of pupils placed in alternative provision by the council are children who have been permanently excluded from school. Following an exclusion, children are referred to Raleigh Education Trust, who decide whether a child should go onsite at Denewood Academy or be referred to Unity Academy.

The strategic commissioning review of Alternative Provision is a data-driven, evidence-based review that will examine pupil journeys, reintegration pathways and placement timeliness, alongside a high-level assessment of market capacity, quality, utilisation and cost.

The SEND and Inclusion Strategy will reflect the council's aims related to alternative provision and how it will ensure that the alternative provision in Nottingham reflects the needs of young people. The Education Division will also publish an Alternative Provision Policy and a Section 19 Policy.

The committee was asked to make any comments or recommendations in response to the information provided, and to consider whether any further scrutiny of the issue is required.

Work Programme 2025/26

The committee considered its Work Programme for 2025/26, based on areas of work identified at previous meetings. The committee noted the work that is currently planned and made amendments as appropriate.

The Children and Adults Scrutiny Committee was established to carry out the overview and scrutiny role in relation to matters concerning children's services and safeguarding, adult health and social care, commissioning and education.

When planning its work programme, the committee considers how an item relates to achieving both the Priority Programmes of Action within the Council Improvement Plan and the Core Missions within Our Council Plan 2025-29.

The committee noted the responses from the Executive to recommendations made previously.