Annual Report of the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group 2024/25

Foreword by Councillor Caroline Goodrick

As Chair of the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group, I am once again pleased to

introduce our Annual Report for 2024/25.

Every Councillor is a corporate parent, but as members of the Corporate Parenting Group

it is a specific honour to be corporate parents to children and young people who

come into the authority’s care. We will never underestimate the responsibility this role

brings and we remain fully committed to these remarkable young people. Our philosophy is

that we are always here.

The Corporate Parenting Members’ Group is a non-decision making, informal working

group of Members, who meet with officers and relevant partner agencies to offer challenge

and support around services for children and young people in our care and for those

leaving care. The group acts as a critical friend to the Children and Young People’s

service and Executive Member for Children’s Services. The group appreciates the time

given at meetings by the attendance of the Executive Members for Children and Young

Peoples Service and Schools.

This report provides a summary of the key discussions and activities undertaken by the

group over the last 12 months. A large part of our workplan has focussed on the

seven key principles of the corporate parenting strategy and we have received updates

from each one. We have also heard annual updates on key areas such as Virtual Head

reports and the Youth Justice Team, and welcome quarterly progress reports about our

children in care and residential home inspections. We were also tasked with supporting a

piece of research around care experienced young people and how a Council wide

approach could raise their profile as an unofficial protected characteristic.

We continue to receive quarterly updates on how our Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking

Children (UASC) and have been heartened to hear how well they have settled into their

new home and school or college. We appreciate how hard our officers and partners’ work

with this extremely vulnerable group of young people. Our group continues to maintain a

blended approach of both in-person and remote meetings (remote meetings taking place

during the harsher winter months when the weather can impact on ability to travel).

On behalf of the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group, I would like to thank all of the

officers who are dedicated to our children in care and care leavers. I extend these

thanks to our other partners and agencies who have continued to provide invaluable input.

I need to acknowledge and thank the charity organisation, Quilts 4 Care Leavers (Q4CL)

and its CEO Maggie Lloyd Jones for their very generous donations of quilts (hugs) hot

water bottle covers and morse bags to support our young people leaving care.

I am grateful to the members of the Corporate Parenting Group for their dedication,

insightful debates and ongoing challenge which has helped us all get the most out of the

meetings. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Young People’s Champion for her

enthusiasm and commitment to our children and young people. Finally, I wish to thank the Members who have helped to support care leaver activities through their Locality Budgets.

Councillor Caroline Goodrick

Chair of Corporate Parenting Members’ Group

1 Key Principles Reviewed by the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group (April 2024 to March 2025)

1.1 The Group has received updates on each of the key principles and is satisfied that the authority is progressing in all areas of the corporate parenting strategy principles. The following provides a brief update of some of the key discussion points for the Group and areas of interest moving forward.

2 Corporate Principle 1 – Health and Wellbeing of Children in Care

To act in the best interest, and promote the physical and mental health and wellbeing, of those children and young people.

2.1 Members heard that the Multi Agency Looked After Children Partnership (MALAP) continues to drive forward the overarching Children in Care (CiC) Strategy for North Yorkshire.

2.2 The annual Quality Review of Initial Health Assessments (IHAs) confirmed that

the IHAs were generally of a very high standard, and 25% of Children in Care in North

Yorkshire and 25% of our North Yorkshire children who live out of area are quality assured

each month, which allows any issues to be quickly addressed.

2.3 One line of enquiry that Members asked was around the delays in completing IHAs

and Review Health Assessments (RHAs). It was explained to us that there were staffing

issues with the healthcare provider, as well as staffing resources within the 0-19 years’

service. Parents and carers also cancelled their RHA appointments and there were delays

on Change of Placements notifications. Staffing issues have now been rectified and the

CiC Team have worked with the Council to address these challenges.

2.4 Members were happy to hear that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) is committed to

funding free prescriptions for care leavers, and the Transitions Team is engaging with care

leavers on the process. A similar offer for dentistry and optometry is currently being

explored.

2.5 Regarding dentist appointments and immunisations, Members were reassured that

there has been a steady improvement in the number of children in care who have

accessed a dentist since 2020, with 75% accessing one in the last 12 months. Although

the number of children in care receiving up to date immunisations has declined slightly

compared to 2023, it was explained that this is due to the number of UASC who arrive with

very few (if any) immunisations.

2.6 Specialist Community Outreach Team visit specialist homes for children vulnerable

to sexual exploitation, care homes and foster homes offering contraception and Sexually

Transmitted Infection advice and support. Feedback from children in care has been

consistently positive, with the young people valuing the flexible and supportive approach

offered by the Team. The Team also works with UASC who are keen to engage and

access support.

3 Corporate Principle 2 - Youth Voice

To encourage those children and young people to express their views, wishes and feelings.

Corporate Principle 3 - Youth Participation

To consider the views, wishes and feelings of those children and young people.

3.1 With the clear overlap between these two core principles, the Group reviews

progress against these at the same point in the year.

3.2 The Youth Voice and Creative Engagement Team has supported their service

users, and the Care Champions have been especially busy this year. They have

developed a “My First Night” welcome pack for children and young people going into care

for the first time, and an “All About Me” booklet. They have also designed questions to ask

foster carers at fostering panels and been involved with fostering campaigns. Young

people are feeding into their care plans and the Mind of My Own App continues to be

developed to support users.

3.3 Moving forward, Corporate Members would like to facilitate the inclusion of youth councils for young people in care and care leavers and agreed that they could link in with the ones operating in their individual areas. They also hope to be able to meet with some of the Care Champions and will be led by the young people themselves regarding dates and locations.

4 Corporate Principle 4 - Working Together

To help those children and young people gain access to, and make the best use of, services provided by the local authority and its relevant partners.

4.1 The update included an in-depth discussion around the mental health support

offered to children and young people. The Psychologically Informed Partnership Approach

(PIPA – also known as clinical psychologists) continues to support foster carers and

provide input on trauma training.

4.2 Members heard about the different types of partnership working, such as how The

Virtual School is involved with foster carers training and are invited to PEP (Personal

Education Plan) meetings before the young person reaches 18 years old.

4.3 The Group were also updated on the work being carried out with supported

accommodation to ease the transition from leaving care, and how the Linking Lives App

promotes opportunities for care leavers.

4.4 One line of enquiry was Members’ concern over the lengthy waiting times for

young people being able to access additional mental health support. This is an issue they

will be exploring more later this year.

5 Corporate Principle 5 - Ambition for Children

To promote high aspirations and seek to secure the best outcomes for those children and young people.

5.1 The Virtual School Head, presented an update on the ongoing, completed and

planned work for children in care in North Yorkshire.

5.2 Members heard that the Post 16 Pupil Premium Project was expected to have one

more uplift in funding and new funding for extended duties to Children in Kinship would

begin in September 2024.

5.3 Regarding educational attainment, children working at the expected standards in

Key Stage 1 Phonics was 66.7% which is higher than the national figure of 61%. Although

attainment for Key Stage 2 children was below the national average, Members were

informed that almost 50% of this cohort have an education, health and care plan (EHCP)

and they were also the Covid cohort.

5.4 The Group were pleased to hear that the number of young people in Year 13 who

are not in education, employment or training (NEET) reduced from 8% to 6%, and that 23

young people had progressed onto university. It was reassuring to be informed that a

Personal Education Plan (PEP) is offered to young people even after they turn 18.

5.5 Members asked for more data on how many young people are in each cohort, how

many of these have EHCPs, and how many are doing better because they are in stable

foster care. Moving forward, this information will now be included in next year’s update.

6 Corporate Principle 6 - Safeguarding and Performance

For those children and young people to be safe, and for stability in their home lives, relationships and education or work.

6.1 Members learnt how hard the service works to maintain sibling contact if they

become separated by going into care, and how No Wrong Door (NWD) support children to remain with their families and networks. It was comforting to hear that 40% of children in foster care are placed with families and friends, which is a higher rate compared to national and neighbouring authorities. It was great to be informed that children achieve better outcomes if placed with family and friends, and some children do not even consider themselves to be in care if they are living with family (under a Special Guardianship Order).

6.2 The Group heard about the Council’s fostering campaigns, including some which

are aimed at specific groups of young people, such as for children with complex needs.

The Service is also going out into the community, and they have worked with Scarborough

Football Club and promoted fostering at match days. This gives them the opportunity to

dispel the myths of fostering as many people think that they do not qualify due to factors

such as working patterns, single parent households, availability etc. It’s reassuring to learn

that fostering rates are in line with the national picture, and at times, are often lower than

national rates.

6.3 One area of enquiry from Members referred to the numbers of young people

reported as missing from home and at risk of exploitation. They heard that these tended to

be the same cohort of young people who are repeatedly missing from home, which

explained why the number of incidents can look high. The service is now looking at how

they can consider these children differently and utilise the Risk Outside of the Home Child

Protection Pathway. The Youth Justice Service explained to Members that there is a multi-

agency audit of missing children and a lot of them are referred to a national panel, but it is

very difficult to prosecute perpetrators of exploitation under the current legislation. The

Government is addressing changes to this legislation, and it will be much more specific

about child exploitation, making it easier to identify children who are missing due to

exploitation.

7 Corporate Principle 7 - Transitions

To prepare children and young people for adulthood and independent living.

7.1 The Child Permanence Team explained that finding the most suitable

accommodation for the young person at the right time continues to be a challenge, and this

can have a knock-on effect on their education, training, and employment. Rental costs

continue to increase, and alarmingly, some landlords have been known to discriminate

against care experienced young people. The Chair of the Corporate Parenting Group

explained that she is liaising with the Executive Member for Housing, to look at

allocating funding from the Second Homes Council Tax revenue to fund accommodation

for young people leaving care.

7.2 It was pointed out that Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) account

for a third of care leavers, and the Council is working to celebrate different communities

and festivals and identify new pathways.

7.3 Members look forward to attending the next Care Leavers’ Celebration Event.

8 Other Issues Considered by the Group

8.1 The group looks to take a variety of additional topics on an annual basis, which help

to give further context to the intersectional work done with other services and partners to

support young people in care or who are care experienced. Below gives a flavour of the

recent issues discussed.

8.2 Independent Reviewing Officers Annual Report 2023/24

The Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) report highlighted how services for children in care (CIC), foster care reviews and child protecting conferencing are quality assured. This year’s report explained how IROs play a key role in the meetings to facilitate the transition for young people leaving care. Members were pleased to hear that child protection conferences are being completed within timescales, not dropping below 99%. They were also happy to be informed that IROs are working with officers from our Youth Voice Team to improve feedback from children and young people and that they are also looking at more creative ways to encourage children to attend or chair their own meetings.

8.3 National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) Annual Report 2023/24

The group received an annual report from NYAS to talk about the support they offer to the most vulnerable young people living in North Yorkshire. This is the second commissioned year for NYAS to offer advocacy support across North Yorkshire and they have received 354 referrals this year. 104 of these were from Harrogate and surrounding areas, and 88 were received from Scarborough and Whitby. They have seen an increase in supporting young people transitioning from Children’s Social Care to Adult Support and receive a lot of referrals from social workers. The highest number of referrals are from 12 and 17-year-olds. They received 90 referrals from young people with a disability and NYAS ensure that they are matched with advocacies who have the appropriate experience.

Members were keen to find out why there was a spike in referrals from Harrogate whilst a reduction from Scarborough. NYAS agreed to look into this and feed back in next year’s report.

8.4 Youth Justice and Children in Care Progress Update

Members received a report from the Youth Justice Team Manager. They asked for more narrative behind the youth offending figures, as on the face of it, they appeared to be quite high. They learnt that that the way data is collected has changed, which, in some cases, result in higher figures. For example, children who have been recorded in this year’s data, live out of County, so aren’t from North Yorkshire. Youth Justice has raised this discrepancy, and the recording mechanism has been rectified, but new figures won’t show up until next year. In addition to this, there is a high level of re-offences by a small number of people, which skews the figures.

The Youth Justice Service is working with the University of York on a project focussing on girls and their involvement with violence against other girls or individual violence linked to social media fall outs. We look forward to hearing the results when they become available in about a year’s time.

8.5 Quarterly Children in Care Reports

The Strategy and Performance Manager provides very detailed children in care

reports which enables Members to easily compare performance by quarters and years.

8.6 Consultation with Care Experienced Young People

The Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee asked the Corporate

Parenting Members’ Group to take a lead role in the consultation with care experienced young people to assist them in making an informed decision on the motion requesting the Council to formally acknowledge care experience as a protected characteristic. Although the motion was rejected, this valuable piece of work will help Children’s Services support other directorates within the council to give due regard to individuals from a care experienced background. It was also agreed that the Corporate Parenting Members’ Group should contact the Local Government Association to urge the Government to re-evaluate the Care Review’s recommendations to make care experience a protected characteristic, and to include this community in the Equality Act (2010).

8.7 Young People Reported as Missing Annual Report

Members received an update from the Independent Reviewing Officer and learnt that there are daily meetings to review missing incidents in the last 24 hours. The detail is explained in 6.3 of this report. This facilitates the completion of Prevention Interviews and ensures information is duly shared with Children and Family Services. Weekly meetings with the Police and Health and Specialist Social Workers ensure that information about an adopted young person is shared and acted appropriately to promote the best decisions concerning safeguarding, risk assessments and appropriate action when they reported as missing.

9 Performance of residential establishments and Regulation 44 visits

9.1 The Corporate Parenting Members’ Group continues to receive regular verbal

updates on the performance of our residential establishments, which provides an

opportunity to consider any issues, trends and areas of good practice. Members greatly

appreciate these updates, which helps them to better understand the challenges faced by

this cohort of young people and the support they receive from staff and other support

networks. The Chair and Vice Chair also receive very detailed written reports of residential

visits and inspections. These include lots of useful evidence and highlights the positive

developments across the service, as well as how any issues have been dealt with.

9.2 Nominated members are encouraged to carry out Regulation 44 (Children’s Homes

England Regulations 2015) monitoring visits within their locality, to be satisfied young

people in our care are well looked after and have their needs met. The nominated

members have diligently discharged these duties over the last 12 months. Members are

always interested in our young people and are immensely grateful to the frontline staff for

their care, understanding and patience of some of our youngsters with complex needs.

10 Membership and Governance

10.1 The Corporate Parenting Members’ Group is not a Committee of the Executive but a

non-decision-making member working group responsible for supporting the Executive, and

the Council as a whole, in its role as corporate parent. An objective of the group is to work

closely with the Executive Member for Children’s Services on corporate parenting issues.

At any stage, should the group regard an issue requires a broader overview then, they may

refer this to the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

10.2 The membership of the group is as follows:

Cllr Caroline Goodrick (Chair)

Cllr Cliff Lunn (Vice Chair)

Cllr Alyson Baker (Young People’s Champion)

Cllr Stephanie Duckett

Cllr Janet Jefferson

Cllr Heather Phillips

Cllr Kirsty Poskitt

Cllr John Ritchie

David Sharp (VCS rep on Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee)

Cllr Janet Sanderson, as Lead Executive Member for Children’s Services, also attends meetings of the group.

10.3 The group held six meetings during this reporting period; in person on 2 occasions

and remotely on 4 occasions.

DATE	TOPIC	LEAD
Weds, 25^th June 2025 10am, Room 2, County Hall	Corporate Principle 5 Ambition for Children Update –	Julie Bunn, Cllr Alyson Baker
	Annual Report Virtual Head	Julie Bunn
	PIPA and how they support young people	Katy Phillips
	UASC update report	Maggie Allen
	Regulation 44 visits update	Members, James Cliffe, Gemma Sheader
	Children in Care quarterly data & analysis report	Stephen Miller
	Annual Report Corporate Parenting Members’ Group 2024/25	Alice Fox
Thurs, 25^th September 2025 10am, Remote Meeting via MS Teams	NYAS annual update report (including how NYAS works with parents)	Lesley-Ann Morris / Sara Davies (NYAS)
	Corporate Principle 1 Health and Wellbeing of Children in Care	Jacqui Hourigan and Helen Pulleyn, Cllr John Ritchie
	IRO Annual Report 2023/24	Kate Reid and Mel Dadd
	UASC update report	TBC
	Regulation 44 visits update	Members, James Cliffe, Gemma Sheader
	Children in Care quarterly data & analysis report	Stephen Miller
Thurs, 27^th November 2025 10am, Remote Meeting via MS Teams	Corporate Principle 4 Working Together Update	Emma Hopper & Cllr Cliff Lunn
	Corporate Principle 6 Safeguarding & Permanence	Kate Reid, Cllr Janet Jefferson
	UASC update report	TBC
	Regulation 44 visits update	Members, James Cliffe, Gemma Sheader
	Children in Care quarterly data & analysis report	Stephen Miller
Wed 28^th January 2026 10am, Remote Meeting via MS Teams	Corporate Principle 7 Transitions	Maggie Allen, Cllr Caroline Goodrick, Cllr Stephanie Duckett
	UASC update report	TBC
	Regulation 44 visits update	Members, James Cliffe, Gemma Sheader
	Children in Care quarterly data & analysis report	Stephen Miller
Thurs 26^th March 2026 10am, Brierley Room, County Hall	Corporate Principles 2 (Youth Voice) and 3 (Youth Participation)	Nicki Watkinson, Cllr Kirsty Poskitt, David Sharp
	Youth Justice and Children in Care	Andy Dukes
	UASC update report	TBC
	Drafting the Corporate Parenting Group Annual Report 2025/26	Alice Fox
	Regulation 44 visits update	Members, James Cliffe, Gemma Sheader