Agenda item

Councillor Gwen Grahl (as Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools) introduced the report, which provided a 6-monthly update on the activity of the Brent Children’s Trust (BCT) from April 2025 to October 2025. In presenting the update, she highlighted the following key points:

• Following a positive SEND inspection, Brent was one of 18 local areas inspected in 2025 to date to have the highest possible outcome.
• The Trust had overseen the inspection implementation plan following the CQC inspection result to ensure progress, including for annual Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) reviews, the phased rollout of the Families First Programme, continued work to tackle health inequalities, and the development of an early intervention mental health model to reduce reliance on CAMHS.
• The Trust was looking at strengthening links between hubs and Family Wellbeing Centres.
• She felt there was good work to celebrate in the report and thanked all partners for their continued commitment to improving outcomes for children and families.

Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council), added the following points:

• The Trust had good buy-in as a partnership from the Council, third sector and health colleagues, which he felt had resulted in the positive SEND inspection during the year.
• There were a range of subject areas the Trust covered from early intervention through to Family Wellbeing Centres and health inequalities.
• The Trust was planning a refresh of priorities for the following two years in January 2026 at an in person meeting.
• He was encouraged by the additional resources towards mental health and wellbeing and the Trust was beginning to see progress there.

Robyn Doran (Director of Transformation, CNWL, and Brent ICP Director), Vice Chair of BCT, concluded the introduction by raising the following points:

·       She emphasised the importance of the Trust using the weight of all partners to raise the profile to the ICB of the need to have more resources in Brent around inequalities and children’s health, particularly around earlier intervention for mental health. She felt that there had been some movement there with a plan for the coming year and the Managing Director of Brent Integrated Care Partnership continually lobbying for investment. She was confident that Brent would receive resources for continuing that earlier intervention work so that not all children and young people identified as having mental health issues needed to go straight to CAMHS but could be supported much earlier, working with families and partners to co-produce direct outcomes.

·       Robyn Doran confirmed that there was a strong commitment in the Trust enabling a consistent voice with the same aims and ambitions for Brent which she felt made a difference.

The Chair then invited questions and comments, with the following points raised:

• The Board was encouraged to hear that the work of the BCT had led to additional resources for children’s mental health and early intervention, and asked what the timeline would be for children and families seeing the impact of those changes. Robyn Doran felt that changes would be seen within the next 6 months, as there were committed funds from a local pot towards this work. The Health and Wellbeing Board would be kept up to date on progress.
• Noting that the ICB had agreed funding for Brent to become the second NWL borough to have a Safe Place for young people, the Board asked what the significance of that was. Robyn Doran explained that Ealing was the first borough who had a Safe Place for young people, and they had set their service up as an early intervention café, open 3pm-10pm. In Brent, the BCT hoped to co-produce the Safe Place with young people and families, taking the lessons from Ealing to inform the approach. The third sector organisation who would run the Safe Place had confirmed they were very open to working with children and families to co-design what would work best for Brent. In terms of the significance of it, the service would be part of the early intervention approach to children’s mental health, enabling support for children and young people before they reached A&E in crisis.

As no further issues were raised, the Chair drew the discussion to a close and asked the Board to note the update and plans for the future.