Croydon's children's services are showing a mixed performance, with notable improvements in Public Health Nursing contrasted by ongoing concerns in education standards.
Public Health Nursing Sees Significant Gains
The Public Health Nursing service has demonstrated significant progress, particularly in new birth visits and 2-2.5-year reviews. Following a transformation initiative launched in November 2022, the service has seen increased productivity, enhanced problem-solving, and improved collaboration. New birth visit completion rates have consistently exceeded the 90% target, reaching 91% in December 2025. Similarly, the completion rate for 2-2.5-year reviews has risen substantially from 60% in April 2025 to 83% by December 2025, surpassing the 60% target and indicating a strong recovery. The initial low completion rates for these reviews were attributed to administrator vacancies and errors in generating accurate lists of children from the electronic record system.
Improvements have also been observed in the recruitment and retention of the public health nursing workforce, with the vacancy rate dropping from 27.2% in December 2024 to 16.9% in December 2025. These gains are attributed to targeted interventions, including a development programme for Band 5 practitioners, career pathway enhancements, and collaborative recruitment efforts with the Integrated Care Board. Beyond these, the service partnered with the ICB to run recruitment fairs and created new specialist, quality, and leadership posts.
Education Standards Remain a Concern
However, education standards at Key Stage 4 (KS4) remain an area requiring attention. Croydon is currently underperforming against national and regional averages in Attainment 8 scores. Croydon's provisional Attainment 8 score was 44.5, which is lower than the England average of 46 and the London average of 54.9. This places Croydon as one of the lowest London Boroughs in terms of Attainment 8 scores.
While initiatives such as a focus on oracy and teacher training are underway, the report acknowledges the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning and the transient nature of Croydon's population as contributing factors to these challenges. The 'focus on oracy' initiative, through the Croydon Education Partnership and Oracy Cambridge, aims to enhance teaching and learning across subjects to support stronger GCSE performance and broader outcomes for Croydon's secondary pupils. Research indicates that structured oracy improves reading comprehension, disciplinary reasoning, writing quality, engagement, and metacognitive skills, which are key factors underpinning Progress 8 and Attainment 8. This project is an ongoing initiative running until August 2027. The expected outcomes for teacher training initiatives are not explicitly detailed in terms of timelines or specific educational standard improvements.
The transient nature of Croydon's population has impacted KS4 education standards by leading to a high level of mobility, both in and out of the borough. This includes students leaving for out-of-borough schools and a high number of in-year admissions, particularly in Years 10 and 11. This influx of students mid-Key Stage puts schools under significant pressure to improve outcomes. Strategies being developed to address this include valuing partnership with schools through the Croydon Education Partnership, focusing on oracy development, recruitment and retention of staff to maintain consistent staffing, work on inclusion, and work on well-being for children and young people. Furthermore, a comprehensive traded service provides challenge and support to leaders regarding the quality of education, including teaching, learning, and provision for specific pupil groups. This involves multi-faceted approaches, including bringing in colleagues from various teams to share information and identify ways to support schools, and building trust with schools to gather information on the ground.
While the Public Health Nursing transformation initiative has shown improvements, there is no explicit mention of plans to extend this specific initiative to address challenges in Key Stage 4 education standards. However, strategies to improve KS4 outcomes are being implemented, including the focus on oracy development, teacher training, and partnerships with schools to enhance teaching and learning.
Public reports pack 10th-Mar-2026 18.30 Scrutiny Children Young People Sub-Committee
