The Children, Young and People Scrutiny Panel were scheduled to meet to discuss the Virtual School Head Annual Report 2024, the Wolverhampton Children's Social Care Self-Evaluation Framework 2025-26, and the panel's work plan. The panel was also scheduled to review the progress that has been made on actions that the panel has recommended.

Wolverhampton Children's Social Care Self-Evaluation Framework 2025-26

The Wolverhampton Children's Social Care Self-Evaluation Framework 2025-26 was scheduled to be presented to the panel by Lisa Preston, Deputy Director Children's Social Care, and Cherry Lacono, Head of Service Strengthening Families.

The framework was structured around the Children's Social Care National Framework (2023), and reflected on the council's work during 2024-25, and its ambitions for 2025-2026. Councillor Jacqui Coogan, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, and Alison Hinds, Director of Children Services, stated in the foreword to the framework that the council is ambitious to provide excellent outcomes for children and families, and that this is reflected in the council plan, with one of six council priorities being 'Strong families where children grow-up well and achieve their full potential'.

The framework noted that while the number of children in care has reduced, the cost of caring for them has increased. It also noted that while most children are in foster homes, there has been a reduction in the number of newly approved foster families, which has led to a small increase in children and young people living in children's homes. The framework also noted an increase in demand across the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.

The framework described the council's work as a wave one Families First for Children Pathfinder¹ (FFCP), working with the Department for Education to test and learn, and inform national roll out. The key achievements of the FFCP delivery model were listed as:

• Safeguarding Partners
• Family Networks
• Family Help
• Child Protection

The framework included headline data for the Families First for Children programme, including that 138 early support plans were open, 177 children had been supported by domestic abuse champions, 44 children were being supported by the new SEND Family Help service, and 43 alternatively qualified local authority practitioners were leading on s.17 child in need work². The framework described the Family Hubs offer, including midwives and health visitors, parenting support, SEND support, infant feeding support, housing support, out of school activities, emotional health and wellbeing, benefits and welfare rights advice, birth registrations, stay and play sessions, employment and training, and adult education.

The framework also described partnership working with education to support vulnerable learners, and noted that Wolverhampton recently signed off and submitted SEN2 for 2025. It stated that since January 2017, education, health and care plan (EHCP) numbers have increased by 129.3% from 1,373 to 3,148 in January 2025.

The framework included data on electively home educated (EHE) children, children missing from education (CME), permanent exclusions (PEX), and suspensions.

The framework described the council's focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for its workforce, foster parents, and families.

The framework described multi-agency working, and the Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together partnership.

The framework described how leaders drive conditions for effective practice, and the council's dedication to working in a trauma informed way.

The framework described the council's quality assurance processes, and the findings from quality assurance and practice weeks.

The framework described how the workforce is equipped and effective, and the council's social work recruitment and retention strategy.

The framework described the strengthening families service, and the specialist support services.

The framework described the children & young people in care (CYPIC) service, and the council's commitment to acting as the exemplary corporate parent³. The framework described the work of Adoption @ Heart, and its achievements.

The framework set out the council's vision for 2025/26, and the children's social care priorities for 2025/26.

The framework described participation and co-production with children in care and care leavers.

The panel was asked to note the contents of the framework, and endorse the priorities for children's social care for 2025-26.

A summary presentation of the self-evaluation framework was also included in the report pack.

Virtual School Head Annual Report 2024

Darren Martindale, Virtual School Head, was scheduled to present a briefing paper updating the panel on progress against priorities and actions identified in the Virtual School Head Annual Report 2024.

The purpose of the report was to improve educational outcomes for children and young people in care and previously in care.

The report noted that the 2024 Virtual School Head Annual Report highlighted various successes including improved early years, phonics and Key Stage 2 results, good post-16 outcomes with high numbers of care leavers attending university, no permanent exclusions, a very high percentage of personal education plans (PEPs) completed within statutory timescales with improving quality, and schools receiving national recognition for attachment awareness.

The report also identified several areas for further action, and provided notes on progress against each area:

• Refining the PEP audit process to focus on progression of targets and strengthening post-16 PEPs.
• Increasing attendance of social workers and designated teachers at PEP training.
• Revising and improving training for foster parents, working closely with Fostering Team to increase attendance.
• Targeted attendance meetings with schools with high persistent absence for Child in Need (CIN)/Child Protection (CP)/Kinship children to agree improvement action plans.
• Development and delivery of 1:1 interventions for persistently absent pupils in care, using pupil perspective and motivational interviewing / solution focussed discussions.
• A detailed audit of files and histories of children and young people in care with persistent or severe school absence, to pinpoint reasons for absence, and who experienced a school move in year 11, to identify trends, inform future approaches.
• A briefing note exploring the reasons for suspension from school, for pupils in care who have experienced multiple suspensions in 2023/24, and assurance about the Virtual School oversight and involvement to prevent multiple suspensions.

The report concluded that four of the six actions have been achieved, one partially achieved, and one remains a priority area for improvement. Further actions include:

• Increasing attendance of social workers and designated teachers at PEP training.
• Development and delivery of 1:1 interventions for persistently absent pupils in care, using pupil perspective and motivational interviewing / solution focussed discussions.

Work Plan and You Said, We Did

Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, was scheduled to present a report on the panel's work plan and You Said, We Did document.

The report recommended that the panel comment on the draft work programme 2025-2026 and 'You Said – We Did' update and to make additional recommendations if necessary.

The report also included questions for scrutiny to consider:

• Is the scrutiny panel satisfied with the progress made to implement any actions and or resolutions?
• Are panel members assured by the responses that the agreed actions will lead to positive outcomes for residents or improved delivery of services? What further action is needed?
• What changes, if any, would panel members like to see in how the You Said, We Did document is presented to ensure that they can monitor the progress towards completing agreed actions and the opportunity to escalate where necessary?

The purpose of the report was to provide the panel with an update on responses from to actions agreed by the panel following resolutions for work programme 2024/2025, and to action a recommendation from the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge City of Wolverhampton Council 16-19 September 2024 - Feedback report which concluded that the council should ensure that there is systematic 'you said, we did…' reporting back to scrutiny on the outcome of their work.

The report noted that the LGA Peer Review report made a specific reference to the important work of scrutiny and highlighted its achievements and contributions to delivering effective governance and positive organisational culture.

The report stated that the priorities for scrutiny need to be monitored and evaluated on an ongoing basis, and that it is important that scrutiny work programme is flexible and responsive to emerging local issues or policy changes that occur throughout the year.

The report stated that the principal power of the panel is to influence the policies and decisions made by the council and other organisations involved in delivering public services, and that the impact scrutiny has can be measured in two ways:

• high-quality recommendations are accepted and implemented by Cabinet
• understanding how those recommendations or actions lead to positive outcomes for local people.

The report included a scrutiny action tracker 2025-26, which detailed actions, the agenda item if applicable, who raised the action, the date raised, where raised, the owner, and the status.

The report also included the Children, Young and People Scrutiny Panel 2025-2026 - Draft Work Programme, which set out the remit, function and measures of the panel, and the items to be discussed at future meetings.

The draft work programme listed the following items for future meetings:

• Overview of support of provision for children living in temporary accommodation
• Virtual School Head Annual Report 2025
• Our Future Council – Responding to the Financial Challenge
• Exploitation Partnership Assurance Report – update from West Midlands Police
• Children's Health Related Behaviour Survey – 2024 update on actions
• Family Hubs and Start for Life Offer Programme
• Education Performance in Wolverhampton Schools and Settings 2024- 2025