The Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission met to discuss the Families First Programme, a performance dashboard for social care and education, and an improvement plan for children's social care, early help, and prevention. The commission was also scheduled to discuss questions raised by Dr Nizamuddin Patel regarding Ofsted's report on children's services. The meeting also included an introduction to the CYPE Scrutiny Commission.

Ofsted Action Plan

The Director of Children's Social Work and Early Help was scheduled to submit a report on the Children's Social Care, Early Help and Prevention Improvement Plan. This plan was created in response to an Ofsted inspection in September 2024, which gave an overall rating of 'requires improvement to be good' across all key areas.

The inspection identified five areas requiring action:

• The range and accuracy of information used by leaders to evaluate service performance and the quality and impact of management oversight and supervision.
• The timeliness and robustness of responses to contacts and referrals.
• The quality and consistency of care plans and pathway plans.
• Arrangements to identify, safeguard and support the most vulnerable children in care and care leavers, including children in unregistered children's homes.
• Support for care leavers who may be more reluctant to accept help, including those in custody and those facing homelessness.

The report pack included a summary of the improvement plan¹ which detailed key activities and desired outcomes. For example, to improve the quality and consistency of care plans, the plan included actions such as:

• Strengthening pathway plans
• Reviewing all forms and paperwork
• Developing practice around child protection plans
• Focusing on aspirational care planning
• Piloting a family version of care plans

The delivery of the action plan is being overseen through the Improvement Planning and Children's Transformation (IMPACT) governance.

Families First Programme

Laurence Jones, Strategic Director of Social Care and Education and Damian Elcock, Director of Children's Social Care, were scheduled to give a presentation outlining the vision for the development of services in Leicester in response to the government's reforms to children's social care, known as the Families First Programme².

The report states that the FFP aims to keep more children in safe and loving homes and improve child protection outcomes, and that it emphasises a whole-system approach to ensure that families receive timely, co-ordinated, and effective support tailored to their needs.

Social Care and Education Performance Dashboard

Laurence Jones, Strategic Director of Social Care and Education, was scheduled to submit a report to the commission regarding a new quarterly performance dashboard. The dashboard is intended to include key data on performance, volumes, and finance across children's services, education, and adult social care.

The report notes that the dashboard will be produced approximately two months past the end of each quarter and will be presented to the Lead Member and the to the City Mayor' Education, Health and Care Board (EHCB). It was proposed that a version of the dashboard be provided to members of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission.

The dashboard is a Microsoft Excel document which is interactive and allows site of top-level data and an ability to drill down in more detail in certain areas. The first tab is a summary page with three sections containing finance workforce and performance metrics across children's services, adult services and education including comparator figures for previous years and benchmarking against national, statistical neighbour authorities when available.

Questions from Dr Nizamuddin Patel

Dr Nizamuddin Patel submitted a series of questions for consideration by the commission. These questions included:

• Regarding Ofsted's latest report for children's services, is the department planning on working with Leicestershire County Council to share good practices to improve LCC children's services?
• Regarding Ofsted's statement that the overall effectiveness of the department has declined since its last inspection in 2021, have senior leaders considered an 'open door' policy for any level of their staff to speak with them openly?
• Will senior leaders consider emailing/contacting parents and other professionals involved with children's social service on a regular basis with a simple feedback form/questionnaire to gauge an understanding of how well the service is currently operating and if there can be any improvements to the service?
• Regarding the national shortage of skilled social workers and the council's plans for international recruitment, what perks or additional benefits do LCC give domestic social workers which will entice them to continue working with LCC?
• From exit interviews with social workers leaving LCC, what are the 3 most common reasons for them leaving, and can this be mitigated?

Introduction to CYPE Scrutiny Commission

The Lead Scrutiny Directors of the Commission were scheduled to outline the service areas that form part of the commission.

Other Matters

The agenda also included:

• Welcome and apologies for absence
• Declarations of interest
• Minutes of the previous meeting
• Membership of the commission 2025/26
• Dates of meetings for the commission 2025/26
• Terms of reference
• Chair's announcements
• Petitions
• Work programme
• Any other business