The Children and Young People's Overview and Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet to discuss the inspection of local authority children's services, an overview of public health services, and financial reports. The committee was also expected to review the latest performance management report.

Inspecting Local Authority Children's Services

The committee was scheduled to note the findings of a recent short inspection by Ofsted under the Inspecting Local Authority Children's Services (ILACS) framework. The ILACS framework focuses on how well the council helps and protects children, the experiences and progress of children in care, and arrangements for ensuring children have stable homes. Inspectors also evaluate the effectiveness of leaders and managers.

According to the report pack, an ILACS short inspection took place in County Durham between 24 and 28 March 2025. Inspectors spoke to over 100 practitioners and managers, children and young people, parents, council staff, partner organisations and other stakeholders.

The report pack states that inspectors made judgements based on a four-point scale, and concluded that the overall effectiveness of services for children and families in County Durham was 'outstanding'. The report also noted that the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families was also judged as 'outstanding'. The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection was judged as 'good', and the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers was judged as 'outstanding'.

The report pack also notes that inspectors identified two areas for improvement:

• Contingency planning in child-in-need and child protection plans.
• The inclusion of children's needs as young carers in child-in-need and child protection plans.

The committee was also scheduled to note the post inspection action plan aligning with the two areas for improvement.

Rachel Farnham, Head of Children's Social Care, was scheduled to give a presentation to the committee, covering the ILACS framework, the ILACS short inspection, inspection judgements, the views of children and young people, and areas for improvement.

Overview of Public Health Services

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview of public health services that fall into its remit. The presentation was expected to cover data on children and young people's health and wellbeing, public health statutory duties and the public health strategic plan. It was also expected to describe the relevant areas of the strategic plan, including statutory duties, key achievements and future plans.

The presentation slides in the report pack provide information on:

• Children and young people in County Durham
• Local authority public health statutory responsibilities under the Health and Social Care Act 2012
• Leading strategic priorities for health and wellbeing across the life course
• Making smoking history
• Leading on 0-25 Healthy Child Programme and supporting children and young people to have the best start in life
• Health protection
• Sexual health services
• Oral health
• Reducing harm from drugs and alcohol
• Domestic abuse
• Enabling healthy weight for all
• Improving mental health resilience and wellbeing
• Next steps

The report pack states that local authorities have statutory responsibilities for public health services, including health protection, sexual health services, the child measurement programme, and public health advice to the NHS.

The presentation also covers non-mandated functions such as creating a smoke free generation by 2030. The presentation notes that smoking is recognised to be the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death, with huge inequalities in smoking prevalence and smoking related deaths.

The presentation also highlights key achievements such as:

• A dedicated worker to provide outreach into Children and Young People's service, developing appropriate referral pathways and support
• Families supported to stop smoking to reduce children's exposure to second-hand smoke
• Stop Smoking Service Additional Grant to fund 3 workers within Family Hubs
• A multi-agency call to action event to address Tobacco Dependency in Pregnancy

The presentation also notes that the council aims to match the breastfeeding England average of around 2 in 3 mothers breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks by 2034/35.

Amanda Healy, Director of Public Health, and Bekki Shenfine, Consultant in Public Health, were scheduled to deliver the presentation.

Financial Reports

The committee was scheduled to discuss two financial reports: the Children and Young People's Services Final Outturn for 2024/25, and the Children and Young People's Services Quarter 1 Forecast of Outturn for 2025/26.

CYPS Financial Outturn for 2024/25

The report pack states that the revenue outturn for 2024/25 was an overspend of £13.074 million, representing a 7% overspend against the revised net revenue budget. The report pack also states that the outturn position includes overspends within Social Care of £15.469 million, and underspends within Education and Skills of £1.746 million and Early Help, Inclusion and Vulnerable Children of £0.706 million.

According to the report pack, the Social Care overspend of £15.469 million was £1.342 million higher than the quarter three forecast overspend of £14.127 million. The main factor in the Social Care overspend is an overspend of £10.986 million relating to the cost of placements for children in care.

The report pack states that across the 2024/25 financial year, the number of children in care reduced by 11 (1%) from 1,196 to 1,185, however the number of children in care in placements costing more than £100,000 per annum increased by 33 (28%) from 120 to 153. The increase of 33 high-cost placements largely reflected an increase in external residential placements, which increased by 24 over the year from 99 to 123.

The report pack also notes that the average cost of external residential placements increased by 3.5% from £0.340 million in April 2024 to £0.352 million in March 2025.

The report pack states that outside of the children in care placements budget there is a combined overspend of £4.483 million across other areas of the Social Care budget, including:

• £1.301 million in relation to employee expenditure in Children in Care and Permanence teams.
• £0.789 million relating to legal and professional fees due to increased demand.
• £0.777 million overspend in relation to Special Guardianship Orders due to increased demand and movement from Friends and Family Fostering arrangements.
• £0.731 million relating to an increase in Crisis Intervention support provided into family homes.
• £0.479 million overspend in relation to services for disabled children, including support packages and revenue contributions to fund adaptations to support children to remain at home that exceed the Disabled Facilities Grant maximum allocation.

The report pack states that the Education and Skills service reported an underspend of £1.746 million, which is £0.772 million higher than the underspend forecast of £0.974 million highlighted at quarter three, mainly due to:

• £1.573 million underspend against Early Years budgets.
• £0.244 million against employee budgets.
• £0.137 million underspend against the Home to School Transport budget of £32.7 million.
• £0.113 million underspend against the budget for Further Education Pension Liabilities. These underspends are offset partially by a £0.333 million shortfall against income budgets of £4.8 million for service level agreements with schools.

The report pack states that Early Help and Inclusion had an underspend of £0.706 million, which is £0.471 million higher than what was forecast at quarter three, mainly due to:

• Underspends in employee and activity budgets in the One Point and SEND service areas.
• Aycliffe Secure Centre reporting a nil variance after a contribution to reserves of £0.286 million.

The report pack also provides details of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and schools, noting that the council currently maintains 128 schools. The report pack states that the final position has improved since budget setting when it was forecast that the 145 schools would need to use £4.688 million of their reserves in 2024/25. The final outturn shows that the 128 schools contributed a net £2.649 million to reserves rather than a net draw on their reserves.

The report pack states that the outturn position for the centrally retained DSG budgets is an overspend of £11.260 million. The High Needs Block (HNB) budget for 2024/25 was set with a forecast deficit of £6.547 million, due to the significant gap between high needs funding levels and high needs financial pressures to meet statutory SEND requirements. The final outturn is an overspend of £12.386 million against the grant allocation for 2024/25.

CYPS Quarter 1 Forecast of Outturn for 2025/26

The report pack states that the 2025/26 projected outturn for CYPS, based upon the position to the end of June 2025, is an overspend of £1.778 million, representing a 0.9% overspend against the revised annual budget. The report pack also states that the forecast revenue outturn position includes an overspend within Social Care of £2.279 million and combined underspends of £0.501 million across other areas of the service.

The report pack states that the forecast overspend in Social Care is the position after taking account of a budget transfer of £4 million from Adult and Health Services, which increases the Children in Care placements budget.

The report pack also notes pressures in other areas of the Social Care budget, including:

• £1.507 million in Social Worker staffing.
• £0.270 million for provision of support for children in need under section 17 of the Children Act.
• £0.261 million for support provided into family homes for children in need who may be on the edge of care.
• £0.244 million for respite placements for children with disabilities.

The report pack states that the Early Help, Inclusion and Vulnerable Children service is forecasting an underspend of £0.146 million against budget, and that the Education Service is forecasting an underspend of £0.515 million against its budget.

The report pack also provides details of the Dedicated Schools Grant and schools, noting that the council currently maintains 128 schools. The report pack states that at quarter one schools forecast they will need to use £8.089 million of reserves to balance the in-year financial position, which is £0.354 million more than original budgets set by school governing bodies.

The report pack states that the forecast outturn position for the centrally retained DSG budgets shows a projected overspend of £14.522 million. The High Needs Block DSG budget for 2025/26 was set with an anticipated deficit of £14.250 million. The quarter one forecast outturn indicates that this overspend position will be £0.272 million higher, at £14.522 million.

David Watchman, Finance Manager, was scheduled to present both of the finance reports.

Quarter One 2025/2026 Performance Management Report

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Quarter One 2025/2026 Performance Management Report.

The report pack states that in the May council elections, Reform UK was elected as the new administration for the council, and that the interim ambitions, objectives and political direction of the administration were set out in a paper to Cabinet on 21 July following the end of quarter one, 2025/26.

The report pack notes that the new administration has made several changes that have changed the political direction of the council, including scrapping the council's climate emergency pledge, reviewing net zero commitments, introducing article reviewing the council's capital programme and choosing not to upgrade the electric vehicle fleet. The new administration has also declared a 'County Durham Care Emergency' and introduced new rules that make it more difficult for landlords to convert housing into shared accommodation.

The report pack states that the new administration's ambitions, objectives and political direction are now reflected within the council's performance framework, although there is more work to do on this, particularly in relation to target setting and reporting of progress against council plan objectives.

The report pack also provides details of performance against key performance indicators, including:

• Family hub registration
• One Point referrals
• Children open to One Point service
• Children's social care referral rate
• Children's social care re-referral rate
• Children in Need rate
• Child Protection Plan rate
• Children's social care assessments completed in timescale
• Children's social work vacancy rate
• Children with a SEN support plan
• Children with an EHCP
• EHCPs completed on time
• Eligibility for free school meals
• Take-up of free school meals
• Children who are electively home educated
• Government funded childcare
• Children in care rate
• Children in care in a family setting
• Care leavers aged 17-24

John Hewitt, Chief Executive, was scheduled to present the report.