The Children and Young People's Overview and Scrutiny Committee of County Durham Council met on Tuesday 14 April 2026 to discuss the increasing demand on children's social care services, the sufficiency of accommodation for children in care and care leavers, and the ongoing reforms within children's social care. The meeting focused on understanding current pressures, future strategies, and the implementation of national reform agendas.

Demand on Children's Social Care

The committee was scheduled to receive information regarding the demand for children's social care services in County Durham as of February 2026. A report indicated that overall demand remained high and persistent across various services, including the initial contact point, statutory interventions, and care placements. Caseloads for some social workers were noted to be above 25 cases. Safeguarding contacts were reported as being above pre-2024 levels, with a continued rise in Early Help contacts, suggesting ongoing community need. Referral rates into statutory services were higher than national, regional, and statistical neighbour benchmarks. Police remained the largest source of referrals, though their proportion had reduced to be in line with comparator areas. Assessment timeliness was reported as strong, with approximately 90% of assessments completed within statutory timescales. Numbers of Children in Need (CiN) remained high, with rates above national benchmarks, and Child Protection Plan (CPP) volumes continued to increase. Children in Care (CiC) numbers were also rising, with more children entering care and fewer exits. This data suggested sustained and growing demand across children's social care, necessitating a continued focus on prevention, early intervention, system reform, and sufficiency to manage demand safely and sustainably.

Sufficiency Statement for Children in Care and Care Leavers 2025-2029 and Transformation of Children's Homes Update

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the Sufficiency Statement for Children in Care and Care Leavers 2025-2029 and the ongoing transformation of children's homes. The Sufficiency Statement, approved in October 2025, outlines Durham's strategic approach to ensuring sufficient accommodation for children in care and care leavers, replacing the former Sufficiency and Commissioning Strategy 2022-2024. The report highlighted policy contexts, a summary of needs, increasing budget pressures, and work programmes aligned with the Durham Cares Board. National reviews, including those by Josh MacAlister and the Competitions and Markets Authority, were noted as influencing the changing landscape of children's social care. The Department of Education's policy paper, 'Keeping children safe, helping families thrive,' and the forthcoming Children's Wellbeing Bill were also identified as key shapers of the new Sufficiency Statement.

The report detailed significant pressures, including a 33% rise in the children in care rate over five years, a higher rate of children entering care compared to benchmarks, and a growing number of children in care with special educational needs or Education, Health and Care Plans. The use of independent children's homes had increased substantially, with a majority of young people in these homes living outside County Durham. The need for more foster carers was also emphasised.

The Sufficiency Statement focuses on four key opportunities for change:

• Programme 1: Support for children and young people to live outside of care: This involves investing in preventative services to reduce the number of children entering care and supporting their return home when appropriate.
• Programme 2: Family based homes: The aim is to grow the in-house fostering offer and provide more support to foster carers to prevent placement breakdowns.
• Programme 3: Sufficiency for children's homes: This programme focuses on developing new specialist in-house children's homes to meet a range of needs and enable more children to be cared for closer to home.
• Programme 4: Market management opportunities and broader work with the region: This includes reviewing the cost of care to ensure sustainable pricing and value for money, developing a regional sufficiency statement, and working with providers to shape new care provision based on local needs.

The report also detailed significant financial pressures, with an increase of £64 million in net expenditure for children in care between 2019/20 and 2024/25. Forecasts indicated a potential rise to £168 million over the next five years if no mitigating action was taken, with programmes aiming to reduce this to £137 million by 2030.

Children's Social Care Reforms

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview of the national Children's Social Care Reform programme and County Durham's response through the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme. National guidance for the FFP Programme was released on 20 March 2025, aiming to reshape services for earlier, more effective support, stronger safeguarding, and improved outcomes for children and families. The FFP Programme seeks to deliver a more integrated, family-focused system prioritising early help, strengthening family networks, and improving outcomes.

Key areas of reform included a strengthened front door service, the development of a single integrated Family Help offer, improved multi-agency child protection arrangements, and a greater focus on family networks and decision-making. New roles and ways of working were being introduced to support consistent practice. The programme is overseen by the Families First Partnership Board, which feeds into the Corporate Leadership Team's Transformation Board. The report highlighted that while the north-east region did not have designated pathfinder areas for the national programme, Durham had developed its own 'test and learn' models reflecting core FFP aspects. The council had been acknowledged for its innovative approach to FFP, leading to collaboration on a Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT) Design and Implementation project. The engagement process for the FFP Programme involved extensive consultation with children, young people, families, and staff.

The reform agenda is underpinned by principles such as keeping children safely with their families, ensuring caring and stable relationships, greater use of family networks, building more locality-based support, and enhancing child protection processes. The report also outlined the governance structure for the Families First Partnership, including various workstreams and a Delivery Group. The journey of the programme was detailed, from the launch of national guidance in March 2025 to partner engagement in January 2026.