Wrthi'n llwytho
Y penderfyniadau fel y mae cofnodion y cyngor yn eu cofnodi. Bydd crynodeb mewn iaith glir yn dilyn pan fydd wedi'i ysgrifennu.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
RESOLVED to approve the Annual Report, Corporate Parenting Strategy and Annual Delivery Plan for submission to Cabinet.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Apologies were received from Cllr Lay, Rebecca Brockway, Deborah Driffield and Sarah Skuse.
There were none.
The minutes of the 21st October 2024 meeting were approved and signed as a correct record.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Sian Sanders (Head of Community Safety & Cohesion) provided the Committee with an outline of the feedback and actions agreed by Members at their workshop on 10th February, which sought to inform the annual plan and broader strategy over the next few years. The plan set out priorities, actions and themes, with responsible officers attached to each one. Key points raised in the workshop included the importance of effective partnerships, cross-border relationships and keeping staff informed, as well as the need to demonstrate practical, tangible results. Members had also advocated increasing visibility and access to opportunities, kinship care, learning from good practice, wider service support and care networks, and noted that the term Corporate Parenting could be confusing to young people. Members noted the amount of building taking place around the city and advocated maximising work experience opportunities through social value requirements on developers. In particular it was suggested that a move away from volunteering to longer-lasting placements could benefit young people. Officers agreed with this, although it was noted that the council could be limited with regard to existing contracts and targets, and would have more control when it came to future developments. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion explained that the Child Friendly Cities and Communities team had held a consultation session seeking to hear the honest and open views of care experienced young people. Key themes of their feedback had included tailored support that didn’t make assumptions and met them where they were, the centrality of education to long-term success, and the importance of flexible education and skills pathways that were responsive to need. Young people also highlighted the importance of life skills in preparing them for adulthood, and emphasised that there was no substitute for action. Their feedback would be weaved throughout the service’s approach, and there would be regular sessions with the Bright Sparks team throughout the year to ensure continuous engagement. It was noted that issues like bullying and peer pressure were more acute for care experienced children, and that young people were keen to find out what the service could and couldn’t do to support them. Members asked what the education service area was doing to tackle stigmas against care experienced young people in school, and heard that the service sought to be mindful of individual needs and experiences. Deborah Williams (Virtual Headteacher) explained that each school had the protective factor of a designated member of staff who care experienced young people knew they could trust, though there was a wider issue around behaviour in schools for children who were considered ‘different’ which was hard to unravel. Members queried the scope of engagement and heard that there were nine individuals from diverse backgrounds in the Bright Sparks group. Members suggested broadening its scope, for example by building links with the Welsh Youth Parliament or with Molly Fenton’s network following her work on period poverty. Matthew Osborne (OM Safeguarding & Reviewing Hub) explained that they were keen to grow the group significantly and were making extra efforts to promote it to less engaged-with groups like neurodivergent young people. There could be some overlap with the work of the Youth Parliament, although the people involved with it tended not to be looked after. Deborah Williams (Virtual Headteacher) added that the Voices for Care Cymru conference promoting educational opportunities for care-experienced children had taken place on 11th March, with a group of Cardiff’s young people playing a leading role. Officers welcomed any links and contacts Members were able to provide for them to get in touch with. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to approve the Annual Report, Corporate Parenting Strategy and Annual Delivery Plan for submission to Cabinet.
The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion gave an update on three documents for review and information ahead of their submission to Cabinet in May. The papers had been considered in draft form at the previous CPAC workshop, and were being refined before they also went to the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee prior to Cabinet. The first document was the Annual Report, which reflected on progress against priorities, outlined governance and accountability arrangements and had been drawn together with a wide range of partners. The second was the Corporate Parenting Strategy for 2025-28, which was based on five key priorities reflecting the needs of children and young people. Finally, the Annual Delivery Plan for 2025-26 set out what they intended to deliver over the next year, with specific actions, responsible officers and success indicators. A number of refinements had been made following the workshop in February, including the addition of SMART actions and clear leads, and better reflection of wider service involvement and member visits. Members welcomed the focus on feedback from young people throughout and asked about the support for those who remained in care but were no longer classed as looked after, for example after having been adopted. Officers explained that this was a regular topic in their National Development Group meetings with the Welsh government. Funding was based on the number of children looked after, rather than those who were care experienced or previously looked after, but the expectation was still that the funding benefitted them. It was not always easy to tell who and where the adopted children were, as they no longer had a care review plan or Independent Development Plan. Members noted the scope of the strategy and asked whether officers were confident they had the time and resources to deliver. The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion noted that there was a lot of paperwork at the moment because they were trying to get the fundamentals right to drive improvement and change, and were very focused on delivery. The intention was to get into a cycle of continuous improvement that could then be tweaked year on year. The Committee RESOLVED to approve the Annual Report, Corporate Parenting Strategy and Annual Delivery Plan for submission to Cabinet.
Priority – Fundamentals. Final version of annual report presented to CPAC for approval.
Rhan o fater a ddilynwyd ar draws 3 cyfarfod
Priority – Fundamentals. Final version of the 2025-2026 annual plan presented to CPAC for approval.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Matthew Osborne (OM Safeguarding & Reviewing Hub) outlined the data dashboard up to the end of Quarter 2, noting that the format had been in place for some time but possible revisions had been discussed at CPAC in October. He highlighted a number of key trends over time, noting that the population of children looked after had peaked in 2023, with a gradual decline since then to around 1,000 in total at the end of last year. As instructed by the UK government, these figures included unaccompanied asylum seeking children too, of whom there were 36 as of the end of 2024. The figures were broken down by age, gender and ethnicity, and he noted that there were more boys than girls in each of the age categories. The percentage of looked after children who had three or more placements during the year (which they wanted to be as low as possible) was going down, and was at 7.7% across 2024. There had been an increase in kinship placements and both internal and external foster placements. He also summarised the Youth Justice Service dashboard, which showed an overall decrease in caseload numbers compared to last year. Young people remanded in custody had automatic CLA status under UK law, and he noted that 65% of those in the service were above the statutory school age of 16, while 74% were white British and 13% white European – an overrepresentation relative to population which was deserving of further investigation. On the topic of education, he noted that 64% of children looked after were in a Cardiff school or setting alongside 28% were out of county, 6% educated other than at school and 2% not in provision. 19% had an Independent Development Plan for SEN or ALN, although a further 8% had a statement waiting to transfer, all of which would be completed by the end of the year. 25 children looked after had received one or more fixed term exclusion, with just one permanently excluded, although they wanted the latter number to be zero and were working with schools accordingly. Members welcomed the significant decrease in permanent exclusions in recent years, and heard that out of school and work placements, one-to-one sessions and nurture groups made a huge difference. The OM Safeguarding & Reviewing Hub also noted that a new tool was in place to give a clearer picture of attendance, particularly for those who were out of county. There were challenges in reporting GCSE results as not all young people sat them, and they were working out how best to record meaningful outcome measures for educational achievement. The Into Work service was helping to place young people into work experience, volunteering and Bright Sparks placements, as well as full-time education and jobs, with additional support from the wellbeing, money advice and digital teams. He added that the percentage of care levers who were eligible to leave care (i.e. categories 2, 3 and 4) who had completed at least three consecutive months of employment, education or training within the last year was 60.8%, a decline from 68.1% last year, while the percentage in the last 13-24 months had increased. Members queried the reasons for the drop in 2024 and heard that it was a moving picture that was difficult to unpick. Members asked whether there was a role for Corporate Parenting in supporting young people who were more vulnerable to criminal grooming, such as by county lines gangs. Officers acknowledged that children looked after were more likely to be vulnerable to exploitation, and explained that supporting them to stay in school was key, as was training for care providers and education establishments to help them spot warning signs. Multi-agency care and support plans and high risk panels were able to look more closely at specific cases and identify what kinds of support the school and council could provide. Members explored how social media and mobile phones related to vulnerability among young people, and heard that this was something the service reflected on with their colleagues in Prevent. Officers also fed into the council’s violence prevention strategies and found that preventative work linking into the school curriculum, identifying early on what behaviours were and weren’t appropriate, was key. The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion added that projects around misogyny and online violent content tended to be quite small-scale, so they needed to be well targeted to reach frontline staff and services. Members suggested including comparisons on the data dashboards to provide context for how children looked after compared to the whole cohort across Cardiff. Officers agreed and added that comparisons with previous cohorts could also be used to build a clear narrative of progress over time. Members suggested using ethnicity data among children looked after feed into the way staff were trained, and heard that this could also be used in order to recruit foster parents who might be a particular fit for a child’s cultural characteristics, with the council’s Equality Action Plan being key. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion explained that the Corporate Safeguarding Self-Assessment was undertaken annually to ensure all employees were playing their part in safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children and young people. For 2025/26, the self-assessment had been extended to capture wider areas relevant to their priorities, specifically Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) and Corporate Parenting. As it was their first time asking these questions, it was key to future benchmarking. So far, 10 of 13 directorates had responded, and initial analysis indicated that there was more to be done across the wider council. General awareness was good, but there was room for improvement when it came to building actions into directorate delivery plans and championing opportunities for children and young people. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion noted that this plan sought to raise the visibility of Corporate Parenting work both internally and externally, showcasing progress and priorities, providing mechanisms for staff to get involved, and reducing misconceptions about children looked after. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED to note the information provided.
The Head of Community Safety & Cohesion noted that the list of opportunities would be circulated to members and welcomed indications of interest. The Committee RESOLVED to note the information provided.
There were none.
The Chair noted that the full programme of meetings for 2025/26 would be confirmed at Annual Council on 22nd May.
Rhaid i gynghorwyr ddweud pan fydd ganddyn nhw gysylltiad personol â rhywbeth sy'n cael ei drafod, fel swydd, eiddo neu aelod o'r teulu. Mae buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu yn ddigon cryf i'r cynghorydd adael yr ystafell fel arfer a pheidio â chymryd rhan.
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