This meeting included a report on the Committee's activities, a pre-decision scrutiny report on a new ‘in-borough Home to School Transport’ contract for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), a report on the Council’s new ‘Sufficiency Strategy’ for Children Looked After, and the annual report of the Council’s Corporate Parenting Board. The meeting started at 7pm on Tuesday 19 November 2024 and took place in the Council Chamber of Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road. The only information that is publicly available about this meeting is the summons, agenda, and supporting documents. This means that it is not possible to know what was said at the meeting, or what decisions the Committee made.

The Scrutiny Report

The report pack included the Committee’s ‘Scrutiny Report’¹, which contained a summary of the Committee’s work programme for the current municipal year.

The ‘Scrutiny Report’ included a list of the actions and recommendations from the committee’s last meeting on 11 September 2024. These actions included requests for officers to provide the Committee with:

• Permanent exclusion data outlining reasons for each absence
• Options for using Virtual Schools to support young carers without social workers
• A written response about why care leavers and those with care plans are offered accommodation outside of the borough while some local developments have empty homes.

The recommendations included that:

• The newly formed SEND Youth Forum attend as many Children and Families Scrutiny Committee meetings as possible.

The responses from officers to the 11 September actions and recommendations were included in the report pack, and were listed as having been received on 3 June and 4 September.

The report included the Committee’s ‘Forward Plan’², which lists the topics that the Committee are scheduled to scrutinise, along with the planned dates of these discussions.

Topics listed for discussion in future meetings included:

• An Ofsted report published on 8 July 2024
• An update on attendance, permanent exclusions, and home education in Waltham Forest
• A briefing note from the Virtual School about the outcomes for children in care at Year 11 and Year 13
• The ‘Sufficiency Strategy’ for children looked after
• The annual report of the Corporate Parenting Board
• The attendance policy
• Early Years Child Care Places
• A Children’s Social Care annual complaints report
• The Youth Justice Plan
• A review of the benefits of making care experience a protected characteristic.

The report pack also included a draft ‘Forward Plan’ for the Committee, and this draft suggested several further topics for discussion, and suggested dates for those discussions. These included:

• A summary of the service areas under the Committee’s remit, to be held on 13 June 2024
• The Youth Justice inspection, to be held on 13 June 2024
• The ‘Self-Assessment and implementation plan’ for SEND, to be held on 11 September 2024
• The ‘Rationalisation of school places’, to be held on 11 September 2024
• The ‘Home to School Transport’ contract, to be held on 19 November 2024

Finally, the ‘Scrutiny Report’ contained a list of the Council’s ‘Key Decisions’³ that relate to children and families. The only such key decision listed in this report is the ‘In-borough Home to School Transport’ contract.

In-borough Home to School Transport

The report pack included a ‘pre-decision scrutiny’ report on the recommissioning of the Council’s ‘In-borough Home to School Transport’ contract for children and young people with SEND. This report sought the views of the Committee on a proposal to procure a new contract for the service, which was scheduled to be decided at a meeting of the Council’s Cabinet on 5 November 2024.

The report says that in 2023/24, the Council provided transport assistance to 755 children and young people with SEND. The largest element of this provision, 496 children, received assistance under the Council’s ‘in-borough’ Home to School transport contract. The cost of the contract in 2023/24 was £3,328,197 against a budget of £2,278,300.

The report explained that the existing contract was entered into on an emergency basis in August 2022 with HATS Group Limited, and will expire in August 2025.

The report sought approval from the Committee to run an open procedure tender exercise to appoint a new contractor to deliver the ‘scheduling and delivery’ of the in-borough home to school transport service. The report proposed a contract of three years with the option of extending it for two further one-year periods, and suggested a contract start date of 1 September 2025.

The report suggested that the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules⁴ (CPRs) require an open procedure to be run for a contract of this value. However, it also suggested that there is sufficient market interest to make a competitive tender a realistic prospect, and noted that seven organisations had expressed interest in bidding for the work, including HATS Group Limited.

The report also contained a section on ‘demand management’ and said:

‘A long-term approach to providing a sustainable offer to children and young people requiring home to school travel assistance is essential. Demand for EHCPs is rising locally and nationally. There were 3,468 children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in Waltham Forest as of 31 March 2024, an increase of 14% since March 2023.’

The report included a list of the Council’s plans for mitigating the increases in demand for assistance with travel, and these included:

• Expansion of in-borough specialist resource provisions to accommodate 60-80 new places for primary school-aged children by the end of 2025 and a further 180-200 places by 2027.
• Establishment of a ‘continuum of specialist provision’ for secondary school-aged young people with SEMH and associated complex needs, including strategies to support their access to the curriculum, and a clear definition of the roles of special schools and mainstream settings in meeting those needs.
• Mapping and promotion of post-16 education options within the borough, including vocational training, life skills programmes, and supported internships, to reduce reliance on out-of-borough placements.
• Development of a local area model for forecasting SEND needs that will link with a ‘reliable three-year base model of SEND data’ and identify growth in demand across education needs and age groups, financial impacts, and areas requiring further investigation.

The report also listed several other initiatives intended to transform the way that home to school transport assistance is delivered, including:

• Walking bus stop schemes
• Mobility bikes
• Car sharing
• The promotion of Independent Travel Training (ITT)⁵
• The promotion of personal travel budgets
• A review of the implications of introducing charges for SEND transport for 16-18-year-olds

The report included a list of the alternative ways in which the service could be delivered, and these included:

• ‘Do nothing’
• Collaborative procurement with neighbouring boroughs
• Combining ‘more than one element of the overall SEND transport provision’
• Managing the service in-house
• Directly awarding a contract to the incumbent provider

Each of the alternatives were then reviewed in detail, and each was assessed as not viable.

The report then lists the legal, sustainability, and diversity implications of running a procurement exercise. It says that:

‘Successful providers will be required [to] preferably have any vehicle used for the contract, under 3.5 tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW), be powered by a clean fuel. This will usually mean hydrogen cell or electricity (including electric hybrids).’

The report also noted that the Council’s Home to School Travel Policy was last updated in March 2021 and is currently under review.

Sufficiency Strategy – Children Looked After

The report pack included a report on the Council’s new ‘Sufficiency Strategy - Children Looked After and Care Leavers 2024 - 2027’. This report sought the views of the Committee on the Council’s new strategy for ensuring sufficient accommodation to meet the needs of the children it is responsible for, as required under Section 22G of the Children’s Act 1989.

The report says:

‘LBWF’s ambition is to provide safe, loving homes for children and young people in high-quality and affordable environments.’

The report outlines the Council’s three priorities under the strategy:

• Ensuring children and young people are thriving at home and in alternative care settings
• Ensuring all children and young people have access to safe, stable and supportive accommodation
• Supporting young people by building their independence.

The report included an action plan for delivering on each of the priorities.

The action plan for Priority 1 includes:

• Continuing to use the ‘Kinship Hub’ for assessments and support for kinship carers and Special Guardians⁶.
• Working with Coram, a regional adoption agency, to increase the number of children in Waltham Forest who are adopted, by promoting their ‘Early Permanence’ scheme.
• Increasing respite provision at Lester House, the Council’s in-house Children’s Residential, Respite and Contact Centre, to make it operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Extending the usage of the respite and short breaks provision at Lester House during the day for additional positive activity use by young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)⁷.
• Implementing the actions listed in the Council’s ‘SEND Strategy, Action and Implementation Plan 2024-27’.

The action plan for Priority 2 includes:

• Leading a cluster of five local authorities to create a front-door recruitment and retention hub to increase the number of foster carers in the area. The cluster includes the London Boroughs of Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Tower Hamlets, and Newham.
• Creating three new Mockingbird Constellations to increase the number of foster carers.
• Joining Newham Council’s Dynamic Purchasing System for the commissioning of independent foster carers.
• Providing increased payments to foster carers who provide homes to children with complex needs.
• Extending and expanding the current 16+ Semi Independent Accommodation framework to May 2026.
• Joining Newham’s Dynamic Purchasing System for the commissioning of residential care homes.
• Collaborating with neighbouring boroughs or specialist providers to develop additional alternative home provisions for children with complex physical and emotional health needs.
• Working with ‘national Children’s service providers’ to re-develop existing Council property into semi-independent accommodation for young care leavers.
• Developing an emergency accommodation suite at Lester House for young people under a Police Protection Order (PPO).
• Developing a ‘Crash Pad’ provision at Lester House as an alternative to formally taking children into care.
• Participating in the development of secure accommodation in London through the Pan London Commissioning Vehicle (PLCV) for the development of Secure Accommodation.

The action plan for Priority 3 includes:

• Redeveloping the Craft Design and Technology (CDT) block at the former George Mitchell Secondary School on Farmer Road in Leyton to create a new Leaving Care Hub and to provide three to six self-contained residential units.
• Developing further Gap Homes and Supported Lodgings schemes in partnership with Centre Point.
• Working with employers including Countryside Partnerships, Centre Point and Morgan Sindall to improve employment outcomes for care leavers.

The strategy report also contained a detailed analysis of the accommodation needs of children and young people in the Borough.

Corporate Parenting Board Annual Report

The report pack included the annual report of the Council’s Corporate Parenting Board (CPB)⁸, which provides a summary of the work undertaken by the board during the previous municipal year.

The report says:

‘The Corporate Parenting Board ensures high service standards are in place to fulfil commitments to children in care and implementing the Corporate Parenting Strategy. Waltham Forest supports children/young people in care and care-experienced young adults to lead safe, healthy, and successful lives. As at March 2024, the service supported 309 children in care and 411 care-experienced young adults, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people.’

The report also included a copy of the Board’s Corporate Parenting Strategy for 2024/25, which lists the Board’s five priorities:

• Safety and Stability
• Health and Wellbeing
• Identity and Belonging
• Education and Employment
• Independence and Preparation for the Future.

The report pack also included a summary of the adoption, fostering, health, independent reviewing, leaving care, virtual school and voice and influence services.

It is not possible to know whether the committee discussed, approved, amended, or otherwise considered any of the reports, or whether they took any action on the matters discussed in the reports.