The Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the post implementation review of the home to school travel policy, performance data for the first quarter of 2025/26, and updates on fostering and adoption services. The committee also reviewed its work programme for the coming year.

Fostering Service Update

The committee received an update on the fostering service in North Yorkshire, where there are more children in foster care than at any point in the past decade. According to the Fostering Service Update, 75% of looked after children are in foster care, which is above the regional and national averages.

The report noted a decrease in new unrelated foster carer approvals, but an increase in the number of children being placed with kinship carers¹ under temporary approvals. There has been a significant increase in the number of enquiries received, with 67 at the end of the first quarter of 2025/26, compared to 42 at the end of the previous quarter. The number of approved foster carers has also increased to 538, up from 518 in the previous quarter.

The committee also heard about several initiatives to support foster carers, including:

• Standardising the leisure pass offer across the county.
• Providing free tickets to the Open Air Theatre in Scarborough.
• Updating the Skills to Foster course.
• Expanding the Mockingbird Family Model².
• Rolling out Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families (TCIF) training.

Performance Report for Quarter 1 2025/26

The committee reviewed the Performance Report for Quarter 1 2025-26, which highlighted several key trends:

• A fall in the number of child and family assessments completed within 45 working days.
• An increase in children being home educated.
• An increase in the number of primary school permanent exclusions.

However, there had been a reduction in the number of referrals to Children's Social Care, improved timeliness of Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs), and an increase in the number of children being discharged from care plans.

The committee noted the increase in primary school permanent exclusions and considered whether further investigation was required to understand the reasons behind this trend and to hear about the council's preventative work.

North Yorkshire Council Adoption Service

The committee received an overview of the North Yorkshire Council Adoption Service, including information on the One Adoption North and Humber Regional Adoption Agency.

The report outlined the current practice within North Yorkshire's adoption support services and set out a series of strategic developments and practice innovations aimed at enhancing adoption support across both North Yorkshire and the regional agency.

Between April 2024 and March 2025:

• 67 new support contacts were received, up from 53 the previous year.
• 155 children were receiving adoption support, an increase of 30.
• North Yorkshire accounted for 42% of all Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) assessments.

The committee heard that North Yorkshire consistently sees high levels of adoption support when compared to the partner agencies within the regional adoption agency.

Briefing relating to the Post Implementation Review of the Home to School Travel Policy

The committee were briefed on the Post Implementation Review of the Home to School Travel Policy. The Briefing relating to the Post Implementation Review of the Home to School Travel Policy outlined the structure and proposed content of the review, which is due to take place in July 2026.

The review will require evidence of the impacts of the revised home to school travel policy (2024) and will therefore take place at the end of the school year after the initial policy implementation.

The report will be arranged in six sections:

• What were the objectives of the policy?
• PIR methodology
• What were the original assumptions and identified risks?
• Has the policy met its objectives?
• What can we learn from the first full year of implementation?
• Are there any opportunities for the Council to improve in relation to this policy?

Progress on Issues Raised by the Committee

The committee received a report by Alice Fox, Senior Scrutiny Officer, on the Progress on Issues Raised by the Committee. The report provided an update on the following issues:

• Data regarding the number of children at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation in North Yorkshire.
• The North Yorkshire Autism all age Strategy 2025-2030.
• Proposals to introduce a Neurodivergent/SEND Children and Young People's Member Champion.
• A summary to clarify the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee.
• Information on safeguarding procedures for transporting children and young people.

Data on children at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation was provided in Appendix A Child Criminal and Child Sexual Exploitation Data. The committee was informed that there has been an increase in the numbers of children being identified as being at risk of Child Criminal and Child Sexual Exploitation.

The North Yorkshire Autism all age Strategy 2025-2030 was provided to the committee.

The committee considered a report on the proposal to appoint a Neurodivergent Young People's Champion, as detailed in Appendix B Consideration to Appointing a Neurodivergent Young Persons Member Champion.

A summary clarifying the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee was provided in Appendix C Legal definitions of an asylum seeker and a refugee.

Information on safeguarding procedures for transporting children and young people was provided at a Members Seminar on 2 July 2025.

Work Programme 2025-2026

The committee considered the Work Programme 2025-2026 and agreed to note it.