The Scrutiny Coordinating Committee of Waltham Forest Council met on 24 September 2025 to discuss early intervention and prevention strategies, safeguarding partnerships, and corporate performance. The committee also planned to review action and recommendation trackers, and consider future agenda items. Councillor Yusuf Patel, Chair of the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee, was present alongside other councillors.

Early Intervention and Prevention

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report on early intervention and prevention strategies, central to the council's Mission Waltham Forest. The report, Early Intervention & Prevention Building Stronger Communities, outlined the council's commitment to shifting towards a prevention-focused approach to build stronger, more resilient communities.

The report noted that the council has a history of preventative work, including:

• Family Hubs
• Tackling air pollution
• Early identification of those at risk of losing their homes
• Addressing health inequalities

It also noted that the council is seeing unprecedented demand and cost pressures across services, particularly in relation to temporary accommodation, support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and adult social care packages.

The report stated that the council wants to strengthen communities and support people to build their resilience, and that in Waltham Forest, there are key building blocks to resilience that can help the council understand where people are and what they might need to improve their resilience.

The report also highlighted key priorities within the current prevention programme plan, which are to hardwire prevention, track impact, work locally and deliver in partnership. Some of the key delivery highlights to date are:

• Waltham Forest Max
• Adult Early Help (AEH) Link Worker service
• Prioritising work to improve financial resilience and unlock inclusive work
• Piloting use of a new tool called Signal

The report recommended that the committee review and comment on the commitment to and approach to embedding early intervention and prevention set out in the paper and provide recommendations to Cabinet.

Safeguarding Partnerships' Strategic Plans

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report providing an overview of improvements within the council's safeguarding partnerships. The report, Safeguarding Partnerships' Strategic Plans 25-28, provided an opportunity for the committee to develop a more proactive role in relation to safeguarding both adults and children.

The report noted that since 2016, the Waltham Forest Strategic Partnerships function has supported the work of the Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) and Safeguarding Children Partnership (SCP) as well as the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB), and Community Safety Partnership.

The report also noted that during the past 18 months, several external evaluations have enabled objective examination of the Statutory Strategic Partnership Boards, and that these reviews identified key areas for improvement, such as:

• Strengthening partners' line of sight and accountability within the Boards
• Broadening engagement with education partners and redefining those relationships
• Addressing limitations in resourcing within the Strategic Partnerships Unit (SPU)
• Enhancing quality assurance processes, particularly through multi-agency audits
• Clarifying relationships with national bodies, including the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
• Ensuring the Safeguarding Partnership leads on key areas of practice like child neglect
• Balancing in-person and remote meetings to optimise participation and effectiveness
• Disaggregating annual reports to enhance relevance and clarity

The report stated that the role and responsibilities of the Safeguarding Partnerships are supported by four key pillars: scrutiny and assurance, equitable safeguarding, impactful learning, and commitment to collaboration.

The Safeguarding Adults Board Priorities for 2025-28 are:

• Homelessness and Safeguarding
• Safer Providers
• Executive Functioning and Mental Capacity
• Safer Discharge from Hospital
• Safeguarding Informal Carers and Those They Care For
• Transitional Safeguarding

The Safeguarding Children Partnership Priorities for 2025-28 are:

• Neglect
• Harms Outside the Home
• Children Missing Education
• Children's Mental Health
• Child Sexual Abuse
• Appropriate Use of Restrictive Practices

The report recommended that the committee note and comment on the partnerships' renewed and refreshed focus on strategic planning, delivering on statutory reviews and embedding learning and practice improvement across the statutory partnerships, and note items scheduled to be presented to forthcoming committees and consider which aspects of the Safeguarding Partnerships' strategic plans could be considered for future scrutiny.

Corporate Impact Framework

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on corporate impact for the period ending July 2025. The report, Corporate Impact Framework (period ending July 2025), provided the committee with an update on corporate impact, and noted that from June 2024, a new way of measuring corporate performance was introduced across the Council, including a new set of impact metrics with more detailed commentary, a new dashboard, and an improved process for data collection and monitoring.

The report stated that the Corporate Impact Report monitors impact of the Council against its key priorities and main challenges, with a focus on the impact of the Council's strategies, policies and interventions, and is structured around the shared missions for the borough and council as set out in Mission Waltham Forest.

The report highlighted the following areas in the Council's Corporate Impact Report for the committee's consideration:

• Missed bins (CPR 12)
• Number of households leaving TA (CPR 89)
• Knife injury victims (CPR 07)

The report also provided an update on the government's proposed Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF), a new approach to outcome-based accountability for councils, as well as the council's response to the LGOF consultation.

The report recommended that the committee note the performance information within the report and the dashboard and to refer any identified issues and/or queries to the relevant scrutiny committee for further review, and note the information on the Local Government Outcomes Framework.

The Scrutiny Report

The committee was scheduled to review the action and recommendation trackers and ask any questions as necessary. The report, The Scrutiny Report, stated that the committee was also invited to review the Cabinet forward plan and the list of forward plan items.

The report included the Scrutiny Coordinating Committee Forward Plan 25/26 Cycle, the Action Log, the Recommendations Log, and the Cabinet Forward Plan.