Agenda and minutes

          The Minutes of the meeting held on the 8^th September 2025 were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

          It was confirmed that no public questions had been received.

          The minutes relating to the Children, Young People and Families Portfolio, taken from the Executive Board meetings held since the last meeting of this Board, were attached as Appendix 1 for information.

          It was confirmed that the ‘Home to School Transport’ for SEND children will go to Executive Board in November. Even though the PPB was not referenced in the report, the Portfolio Holder stated that he would notify Executive Board that the recommendations in the report came the PPB when they received the report.

          The Board received the performance management report for Quarter 2 for 2025-26.

          The key priorities for development or improvement in 2023/24 were agreed by Members and included in the Business Plan, for the various functional areas reporting to the Board as detailed below:

· Education, Inclusion, Provision Services

· Children and Families Services

          The report detailed the progress made against objectives and milestones and performance targets and provided information relating to key developments and emerging issues that had arisen during the period.

          Highlights included increased attendance in the Family Engagement Hub and the Edge of Care Service successfully reducing residential placements. There had been an increase of children being placed in care which was at 384 at the time of the meeting but this included care leavers. EHCP timeliness was above the national average and timeliness had improved with EHCP annual reviews; following funding being granted by the Department for Education (DfE), officers intend to keep improving timeliness.

          The new Ofsted framework had been launched, and secondary school standings had increased above 71% for good or outstanding Ofsted grading. There had been a significant drop in exclusions and suspensions, and these were all scrutinised by officers. Even though there had been a drop in attendance at schools, attendance at the PRU (pupil referral unit) had improved and work will continue to improve this.

          164 staff members had received training through the Social Work Academy. There had been a reduction in using agency staff due to successful recruitment of agency workers by the Council. There had been an increase in permanent staff off long-term sick.

          The Council still struggled to recruit foster carers, but this was a national problem. To mitigate this, a new App had been launched called ‘Tell A Friend’ which had some success but it would not cover sufficiency needs.

          Schools were contacted to see if they would be interested in expanding their resource provision for SEND pupils and at least six schools expressed an interest in this. Consultations will be had with these schools, their communities and the DfE around this. Ashley High School will have four new classrooms built on site for their pupils by September 2026 and Brookfields School was also looking to expand their provision. Officers wanted to focus on SEND provision being expanded in secondary school as this was where the demand was.

          Prior to the meeting, several members of the Board received a presentation on the Youth Trailblazer Project for care leavers and NEET (not in education, employment or training) young people. The project’s purpose was to help young people access employment or education and it utilised money from the combined authority.

          For the future, officers will focus on reducing care demand, stabilise fostering provision, and helping create a care home with non-for-profit organisations.

          It was noted that the PRU was not in the most suitable location, however there was no alternative building and there were no funds available to build a new PRU.  This was a priority for the Council’s Strategic Asset Plan.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

          The Board considered the Quarterly Report from the Halton Safeguarding Children Partnership. The report detailed the achievements of the Partnership and how it addressed areas for improvement that were identified in the Halton Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) Business Plan. The key priorities for development or improvement were agreed by strategic leaders and included in the HSCP Business Plan 2024-27.

          Highlights in the report including the progress made against the Council’s priorities and the work done by the multi-agency strategic group. The Partnership had three goals: improve the quality and timeliness of practices regarding neglect, safeguarding children from violence and exploitation, and protecting children as victims of domestic abuse.

          Weekly safeguarding meetings were held regarding children who were identified as high risk and monthly operational meetings were held to discuss concerning trends, for example, the rise in ketamine use. The Partnership had formed a robust response to this including awareness activities.

          A mock inspection was done on children who were domestic abuse victims, and this showed that sufficient services were not in place for them. Therefore, awareness raising was done with young people and perpetrators and schools were being informed in a timelier matter when incidents happened so they could support the child in their school who was affected.

          Work was done to train frontline practitioners and improve attendance for high-risk children. Work needed to be done to improve transitional safeguarding between child and adult social care.

          The following additional information was provided in response to Member’s questions:

• ‘Level 8’ attainment is when children are given an average grading from their GCSEs.
• Following some investigation work, officers found a high correlation between poverty and neglect for children. Therefore, they planned to tackle to the root cause of this.
• A teenage pregnancy was a lot higher in Halton than nationally; the health and education sub-boards will investigate this imminently.
• Drug usage had reduced amongst young people following the success of workshops focusing on this.
• The Board praised the work done by officers of the Partnership.
• Schools recently received a new toolkit to ensure that they were being ‘inclusive by design’. The toolkit will be highlighted through numerous workshops and training.
• It was confirmed that the Council adopted the Joseph Rowntree definition of poverty regarding its children.

          RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

          The Board considered the Virtual School Annual Report 2024-25 which covered the educational outcomes and achievement for Halton’s Children in Care, and the school’s wider work across children’s services.

          Highlights included that the school was going through a restructure which was planned for January 2026 due to the increased number of children coming into care. The school’s priorities were a new reading support programme, a Virtual School College to help NEET care experienced young people, improving attendance and reducing exclusions, and supporting vulnerable groups. 

          75 children moved placements, and 26 children moved school, but these moves were structured and planned. Exam results were good, attendance had improved, and exclusions and suspensions had reduced. 73% of year 12 and 13 were in further education or employment.

          The Virtual School works close with social workers as they had more children going through educational plans. There had been an increased number of delegates attending training and the training offer for parents and foster carers had been increased.

          Work was planned to make sure that new school starters were ready for school and officers were keen for children in care and with social workers to perform as well as children not in care. More support around maths was planned as this was a subject that the school’s pupils struggled with.

          It was planned that six new members of staff will join the school and they will help support physical schools and families.

          The following additional information was provided in response to Member’s questions:

• Every local authority must have a virtual school which oversees the education outcomes for children in care. Children still attend a physical school and could go to a school anywhere in the country, but they must be Halton children to be monitored by Halton’s Virtual School.
• The Virtual School works closely with the Youth Trailblazer Project (YTP) and they put plans in place together for young people in the virtual school.
• The Board will receive a full report on NEET at the meeting in January 2026. The Board requested that this report include overlaps with the YTP.
• For the last 12 months, schools have been spoken to so the Virtual School could see what their approach was to teaching children to read so they did not duplicate this.
• Officers linked in with the Literacy Trust and hosted three events for parents and carers to promote reading for pleasure to children. They will check with schools to see how successful the events were.

          RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

          The Board considered a presentation on the performance outcomes for schools across Halton at the end of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), and Key Stages 2, 4 and 5. In the accompanying presentation it was noted that:

• There were no progress measures for the primary stage or transition stage due to Covid-19 as the current Year 7’s did not sit exams in Year 2 and the current Year 11’s did not sit exams in Year 6.
• Halton has a higher percentage of EHCP, SEND, and children that the national average based on DfE measures.
• Early Year profiles which are done at the end of reception, increased in ‘good level of development’ nationally and in Halton to 68% and 62% respectively.
• The performance of SEND children and children with EHCPs decreased but children who received free school meals improved in their academic performance and were above the national average.
• 76% of pupils passed their phonics exam in Year 1 compared to 80% nationally.
• 69% of children listed as ‘most vulnerable’ achieved their expected standard compared to 67% nationally.
• Halton has matched the national average in reading, writing and maths as a combined score but were below the national average at ‘greater depth’.
• More ‘disadvantaged children’ in Halton scored 2% higher that the national average in reading, writing and maths.
• In 2025, Halton pupils with EHCP pupils out preformed the national average for EHCP pupils. 
• For GCSEs, if a pupil achieved a ‘4’ then this was considered a ‘low pass’. Grade 5 was considered a ‘high pass’.
• Halton’s Key Stage 4 results were not as good as its Key Stage 2 results, and they were below the national average but there was visible improvement ‘at pace’ after a drop the previous year.
• In terms of ‘Level 8’ attainment for GCSE results, this had improved so Halton was closing the gap with the national average.
• The ‘high pass’ and ‘low pass’ for GCSEs in Halton were above pre-pandemic levels this year. The national average for the ‘low pass’ had dropped.
• English and maths results were at pre-pandemic performance levels.
• There was a low number of pupils in Halton undertaking the English Baccalaureate but those who did take it preformed very well.
• EHCP pupils in Key Stage 4 had achieved close to the national average in their results.
• The Alternative Provision Strategy will help more disadvantaged children in mainstream schools.
• Three new early intervention officers have been recruited, and they will do collaborative working between headteacher groups.

          The following additional information was provided in response to Member’s questions:

• The national average attainment performance for children who received free school meals was 51.2% whereas it was 51.7% in Halton.
• Targeted support and early identification of pupil need helped more disadvantaged children improve their academic results.
• Officers plan to hold annual ‘keep in touch’ meetings with schools to continue exam result improvements.
• Officers will look at getting more finances for schools who had more ‘vulnerable’ children.
• External support advisors were effective for schools in order to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.