Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Children’s Services.

The report is the refreshed Children and Young People Plan 2024-2027 that the Stockport Family Partnership Board have collaborated to develop. The Plan reflects the shared partnership priorities from our One Stockport Borough Plan, ‘One Stockport: One Future’ and the Greater Manchester shared priorities for children and young people; and is aligned with other key strategy documents including the Stockport Council Plan and the Stockport Safeguarding Children Partnership Plan. The plan also provides a focus on the children and families responsibilities set out in the Stockport One Health and Care Plan.

The Board is asked to comment on the refreshed strategy as part of the engagement programme and approve release for next stages of engagement, including One Health and Care Board and Children and Family Scrutiny Committee.

Officer contact: Chris McLoughlin, Director of Children’s Services, Chris.McLoughlin@stockport.gov.uk

The Director of Children’s Services submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) which contained the refreshed Children and Young People Plan 2024 – 2027.

The following comments were made/issues raised:

·         The plan reflected the shared partnership priorities from the One Stockport Borough Plan ‘One Stockport: One Future’ and the Greater Manchester shared priorities for children and young people. The plan aligned with other key strategy documents, including the Stockport Council Plan and the Stockport Safeguarding Children Partnership Plan.

·         The plan contained 7 ambitions for children and young people in helping them to achieve the best start in life and the best outcomes as they moved into adulthood. This included but was not limited to, a focus on supporting children in care and care leavers.

·         Additional areas of focus were set out in the plan and emphasised the importance of meeting the diverse needs of Stockport’s children and young people.

·         The plan would be overseen by the Stockport Family Partnership Board.

·         It was recognised that the plan largely focussed on early years as a critical element of the plan. However, members noted that the Director of Education, Work and Skills was developing of Skills Strategy to support readying young people for work.

·         The increase in children coming into care since 2019 had proved challenging in relation to the sufficiency of places in Stockport. The team endeavoured to place children in Stockport or as near as possible to the borough. A strategy was in place to increase places, and the priority was that children remained within their local communities. It was noted that there were a high number of private residential homes in the borough. It was also noted that the number of children from out of borough in Stockport had slightly decreased in recent years. Other local authority areas had a responsibility to inform the council if they were to place a child in Stockport, and they had a responsibility to ensure that the child’s needs were being met.

RESOLVED – That the next stages of engagement be approved for release (including One Stockport Health & Care Locality Board and Children & Families Scrutiny Committee).