Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Cllr A-M Moriarty, Shan Searl(Children's Social Care), Nicola Canning (Education) and Kelly Dean (Housing).

Apologies were also received from Rachel Gravett.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

Ben Tomlin substituted for Kelly Dean (attending online).

To elect a Vice-Chair for the Corporate Parenting Board for the 2026/27 Municipal Year.

Cllr S Mackrow was nominated as Vice-Chair for the 2026/27 municipal year. There were no further nominations.

RESOLVED that Cllr S Mackrow be appointed Vice-Chair of the Corporate Parenting Board for the 2026/27 municipal year.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

Any other members of the Board may declare an interest for the purpose of transparency.

Cllr S Mackrow advised for the purpose of transparency that they were a special guardian as this was referenced in the Data and Analysis report.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 16 March 2026.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 March were confirmed as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

The following amendments were noted:

•          Councillor Lisa Northover attendance to be recorded correctly.

•          Jenny Nest attended remotely.

Icebreaker item led by Young People and the Participation Team for

everyone at the Board meeting to participate in.

Young people led introductions and an icebreaker activity.

The Board welcomed contributions from young people throughout the meeting and thanked them for their continued involvement and challenge.

To receive a verbal update and feedback on the recent Star Awards celebration.

Feedback from the 2026 Star Awards event was presented.

Key achievements

•          Nominations increased from approximately 190 to 288.

•          Around 200 people attended, compared with approximately 150 the previous year.

•          71 children and young people attended.

•          The event was described as welcoming, relaxed and enjoyable.

•          Certificates recognising achievements were highly valued.

•          Food, refreshments, activities and free ice creams received positive feedback.

•          Indoor and outdoor space at the venue was praised.

Young people's feedback

Young people particularly enjoyed:

•          Face painting

•          Balloon modelling

•          Outdoor activities

•          Certificates

•          Free ice creams

Suggestions for future events included:

•          More games and activities

•          Glitter tattoos

•          Additional entertainment opportunities

Areas for improvement

Some attendees identified:

•          Sound quality issues during presentations

•          Technical problems with the presentation screen

•          Presentations being too long

•          Limited parking

•          Kitchen facility limitations

Feedback from some children indicated they had not been aware of the event before it took place.

Board discussion

The Board recognised the significant amount of planning and partnership work required to deliver the event.

Members highlighted:

•          The value of involving staff from across the Council.

•          Opportunities to use the skills and talents of carers, staff and partners.

•          The positive impact of informal photographs taken throughout the event.

•          The need to widen promotion and participation.

ACTION 1: Explore opportunities to promote future Star Awards events more widely across the Council workforce and partner organisations.

ACTION 2: Consider publishing an internal staff article celebrating the event and encouraging volunteers for future years.

ACTION 3: Provide information on kinship carer attendance and representation at future events.

To consider a presentation with updates for Housing and Accommodation for CEYPs including information on how the updated protocol and teams are working, examples of new provision coming online soon and housing priorities for the coming months.

A presentation was provided by Housing colleagues regarding housing support and homelessness prevention for care experienced young people.

Key updates

Housing demand

Compared with the previous year:

•          Homelessness assessments increased by 17%.

•          Relief duties increased by 20%.

•          Homelessness prevention activity increased by 15%.

Current position

At the time of reporting:

•          Four care experienced young people were in temporary accommodation.

•          Three were in bed and breakfast accommodation.

•          One was in shared accommodation.

•          Twenty-one young people were awaiting move-on accommodation.

•          Forty-two young people were in supported accommodation.

Housing developments

The service reported:

•          Additional staff had been recruited.

•          Increased support for homelessness prevention.

•          More support with private rented accommodation.

•          Improved partnership working with Children's Services.

•          Earlier housing planning for young people approaching adulthood.

Young people's feedback

Young people raised concerns regarding:

•          Delays in rent deposit payments.

•          Risks of losing accommodation while payments were processed.

•          Difficulties securing guarantors.

•          Challenges created by affordability rules and benefit thresholds.

Housing officers acknowledged these concerns and outlined:

•          Work underway to improve processing arrangements.

•          Development of a potential guarantor scheme.

•          Incentives and rent bond arrangements to support landlords.

•          Additional support for young people managing finances and housing costs.

Positive developments

The Board noted:

•          Stronger joint working between Housing and Children's Services.

•          Trauma-informed training for housing colleagues.

•          Improved planning processes.

•          New supported accommodation developments.

•          Creation of the Youth Homelessness Board.

•          Increased involvement of people with lived experience.

ACTION 1: Housing and Children's Services to undertake further discussion regarding homelessness applications arising from care leavers and the underlying causes.

ACTION 2: Explore opportunities to align language and communication approaches with wider "Changing the Narrative" work.

The Local Offer is cirucalted to the Board at this stage as an introduction. Board memebrs are asked to consider this further prior to the September meeting and to bring back comments and suggestions to the September meeitng for a full discussion.

The detailed Local Offer item was deferred to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:
The Local Offer update will be brought to the next Corporate Parenting Board meeting.

Quarterly updating performance data summary for children in Care and Care Experienced young people open to BCP Council.

Demand on children’s social care remains high, with 644 children in care at the end of March 2026, continuing the upward trend from both last quarter and last year. This is the main pressure in the report, driving significant financial impact through increased demand for placements, staffing, legal intervention, health support, education services and leaving care provision.

Placement sufficiency and safeguarding risk remain key concerns. Around 2 in 6 children are placed more than 20 miles from home, 9% experienced three or more moves, and 51 children went missing 253 times. These factors increase instability for children and create additional service and cost pressures through higher-cost placements, travel, coordination and intensive multi-agency support.

The report also shows positive progress in key outcome areas. Health performance has improved significantly, education participation is rising, and permanence planning remains strong, with all eligible children having a permanence plan and 34% of those leaving care returning to live with family. Overall, the service is improving outcomes, but rising numbers, placement pressures and safeguarding risks continue to drive demand and cost.

Key data and performance information were presented.

Headlines

•          Numbers of children in care remained above national averages.

•          May 2026 saw more children return home than enter care.

•          Additional resources had been allocated to reunification work.

•          External support from Empower had been commissioned to review data, practice and opportunities for improvement.

•          Most children in care were engaged in education, employment or training.

•          Levels of in-house fostering placements remained above national averages.

•          Placement stability remained positive.

Additional information

•          51 children in care had been reported missing during the reporting period.

•          Approximately 17% of children in care had been assessed as being at risk of exploitation.

ACTION: Bring an interim update on the Empower review to a future Corporate Parenting Board meeting.

To consider and amend the Board’s Forward Plan as appropriate.

The Plan was noted. Members were asked to send notification of any additional items outside of the meeting.

The Board is asked to note the future dates arranged for meetings of the Board as follows:

Monday 28 September 2026 – 5.00pm – 7.00pm

Monday 14 December 2026 – 5.00pm – 7.00pm

Monday 8 March 2027 – 5.00pm – 7.00pm

The date of the next meeting was noted as Monday 28 September 2026.

On conclusion of the meeting Young people shared messages of thanks and appreciation for the Director of Children's Services ahead of her retirement.

The Board recognised her leadership and commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people.

The Director thanked young people, carers, partners and colleagues and encouraged everyone to continue championing the rights and ambitions of children and young people.