Redbridge Council's Children and Young People Committee has outlined its priorities for the upcoming municipal year, focusing on key areas to improve the lives of young residents. The committee met on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, to agree on a work plan that will guide its efforts.
Three core priorities have been established:
Education Outcomes, Standards and Attainment: This will involve a deep dive into how the council can enhance educational achievements for all learners, with a specific emphasis on supporting vulnerable groups and closing attainment gaps. The committee aims to shape policies that improve school performance and pupil progress. Specific areas of focus could include examining the academic attainment and standards of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), children in care, children not in employment, education, or training (NEET), and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Discussions around SEND reform and school reorganisation could also be explored within this priority if they align with the committee's remit. The intention is to look at how children who come from environments with less support, such as those living in poverty or challenging circumstances, are faring academically and to address the attainment gap between these children and their peers.
Engagement with Children, Young People, Schools and Stakeholders: This priority will focus on strengthening the council's connection with young people, educational institutions, and other stakeholders. A key aspect will be exploring the implications of Redbridge's accreditation as the first UNICEF Child Friendly Borough in England and ensuring young people's voices are central to policy development. Redbridge Council's accreditation will be leveraged by continuing to work with young people to evidence ongoing achievements and to solicit their input on future work. This accreditation signifies that the local authority and borough have genuinely considered children and young people at the forefront of their thinking, innovation, and operations, ensuring they are child-friendly in all new work concepts. The council aims to keep the 'Child Friendly' status on the agenda in senior leadership meetings and to continue with co-production work, ensuring young people are involved in spearheading future initiatives.
Early Help, Safeguarding and Youth Justice: The committee will examine the council's approach to early intervention services, statutory safeguarding, and the youth justice system. The aim is to support families proactively, strengthen multi-agency collaboration, and address issues that may lead young people into crime. Within this priority, a key opportunity lies in strengthening early intervention and prevention services to support families before they require statutory intervention. This includes offering universal services at the first point of presenting needs to keep help sustainable and ensure good safeguarding within homes without immediate statutory involvement. The 'Family First Partnership' reform aims to implement multi-agency working early on, encouraging strengths-based work where families are supported to utilize their own networks. An opportunity also exists in corporate parenting responsibilities for children in care and care leavers, where members play a significant role. In youth justice, the focus is on contextual safeguarding, addressing environmental issues, and ensuring early response to youth justice issues to prevent criminalisation or to divert young people from such situations. The challenge is to ensure robust partnership arrangements, as most interventions in this area involve other partners. Corporate parenting responsibilities, which include children and young people in care and care leavers, fall under this priority, emphasizing the significant role of committee members in understanding and fulfilling these duties. The council is also planning to launch a Care Leaver Covenant to support young people leaving care.
The committee discussed various potential topics, including SEND reform, school reorganisation, children's well-being, mental health, and corporate parenting responsibilities. Children's well-being, mental health, and life chances are a distinct priority area, with specific considerations including the design of the Healthy Child Programme and family hubs.
To measure success and impact throughout the municipal year, the committee plans to focus on producing clear outputs and recommendations. The work plan is structured to show progress in identified areas, with a deep dive into specific topics in the second, third, and fourth meetings. The fifth meeting will focus on emerging themes and recommendations from these deep dives, and the final meeting will be dedicated to an impact review and planning for the future. The overall aim is to be evidence-led and outcome-focused, ensuring that the committee can demonstrate progress in the areas identified.
The committee aims to be conscious of not duplicating the work of the Cabinet Overview and Scrutiny Committee, ensuring its focus is clear and specific to its remit. The Chair of each committee will meet at regular intervals with the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny to share the work of their respective committees. It was also suggested that the committee chairs and officers could work together to agree the work plans and focuses for both groups to ensure clear delineation and collaboration.
Councillor S. Ferdause Pasha, Chair of the Committee, will work with officers to finalise the detailed planning of the work plan, as outlined in the Public reports pack Public reports pack 14th-Jul-2026 19.00 Children and Young People Committee and the Agenda frontsheet Agenda frontsheet 14th-Jul-2026 19.00 Children and Young People Committee.
