Redbridge Council's Children and Young People Committee has set out its key priorities for the upcoming municipal year, with a strong emphasis on enhancing educational outcomes, improving engagement with young people and stakeholders, and strengthening early help, safeguarding, and youth justice services.
The committee, which met on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, agreed to concentrate its efforts on these three core areas to ensure a focused and impactful work plan for 2026-27. This decision was made to avoid duplication with the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and to allow for in-depth reviews. The committee's work will be evidence led and outcome focused,
with deep dive
sessions providing the evidence, the data, the information to give you the insight and the knowledge that you would need to know.
The anticipated timeline for these in-depth reviews will span the second, third, and fourth meetings of the committee, with the fifth meeting dedicated to examining emerging themes and recommendations, and the final meeting focusing on impact review and planning.
Under the priority of Education Outcomes, Standards and Attainment, the committee will examine how to improve educational results for all learners, with a particular emphasis on vulnerable groups and closing attainment gaps. This includes exploring school effectiveness and the academic progress of children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, in care, or not in employment, education, or training (NEET).
The second key priority, Engagement with Children, Young People, Schools and Stakeholders, will focus on fostering effective communication and collaboration. A significant aspect of this will be the council's accreditation as the first UNICEF Child Friendly Borough in England, a status achieved in March 2026. Beyond this accreditation, the committee aims to make sure and evidence that we really consider children's voices in the work that we do and the policies that we set.
The goal is to ensure that we do that correctly and that really has a forefront in mind for the young people.
The committee also seeks to be assured that young people's voices are really considered in what we do and actually make change where we can do that, that it influences how we deliver our services and how we operate with them to make sure that they get a true and fair service for themselves.
Finally, the Early Help, Safeguarding and Youth Justice priority will scrutinise the council's approach to early intervention, prevention services, statutory safeguarding, and the youth justice system. The aim is to support families before they require statutory intervention, bolster multi-agency working, and address issues within the youth justice system to prevent young people from becoming involved in crime. This includes examining how we ensure that we do and respond early to youth justice issues which prevent young people either being criminalised or being in situations which can be diverted.
The committee will also focus on strengthening multi-agency working,
with the family first partnership
being a key example of how this is achieved really early on.
The information notes that most of those interventions involve other partners. They are not stand-alone activities. There is an integration there in that area.
Councillor S. Ferdause Pasha, Chair of the Children and Young People Committee, stated that the committee's work would be evidence-led and outcome-focused, aligning with cabinet and scrutiny activities. The committee agreed to delegate the detailed planning of the work plan to the Chair in conjunction with officers. Further details on the committee's agenda and reports can be found in the Public reports pack.
