To receive apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Board.

Apologies for absence were received from Mike Cook (Non-voting Co-opted Member, who was represented by Jim Funnell), Jo Hunter (Voting Co-opted Member) and Hayley Costar (Non-voting Co-opted Member).

It was reported that Laura Colman was no longer a Parent Governor Co-opted Member on the Sub-Board as she had reached the end of her term of office.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings of the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board held on 19 May and 2 June 2025.

The minutes of the meetings of the Sub-Board held on 19 May and 2 June 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairwoman.

To receive an update on the Youth Justice Service and consider the Youth Justice Service Annual Plan and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services – Councillor Bye and the Head of Torbay Youth Justice Service – Jon Ralph presented the report on the new Youth Justice Plan for 2025-26 and responses to key lines of enquiry around actions to reduce antisocial behaviour in Torbay and responded to Members’ questions.  The Plan had been submitted to the Youth Justice Board by the statutory deadline of 30 June 2025, with a note that it would be reviewed by the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board and ratified by the Cabinet.

It was noted that good progress had been made since the last update on the Youth Justice Plan with a single action remaining as red relating to accommodation, which had now been approved but would not be operational until Autumn due to adaptations required and delays as asbestos was found on site.

Members noted that Hayley Costar from Devon and Cornwall Police was unable to attend the meeting but had provided a statement that she had considered the Youth Justice Plan and confirmed that the Police had played an active part in shaping the document and therefore were in broad agreement with its aims.

Sadie Hall, Assistant Director for Women, Children and Young People, NHS Devon (Integrated Care Board – ICB), welcomed the ICB being part of a partnership working together to help reduce youth offending.  Sadie advised as well as working with Torbay Council that she also sat on the Youth Justice Boards in Plymouth and Devon County Council and was committed to working together as part of the ICB’s statutory duties.

Members asked questions in relation to the following:

·                was the antisocial behaviour real or a perception;

·                the data sets were small e.g. 36% of children known to the Service have special educational needs or an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP), what was the reoffending rate of this cohort (it was noted that this was one of the areas that was disproportionate often due to speech and language difficulties - a written response would be provided);

·                feedback from young people was that there was a lack of things to do in Torbay, meetings had been held with the Divisional Director of Economy, Environment and Infrastructure about using some of the empty shops in Torquay Town Centre for cafes and spaces for young people and how was data being used to create better opportunities for young people, and young people want to know what progress had been made;

·                how much was it a perception from young people that there was not enough to do and how much was the Council not getting the message out to young people;

·                70% of child First Time Entrants (to the formal youth justice system) young people had experienced one or more fixed term exclusions prior to their offence, how many of these had an EHCP (a written response would be provided);

·                there had been a rise in theft and handling stolen goods in 2024/25 with this being the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To review youth provision and offer.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services – Councillor Bye and Director of Public Health - Lincoln Sargeant introduced the submitted report on youth provision and physical activity.  Torbay on the Move is a strategic approach to promoting more physical activity across the board with the submitted report focussing on children and young people.  It looked to build a shift in behaviour for children and young people linking to climate change and the environmental benefits from shift to active forms of travel in the future as well as seeing the benefits of physical and mental health from physical activity. 

The Director of Active Devon - Louise Marshall and the Senior Partnerships Manager, Active Devon - Rebecca Skinner highlighted the work that Active Devon were involved with in supporting Torbay on the Move, which was a system and place based approach, recognising the partnerships in place and looking at the ways that more people could move around in their communities, as well as working with schools on ways to support people’s mental health using the benefits of physical activity.

The Divisional Director Children’s Services Transformation - Shaun Evans highlighted the links to the Youth Hub and work within Children’s Services and wider Council but acknowledged that we need to work more collaboratively and holistically to join up to help realise the benefits of physical activity on good physical health and mental health.  The redesign of Children’s Services had enabled the Council to develop a Youth Offer which would be supported by the Youth Hub Manager and wider Team from 1 September 2025.

The Sub-Board asked questions in relation to the following:

·                the report refers to additional opportunities for early years and school readiness, was any work being done to get parents to ditch buggies and prams similar to previous initiatives around ditching pacifiers and how much work was being done with early years providers;

·                how many schools were involved in the Open Schools Programme work and did they work proactively with Active Devon;

·                there were lots of free activities during the Summer for young people, what would the offer look like in the winter months;

·                of the 11-18 years olds that were surveyed only 54% think there were clean, safe spaces to hang out in Torbay, what has been done to drill down into this statistic;

·                how do we replicate the good work in some schools across Torbay to encourage others to do the same e.g. opening up their sports fields more, using learning from the Open Schools Programme;

·                what percentage of the HAF places were aimed at elected home educated (EHE) children;

·                how were young people from deprived communities enabled to access sports and other activities, which may be prohibitive due to costs;

·                were there gaps in provision, especially for people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND);

·                the Council was reviewing its Play Park Strategy, was Torbay on the Move involved;

·                was there anything in place for partners to lower the cost or provide free opportunities such as free taster  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To consider the submitted report on the above.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services – Councillor Bye and the Divisional Director Children’s Services Transformation - Shaun Evans provided an overview of the submitted report on the Family First Programme, which was a programme of change in partnership with the Council, Health, Police, Education and the voluntary and community sector to focus on prevention rather than response.  This involved moving resources into early help rebranded as Family Help and the development of Youth Hubs aligned with the Family Hubs as part of the implementation of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that comes into effect in 2027.  There were ten pathfinder authorities who had all interpreted the reforms differently and implemented them differently over a two-year period which each receiving circa £5m.  The Council and our partners have 12 months to implement the changes with approximately £660k to implement as this was based on the children’s population of the area, which would be particularly challenging for Torbay.

Sadie Hall, Assistant Director for Women, Children and Young People, NHS Devon (Integrated Care Board – ICB), highlighted the challenges for the NHS due to large scale national changes e.g. NHS 10-year plan, neighbourhood working and realigning NHS to cover the same boundary as the Police i.e. Devon and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.  The ICB was committed to Family First working with Torbay, Plymouth and Devon colleagues and looking at how this would work with the wider footprint and what elements would need to be shaped locally.  The secondment of a health post would give the best opportunity to share intelligence and work in partnership to codesign a way forward.  Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT) workshops had already been held in Plymouth to strengthen partnership working and ensure the localised element comes through.  Children remain a priority for the NHS.

Members noted the Family First approach looked at whole family thinking, having multidisciplinary systems in place to help the family including links with Adult Social Care, ensuring they receive the right service at the right time by the right practitioner.  The report identified 4 national workstreams and 5 local workstreams to take this work forward looking at needs across education and social care and how to make the best use of resources.  The Council had been successful in its bid for a Children’s Home and was looking to have potentially two, one for children with complex needs who would traditionally be placed out of area and one for 12-week assessments looking at reunification with the family where this was likely to happen.  The implementation of free school meals opt out would be a step towards addressing some of the poverty and deprivation, so that parents opt out rather than applying as it was known that the application process could be difficult for some parents – this initiative was as a result of a previous recommendation from the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board.  As Pupil Premium arises from free school meals, which was being rolled out to nurseries and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To receive an update on the implementation of the actions of the Sub-Board and consider any further actions required (as set out in the submitted action tracker).

The Sub-Board noted the contents of the submitted action tracker.  It was agreed that Councillor Fellows would provide an update on the Exeter YMCA Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme (SHAP) site visit that took place on 15 July 2025 at the next meeting under the Action Tracker item.