The Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission met to discuss the financial position of education and children's services, the Edge of Care strategy, and the Youth Justice Plan. The commission noted the Edge of Care strategy and requested yearly updates on its progress, and also reviewed the Youth Justice Plan for 2025-2030, highlighting strategic and operational priorities. The commission also received a presentation on the financial position for Education and Children's Services up to the end of the first quarter to 30 June 2025.

Children's Services Finances

The commission received a presentation on the financial position for Education and Children's Services as of 30 June 2025. The presentation, delivered by Laurence Jones, Strategic Director for Social Care and Education, included a review of the revenue and capital forecasts, monitoring of savings and cost mitigation efforts, and an update on the schools Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) balance.

Key points from the revenue forecast included:

• SEND and Education: A projected underspend of £1.015 million, attributed to reduced growth in demand and dynamic purchasing in SEN transport.
• Children's Social Care: A projected underspend of £2.035 million, primarily due to vacancies.
• Resources: A projected overspend of £5,000.

The capital forecast highlighted the following:

• School Capital Maintenance: Approved budget of £17.653 million, with £329,000 spent in 2025/26 and £3.947 million in slippage.
• Foster Care Capital Contribution Scheme: Approved budget of £395,000, with no spend in 2025/26.
• Early Years - Two Year Olds: Approved budget of £593,000, with no spend in 2025/26.
• New School Places: Approved budget of £1.923 million, with no spend in 2025/26.

The commission also reviewed the monitoring of savings, which included the removal of £1 million from the Adventure Playgrounds budget and a policy change for post-16 transport, projecting total savings of £1.3 million in 2025/26, rising to £3.1 million in 2027/28. Cost mitigation efforts included in-house residential homes and the re-allocation of therapeutic resources, totaling £1.7 million.

The Schools Cumulative DSG Balance showed a deficit of £43.1 million forecast for 25/26.

The presentation also covered the aims of the SEND Transformation Plan, which included reforms, developing the 'ordinarily available' offer, reforming local authority processes, increasing confidence for parents and carers, placement reforms, and stakeholder engagement.

Edge of Care Strategy 2025-2027

The commission reviewed the new Edge of Care Strategy, which outlines the council's approach to supporting children and young people at risk of entering care. The strategy sets out the understanding of current needs, the availability of provision, and plans for developing the Edge of Care offer over the next three years.

The Edge of Care offer includes:

• Multi Systemic Therapy (MST)
• MST Building Stronger Families (MST-BSF)
• Functional Family Therapy for Child Welfare (FFT-CW)
• Family Decision Making

The aim of these programmes is to provide a targeted response to those children most at risk of coming into care with a view to:

• reducing looked after episodes
• reducing the financial cost of these
• improving outcomes for children, young people and their families

The strategy also details the governance and accountability structures for family therapy interventions, including the Edge of Care Interventions Board, which ensures programmes operate within their intended purpose and structure. Quality assurance measures, such as the Therapist Adherence Measure (TAM-R) and Family Self-Report (FSR), are used to monitor adherence and client satisfaction.

The report also highlighted the value for money of Edge of Care interventions, with evidence demonstrating that early interventions lead to improved outcomes for children and families and reduce demand across the whole children's system . The cost of MST-FFT is significantly higher than other edge of care interventions, but this service is subject to rigorous adherence and evaluation, evidencing that placement costs avoided are in excess of the cost of the service. The average annual placement cost avoided is £84k.

The commission was invited to note the new Edge of Care strategy and the offer in place, make any comments and amendments to the strategy, and receive a refreshed strategy and progress report on a yearly basis.

Youth Justice Plan

The commission were asked to consider the Youth Justice Plan 2025-2030, which provides a summary of the plan, highlighting strategic and operational priorities. The plan addresses performance, structure and governance, resources, value for money, partnership arrangements and risks to future delivery.

Key priorities for the Leicester Youth Justice Management Board for 2025-30 include:

• Developing a comprehensive improvement plan in response to HMIP findings in March/April 2025.
• Having a sophisticated data picture enabling prediction of children most likely to be frequent/serious offenders.
• Ensuring the right people are involved to enhance data sets across the partnership.
• Having a clear way of approaching families who are reluctant to engage in early intervention.
• Having a much better understanding of perpetrator, victim and group/organisation of exploitation in the local context.
• Increasing routes to employment for young people approaching adulthood.
• Redesigning the board to ensure voice is the golden thread within the board's priorities to shape delivery models.
• Ensuring the board has core principles or provocations to challenge performance and decisions.
• Developing a sophisticated approach to taking learning from comparable areas to continue to strive for excellence.
• Enhancing resources where needed with a commitment to exploring SALT, Victim and Probation resources as a minimum.

The plan also covers key tactical priorities, including:

• First Time Entrants (FTE)
• Re-offending
• Custody and constructive resettlement

The commission was invited to consider and note the achievements from 2024/5 and to consider and agree the strategic priorities for 2025-30 and tactical priorities that will be reviewed annually.