The Corporate Parenting Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet on 22 September 2025 to discuss the progress made on the Corporate Parenting Annual Plan 2025-2026, with a particular focus on providing stable homes, and supporting educational achievement, employment and training for children in care. The committee was also scheduled to discuss the Welsh Government's consultation on the code of practice for looked after and accommodated children.

Here are the topics that were listed for discussion:

Welsh Government Consultation

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Welsh Government's consultation on the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 part 6 code of practice (looked after and accommodated children).

The consultation includes proposals for:

• A new chapter on corporate parenting, offering guidance to local authorities on their responsibilities as corporate parents.
• Reinforcing the importance of listening to children, particularly when planning care, support, and placements.
• Strengthened guidance on conducting meetings about placement moves and reviews.
• Updates to terminology and legislation since the code was last updated in 2018.

The consultation document noted that since the launch of the corporate parenting charter, work has been ongoing to promote its principles to wider organisations who have not had any previous knowledge of corporate parenting. The consultation document stated that the term community parenting is being considered for those who do not have any statutory responsibility.

The consultation poses questions including:

• Whether the term community parenting is appropriate.
• Views on the proposals for corporate parenting panels or groups.
• Whether a national or local platform would be best for providing information to care leavers.
• How to most effectively measure progress in relation to corporate parenting.

The deadline for responses to the consultation was 27 October 2025.

Priorities 3 and 4 of the Corporate Parenting Annual Plan

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the progress of projects related to priorities 3 and 4 of the Corporate Parenting Annual Plan.

Priority 3 focuses on providing a comfortable, safe, and stable home whilst in care and after. This includes:

• Improving housing pathways out of care, with collaborative work underway to provide suitable housing for young people with complex needs, expand accommodation options, ensure housing pathway plans are in place by age 15.5, and embed advice workers in supported accommodation.
• Foster and kinship care, with a focus on stability and continuity through promoting fostering opportunities, raising awareness, and providing training and peer support to foster and kinship carers, including the Foster Wales Partner Scheme and Pioneer Programme.

Priority 4 focuses on educational achievement, employment, and training. This includes:

• Supporting children looked after through transition periods, with the Into Work Advice Service and Personal Adviser service providing support during these times.
• The Bright Futures Project supports care experienced young people who are not in education, employment, or training, while the Bright Start scheme helps young people find traineeships.
• The Personal Advisor service supports care leavers with the transition from care towards independence, including undertaking and reviewing Pathway Plans.
• The service is piloting extended entitlement to capture data and evidence of what this service could look like in practice.

Q2 Progress Update

The committee was scheduled to receive a report providing an update on the overall progress to date on the Corporate Parenting Annual Plan 2025-2026.

The update included:

• Updates on actions and queries raised at previous committee meetings.
• An initial version of the Power BI dashboard that has been developed, with populated datasets and early visuals prepared.
• A quarterly report that has been produced to capture progress on the Key Performance Indicators and actions within the Annual Plan.
• The first meeting of task and finish group focussed on utilising technological solutions to develop easily accessible ways for Children Looked After to access the opportunities available to them, has taken place.
• The Corporate Parenting Annual Communications Plan that was presented and finalised at the previous committee meeting has begun implementation.
• A date has been set for a partnership event on 3 December 2025.
• Content has been drafted for corporate parenting training, and work will commence on creating an eLearning module for all staff, as well as a version for CPAC members over the coming months.
• A joint response from the corporate parenting delivery group to the Welsh Government consultation on the Code of Practice for Part 6 of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act 2014.
• Details of what the council proposes to include in the Welsh Government Corporate Parenting Pledge.
• Proposed dates, times and venues for member visits, with a short description of the services.

Member Visit Opportunities

Members were invited to express interest in visiting the following services:

• Ty Gorwell, a supported accommodation for young people in Cathays.
• The Llanrumney site, soon to be repurposed as a young person's project offering 16 self-contained units of accommodation.
• Coffee mornings for foster and kinship carers and pioneers.
• A Mums and Dads Group for children looked after who are parents or parents to be.
• Passport to the City events.
• A 1 Million Mentors visit at Grassroots.
• The Money Advice and Homeless Advice Support Service.
• Bright Start Work Experience Placement.