The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to discuss updates from Ofsted, reports on adoption services, and a sufficiency statement for children in care and care leavers, at a meeting on 18 July 2025. The panel was also scheduled to hear from young people of the Children in Care Council (CiCC) about their activities. Some of the items scheduled for discussion contained exempt information and were expected to be discussed in private.

Sufficiency Statement for Children in Care and Care Leavers 2025-2029

The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to discuss the new Sufficiency Statement for Children in Care and Care Leavers 2025-2029 and associated delivery plan. The statement sets out Durham County Council's approach to securing sufficient accommodation for children in care, as required by section 22G of the Children Act 1989¹. The report noted that demand to meet this duty is increasing across the UK, placing pressure on council budgets. It also noted a series of national reviews looking at the needs and experiences of children supported by social care. These include:

• The independent review of children's social care by Josh MacAlister²
• The Competitions and Markets Authority Children's Social Care Market Study
• Evidencing the outsourcing of social care provision in England (Nuffield Foundation).

The report also refers to the Department of Education's policy paper, 'Keeping children safe, helping families thrive,' which has four key principles:

• Keeping children with their families wherever possible
• Supporting children to live with kinship or foster carers rather than in residential care
• Fixing the broken care market
• Improving data and information sharing

The Sufficiency Statement identifies a number of challenges, including:

• A 33% rise in the children in care rate over the past 5 years
• A higher rate of children entering care compared to statistical neighbours and the national average
• A growing number of children in care who have special educational needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan³
• A high proportion of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people
• A need for more foster carers
• A rise of 258% since 2019 in the use of independent children's homes, with 60% of young people in independent homes living outside of County Durham.

The Sufficiency Statement focuses on four key opportunities for change:

• Support for children and young people to live outside of care
• Family based homes
• Sufficiency for children's homes
• Market management opportunities and broader work with the region

The report notes that expenditure on children in care placements has increased by 193% since 2020, placing significant pressure on council budgets.

Adopt Coast to Coast Annual Report 2024-25

The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to receive an update on the fourth year of operation of Adopt Coast to Coast, the regional adoption agency (RAA) for Durham County Council and Together for Children, which delivers children's services on behalf of Sunderland City Council.

The report noted that enquiries have increased, but are still lower than the target achieved in 2022-23. The report attributes this to the cost of living crisis.

The report also notes the learning from marketing activity carried out to date:

(a) Google ads are essential to maintaining incoming enquiries and remain our biggest recruitment tool;

(b) Real stories resonate with people child profiles and child specific campaigns increase engagement;

(c) Videos are engaged with the most;

(d) Social media and digital activity support awareness raising;

(e) Targeted campaigns e.g. brother and sister groups adoption throughout the year works well;

(f) Adopter 'type' specific recruitment activity is well received e.g. LGBTQ+ and single parent adopters.

The report sets out the marketing activity objectives for 2025/26, which include:

• To return enquiry numbers in line with 2022/23 enquiries
• To recruit a pool of suitable prospective adopters
• To maintain brand recognition and awareness
• To monitor conversion rates from enquiry to stage one and onwards and review reasons for withdrawals.

The report also sets out the practice priorities for 2025/26, which include:

• Agree and implement practice change to update an assessment of support needs prior to the Adoption Order being granted or a year after child/ren are placed
• Continue to embed the lived experience development of Adoptive Parent Reference Group launched in September 2024 and the children and young people's voice and influence group Adopt Shine launched in January 2025.
• Increase the universal adoption support offer and extend this to adopters living in our area who adopted from another agency.
• Conclude the work around KIT and support stakeholders in embedding the practice changes to modernise KIT.
• Commence the audit and development of a tiered adoption support offer.

Annual Adoption Service Report 2024/25

The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to receive the annual review of the Adoption Service for 2024/25, including the identification of service priorities for 2025/26.

The report notes that from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, DCC's Adoption Team received 133 initial enquiries, carried out 80 initial visits, and held 21 information sessions.

The report also notes that matches for children with adopters continues to be carried out in a timely manner, with a clear drive to promote Early Permanence care for children.

The report sets out the following key priority areas for 2024/25:

• To continue to work collaboratively with our partner in Adopt Coast to Coast to recruit, assess and approve prospective adopters in a timely manner.
• To ensure children's plans of permanence via adoption are progressed without delay.
• Early Permanence carers are to be identified at the earliest possible stage in children's planning to prevent delay and ensure minimal moves for children.
• Ensure that assessments of prospective adopters' progress within timescales at Stage One of the adoption process.
• To continue to recruit new Panel members to the Central List.
• To continue to build on the high-quality post adoption support offer to adopted children and young adults, supporting them to access therapy via the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund.
• To enhance and develop Keeping in Touch for adopted children and their birth families.
• To monitor and drive forward performance to track all plans of adoption and use the monthly score card meetings to drill down and target resources and learning from this.
• To continue to upskill adoption social workers allowing access to up to date and relevant training from Adoption England, CoramBAAF, CVAA etc, and share this learning across the RAA.

Care Leavers Service Update 2024-2025

The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to receive an update on the progress of the Care Leavers Service over the last year.

The report notes that the Care Leavers Service has further developed its offer both within the service and in terms of the Local Offer over the last year. The voice of young people has further influenced service development.

The report also notes that the Care Leavers Service consists of two Care Leavers teams and the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) team and has seen an increasing number of young people requiring support.

The report sets out the following plans for the future:

• Being part of developing the Next Steps Super Hub at Abbey Woods including a Life Skills space and an Emotional Wellbeing room.
• Continuing the work of improving adult services knowledge of care leavers to ensure they have a sensitive improved offer from adult mental health and the police.
• Building on the custody project to ensure that other prisons give a valuable consistent offer to care leavers.
• Build on the EET offer as part of the protected characteristics work to ensure all service areas within the authority have an offer for care leavers.
• Recruit a Care Leaver Ambassador to lead on care leaver participation and ensure the voice of care leavers continues to improve the local offer.
• Develop a care leaver board including young people with more complex needs, such as those who have been homeless or in custody.
• Gain an allotment as the next Hub to provide further opportunities to develop skills and provide a calming wellbeing space.
• Be involved with work around protected characterises to ensure opportunities for care leavers improve throughout the authority.
• Drive forward the support for young people who stop attending school at age 13 so that this does not become imbedded and become a mental health issue when a young person is a care leaver. Continuing to raise awareness of outcomes and deliver training.
• Be part of improving transition and pathway planning by supporting and working alongside the Next Steps Team.
• Implement a Care Leavers third team to manage the increasing demand for care leaver support.

Update from the Children in Care Council (CiCC)

The Corporate Parenting Panel were scheduled to receive a presentation from young people of the Children in Care Council (CiCC).

The presentation was expected to provide details of activity during June and July.

The report notes that three CiCC members from the older group are undertaking work experience placements with Investing in Children (IiC) throughout June and July.

A key part of their work experience involves:

• Developing Social Work Training
• Raising the Profile of Independent Visitors
• Foster Care Awareness