The Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission met to discuss several key issues, including the High Needs Block funding deficit, family therapy services, and placement sufficiency for children looked after and care leavers. The commission reviewed the progress of the High Needs Management Recovery plan, noted the positive impact of family therapy programmes, and agreed on strategic priorities for placement sufficiency. Members also received an update on adventure playgrounds.

High Needs Block (HNB) Funding

The Director of Education and SEND, Sophie Maltby, submitted a report to update the commission on the High Needs Block (HNB) funding for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). At the end of the 2023/24 financial year, Leicester City Council had a £9.648 million deficit in this area, and a statutory override is in place until April 2026 to exclude this from the main revenue budgets.

The report outlined the progress of the Transformation plan, which has six aims:

• New Department for Education (DfE) Reforms – The SEND and AP Change Programme
• Developing Ordinarily Available offer: LA, Schools, Settings & Colleges
• Local Authority Process reforms & Sufficiency
• Increase confidence for parents and carers
• Placement reforms
• Stakeholder Engagement

The report noted that the number of referrals for Education Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA) has slowed as schools and local authority settings have worked together to develop their 'Ordinarily Available' offer for pupils with SEND to be supported in mainstream education.

However, the report also highlighted risks and issues, including that funding from central government remains inadequate, parent/carer requests for assessment are a high proportion of the number of requests received, the in-year deficit is still increasing because demand for high-cost placements is increasing, the costs of high-cost placements are increasing, and the number of pupils requiring support in Post 16 is at its highest rate.

The report stated that forecasting shows the in-year deficit will be higher for 2024/25 at £16.675m, and the in-year deficit in 2025/26 due to increasing pupil numbers and cost inflation is forecast to be £23.715m. This gives a forecast cumulative deficit of over £50m by the end of 2025/26.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has received and scrutinised the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Management Recovery Plan and agreed to its content. An update meeting will be held in May 2025.

Family Therapies Service

The Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help, Damian Elcock, submitted a report updating the commission on the progress of delivering Family Therapies, including Multisystemic Therapy (MST), MST: Building Stronger Families (MST BSF), Functional Family Therapy for Child Welfare (FFT-CW), and Family Group Decision Making, for the period of Quarter 3. The report also provided a brief update on the development of the Family Functional Therapy reunification pilot.

The report stated that in the previous financial year, the teams successfully diverted 199 children from entering the care system, which avoided gross costs of £7.5 million.

In Quarter 3, the teams worked with 93 families and 183 children, and 86% of children in treatment have concluded treatment and remained safely at home. The report also noted that the average time between referral and treatment starting was 13 days, above the target of less than 10 days.

The report highlighted the success of the FFT reunification pilot, with 83% of the children signed up having returned home safely. The total annual savings, due to the reduction in high-cost care placements, would exceed £1,351,480 over a year.

The report also noted that Family Therapies is now live on Liquid Logic, enabling seamless and transparent referrals from social care, Children and Young Peoples Justice Service (CYJPS) and Early Help to access services. There are imminent plans to recruit to vacant Family Decision Making posts, and a business case is being written for additional posts.

The commission agreed to note the content of the report and the significant impact all the programmes are having on keeping children at home, where safe to do so. They also agreed to note that the Edge of Care Strategy will be launched over the coming months, that the FFT reunification pilot will conclude shortly, and a report is being prepared for submission on impact and outcomes and further opportunities to sustain the offer, and the need to recruit to the vacant Family Decision Making posts. The commission requested that an annual report be presented through to Scrutiny.

Placement Sufficiency for Children Looked After and Care Leavers

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education, Laurence Jones, submitted a report providing a summary of the progress made since the last placement sufficiency strategy of 2020/24, and setting out the proposed long-term priorities for 2025/30.

The council has a legal duty under Section 22G of the Children Act 1989 to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation for children looked after that meets their needs, and that as far as is reasonably practicable is within the local authority area.

The report stated that as of 31 March 2024, there were 599 children in care in Leicester, 45% identifying as female and 55% male. This reflects a decrease from the previous year when there were 630 children looked after (31 March 2023).

The report outlined the placement sufficiency priorities for 2025/30:

• To invest and strengthen the edge of care offer to support children to continue living at home or be reunified with their families when it is safe to do so.
• To support stability for children and young people, by providing timely options to achieve permanence in a safe and loving home with additional support to meet their individual needs.
• To increase recruitment and retention of mainstream and specialist foster carers to support their capacity to meet the needs of the children they care for and enable more children and young people to live locally.
• To review and reduce the use of out-of-area children’s residential homes and independent fostering agencies, and to increase in-house children’s residential home provision.
• To commission smarter to reduce costs, assure quality and support better matching, through building relationships with market providers and establishing stronger commissioning practices.
• To expand the provision of high-quality semi-independent and independent accommodation, working with both the voluntary and private sectors as new accommodation and support is commissioned.

The report noted that a new children’s home, Hillview Children’s Residential Home, is due to open in Autumn 2025, providing a further six spaces, including training flats for young people leaving care.

The commission agreed to note the progress made delivering the Placement Sufficiency strategy from 2020/24 and agreed to the proposed strategic priorities for 2025/30. They also agreed to provide an annual update to the Children, Young People and Education (CYPE) Scrutiny on the progress made against the strategic priorities and any changes to the operational context that might impact on the delivery of the priorities.

Adventure Playgrounds Update

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education provided a verbal update outlining the decision made and the licensing position regarding adventure playgrounds. No further details were provided in the summary.

Work Programme

Members of the commission considered the work programme and were invited to make suggestions for additions as appropriate to be brought to future meetings. Improvement Plan Updates would be added to the forward plan. The work programme was noted.