The Kingston upon Thames Council's People Committee convened to discuss several key issues affecting the borough's residents. The committee approved an uplift and extension to the adult carer support contract, noted progress with implementing the SEND Futures Plan, reviewed the Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership annual report, endorsed the progress of the Children and Young People’s Plan, and discussed outcomes for children in care.

Carer Support Contract

The committee approved the modification of the Adult Carers Support contract, specifically Lot 3a, to increase funding from £1,230,850 (including VAT £1,477,020) to £1,433,005 (including VAT £1,719,606). They also approved a 24-month extension of the contract, prolonging it from 1 April 2026, to 31 March 2028.

The report Carer Support Contract Uplift and Extension noted that under the Care Act 2014, the council has statutory duties towards unpaid carers, which are largely delivered through this contract with a local carer community organisation. The contract requires the provider to complete carer assessments and reviews, manage relief breaks, and offer wider support for adult carers.

The council's commissioning officers sought to increase the contract price in line with the council's general 3% voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) uplift commitment for 2025/26, and to generate additional capacity to manage increasing demand for carer assessments and reviews. A mix of factors including the establishment of the Kingston hospital's carer liaison service in 2023 and an increasing amount of carer contact meant that the provider has been completing an increasing number of carer assessment and reviews in the last few years, exceeding the original target of 200 annual carer assessment and reviews by 81% in 24/25 (312).

The report noted that not extending the contract or providing adequate funding would necessitate bringing carer assessment and reviews in-house, which would lead to higher social worker caseloads, longer waiting times for carers, and increased staffing costs, while also fragmenting the 'one stop shop' carer support offer currently in place.

SEND Futures Plan

The committee noted the progress made with implementing the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Futures Plan, including performance against the Safety Valve Agreement.

The Update on the SEND Futures Plan report outlined elements of the plan that are progressing well, including the Kingston Parent Carer Consortium, expansion of the Emotionally Related School Avoidance (ERSA) offer, progress on the Kingston Cluster Pilot, and plans to open new Specific Learning Difficulties places at Latchmere school. The report also noted challenges such as delays to the permanent school site, increasing requests for Educational Health and Care needs assessments, inflationary requests from independent providers, and decision making for Continuing Healthcare moving to an Integrated Care Board (ICB) level.

Under the terms of Kingston's Safety Valve Agreement, the council is required to report on performance against conditions in the agreement three times per year. The Safety Valve Agreement in Kingston comes to an end in March 2026. The Department for Education (DfE) is expected to release a SEND White Paper in Autumn 2025, which will outline reforms to the SEND system and detail how local authorities will be supported in addressing historical and accumulating deficits.

The report included the SEND Futures financial monitoring report, which serves as Annex B to the SEND Futures Plan and focuses on the financial impact and context of this plan. The report includes an estimated financial impact of the plan, including assumptions about grant funding, growth in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)¹, and strategies for savings and cost mitigation.

Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report

The committee noted the work of the Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership (KRSCP) as set out in the Annual Report 2024-2025.

The Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership - Annual Report report summarised the work of the KRSCP and highlighted key achievements, including successful implementation of the Working Together 2023 statutory guidance, creation of a Joint South West London Child Neglect Strategy, positive outcomes from audits and inspections, delivery of training sessions to professionals, embedding children's voices in strategic planning, launching a co-produced Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) statement, and coordinating activities to improve early identification and support for children experiencing neglect.

After a consultation with partners from January 2024 it was agreed that the KRSCP priorities from April 2024 to March 2026 will be: Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation, Neglect, Adolescent/Transitional Safeguarding & Serious Youth Violence, and Implementation of Working Together 2023 and associated guidance.

Corporate Parenting Annual Report

The committee noted the outcomes achieved for children in care in 2024-2025, as detailed in the Corporate Parenting - Annual Report.

As a corporate parent, Kingston Council has a statutory duty to provide the best possible care and outcomes for children in their care and care leavers. In 2024-25, Kingston Council was the corporate parent to 112 children in care. The report outlined the profile of children in care, placement stability, foster care, kinship care, residential care, adoption services, education, and health support.

The report noted that the rate of children in care in Kingston is lower than the national and regional (London) rate. The majority of children in care in 2024-25 were male (61%) and were aged over 16 (37%). 47% of children in care were from Black and global majority backgrounds and 23% had a special educational need and/or disability.

The report also highlighted that placement stability for children in care is generally good, but further work is needed to secure longer-term stability. The lack of suitable placements locally affects placement stability, meaning that children may have experienced multiple placement moves before they secure a suitable long-term placement and are more likely to be placed at a distance from the borough, away from their family, social and support networks.

Actions to improve the experiences and outcomes of children in care are developed and monitored by the Corporate Parenting Panel, which includes councillors and officers from the Council, Achieving for Children and partner organisations in the borough, including the police and health services. The panel benefits from good engagement with children and young people from the Children in Care Council who help shape the Panel's priorities.

Children and Young People's Plan

The committee endorsed the progress of the delivery of actions set out in the Children and Young People's Plan and associated action plan. They also endorsed the Children and Young People's Action Plan as a tool for engagement with children and young people to enable monitoring, prioritisation and delivery of the Children and Young People's Plan. Additionally, the committee agreed to explore an alternative approach to the Unicef Child Friendly Cities being explored to ensure value for money and alignment with other Borough wide inclusion strategies.

The Children and Young Persons Plan - 6 monthly update report noted that the plan puts children and young people at the heart of all the council does across Kingston and it recognises the importance of them having agency and ownership of the plan and their community. The associated action plan brings together the wide range of services, support and activity happening around the borough that impacts children and young people.

The report noted good progress is being made in relation to what We said we would do in the Children and Young People's Plan. For example, the Tellmi Pilot funded by Public Health provides universal access to online emotional wellbeing and mental health support, and eighteen schools across Kingston have signed up to the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools Award.

At the Committee meeting in September 2024 the Committee endorsed and supported the ambition to achieve Unicef Child Friendly Cities and Communities status. Further investigation into this programme has identified a significant cost implication (approximately £35,000 per annum for a minimum of 3 years). It is proposed that an options appraisal is developed in Quarter 3 2025/6 to assess how existing models and alternative approaches can ensure Kingston is an inclusive community for children and young people before deciding whether to commit to the Unicef programme.