Agenda item

To approve the Telford & Wrekin Children and Young People's Strategy.

The Cabinet Member: Children, Young People, Education, Employment & Skills presented the report of the Director: Health & Wellbeing.

The report summarised the proposals for the Council’s draft Children and Young People Strategy for 2025 – 2028 which was an overarching plan that will act as an umbrella for a range of supporting partnership strategies and transformation programmes. The vision of the strategy was that the Borough would be a home to healthy, safe children who achieve their potential and encompasses four main aims including start well, stay well, keep safe and enjoy and achieve.

In recent years, a variety of local strategies aimed at improving the lives of children and young people have been in place across a range of partnerships including the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and the Health & Wellbeing Board. At the time of the meeting, the Government was in the process of developing and launching a new set of national policies and reforms, such as the Children’s Social Care reform, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the NHS 10 year plan.

A new Children & Young People’s Strategy for Telford and Wrekin was proposed to streamline and deliver the Council’s strategic commitments across a range of children and young people’s agendas and partnerships, alongside the rapidly changing national policy landscape.

The strategy will adopt a whole-child approach to maximise outcomes for all children and young people, with a focus on narrowing the gap for children who are disadvantaged, emphasising the importance of early years support. The strategy will address issues such as poverty, mental health, domestic abuse, substance abuse and special educational needs.

The proposals as part of the development of the new strategy would draw on engagement, consultation and co-production work undertaken as part of the development of the supporting strategies, including insight gathered from children and families with special educational needs and disabilities through the development of Family Hubs, the Young Person’s Year of Wellbeing campaign and the healthy weight consultation.

Cabinet Members expressed strong support for the strategy and thanked officers for their hard work. They recognised the aims of the strategy to create a nurturing community where every child and young person can thrive. Members highlighted the importance of emotional health and wellbeing which was a key priority of the Stay Well initiative and the work the Council had undertaken with young people as part of the Year of Wellbeing to develop a new toolkit. Members also noted the success of the Family Hubs initiative to date which had expanded from three operational hubs to a total of six hubs in the past year and had supported over 8,500 people.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group welcomed the report and highlighted the council's outstanding children's services and their continuous improvement journey. He noted the importance of the Council’s responsibility to care for the Borough’s most vulnerable residents. He asked the Cabinet to consider future support from the Council for youth clubs.

The Leader of the Conservative Group thanked officers for the report and noted the demographic statistics contained within the report highlighting that the Council had either met or were above the national average in some areas. He asked that the strategy and future associated documents contain clear objectives and measurable outcomes to enable residents to understand if the desired outcomes are being met and asked when the data would be made publicly available.

RESOLVED – that the commitments and proposals in the Telford & Wrekin Children & Young People’s Strategy 2025-2028 be supported and approved.