Agenda item

The Corporate Parenting Board Annual Report 2025-26 provides an overview of how Medway Council and its partners have fulfilled their corporate parenting responsibilities during the year and the progress made in improving outcomes for children in care and care leavers. The report highlights achievements in permanence, placement stability, education, health and participation whilst recognising the growing complexity of need and increasing demand across the care system.

The report also outlines the strategic priorities for 2026-27 and demonstrates how Medway is responding to national children's social care reforms, strengthening partnership working and ensuring that the voices of children and young people continue to inform service development and decision-making.

Estimated time: 30 Minutes.

Discussion:

The report was presented and the Committee was informed that services continued to deliver the Corporate Parenting Strategy launched in 2025 across five priority areas. There had been significant progress made in permanency planning, and reduction in children missing from home incidents.

There was a need to strengthen the housing pathways for care leavers, positive progress has been made since the specialist housing advisor joined the leaving care team to support care leavers to access housing. Overall performance in the service remained good.

There were however areas for improvement which included health and wellbeing support which continued to be strengthened however there was a disparity in health service and assessments for out of area placements which was an area of concern. Work was being undertaken with virtual schools to reduce suspension and exclusions from schools and increased assessments needed to be completed for children missing. There was a need for reduction of the number of young people Not In Employment Education or Training and improving lifelong links for care leavers.

Members raised several comments and questions which included:

The progress made in permanency matching had been noticeable and the extra work undertaken by Medway’s dedicated officers on provision of permanent stable home for children in care was commended.

Key achievements – it was commended that areas of key achievements were highlighted in the report, however, it was asked if details would be included in future reports of areas of underachievement. The Committee was informed that the biggest challenge had been with initial health assessment for children placed out of the area, this was explicit in the report and highlighted as an issue of concern. Other Integrated Care Boards has been contacted and this issue raised with them as well as continued challenge to partners on what could be done differently to facilitate completion of initial health assessments in a timely manner. This was a national issue; however, Medway must continue to hold colleague to account on this matter.

Staying put arrangements - it was noted that number of young people utilising this arrangement had increased and it was asked if this would continue to increase in the future where it had been identified that this arrangement was right for the young person as well as the foster parents. The Committee was informed that through early pathway planning, various aspects of a young person’s life including housing arrangements when they turned 18 were explored. One of barriers for foster carers was the inability to take on other children and issues with finance if they continued caring for the young person beyond 18. Where it had been identified that Staying put was right for the young person, the service worked extensively to ensure continuity of care arrangements. Discussions also took place on financial contributions expectation and commitment by the young person if they remained in the household as a means to help them to budget and manage finances. If they decided to attend university, costs were covered and they could return to the foster carer during the holidays, as an allocated amount of funding continued to be paid to the carer to facilitate this arrangement. Care leavers were supported to put in early application for housing and options on accommodation continued to be reviewed on a regular basis.

Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) - it was asked what  measures and intervention were being put in place to address the high percentage of NEETs in Medway and what analysis had been undertaken on outcomes of proportionality for young people by ethnicity, disabilities and protected characteristics. The Committee was informed that an aspiration officer was in place to support this cohort. Engagement methods had been changed, and the officer now meet them where they felt comfortable instead of asking them to meet at the hubs. The annual report had not previously contained information on outcomes based on proportionality; however, this would be taken forward for future reports.

Initial health assessments - this is an area of concern as the figures  of completion of health assessments for out of borough placements were extremely low and it was crucial for foster carers and their planning of support for a young person for the assessment to be carried out. Officers acknowledged the issues highlighted, the need to understand why they do not occur with the 28 days and how long outside of the time scaled did the assessments actually take place.

Decision:

The Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the contents of the Corporate Parenting Board Annual Report 2025-2026 and the progress made in delivering the Corporate Parenting Strategy 2025-2027.