Agenda and minutes

Apologies are noted above.

Members of Cabinet are asked to consider whether they have an interest in any of the matters of the Agenda and, if so, to formally declare that interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

Minutes from the meeting held on 16^th September 2025 are attached for approval.

It was agreed:

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 16 September 2025 be approved as a correct and accurate record.

A period of 30 minutes has been set aside for members of the public to ask questions on the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

No questions were received in advance of the meeting.

The following questions were asked at the meeting

Kiera Delaney explained that in the Department for Education and NHS England Stocktake Letter to Bury Council (July 2025), the local area was recognised for making structural improvements, but the letter also made clear that further work is needed to strengthen data reporting and oversight including how the Council monitors the delivery of EOTAS and AP packages and demonstrates the actual impact of its actions.

Stocktake Letter, July 2025, p. 3–4 — “It remains essential to enhance data reporting capabilities”

The Ofsted SEND Inspection Report (February 2024) found inconsistent recording and monitoring of annual reviews and highlighted weaknesses in the timeliness of support and data accuracy.

Ofsted Local Area SEND Inspection Report, Feb 2024, p. 6–7 — “Leaders do not have reliable oversight of”

The Bury SEND Partnership Self-Evaluation and Annual Engagement document (October 2025) notes that, while the local area has “taken purposeful and effective action,” there is “still more to do to ensure every child, young person and their families receives the support they need, when they need it.”

That same report confirms 69 children are currently placed in Alternative Provision, though it does not specify how many are receiving a full-time, suitable education.

Kiera asked:

1. What is the current verified data, as of November 2025, showing:

• How many children and young people with EHC Plans are not receiving their full Section F provision;
• How many with EOTAS named have their full package implemented and regularly monitored;
• Of the 69 children in Alternative Provision, how many receive a full-time, suitable education; and
• The percentage of annual reviews completed within statutory timescales, and amended plans issued within 12 weeks of the review meeting?

2.Given that the DfE requires councils to demonstrate impact rather than planning, when will Bury publish verified evidence of measurable improvement — not just new structures or processes — showing that every child with an EHC Plan, including those educated otherwise than at school, is receiving their legal provision in full and on time?

Finally, I’d note that I raised a similar question in March 2025 regarding the Council’s reported 97% compliance rate for EHCP assessments completed within 20 weeks, but no written response or supporting data has yet been provided.

Will the Committee ensure that both that information and the data requested tonight are published in full, so that members and the public can see the actual evidence of improvement?

The Executive Director Children and Young People explained that work was ongoing to ensure that data was collected accurately and was fully transparent. The Minutes of the Send Improvement and Assurance Board (SIAB) meetings are published. Progress has been made to move to a position where we are collating the data alongside the key priority areas for full transparency.

Progress has been made behind the scenes to share data out in a way that is underscored and aligned to our key priorities.

With regards to the child-by-child  ...  view the full minutes text for item CYP.80

A period of up to 15 minutes will be allocated for questions and supplementary questions from members of the Council who are not members of the committee. This period may be varied at the discretion of the chair.

Councillor Shahbaz Arif referred to a post that he had seen on social media regarding a child with ADHD that had been out of school for a period of time and asked what the Council was doing to make sure that SEND children who were out of school were found suitable support and education.

The Director of Early Years explained that EOTAS were in place for when children were not in a mainstream setting and the team that worked with children in this situation aimed to get them back into mainstream as soon as possible. There were children that were out of mainstream, but the team were committed to work with all young people across Bury.

Tracey Staines, Head of Youth Justice and Complex Safeguarding presented a report setting out the Youth Justice Business Plan 2025- 2026.

Bury and Rochdale Youth Justice Service amalgamated in 2014, and the partnership board is chaired by the Director of Bury Children’s Services, with the Assistant Director of Rochdale Children’s Services as co-chair. Strategically and operationally partners are drawn from both boroughs.

Bury retained responsibility for the Youth Justice Prevention element following the merge. There are close links and working relationships between the two services to ensure that we are identifying need at the earliest opportunity. One of our key priority areas is early identification of young people who may be at risk of offending, to intervene early and reduce the number of first-time entrants into the criminal justice service.

The Youth Justice Plan 2025/2026 was agreed by the Youth Justice Board in July 2025, and sets out the priorities for this financial year, in addition to the proposed outcomes for children and young people open to the service.

Issues covered in the business plan include:

a. the need for a Bury town centre base for the service,

b. higher numbers of children in Bury’s care open to the service

c. higher numbers of Bury children with EHCPs and identified SEND being worked with by the Youth Justice Service

d. the disproportionality of some ethnic groups within the cohort of young people supported by the service

The Business plan notes performance against national key performance measures, with the number of first time entrants falling and the reoffending rate and custody rate being lower than the regional or GM average in Bury and Rochdale.

The plan also notes key risks, which include:

a. Inconsistent attendance at the Partnership Board, with a change in governance structure being implemented to address this issue

b. Differential access to expert additional resource as part of the Youth Justice offer, with Bury children not having access to a dedicated CAMHs practitioner, or a Educational Attendance specialist, or a Speech and Language Therapist

c. The absence of a seconded probation officer for children moving between children and adult youth justice services.

Six priority areas for 2025/26 are identified within the plan:

a. Governance & Leadership

b. Prevention and Diversion

c. Remand, Custody and Resettlement

d. Victims and Restorative Justice

e. Serious Violence and Harmful Sexual Behaviour

f. Quality Assurance and Workforce Development

and these broadly map to the inspection framework for Youth Justice Services.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

• Councillor Ayesha Arif referred to the number of BME young people referred to and working with the Youth Justice Team and asked how the team could assure that staff working with these young people were representative of and sensitive to their needs.

It was confirmed that the workforce was culturally representative of the young people it supported. One of the concerns that was beyond the teams’ control was disproportionality at the referral source before they reach  ...  view the full minutes text for item CYP.82

Ben Dunne Director of Education and Skills presented a report which had been produced following Bury’s local area SEND services Inspection by the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted. The inspection team identified widespread, systemic failings in services and highlighted the challenge that the service need to do more to improve the outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs.

The inspection identified 6 priority actions which Bury Council and NHS Greater Manchester ICB are jointly responsible for, along with 3 areas for improvement. As a result of the inspection outcome, the local authority has been issued with an Improvement Notice and will be subject to monitoring visits followed by a re-inspection in approximately 18 months.

As a result of the inspection outcome, the Bury local area has produced a Priority Action Plan, which is locally being referred to as the Priority Impact Plan (PIP).

The PIP has been co-produced with stakeholders, including parents and carers and is the strategic plan for SEND, setting out what needs to be delivered in the next 18-24 months with key milestones and key performance indicators. The plan is published on the Bury SEND Local Offer.

Support for the delivery of the Priority Impact Plan has been supported through additional investment by the council and the ICB – this will support the programme management and governance but also address some of the critical deficits identified in the report. The level of investment secured is approximately £450,000 a year.

Bury Council has also applied for Intervention Support Fund (ISF), which is a targeted grant provided by the Department for Education (DfE) to support local authorities in England that are under formal intervention to bolster resources and further support the implementation of the Priority Impact Plan (PIP). A response to the grant application is currently awaited and further information, should this be granted at the next Scrutiny Committee.

The report set out the following information:

• Governance Arrangements
• Monitoring Arrangements
• SEND Service Launch, embedding ‘Deep Dive’ activities

The conclusion of the report was that the Local Area SEND Partnership is continuing in its commitment to improving services for children and young people with SEND and their families.

The SIAB has received assurance that we are progressing, in accordance with the commitments set out in the Local Area SEND Priority Impact Plan. There is still a considerable amount of work to be done, and it is essential that we maintain a consistent pace and ensure that we capture the impact for our children, young people and their families and that this is sustained throughout

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:

• Councillor Lancaster referred to changes to ADHD/Autism assessments due to start in January that she had been made aware of for through Bury Together in relation to CAHMS assessments for children assessed to have moderate or severe mental health conditions. Concerns had been raised that some children may not meet the assessment criteria and will  ...  view the full minutes text for item CYP.83

The Executive Director of Children and Young People presented a report giving an overview of the Social Care Reforms and the approach to implementation in Bury.

Following publication of the independent review of children social care in May 2022, the government outlined a commitment to deliver transformational whole-system reform as set out in their ‘Stable Homes, built on love’ Strategy.

The social care reforms have four overarching outcomes:

• Children, young people and families stay together and get the help they need.
• Children and young people are supported by their family network.
• Children and young people are safe in and outside of their homes.
• Children in care and care leavers have stable, loving homes.

The Policy Framework was set out within the report:

• May 2022 – publication of Josh Macalister’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

• February 2023 – publication of the Stable Homes, Built on Love Strategy, the Government’s implementation strategy for improving social care.

• December 2023 – publication of four key publications, outlining the changes, actions and plans to support delivery of the strategy:
  • National kinship strategy ‘Championing Kinship Care’
  • Children’s Social Care National Framework
  • Refreshed multi-agency statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’
  • Digital and data strategy
• November 2024 - Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive policy paper published, which the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill will put aspects of the reforms into law.
• December 2024 – Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill introduced into Parliament.
• March 2025 – Families First Partnership Programme Guide published setting out delivery expectations for safeguarding partners in England to support national rollout from April 2025.

It was explained that the Family First Partnership guidance was shared in April 2025 and set out the expectations to transform the whole system of help, support, and protection, requiring safeguarding partners to bring together targeted early help, child in need and multi-agency child protection into a seamless system, including services and workforces such as family support workers, social workers, and other highly-skilled, experienced, alternatively qualified practitioners. The intention is that children, young people and their families can receive the right level of support at the right time to meet their needs.

The three key delivery strands to the FFPP are:

• Family Help
• Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs)
• Family Group Decision Making (FGDM)

Nationally, £523 million has been provided for the FFP Programme in 2025-26 and this will continue in each year of the Spending Review period (£523m each year from 2026-27 – 2028-29). This money will fund additional children’s social care prevention services, and commitments in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to improve help and protection for children.

Bury has been allocated £900,000 for each of the next 3 years with an additional transformation grant of £127,000 to support transformation activity across the partnership. Spending of the grant is monitored through quarterly returns to DfE/MHCLG.

The DfE have outlined their expectation that 2025-26 is the year of transformation as local areas invest time and resource into local design in the first stage of the programme. In June, Bury  ...  view the full minutes text for item CYP.84

For Information Only

The Elections Manager  presented a report setting out the Children's Social Care Complaints for years 22/23, 23/24 & 24/25

The Annual Complaints Reports for have been produced in accordance with 24(D) & 26 of the Children Act 1989 Representation Procedure (England)Regulations 2006 and statutory guidance for the Department for Education, Getting the best from complaints to update Members in respect of complaints to Childrens Social Care Services.

The reports look at the period March 2022 – March 2023 and March 2023 – March 2024 and will allow Members to see the extent and complexity of Children’s Social Care Service’s span of activity and to receive information relating to the quality of the services delivered.

• Councillor Hayes referred to repeat and vexatious complaints and asked how many there were.

It was explained that the figure changed year on year. Repeat complaints do take up a lot of time and impacts on the IG team and the Children’s Services Team particularly in relation to FOIs and SARs as people use different channels to submit them including the Council, Councillors and MPs. 

All complaints are logged  as individual complaints and if a complainant then adds more issues to the complaint this could then be classed as a new complaint and would start at stage 1 in order to investigate. A complainant could have several complaints open at once being dealt with at different stages of the process.

• Councillor Boles asked what learning was taken from complaints and whether this would improve outcomes.

It was explained that the responsible manager would be required to identify any learning that can be taken from the complaints and share this with their teams.

Headlines from the complaints team are shared back across Children’s Services, across Education and across Social Care. Information is also translated back into workforce development planning and the relevant teams and also sits alongside the wider improvement plan.

There are key areas linked to complaints which are learning points including expectations and communication and what skills can be utilised to communicate better with customers.

• The YP representative asked if there was a strategy in place to reduce complaints.

It was explained that complaints provide important feedback and learning. The relevant teams will take the opportunity to have a face to face conversation at the first point that the complaint is made to be able to review the situation.

• Councillor Berry referred to the silent protest that had been held nationally to raise awareness for children with SEND and the fact that this could be seen as a complaint. He asked if a response would be sent in relation to this.

Jeannette reported that a response was being prepared in relation to the protest and this would be sent through the Communications Team.

It was agreed:

That the contents of the report be noted

Any other business which by reason of special circumstances the Chair agrees may be considered as a matter of urgency.

There was no urgent business raised at the meeting.