Agenda and minutes

The committee is advised that the public may be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely in view of the nature of the proceedings that exempt information would be disclosed. Meetings of the Corporate Parenting Committee are attended by representatives of Care In Action (CIA), the council’s Children in Care Council. The committee is therefore recommended to exclude the press and public for the duration of the meeting,  as the attendance of CIA representatives necessitates the disclosure of the following category of exempt information, set out in the Local Government Act 1972:  - information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

RESOLVED: that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the duration of the meeting, on the grounds that the attendance of representatives from the council’s Children in Care council, necessitated the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2, Part 1 of Schedule 12A, as amended, of the Act, namely: Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Apologies were received from Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council).

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests in the items on this agenda.

None.

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the last meeting, held on 23 April 2025, be approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

None.

This is an opportunity for members of BCJ 2.0 to feed back on recent activity.

The Chair welcomed representatives from Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0) to the meeting and invited them to provide updates from the group.

J advised that he had been involved in interview panels for roles at the new residential children’s care home in Brent, including for the Deputy Manager and Senior Residential Support Worker. He had enjoyed working with other professionals he had not yet met and coming together as a panel to make decisions.

N advised that a ‘link-up’ session was held during May half term where new people and new staff had attended. She advised this had allowed attendees to bond and also share information and advice with each other. These sessions were being held in a dedicated space in the Civic Centre where young people had quick access to staff, including personal advisors and managers.

S provided feedback on the Create Arts music project she had been involved in, where young people were supported to create their own music and lyrics. She had created a music video with 7 other care leavers which used many different languages including Hindi, Arabic and English. The BCJ 2.0 group were also working on implementing actions following the findings of the Bright Spots Survey, which had shown that care experienced young people wanted friendship and trust. From that, a project called Trusted Buddies had been created, where young people aged 18-25 years old buddied with children aged 11-19 years old and supported them with the aim of maintaining a lifelong friendship. That project was in its research phase and further updates could be provided at the next Committee meeting.

The Chair thanked BCJ 2.0 representatives for their updates and invited comments and questions from the Committee, with the following points raised:

In response to whether BCJ 2.0 had received support in their Trusted Buddies project, S explained that she had presented the idea to The Participation Team and the project was being done in collaboration with Cafcass.

The Committee requested to see the music video that had been created which would be circulated.

In relation to the new residential children’s care home, BCJ 2.0 had visited the home and had been pleased with the way it had been designed and decorated.

The Committee asked how BCJ 2.0 had been able to engage new young people in the ‘link-up’ session. N advised that this was through the group chat and advertisements in the hub, and current BCJ 2.0 members had spoken about the experience they had and the connections they had made. A further incentive was receiving food. Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) provided thanks to Appia Douglas (Participation and Engagement Officer, Brent Council) who had done a lot of work on this.

In response to what BCJ 2.0 had planned for the summer, J advised that a fun day was planned for August as well as a residential trip for care leavers and children in care which everyone was looking forward to.

To present the annual Corporate Parenting Report on outcomes for children in care and care leavers, providing a summary of the activity and strengths and areas for growth in supporting care experienced children and young people in Brent.

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the annual Corporate Parenting Report, covering the activity for the period 2024-25 and the priorities moving forward into 2025-26.

In presenting the report she highlighted the following key points: 

• In relation to staffing and recruitment priorities, as of the end of 2024-25, staffing in the service was almost fully permanent with agency staff recruitment reserved solely for sick leave or maternity cover.
• The improved staffing, alongside the service redesign, was hoped to create a strong foundation to develop quality and consistent practice.
• The service continued to work with health colleagues to improve health services, children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and implement interventions.
• The service continued to work with Brent Children’s Trust with an action plan in place for that.
• Brent Care Journeys with Barnardo’s had now transitioned to Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0), taking on the learning of the last 4-5 years with Barnardo’s and embedding new ways of providing participation for young people.
• The service was working on developing accommodation pathways and independence skills for young people, detailed in section 18 of the report.
• An action plan following the findings of the most recent Bright Spots Survey had been established and would be implemented over the summer.
• There was increased focus on developing and improving practice on life story work with multiple bespoke life story work training offers for staff and a life story work pilot with frontline teams to improve the way that work was started when children were newly in care. This included a life story work online platform that the service was looking to introduce in the coming year.
• Work had been undertaken on the Corporate Parenting Committee structure and the way it worked in Brent, and she thanked the young people for their commitment through that journey and the improved format where young people were much more involved in meetings and discussions.
• Some priorities from 2024-25 would remain the same for the incoming year, particularly around embedding the redesign of children’s services and the government’s new Families First priorities as they related to children in care and care leavers.
• A continued focus would remain on kinship care as the first option for children unable to live with parents and reunification with birth families where possible and appropriate.
• There would also be continued focus on the voice and engagement of children and young people in day-to-day practice through co-design and co-production approaches.

The Chair thanked Kelli Eboji for the introduction and invited contributions from the Committee, with the following points raised:

The Committee noted the improved permanency in the workforce and asked what was being done to sustain the almost 100% permanent workforce. Kelli Eboji advised that there was a good Learning and Development offer for social workers and personal advisors. Around two years previously the biggest challenges in turnover occurred in the LAC teams, which had been addressed and retention maintained. Since Palvinder Kudhail (Director Early Help and Social Care, Brent Council) had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To provide information to the Corporate Parenting Committee in relation to the health needs of children in care in Brent and the services provided to these children in 2024-25.

Kim Lewis (Head of Clinical Services – Brent Children, CLCH) introduced the report, which provided information relating to the health needs of Brent Looked After Children and the services provided in 2024-25. In providing some context, she highlighted that, nationally, Looked After Children entered care with a worse level of health than their peers and often needed support above and beyond their peers. She then provided the following information:

• In Brent, the LAC Health Team had a caseload of 328 as of 31 March 2025, compared to 268 the previous year. The caseload fluctuated throughout the year.
• The LAC Health Team was currently fully and correctly staffed in accordance with the intercollegiate guidelines for ratios, and was made up of a Named Nurse, 3 Children Looked After Nurses, 2 Consultant Paediatricians conducting Initial Health Assessments (IHAs), one of which was the Named Doctor for Looked After Children, and a cohort of Junior Doctors on a 6-month rotation. There were also some medical advisors in place for adoption and fostering.
• The report included an analysis of monthly performance on timely completion of IHAs and Review Health Assessments (RHAs), including explanations for breaches.
• The Integrated Care Board (ICB) had recently flagged concerns with IHA performance across all 8 NWL boroughs and was undertaking a programme to address that, which health and social care teams were involved in. The most common causes of breaches were where children were placed out of borough and waiting for assessment in the borough they were placed in, ongoing challenges with referrals, and children and young people who were not brought to their appointment or chose not to attend. The Brent Health and Social Care Teams and Designates from the ICB were exploring the referral challenges and how they could be addressed.
• The team had worked to streamline referral forms to make the process quicker and easier which had received positive feedback.
• She highlighted the need for centralised solutions to improve the breaches to statutory timeframes for children placed out of borough, where Brent’s health and social care team had limited control.
• A new NWL ICB core offer specification to standardise the commissioning of children looked after across all 8 boroughs was expected, which would change how systems operated to ensure all 8 NWL boroughs were providing the same service to children regardless of where they lived.
• In 2023-24 there had been an improvement in the number of children whose immunisations were up to date, who were registered with a GP and who had received a recent dental check. The data for 2024-25 was not yet available.
• The number of children who had seen an optician for their RHA had improved.
• Data had not yet been received for mental health support and substance misuse, and the previous year there had been large gaps in the number who reported issues and those actually receiving support, highlighting the large number of young people waiting for support in those areas.
• The Central London Community Healthcare health team had established a Quality  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To inform the Corporate Parenting Committee about the contribution of Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) to the quality assuring and improvement of services for children who are looked after.

Sabine Kadhaya (Service Manager, Safeguarding and Reviewing, Brent Council) introduced the report, which provided the annual report detailing the contribution of Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) to the quality assuring and improvement of services for Looked After Children. In terms of priorities for 2024-25, the service had successfully appointed 3 in-house IROs, and she highlighted that having Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0) representatives on the panel had been very beneficial. The new IRO contract was now commissioned with 2 permanent IROs. The priority to improve the timeliness of LAC reviews had seen an improved focus and that would continue going forward. The fourth priority to engage children and young people in more creative ways continued. 

The Chair thanked Sabine Kadhaya for her introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

The Chair acknowledged the unique role of the IRO and asked for examples of where an IRO might intervene to improve the experience of children and young people. They heard that an IRO might intervene if there had been a delay or deviation from a child’s agreed care plan or if a young person reached out to the IRO. The IRO would liaise with the guardian of the child if they were in care proceedings to agree what was best for the child, and provided scrutiny of the care plan for the child. The IRO was a statutory duty defined in the Children’s Act 1989.

The Committee was pleased to see the percentage of reviews happening within statutory timeframes had improved, and asked whether it was possible to improve that moving forward. Sabine Kadhaya advised that there was a priority in place to increase that to 90 by the following year, and there was now an IRO manager in post who had not been previously, providing additional focus to enable that improvement to happen.

The Committee asked what BCJ 2.0’s experience of their IROs had been. J advised that he had the same IRO for his entire time in care, and had a good bond with her and they understood each other well. She had prepared him well for his reviews and helped him complete the forms required for each meeting and ensured his voice was heard. S also had a positive relationship with her IRO. She added that she sat on the Family Justice Young People’s Board who wrote a letter to the children when they left, and suggested that a goodbye letter from IROs would be useful for care leavers, as well as their personal advisors and care leavers. Sabine Kadhaya thanked BCJ 2.0 for their feedback, and added that IROs were asked to take the young person out to say goodbye after their final review, allowing a therapeutic process to saying goodbye. The Committee asked that an IRO was invited to the meeting when this was next discussed.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director – Democratic and Corporate Governance or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

Brent Care Journeys 2.0 asked whether there was anything the Council could do to offer discounts on driving lessons to help care leavers learn to drive, as they were now very expensive. It was agreed officers would look into this.