The Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday 16 September 2025 to discuss children and young people's quality assurance, and youth justice. The committee was also scheduled to review the minutes from their previous meeting and consider their work programme.

Youth Justice

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the performance of the West Mercia Youth Justice Service.

The report pack included the West Mercia Youth Justice Service annual plan for the period 2025-2026, and performance information on:

• Reoffending rates
• First-time offending rates
• Accommodation, housing and homelessness
• Education and training
• Health
• Working with offenders and victims

The annual plan stated that the wellbeing of children would continue to be at the heart of everything that the youth justice service does in West Mercia during 2025/26. Gareth Boulton, Chair of West Mercia Youth Justice Service Strategic Management Board and Chief Executive Officer, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, wrote in the introduction to the plan:

The annual plan for this year reflects a service that is continuing to embed its Child First approach. The voices of children and victims are increasingly used to shape and co-produce services. This is helping to make those services more effective and is already delivering better outcomes for both young people and the wider communities in West Mercia. There is more to do however, and the annual plan this year reflects the progress made to date, alongside the commitment and belief that even more can and will be achieved.

The annual plan stated that the service's priorities for the coming year were based on the needs of children and victims, and a commitment to continuous improvement. It noted that most children have access to safe and suitable accommodation, and that most school-aged children are engaged in suitable education, training or employment. It also stated that this has resulted in lower numbers of children entering the criminal justice system in West Mercia than the England and Wales and YOT Family average¹. Similarly, the number of children in custody and the reoffending rates of children are below the England and Wales and YOT Family averages.

The annual plan noted that year-on-year comparisons show slight increases in the rates of first-time entrants and reoffending, and that this drives the priorities for 2025-26.

Children and Young People's Quality Assurance

The committee was scheduled to be briefed on the development, management, and learning arising from complaints and compliments.

The report pack included a report from the council's complaints department providing an overview of the management data and learning and data of complaints received in quarter one of 25/26 with relative comparisons to the prior year where appropriate, and a report from the Children Services Quality Assurance manager providing an overview of the service development in the management and analysis of learning from compliments and complaints.

The report from the complaints department noted that in quarter one, seven complaints were managed through the Children's Representations and Complaints Statutory Policy, a decrease from the 22 received in quarter one the previous year. It also noted that 0% of complaints were completed outside of the statutory timescale, a significant, commendable, improvement from the 79% of responses that were late in quarter 1 the previous year.

The report stated that the highest reasons for service users complaining remained around 'staff attitude' and 'service failure', suggesting that the way the council is interacting with families is not having the desired positive impact for all families.

The report recommended that the council enhance the effectiveness of stage 1 resolution² to reduce stage 2 and or stage 3 escalations and associated costs, and leverage compliments for best practice dissemination, analysing the themes from the 31 compliments received to identify specific positive behaviours, individual skills, and qualities that lead to positive service user experiences, and disseminating these best practices widely across all service areas to foster a culture of excellence and learn from what is working well.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to consider its work programme.