The Havering Council People Overview & Scrutiny Sub Committee met on 15 July 2025 to discuss the Care Quality Commission (CQC) assurance of the local authority, Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) needs and pressures, and ONEL JHOSC nominations.

CQC Assurance of Local Authority Adult Social Care

The sub-committee was scheduled to scrutinise a report on the CQC assurance of the local authority. The Health and Care Act 2022 put the CQC's assurance of local authorities on a statutory footing. The new duty on the CQC to assess local authorities' delivery of their adult social care duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014 came into effect in late 2023. It is intended that all local authorities will be inspected by the end of 2025.

The CQC will use a new framework to assess how well local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014¹. The framework was developed through co-production with partners, agencies and people with direct experience of using care and support services. The local authority assessment framework uses a subset of the quality statements from the overall single assessment framework. The assessment framework for local authorities comprises nine quality statements mapped across four overall themes:

• Working with People
• Providing Support
• Ensuring Safety
• Leadership

For each theme, the CQC set out the 'I' statements and quality statements that they will assess. Quality statements are the commitments that local authorities must commit to, expressed as 'we statements', showing what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care. I statements are what people expect, and are based on Think Local Act Personal's 'Making It Real' framework.

The report included a self-assessment, which grew out of discussions with staff and partners, and was used as a tool to incorporate the voices and practice wisdom of colleagues. It highlighted the council's strengths and acknowledged areas for improvement, as well as highlighting plans to address these.

The council's strengths were listed as:

• Workforce supporting people through increasing demand and complexity
• Consideration of clients' diverse needs are taken into account
• Clear approach to practice
• Better Living is embedded through the whole service
• Well embedded Quality Assurance Framework and practice audit process
• Positive Local Area Coordination Service
• Dedicated and highly effective Reablement service

Areas for development were listed as:

• Reduce waiting lists
• Co-produce the information and advice plan
• Increase assessments for unpaid carers
• Improve Mental Capacity Act² (MCA) application & evidence professional thinking
• Offering advocacy support
• Engagement with the community to understand those at risk of having unmet needs

The report also set out the council's corporate objectives:

• Supporting residents to stay safe and well
• A great place to live, work and enjoy
• Enabling a resident-focused and resilient council

The council's balanced scorecard priorities were listed as:

• Working towards meeting the increasing demand for adult social care services
• Supporting people to return home from hospital with safe and timely discharges
• Promoting high standards of social care practice and supporting social care teams to deliver effective services
• Supporting the workforce
• Increase identification of and support to unpaid carers
• Increase engagement and enhance understanding of the community we support (journey to co-production)
• Strengthen transition pathways to ensure people receive timely and effective support
• Ensure relevant and useful information and advice is available for residents relating to adult social care
• Reviews of supported living to ensure appropriate outcomes and ensure value for money

The report also detailed the CQC assurance process, including the two-stage notification process. The council submitted its evidence against the new single assessment framework and information return along with its self-assessment on 2 May 2025, comprising 120 items. A site visit was scheduled for the week commencing 18 August 2025.

EHCP Needs and Pressures

The sub-committee was scheduled to scrutinise a report regarding EHCP needs and pressures.

Nationally, there has been a 10.8% increase in EHCPs in England from January 2024 to January 2025, with 5.3% of pupils in England now having an EHCP. In Havering, there has been a 16% increase from January 2024 (2583) to January 2025 (3009). The percentage of pupils in Havering with EHCP is still below the national average (4.4% compared to 4.7% in 2024), but the size of this gap is narrowing due to higher year-on-year increases compared to the average national increase.

It was reported that 34% of EHCPs have been issued within 20 weeks since 1 April 2025, while the national figure for 2023 was 50.3%. The cause of the low performance is the requirement for Educational Psychologist (EP) reports as part of EHC needs assessments at a time of national shortage of EPs and rapidly increasing need. Havering has a strong record of recruitment and retention compared to neighbours, but it is still impossible to meet demand for assessments from permanent capacity alone.

The report stated that investment in the Assessment & Placement Team will see caseloads brought down from January 2026, and the use of AI (Beam) to draft EHCPs will free up capacity for improved communication with parents/carers, schools and settings, and ensure stronger performance can be sustained once a new EP contract is in place.

The report also included a table showing the projected demand for EP EHCP assessments, the capacity of permanent staff, and the remaining assessments to be completed by agency staff for the academic years 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27.

ONEL JHOSC Nominations

The sub-committee was scheduled to nominate members to sit on the ONEL JHOSC³. The ONEL JHOSC meets quarterly and scrutinises health issues which impact Outer North East London. The JHOSC comprises of councillors from Havering, Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Essex.