The Corporate Parenting Panel of Lincolnshire Council met on Thursday 9 April 2026 to review its work programme and discuss how to ensure young people in its care are keeping well and safe. The panel also discussed the format of future meetings to better engage with young people.

Corporate Parenting Panel Work Programme

The panel reviewed its work programme for the coming year, aiming to ensure that scrutiny activity is focused where it can be of greatest benefit. The programme includes thematic meetings on topics such as 'Keeping Well' (Health and Wellbeing), 'Where We Live' (Sufficiency of placements), 'Our Aspirations for the Future' (Education, Training, Employment and careers), and 'My Challenges and How I Keep Safe' (Criminal Justice and Interventions). It was agreed that thematic meetings would be rescheduled to take place outside of term time to allow more young people to attend. The panel also requested a report detailing the collective spending on Children in Care.

Keeping Well and Keeping Safe

During this part of the meeting, the panel had the opportunity to engage with young people and those who support them to better understand their experiences. The format of these engagements was discussed, with members and officers reflecting on how to best structure future thematic meetings to encourage comfortable and effective sharing of views by young people. Suggestions included sharing themes in advance so young people could prepare their thoughts, and considering whether questions could be written down and shared to allow for responses in their own time. The feedback from these discussions is supporting the refresh of the caring promise and the Children in Care and Care Leavers' strategy.

The panel also noted the positive news that 26 care-experienced young people were attending university and acknowledged significant improvements in the number of young people engaged in Education, Employment, and Training.

The meeting also included a review of the minutes from the previous meeting held on 15 January 2026, which were approved as a correct record. The Chairman, Councillor S P Roe, reminded members of their responsibilities as Corporate Parents and encouraged them to consider the needs and experiences of young people in all their council work.

The Corporate Parenting Panel's work programme can be found in the CPP Current Work Programme - 9 April 2026 document. The public reports pack for the meeting is available here.