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.

None.

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

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the last meeting, held on 2 February 2026, 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 Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0) to feedback on recent activity.

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

SA and N presented the recent launch of the Empire Care Leavers Group, showcasing photos and videos from the launch event and the logo, which everyone had contributed to. J took the Committee through the resourcing involved in the project and the various consultation and design stages, which had all been undertaken by young people and voted on by young people. The launch event had taken place in The Base and had been open for both staff and guests with good attendance. The next steps for the project would be to acquire a safe space, undertake further recruitment to Empire, and launch the Trusted Buddies project. The Group was also planning for the Summer Fun Day. 

N updated the Committee on the recent World Social Work Day event that she and other care leavers had been part of, where they had led a resilience activity which she presented videos and photos from. 

In relation to Trusted Buddies, S was looking to set up a leadership programme to enhance the leadership skills of Empire Care Leavers which would align with the Trusted Buddies project and also enhance public speaking skills, hosting and team bonding. A survey had now been disseminated to garner interest in the projects. 

SA informed the Committee that Empire would be visiting semi-independent providers to recruit more young people and would be raising awareness of Empire through social workers and personal advisors to encourage more young people to get involved.

S presented to the Committee regarding the Family Justice Young People Board, of which she was a member. She advised that the focus of the Board was to give a voice to others, and the priorities of the Board for 2025-2028 were; improving young people’s participation in proceedings; helping professionals understand how Domestic Abuse affected children and ensuring all types of abuse and harmful parenting was considered; ensuring children knew their rights and there was a focus on children growing up safe and happy; and reducing delays in family courts to give children certainty and safe final decisions. The Board would be hosting their annual conference called Voice of the Child over the coming months. S had been involved in planning the conference, including agreeing the theme (children’s rights), ensuring the conference reflected what was important to young people currently, agreeing roles for the day including interview panel members, theme leads and bringing in experts with the biggest impact, agreeing content and creating a physical resource to bring the conference to life. The previous year saw over 1,000 attendees, with Dr Jahnine Davis (National Kinship Care Ambassador), representatives from the Ministry of Justice, representatives from the DfE, and Justice Harris from the family courts participating in interviews. S invited Committee members to attend this year’s conference and would share the relevant information with the Committee. Kelli Eboji added that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To provide information to the Corporate Parenting Committee on the updated Brent Pledge for Children in Care.

Alice Weavers (Participation and Engagement Manager, Brent Council) introduced the report, which set out the revised Brent Pledge to children and young people in care. She advised that the Pledge set out what the Council wanted to achieve for children in care to ensure all young people received the same service and knew their rights. Empire 11-17 had looked at the existing pledge and provided feedback on what commitments should change, the design of the pledge, and asked for contact details to be included. As a result, every child’s social worker would now sign the pledge and provide their contact details to each child in care. The documentation would also include information about Empire.

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

The Committee commended the document, pleased that the language of the Pledge helped to give young people the words to advocate for themselves if they were not receiving what was set out in the Pledge. They felt the document was clear and concise and it was clear that children and young people had been involved in the revised Pledge and that the voice of the child was being reflected in what the Council did.

Noting that every social worker would be asked to sign the Pledge, the Committee asked how the service would ensure that, when new hires were appointed, they would understand the importance of the Pledge and sign the document. Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) advised that the Pledge and companion documents would be shared with new starters. Joint learning was captured in staff forums throughout the year where staff were kept refreshed on the Pledge and their obligations, and this would be a standing item in all staff forums.

In response to whether there was a way to monitor compliance with the signing of the Pledge and what questions young people were raising in relation to the Pledge, Kelli Eboji advised that there was no standard way of measuring that as it would form more qualitative data. The service would need to consider how some of that information could be captured as part of supervision and management oversight of cases, and ensure that managers were checking in with practitioners to understand that information. Palvinder Kudhail (Director of Early Help and Social Care, Brent Council) added that the service had a comprehensive audit programme and did themed audits periodically, such as educational outcomes and placement stability, all of which linked with the promises made to young people. There were also surveys and feedback forums, therefore she felt there were a number of ways to triangulate information to ensure the Pledge was being adhered to and taken seriously. Children in care also had annual meetings with their Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) where the IRO checked the young person had received all of the information they needed.

As no further issues were raised, the Committee RESOLVED:

i)               To approve the proposed plan for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To inform the Corporate Parenting Committee of the work undertaken by the Brent Virtual School and school results for Looked After Children in the 2024-26 academic year. The delay in presenting the report is due to the need for exam results to be ratified.

Michaela Richards (Headteacher, Brent Virtual School) introduced the report, which outlined the activity and impact of the Brent Virtual School (BVS) during the academic year 2024-25 in monitoring and supporting looked after children to achieve the best possible educational outcomes. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

• There had been a positive increase in the number of young people achieving grades 4 – 9 in English and Maths plus 3 other subjects, at an almost 10% increase for the whole cohort.
• 28% of the Statistical First Release (SFR) cohort (young people who at the time of the report were in care for at least a year from 1 March 2025) had achieved grades 4 – 9 in English and Maths plus three other subjects, which was a substantial improvement on previous years.
• Post-16 education, employment and training (EET) rates were between 77-83%, with 83% being a significant increase on previous years.
• There had been no Permanent Exclusions, in line with the historical trend. There had been a slight increase in Fixed Term Exclusions (FTE) on the previous year, but this was still lower than it had been for the past 3-4 years.
• 105 children had attended enrichment, which was well above 50% of the statutory cohort of 4-16 year olds, as it was recognised that enrichment was equally as important as academic attainment. The activities had a focus on wellbeing, enjoyment and ensuring cultural capital was being provided to children in care.
• Whilst the role of BVS was expanded in September 2024 to include extended duties for all children with a social worker, Michaela Richards advised that Brent had already been doing some of that work since 2021, including direct work, which was not a national requirement but it was recognised that the earlier BVS could intervene the more preventative they could be in terms of children coming into care. This also ensured a relationship was already in place if the young person did enter care.
• In March 2025, BVS employed a SEND Advisory Officer linked directly to the BVS due to the number of children with EHCPs and SEND support needs, and particularly the difficulties in ensuring appropriate educational placements for children with EHCPs not living in Brent. The proposal had been taken through the appropriate senior channels and approved on a trial basis, but there was now agreement for that to be a permanent role due to the impact it had.

The Chair thanked Michaela Richards for the report and then invited comments and questions from Committee members with the following raised:

The Committee commended the results, pleased to see children in care doing well academically despite the barriers they faced.

The Committee highlighted that school attendance had gone down and asked if there was any insight into why that was. Michaela Richards advised that one of the key challenges was the time at which some young people entered care, with some behaviours around non-attendance already embedded. She worked closely with the school attendance team,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To provide information to the Corporate Parenting Committee about the general management of the in-house fostering service and how it is achieving good outcomes for children, in accordance with standard 25.7 of the Fostering National Minimum Standards (2011).

Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) introduced the report, which provided both a 6-monthly update of the fostering service and an annual end-of-year report. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

• Section 4 outlined the fostering service priorities across the reporting year.
• One of the priorities was around recruitment of foster carers, which she highlighted as challenging. The service had not met the target of recruiting 10 carers, with 3 carers approved, 5 assessments in progress at the time of writing the report, 1 resignation and 2 de-registrations due to safeguarding concerns in the reporting year. She added that the offer continued to be competitive and well received by Brent foster carers, and no carers had transferred to any other local authorities or independent agencies.
• The first mockingbird constellation had been implemented during the reporting period, with the foster carers involved enjoying that additional support and building their communities.
• Whilst there had not been an increase in fostering capacity in terms of numbers of carers, placement stability performance was good, and vacancies with in-house foster carers were being fully utilised where the foster carer was free and appropriate risk assessment and matching had taken place.
• An area for continued improvement and development was the training and development of foster carers, and there was work being done to ensure carers took up that offer and completed their mandatory training.
• Other developments were taking place in fostering, including the West London Fostering Hub and regionalisation.
• The fostering front door was being developed to include assessment of foster carers.

The Chair thanked Kelli Eboji for the introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

Noting that a key development in fostering currently was the transition to regional fostering arrangements, which the Committee recognised as one of the biggest reforms to fostering in many years, members asked how the Council was working towards that and what the challenges would be to comply with the changes. Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council) advised that Josh McAllister (Children’s Minister) was working to change how fostering worked and was keen to bring local authorities closer together to have the 8 local authorities in West London working together to provide one service, which was thought would improve the number of foster carers recruited. He highlighted that the main challenge for Brent, and many London boroughs, in finding foster carers was finding applicants with a spare room. As such, his view was that the regionalisation of the fostering service would not necessarily resolve that. However, merging into one service would enable officers to respond more quickly to enquiries, complete assessments quicker, and offer more to carers to encourage them to stay. Some of the challenges of delivering the regional service would be the timescales in which to implement the changes, as staff and funding needed to be considered, and he highlighted the need to do that at a pace that ensured  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To provide information to the Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee in relation to adoption performance, progress and activity of Adopt London West, and good outcomes being achieved for children.

Debbie Gabriel (Head of Service, Adopt London West) introduced the report, which provided a briefing on adoption performance data for the reporting period, progress and activity of Adopt London West (ALW) and outcomes being achieved for children. In introducing the report, she highlighted the following key points:

• 34 children had been placed by ALW within the year, which was the highest number of placements made since the establishment of ALW.
• 7 Brent children had been placed for adoption in the reporting year, making the overall placement numbers for Brent 12.
• Performance remained strong in relation to the timescales children were placed in, but often the care proceedings took a long time and did lead to some delays.
• 23 adopters had been approved in the reporting year, making it more likely that children could be placed with in-house adopters.
• The report detailed the support offer for families within ALW, including a new friendship group for children, a transition to adulthood group for 18-24 year olds, and a parent and child toddler group. The aim was to have spaces for children right across their age range to ensure there were opportunities for them to be with peers that may have had similar experiences to them.
• ALW had secured additional grant funding for a youth worker to develop those young person spaces, and additional funding to develop the multi-disciplinary team to ensure a clinical team was in place to support social workers.
• A new table had been included in the report which provided a comparison of ALW Brent’s performance against England and statistical neighbours.

The Chair thanked Debbie Gabriel for her introduction and invited contributions from those present, with the following points raised:

The Committee asked whether there were any reflections on the advantages and challenges of moving to a regional model now that ALW was established. Debbie Gabriel advised that the opportunities were around being able to do more across the partnership with additional funding, meaning more services could be developed than previous. The challenges were around connection with local expertise and communities, but she felt that ALW’s relationship with Brent was strong from the outset which had helped with that. Many individuals from Brent’s adoption service had transferred to ALW, retaining that knowledge and those relationships, and ALW staff were always invited to the Brent staff forums to maintain that connection.

Noting the performance on length of time to place a child for adoption, the Committee asked whether there was any way to improve those times even more. Kelli Eboji (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) advised that the time taken to place a child was case by case, with some placements made more quickly, but others taking time where family members needed assessments, or there were international elements, with the courts less willing to make a decision for adoption where there were other alternatives. The complexity of the case and the child’s particular needs may also impact the length of time to in order to undertake appropriate family finding.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

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.

None.