To allow Members an opportunity to [a] declare any personal, prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in any items which appear on this agenda; and [b] record any items from which they are precluded from voting as a result of Council Tax/Council rent arrears; [c] the existence and nature of party whipping arrangements in respect of any item to be considered at this meeting. Members with a personal interest should declare that at the start of the item under consideration.  If Members also have a prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interest they must withdraw from the meeting during the consideration of the item.

Councillor Mandongwe declared a personal interest as a trustee of the Dimobi Children’s Disability Trust and stated that she would declare any conflicts of interests during the meeting and recuse herself from any related decisions.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 2025.

To receive the minutes of the Ofsted Subgroup meeting held on 8 January 2025.

Decisions

1. That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 2025 be approved as a correct record.

2. To receive the minutes of the Ofsted Subgroup meeting held on 8 January 2025.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive

This report summarises the progress made to date, areas for development and feedback from the UNICEF UK team, who in summary state Manchester City Council and its partners have made an “exceptional start” to the delivery of the programme.

The Committee considered the report of the Deputy Chief Executive which summarised the progress made to date, areas for development and feedback from the UNICEF UK team, who in summary stated that Manchester City Council and its partners had made an “exceptional start” to the delivery of the programme.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Background information;
• UNICEF UK feedback received from the Progress Review Meeting;
• Progress in relation to the ‘badge’ areas, which were:
  • Co-operation and Leadership;
  • Culture;
  • Communications;
  • Healthy;
  • Safe and Secure; and
  • Place; and
• Next steps.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the very positive comments from UNICEF UK’s Progress Review Meeting and to congratulate all those involved on the very strong start that had been made;
• The size of the team responsible for co-ordinating this work;
• Positive comments on the Children’s Rights training from a Member who had recently attended it and asking about the roll-out of the training to all Elected Members;
• Achievements and impact so far and targets for the next 12 months;
• Capturing and evaluating the voice of children and young people in decision-making;
• Equity and inclusion, including ensuring that asylum seeker, refugee and ethnically minoritised children benefited for this work and ensuring that the voices of children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) were taking into account in decision-making;
• Making parks and play areas, as well as the city more broadly, accessible for all children;
• Improving road safety, particularly around schools, to make Manchester more child friendly; and
• How young people were portrayed in the media, including the demonisation of young people in the Youth Justice system.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People informed Members that ongoing engagement was taking place with children and young people, that she had asked the other Executive Members to participate in this and that senior officers were also taking part in the engagement.  She requested that Members of this Committee go out to a school in their ward to speak to children and young people.  She asked that Members let her know which school they would be visiting, to avoid duplication, and advised that she would circulate questions to be asked to the children and young people.  A Member proposed to obtain the views of children and young people through a local foodbank’s community kitchen, which was used by asylum-seeking young people.

The Deputy Chief Executive reported that, while there were two full-time staff co-ordinating this work, this was not a project with an end date but a culture shift across the Council and its partners.  He advised that this work was being delivered through existing structures, with lead officers for each of the ‘badges’ and culture change being embedded as the work progressed.  He informed Members that he did not have the figures to hand on how many Elected Members had completed the training so far but could provide this information, advising that this would be built into the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

Report of the Acting Strategic Director (Children and Education Services)

The report gives an overview of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Service for Cared for Children in Manchester and how it functions in providing assurance of the effectiveness of the reviewing process for children’s care planning. The report builds on previous annual reports and considers the performance, learning and development over the last twelve months and sets the priorities for 2024-2025.

The Committee considered the report of the Acting Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) which provided an overview of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Service for Cared for Children in Manchester and how it functioned in providing assurance of the effectiveness of the reviewing process for children’s care planning. The report built on previous annual reports and considered the performance, learning and development over the last twelve months and set the priorities for 2024-2025.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• The role of the IRO in Manchester;
• Cared for Children data;
• Cared for Children’s Statutory Reviews;
• Children’s participation, voice and advocacy;
• Quality assurance;
• Measuring success; and
• Key priorities for 2024-2025.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Parental involvement in reviews and any barriers to this;
• What was being done to end the use of unregistered placements; and
• The numbers of young people participating in their reviews and what support was provided to those who struggled to engage with the review process.

In response to a question about whether the timing or location of reviews made it difficult for parents to attend, the Service Lead (Safeguarding) reported that she did not think that this was an issue, advising that a hybrid model was used, which was useful where a child did not want their parent to attend a meeting physically.  She reported that parents were offered alternatives such as the IRO visiting them at home and that the IRO would work to find the right solution to enable them to be involved.  She reported that the reviews were child-led and that 62% of children planned for their review beforehand and she provided examples of some of the very different ways young people wanted their review to be approached.  She reported that a letter was written to the child after the review which set out what they had discussed and asked for at their review and what recommendations had been made collectively.  She advised that data on children who were not attending their reviews had been scrutinised to identify any particular cohorts of children.  She reported that the data showed that if a child had not been seen on a visit, they did then tend to come to their next review, which, she advised, provided a degree of assurance that children were participating with their IRO and having their say in decisions; however, she acknowledged that there was more to be done and advised that it was important to visit children at the right time for them, to be flexible and offer them opportunities to engage in an informal setting.

The Acting Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) outlined how the use of unregistered placements was being addressed through the Commissioning and Sufficiency Strategy, working with providers.  Furthermore, he advised that one of the main reasons that a child ended up in one of these settings was because of the unplanned ending of a previous placement and this was being addressed through a focus  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

Report of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services)

This report measures the service’s progress and what has been achieved over the past year. It also sets out priorities for the next year.        

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director (Children and Education Services) which measured the service’s progress and what had been achieved over the past year. It also set out priorities for the next year.   

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Background information;
• Progress made in 2023-2024; and
• Priority actions for 2024-2025.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

·       To welcome the work to recruit more foster carers, including those from the global majority;

·       How increased diversity of carers resulted in better outcomes for children and steps being taken to ensure a cultural match between children and their carers;

·       The low percentage of enquiries which resulted in people becoming approved as foster carers and balancing the need to encourage people to become foster carers with managing their expectations about what it involved;

·       Support for Looked After Children and their carers in relation to placements outside of Greater Manchester;

·       Noting that the application process was extremely rigorous and could be emotionally difficult; and

·       The expansion of the Mockingbird Programme and responding to feedback on this from families.

A Member shared her experiences of becoming a foster carer, advising that you learnt a lot about yourself through the approval process and that it made you a better carer.

The Service Lead (Fostering) advised that it could take about five years on average from someone initially thinking about fostering to them becoming an approved foster carer.  She advised that her service kept in touch with people who had made an initial enquiry about fostering but were not ready to proceed so that when they were ready they would come to the Council to foster.  In response to further questions, she clarified that the process for being approved as a foster carer usually took up to six months and the reason for the 5-year gap was because people were interested in fostering but not yet ready to go ahead.  She advised that the reasons why they were not yet ready were wide-ranging but might be because they still had children at home or were still working full-time.  She outlined work to better understand what enabled people to foster.  She highlighted work to encourage more Council staff to foster, which was proving successful, and advised that there was a lot of information on the GM Hub’s website about what fostering involved.  She advised that, of the 9% based outside of Greater Manchester, some were kinship carers and some were recruited foster carers.  She advised that there was a lot of support available virtually and that her service could also commission services local to the family, where necessary. She advised that a lot of work was taking place to try to match children with carers who shared their cultural heritage, as feedback indicated that this made it slightly easier for them to settle in their new home and led to better outcomes.  In response to a Member’s question about kinship carers, she advised that the Council had a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

The monthly report includes the recommendations monitor, relevant key decisions, the Committee’s work programme and any items for information.

A report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit was submitted. The overview report contained key decisions within the Committee’s remit, responses to previous recommendations and the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee was asked to approve.  The Chair highlighted that the Committee’s meetings would be moving to 2pm from May 2025.

Decision

To note the report and agree the work programme.