Produced by RBWM and its partners from across the health and education sectors, this Children and Young People’s Plan examines what we know about the health and wellbeing needs of our children and young people. It also sets out how, as a system, we are committed to working together and alongside families to address health inequalities to ensure all children and young people – including the most vulnerable – can enjoy happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

The Plan was considered by the Health and Wellbeing Board in July 2023, a referral was made by the Board for the Panel to also consider and scrutinise the Plan.

The full Plan can be viewed on the Achieving for Children website. It is recommended that Panel Members read the Plan in advance of the meeting.

Lin Ferguson shared a video with the Panel which highlighted the Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan and detailed the priorities which formed the plan. This was the first time a plan of this kind had been adopted by the council. On the ‘be healthy’ priority, there was an aim to improve access to mental health, increasing the number of children who were breastfed and increasing the number of child immunisations. On ‘be safe’, there had been campaigns on water safety and safety outside of the home. It was important that all children were ready for school and that attainment for vulnerable groups was increased. The partnership was a written commitment between a number of agencies and would lead to a number of positive changes for children and young people, with many benefits already being seen.

Councillor C Da Costa commented on the video which had been shared, this was well put together and clearly explained the plans priorities. She questioned the higher than average number of children with SEND in the borough, was there any reason for this.

Lin Ferguson said that in more affluent areas there was a trend of children with SEND being identified at an earlier stage.

Councillor C Da Costa said that 6.3% of young people aged between 16 and 17 were not in employment, education or training. This was a high figure compared to the rest of Berkshire and England.

Lin Ferguson said that the Deputy Director of Education was currently writing a report on the reasons for this figure which would be presented to the Schools Forum. The pandemic had an impact on children wanting to learn and staying in education.

Councillor C Da Costa said it was disappointing to see that there were no free drop-in breastfeeding clinics in the borough. Early help needed to be protected as it was a really important service.

Councillor Sharpe asked why this was the first Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan which had been brought forward.

Kevin McDaniel explained that there was a statutory requirement to have a children and young people plan and the council had always had one. This plan had been developed in coordination with other teams and organisations which meant the plan was shared widely and was more prominent as a result.

Councillor Sharpe asked if there were any obstacles which officers could see getting in the way of priorities in the plan being achieved.

Lin Ferguson said that the biggest challenge would be finance and budget. All agencies were working together in collaboration on issues which were important to children and young people. There had not been many barriers experienced so far, with active workstreams complimenting the five key priorities.

Councillor Sharpe asked whether joining up with other organisations had decreased the cost of the service overall.

Lin Ferguson confirmed that it was too early to say, it was about thinking differently to achieve positive results.

Mark Jervis, Co-optee, noted that there were no Key Performance Indicators included as part of the plan.

Lin Ferguson said that these were part of the action plan, this could be shared with the Panel.

ACTION – Lin Ferguson to share the action plan for the Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan.

Councillor Cross mentioned a training course run by Kickback called ‘total respect’, which she recommended to other Councillors. Something that came out of this training was that when children in care passed a certain age, they would be transferred to a different service area. Councillor Cross asked what the council was doing to ensure that this gap was bridged and young people were being supported.

Lin Ferguson said that in children’s services there was a responsibility to support care leavers until the age of 25. For those children with SEND, the service provided support for the whole time that an Education Health and Care Plan was in place. To ensure the transition between childhood and adulthood was smooth, there was a ‘preparing for adulthood’ board and there were plans for a strategy to be produced along with additional guidance.

Kevin McDaniel added that conversations needed to happen with young people to set out a route for those who would not meet adult support for their whole life. Adult social care needed to work with colleagues in children’s services and housing to ensure that there are places for young people to live.

Councillor Shaw asked how the strategy would look to target an increase in uptake of children’s vaccines.

Lin Ferguson said that the main issue was parental choice, the council could not force parents to vaccinate their children. Work was done with parents to highlight the benefits of vaccinations.

Kevin McDaniel said that the public health team had a responsibility to drive the messaging and communications around vaccines and this done working closely with GPs and children’s services.