The Harrow Council Corporate Parenting Panel met to discuss updates and improvements to services for children looked after (CLA) and care leavers. Reports were presented on participation services, children missing from care, care leavers in custody, the leaving care service, an Ofsted monitoring visit, the virtual school autumn term, and health services for CLA. The panel noted all reports and recommendations.

Leaving Care Services

The panel received several updates on Harrow's services for young people leaving care, following an Ofsted inspection in January 2025 that judged the services to be inadequate.

Ofsted Monitoring Visit

A monitoring visit from Ofsted in September 2025 found that significant progress has been made since the January 2025 inspection. The inspectors, Jenny-ellen Scotland and Michael Taylor, reported that the local authority was in a very different place to where they were in January and that leaders had shown honesty in recognizing faults .

Inspectors reviewed files, spoke with care leavers and personal advisors, and attended meetings. Their headlines included:

• Young people reported being happy with the service and their personal advisor (PA).
• Significant improvement since January 2025 was recognised.
• There was commitment from leaders to care leavers.
• A stand-alone care leavers service had been set up.
• Team managers and PAs had been recruited.
• All young people who should be allocated to a PA or virtual worker were allocated.
• All young people in custody were allocated a PA.
• No concerns were referred, care leavers were safe and no young people were escalated in this monitoring visit.

One PA said the service had been 'completely transformed to somewhere I enjoy working and where I know how to access support for young people.'

Areas for further development included improving planning for care leavers leaving custody, ensuring the response meets the need of the young person, ensuring pathway plans are co-produced with young people, ensuring the consistent voice of care leavers throughout their planning, increasing understanding of the political landscape for young people seeking asylum, and increasing the support for young people from other professionals.

Leaving Care Service Update

The panel received an update on the Leaving Care Service, which was established in response to the Ofsted inspection. The aim of the service is to offer an accessible and welcoming response to all care experienced young people seeking support.

Since March 2025, the service has:

• Created three care leaving teams with a total of 16 PAs.
• Ensured messaging is in place to ensure that young people have consistent clarity about their rights and entitlements as children looked after and care leavers.
• Established and further developed both the Children in Care Council and Care Leaver Forum.
• Established a weekly drop in for care leavers with partners in housing, early careers, health and education giving input.
• Evolved co-production with care experienced young people, reviewing new initiatives, current practice and policies.
• Recruited a Head of Service, Service manager, 2 Team Managers and 4 Personal Advisors
• Created a duty system including duty phone line, email address, linked to EDT / Out Of Hours so that care leavers always have access to support.
• Created a point of access for care leavers to see a personal advisor in person at Elmgrove.
• Created the Virtual Worker system holding all 'opted out' care leavers and ensuring 'keeping in touch' activity, adopting a no closed door for care leavers under 25
• Reduced case loads to a more manageable average of 20 and protected admin time 'Stop the Clock' - One morning a week.
• Held a Complex Case Panel weekly to discuss high risk / stuck cases and ratify next steps with senior managers
• Held performance meetings weekly to provide oversight and scrutiny.
• Sent the Local Offer¹ to all care leavers
• Delivered 'Practice Fundamentals' training by the Academy
• Commenced Family Business Model discussions with cross directorates
• Commenced partnership involvement discussions to create a more joined up approach to care leavers with Health, Housing, CAMHS² / health and Custody / Probation and Early Help
• Shaw Trust³ going live on 6th October supporting hard to reach care leavers into education, employment and training
• Extended summer activities to care leavers for the first time
• Put the Local Offer in user friendly format on website
• Involved care leavers in recruitment process for Practitioners including Team Managers – Plan to extend this across the whole service
• Put a council tax exemption in place

Next steps include developing services for care leavers in custody, those who are parents and those who are unaccompanied asylum seekers, progressing the Family Business Model, progressing partnership involvement with Health, Housing, CAMHS / health and Custody / Probation and Early Help, sending out a care leaver survey regarding apprenticeships offer in Harrow, progressing the idea of recruiting a Care Leaver 'Ambassadors', and considering adopting Care Leaver status as a Protected Characteristic.

Mark Riddell Review

Mark Riddell, the DfE⁴ National Care Leaver Implementation Advisor, attended Harrow in June 2025, as part of a 2-day review of the support offer for Care Leavers in Harrow. He spoke to 24 care leavers and described their feedback on services and support as 'mixed'.

Mr Riddell provided 24 recommendations across three workstreams: Corporate Parenting Governance Support, Partnerships & Transitions, and Local Operational Model & Local Offer.

In response to Mr Riddell's recommendations, the following multi-agency activity has been undertaken:

• Corporate Parenting Panel Membership Expansion of membership to include Harrow CAMHS, London Probation Service and Harrow Adults Social as part of enhancing multi-agency ownership of corporate parenting responsibilities.
• Elected Member Champions & Priority Area Meetings work is underway via the Portfolio Holder to develop a network of Elected member Champions for Care Leavers in key portfolio areas across Harrow Council. This will then lead to regular 'Priority Area' meetings (e.g. Health, Housing, other key priorities for Care Leavers) attended by Experts by experience to shape the Local Offer and overall support for Care Leavers.
• Recruiting Experts by Experience Scoping work is underway regarding a paid Care Leaver post to support effective participation.
• Expanded Nursing Support for Care Leavers Exploration is underway regarding potential expansion of the CLA Nursing Service for to Care Leavers 18-21 years.
• Clarification of Mental Health Support Pathways work has commenced to clarify mental health pathways and support for Children In Care and Care Leavers via Harrow CAMHS, Harrow Horizons and Harrow Commissioning Services to support a multiagency Transitions Protocol.
• Housing Support Work underway to develop a standardised 'move-in' support package for Care Leavers.
• Multi-Agency Practice Framework Work underway to develop a step-in' practice approach across services to support Children in Care through transitions to adulthood as Care Leavers.
• Local Offer Development Multi-agency survey completed to understand strengths and areas of development in the Care Leaver Local Offer.
• Leisure Offer & Council Tax Exemption Out of Borough work is underway across Council directorates to explore enhancing the Leisure offer for Care Leavers, whilst work is also underway to explore feasibility of Council Tax exemptions for Care levers residing outside of Harrow.
• Recruiting Experts by Experience Scoping work is underway regarding a paid Care Leaver post to support effective participation.
• Development of Council-wide Education, Training & Employment Strategy work underway across Council directorates to develop unified ETE offer approach.
• Support for Shaw Trust initiative
• Strengthening ETE links with contracted providers and external partners.
• Linking with Learn & Work Harrow to further expand opportunities for Care Leavers.

Care Leavers in Custody

The panel received a presentation on care leavers in custody, which highlighted that Ofsted's inspection in January 2025 highlighted that most care leavers in custody were previously closed to the service, with limited planning and oversight. Mark Riddell, in his June 2025 review, recommended Harrow develop a specific offer for young people entering or leaving custody.

Harrow has introduced a dedicated improvement plan to ensure every care leaver in custody receives active support, purposeful oversight, and clear resettlement planning. There are currently 13 care leavers in custody, all allocated to a named Personal Adviser (PA) within the Leaving Care Service.

The age profile of the cohort is 19–24 years, the majority are young adults transitioning from care to independence. All 13 are male, and over 75% are from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds.

Key progress since January 2025 includes:

• The London Probation Service is now a standing member of Harrow's Corporate Parenting Panel, meeting monthly to review all care leavers in custody.
• A shared dataset of all young people in custody has been agreed between Probation, Youth Justice Service (YJS), and Leaving Care for consistent tracking.
• Pathway Plans have begun to include key custody and resettlement information addressing accommodation, EET⁵, ID, health, and finances.
• Regular supervision and processes have been introduced to maintain focus on outcomes.
• Advocacy has led to tangible improvements for example, securing education places and ensuring medication continuity inside custody.
• A young person's custody guide has been drafted, explaining entitlements, contact arrangements, and what to expect on release. The guide will be co-produced with care-experienced young people and partners before publication.

Next steps include developing and implementing the Custody & Resettlement Protocol, introducing Day-of-Release Planning, improving Pre-Release Preparation, embedding Constructive Resettlement & Trauma-Informed Practice, enhancing Health & Wellbeing Pathways, strengthening Family & Network Support, Data & Performance Monitoring, and Co-Production with Care-Experienced Young People.

Children Missing From Care

The panel received a report on children missing from care, which covered Quarter 2 of 2025/2026. During this period, 22 of the 214 children in care were reported missing, and they were all offered a return home conversation (RHC).

All conversations have identified that children are exposed to risk outside of their placements such as criminal activities and exploitation. 2% known drug misuse 2% known criminality 2% suspected alcohol use. Conversations also yielded information in relation to concerning friendship groups of family members (3%), suspected gang activity (5%) and mental health concerns (2%).

Trends identified in Q2 included:

• A number of placements are reporting young people missing when they are actually absent without permission.
• A high proportion of young people aged 17 are staying at their friend's homes and are not sharing the details with the placement or social worker which is leading to a missing report being generated.
• A number of children who have been placed outside of the borough are coming back to Harrow to stay with friends and family without approval.

The past 2 quarters have seen an uptake in return home interviews and these interviews are yielding valuable information which is leading to timely support being offered. The past 2 quarters have seen an increase in girls aged 17 going missing from care.

The report included an anonymised case summary of a young person named Abena, which highlighted a critical gap in communication and procedural follow-through within placement settings.

Participation Service Update

The panel received an update from the Participation Service, which outlined the progress made on interventions such as the upcoming app for care leavers, the Protected Characteristics motion within the Council, and the modernisation of the post-18 Information Pack.

Priorities for 2025/2026 identified by the Care Leavers Forum include:

• Improving the current financial offer around driving lessons in particular, increasing the £250 allowance to £350, in recognition of the average lesson fee of £25/hour
• Increasing clarity around the Locata process ensuring young people have realistic, relevant information about their housing opportunities
• Implementing a 25th Birthday Allowance acknowledging this as a milestone birthday for care-experienced young people

Care leavers were directly involved in the recruitment of two permanent Team Managers and four permanent Personal Advisors, formulating questions for candidates and sitting on interview panels. Consultation around the Protected Characteristics motion is ongoing, and care-experienced population have been invited to share their views.

After the summer recess, Drop-In Sessions have restarted for care leavers to gain support, advice and community. The Care Leavers App remains in development with an exciting launch scheduled for early 2026. For the third year running, 200+ care-experienced young adults will receive a £100 supermarket voucher, as part of the Household Support Fund.

39 young people attended at least one Participation event across July and August alone, and the service captured its widest age range yet, with the youngest guest being 10 and the oldest guest being 25.

Virtual School Autumn Term Report

The panel received the Virtual School Autumn Term Report, which set out Children Looked After End of Stage Exam Results and Care Leaver Education Performance and Destinations.

Key points included:

• In the academic year 2024- 2025, there were 3 children in Year 2. Two children have been in care 1 year or longer. Harrow (50%) is above the England average (32%) for Reading, Writing and Numeracy.
• There are 5 children who have been in care 1 year plus in year 6. 40% (2/5) of children achieved expected progress in Writing, Reading and Maths. This is above the national average , which is 37%.
• Early indications show that the number of students, in care 1 year plus, obtaining at least 1 GCSE (89%) has almost doubled the figures for 2024 (47%).
• 33% of students passed both English and Maths GCSE which is 13% higher our performance in 2024. This is also well above the national measure – which stands at 18%.
• 7 students in Key Stage 5 received A level/ Level 3 passes - this is 2 more than 2024
• Six Care Leavers sat A Level and Level 3 exams. All students have passed.
• 1 student will graduate this year in Midwifery BSc.
• 12 students are expected to enrol at university this term and all students have transitioned from Key Stage 5. 50% (6/12) from Year 13.
• 50% (6/12) of students will attend London based universities this term.
• Overall, Harrow will potentially have 25 undergraduates, which includes those already at university.

Health Services for Children Looked After

The panel received a report on the delivery of Health Services to Harrow Children Looked After (CLA) during April – September 2025.

The report set out the timeliness of Initial Health Assessments (IHA's) and Review Health Assessments (RHA's) within the period of April to End September 2025.

KPI's for Harrow CLA April 2025 – Sept 2025

Contributing challenges for completion are late requests, DNA's⁶ and children placed out of borough. 35/47 (74.5%) of requests for IHA were received outside timescales. 9 of the 35 late requests were seen in timescales. The main factor contributing to completing RHA's outside of timescale are young people placed out of borough and DNA's.

Work undertaken to improve late IHAs/RHAs includes liaison with Senior Managers / Team Managers, reminder telephone calls to carers / young people regarding appointment times, and twice weekly escalation meetings held with Harrow LA, subsequently reduced to weekly meetings.