We already invest substantially in early intervention, safeguarding, and building a better future for children and young people.
We provide an extensive range of services, delivered by multiple providers in locations across the borough, from children's and family hub health centres to libraries and schools. Children receive a good start to life in the borough.
All schools in H&F are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, and we were rated ‘outstanding’ for our Youth Justice Service.
We have a purpose-built facility for Disabled children – the Stephen Wiltshire Centre – and our Care Leavers Hub will provide a full range of services for care experienced young people.
The council takes seriously its responsibilities to protect and safeguard the wellbeing of all children.
We are prioritising the identification and assessment of children and young people's needs, the delivery of timely early help and support, with inclusive and effective local provision, to enable young people to be fully prepared for adulthood.
Partnership working and the voice of young people sit at the heart of our approach. We work closely with public health and NHS partners, the third sector, young people, and their families, to co-produce how we design and deliver services.
This is underpinned by our co-produced early intervention and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategies, together with the significant investments we are continuing to make in our special and maintained school estates to provide a first-class inclusive education for all.
At the same time, our workforce is embracing our role as a corporate parent to hundreds of children and young people, to ensure their safeguarding is something that everyone acts upon, regardless of their roles within the council.
Our ambition
Our ambition is for every child and young person to have the best possible start to lead happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives, and that they are equipped with the skills they need to realise their full potential.
We want our children to feel cherished, confident and safe across all stages of their development, and to experience a deep sense of belonging.
Our priorities are to improve the life chances of all children and young people by safeguarding them from harm, and ensuring they can access excellent education and opportunities.
Short term goals
In the short term, we will:
- make care experience a protected characteristic by the end of 2023 to advance equity among care leavers, by providing training, housing and employment support
- enhance our Corporate Parent Pledge by 2024 to strengthen our whole council approach
- as the only London Borough chosen to participate in the Family Networks pilot, we will help family networks to play a more active role in providing loving and stable homes for children
- build on our continuous commitment to listen and respond to the voice of our children, young people and families, and engage them in the design and development of services
- launch our family hubs in 2024, co-produced with local families and young people, to make it simpler for families to access a wide range of council services.
Long term goals
In the long term, we will:
- recruit more local people to be foster carers every year through to 2026
- deliver improved support for young people as they prepare for adulthood by providing greater access to skills and employment, as part of our Industrial Strategy
- implement phase one of the Special School Organisation and Capital Plan by 2025-26 to invest in provision for young people with special educational needs and disabilities
- ensure all young people with SEND can access excellent support across mainstream schools
- continue to invest in our early help, safeguarding and specialist services to equip young people at all stages of their development with the skills and confidence they need
- continue our long-term commitment to work in partnership with parents and families to do all we can to keep families together wherever possible
- seek out opportunities to improve how we deliver help for young people across the whole system, through a proactive community-based approach.