Agenda and minutes

An apology for lateness was received from Councillor Aliya Afzal-Khan.

The Chair took the opportunity to welcome a new member, Councillor Genevieve Nwaogbe who was attending the Committee meeting for the first time and to thank Councillor Trey Campbell-Simon for his contributions in the past.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting on 22 April 2025 as an accurate record.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2025 were agreed as an accurate record.

Marcus Robinson (Strategic Commissioner, Children’s Services) briefed the Committee on the report, including an overview of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme, its link to wider strategies, Summer in the City 2024 and the co-produced themes for the Summer in the City 2025.

Natalie Glasby (Head of Programmes, LMP Action CIC) remarked that the LMP Action CIC had been working with the Council in rolling out the HAF programme for the past four years which now became a brand in the borough. She highlighted the following:

• The themes for Summer in the City 2025 were co-produced with the Youth Council and Youth Board, i.e. exploring our environment, levelling up, building connections, celebrating creativity, and belonging everywhere.
• There would be 27 providers this year offering programmes for different age groups to be held in locations spanning across the borough, including the three Family Hubs. 
• All providers were able to offer spaces to children and young people with SEND, with specialist providers organising events particularly for them.
• It was a requirement for providers to add their accessibility arrangements and SEND support on Plinth which was a new booking system allowing parents to filter appropriate provisions.
• Community Day to launch Summer in the City 2025 would be held on 19 July and all were welcome.

Councillor Mercy Umeh appreciated the Council’s efforts in organising activities and events for the children and their families during summer holidays, which was not available in the past. 

Councillor Aliya Afzal-Khan expressed appreciation that the events would span across the north, centre and south of the borough.  Addressing her question on the theme of levelling up, Natalie Glasby noted that as suggested by the Youth Board, levelling up events would enable young people accessing new opportunities and engaging themselves in new and different things.

On Councillor Afzal-Khan’s further question about marketing among parents of local maintained schools, Natalie Glasby said that all the details were forwarded to parents of all schools in school zone around mid-June for their booking of activities/events commencing mid-July.

Nandini Ganesh (Co-optee) recalled that before deploying Plinth, Parentsactive had made past contributions of producing a booklet listing all the Summer in the City activities to make the events more accessible. In this regard, Natalie Glasby advised that a small number of physical booklets of activities/events were printed now for events and some premises like the Children’s centres. Moreover, while residents were encouraged to use the Plinth, they could still make bookings by contacting the providers directly.  On Nandini’s further questions about the age range of activities, Marcus Robinson noted that the age ranges each provider could accommodate were clearly indicated in Plinth, with specialist providers accommodating young people up to 25 years old.

Sharing members’ sentiments about the amazing programme, Nadia Taylor (Co-optee) asked to what extent the activities were shaped and co-produced. Natalie Glasby noted that co-production happened more proactively starting from last year when they had joined the meetings of the Youth Council and Youth Board to appreciate the areas of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This paper sets out how Children’s services engages, consults and coproduces with children, young people and families to ensure the services we deliver are responsive to need.

Jacqui McShannon (Executive Director of People) highlighted that H&F children, young people and families were seen, heard and valued, their participation in everyday, honest and interactive conversation with staff had influenced frontline practices and led to the development of strategic policies.  For example, the Summer in the City programme was extensively co-produced with lots of different stakeholders, and the partnership approach had enabled the Council to make continuous improvement.  

Sarah Sanderson (Operational Director, Children and Young People Services) remarked that staff across Children’s Services were passionate about engaging with the H&F children, young people and families. For example, the series of workshops delivered by the Corporate Parenting Board for children looked after and care experienced young people had offered them the opportunity to meet directly with Board members and influence the Council’s broader offers.  The improved joint housing protocol resulted from their feedback on independent living arrangements and the quality assurance provided by the young inspectors was a case in point. The engagement of foster carers/parents for senior leaders and members to hear the support they needed had influenced the foster recruitment approach and the development of services for foster carers/parents.

Peter Haylock (Operational Director for Education and SEND, Children's Services) referred to the meetings in the past few working days when different versions of co-production had happened. At the meeting with key stakeholders and groups reviewing mental health services within education and SEND, a lot of really good questions and information were shared resulting in a clear set of actions to be taken forward.   He had also met with the Youth Council reviewing their priorities to be presented at a meeting of Full Council later.  For example, how the priorities were delivered while holding the officers to account, how the Youth Hub would sit alongside the local and SEND offers under the Family Hubs.

Jacqui McShannon highlighted that some co-production had led to concrete and tangible outcomes, such as the Care Leavers’ Hub which was designed by young people, the evolving Transitions Team, the developments in foster care using different models, the involvement of young people at interview panels for key posts, the early intervention strategy, the shaping of Family Hubs by Family Voices in designing the delivery of services, the wonderful sets of podcast recently launched by the Youth Council and so on.  She emphasised that co-production per se was very dynamic and had changed hugely in the past five years that it was now embedded in everything done by the Children’s Services at all levels through the daily conversations held individually or in groups with children, young people and their families. Looking ahead, co-production would play an important role in speech and language review, Children Social Care Reforms, development of Family Voices and delivery of the HAF programme.

Nandini Ganesh (Co-optee) said that she and members of Parentsactive did enjoy co-production in partnership with the Council and were very keen to be more informed about the outcome of their co-production efforts.

Jacqui McShannon remarked that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report and presentation (Appendix 1) provide a summary of the progress made across Children’s Services and Adult Social Care in supporting children and young people as they reach adulthood.

Peter Haylock (Operational Director for Education and SEND, Children's Services) introduced the report, highlighting that the key part of the Preparation for Adulthood (PFA) plan was linked to the SEND strategy with a view to strengthening young people’s voice in their own transition planning. The feedback from children, young people and their families had resulted in three priority workstreams:

a.     Workforce – growth of a new Transitions Team.

b.     Pathways – a co-produced PFA Pathways and Protocol guide accessible to all.

c.     Provisions – young adults were supported with the right provision for transitioning through the services.

Moving forward, the focus of key actions would be around a permanent recruitment drive for the Transitions Team, engagement with key stakeholders and partners to ensure placement sufficiency within the Adult Social Care for the next 12 months particularly the toolkit around employment and the travel training plans.  He referred to the case of Monique who had gone through the supported internship programme which was designed for young people between 16 and 25 years old with an Education, Care and Health Plan (pages 46 – 54). After the programme, young people had the opportunities to talk to employers in job fairs, do CV workshop and move towards their goals and aspirations 

Peter Haylock added that the Children’s Services would continue to work with internal teams and external partners to develop pathways and provisions to support young people who might have the opportunities to be a real success.

Councillor Mercy Umeh appreciated the supported internship experience shared by Monique who had learned a lot and became more confident.  She was pleased to see that Monique was now ready to move on with the skills acquired.  

Nandini Ganesh (Co-optee) was proud to note the growth of the Transitions Team which was a positive outcome of co-production with Parentsactive. She looked forward to the Team’s continual working on employment like supported internship.

Councillor Aliya Afzal-Khan asked about the different pathways and the number of offers that had been taken up by young people. In response, Peter Haylock noted that the supported internship pathway was people-led and about 15 to 30 pupils would be offered to take up this one-year programme. After completing the programme, they would then move on to employment or other types of supported apprenticeships. In terms of the Adult Social Care pathways, the new Transitions Team was working with approximately 150 young people at the moment before they progressed to adulthood.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.

To note the date of next meeting:

·       3 Nov 2025

The Committee noted that the next meeting would be held on 3 November 2025.

With the Chair’s concurrence, Jacqui McShannon (Executive Director of People) took the opportunity to give some of the most recent highlight of the work of the People’s Department which had involved many stakeholders, partners, colleagues and community, including Parentsactive celebrating its 25^th birthday in May 2025, Foster with West London team hosting a visit from Minister Janet Daby in May 2025 by H&F, Foster Care Fortnight and Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, visited Jack Tizard School for its H&F Community Energy Scheme.