Date of meeting: 9 April 2025

Agencies represented:

Croydon Council Children, Young People and Education;

Croydon Health Services;

South West London Integrated Care Board (ICB);

Metropolitan Police;

Croydon Housing;

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM);

Independent Scrutineer

CSCP Business Team

Chair: June Okochi, Director of Quality – Croydon Place, Integrated Care Board (ICB)

Partnership strengthens focus on young people’s voices, safeguarding risks and future reform

Overview

The Croydon Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) Executive Group met in April to review safeguarding performance, consider learning from recent safeguarding activity and discuss how the partnership can prepare for significant changes across children's services and wider public services.

A key theme throughout the meeting was ensuring that the experiences and views of children and young people remain central to safeguarding arrangements. Partners discussed opportunities to strengthen engagement with young people and improve understanding of how services, including policing and community safety initiatives, are experienced by children and young people across Croydon.

The Executive Group also considered emerging strategic risks, including increasing demand on safeguarding services, pressures linked to out-of-borough placements, workforce capacity challenges and the potential impact of future national reforms and funding changes on safeguarding arrangements.

Positive work highlighted

Partners welcomed the ongoing contribution of the CSCP Young Scrutineer, who continues to engage with young people and gather feedback about their experiences, concerns and priorities. The partnership reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring young people's voices help shape future safeguarding activity and service development.

Positive progress was noted in the development of the CSCP performance dataset. Members recognised significant improvements in the availability, quality and presentation of safeguarding data, enabling a better understanding of trends, risks and areas requiring further attention.

The Executive Group also received encouraging feedback about Croydon's approach to responding to safeguarding concerns and partnership learning. Learning from reviews is being shared more effectively across the workforce, and the partnership's approach to addressing emerging issues has been recognised positively by other safeguarding partnerships.

Partners welcomed ongoing collaboration across agencies to improve understanding of complex needs among vulnerable children and young people, particularly those requiring specialist support and placements.

Challenges discussed

Members discussed the growing challenge of securing suitable support and placements for children and young people with complex needs. This was recognised as a wider issue affecting many areas, requiring continued collaboration between agencies and regional partners.

The meeting considered the impact of increasing demand on health, social care, policing and mental health services. Partners acknowledged workforce and capacity pressures within safeguarding systems, particularly where high demand affects the ability of services to respond as quickly and effectively as they would wish.

Significant discussion also took place regarding the financial pressures facing public services and the possible impact of future organisational change across health and other sectors. Members agreed that safeguarding risks arising from these changes must be monitored closely and escalated where appropriate.

The Executive Group also reviewed engagement levels across partnership forums and discussed the importance of ensuring all agencies are appropriately represented within safeguarding governance arrangements.

Key discussion items

• Engagement with young people and increasing opportunities for children’s voices to influence safeguarding services.

• Learning from safeguarding reviews and how this learning can improve frontline practice.

• Development and use of safeguarding performance data to identify risks and trends.

• Challenges associated with children and young people who have complex needs and require specialist support.

• Preparation for future children's services reforms and partnership oversight arrangements.

• The impact of financial pressures and organisational change across safeguarding partners.

• Housing engagement within safeguarding governance and partnership activity.

• Workforce capacity and demand pressures affecting safeguarding services.

  
  

Actions agreed

• Strengthen engagement with young people and explore additional opportunities for them to influence safeguarding activity.

• Continue developing the safeguarding performance dataset and ensure regular strategic oversight of key data.

• Improve understanding of risks associated with complex needs, specialist placements and out-of-borough arrangements.

• Review and strengthen partnership risk reporting, including risks arising from financial pressures and service reform.

• Support stronger engagement from all agencies across safeguarding meetings, audits and partnership activity.

• Maintain oversight of emerging national reforms and their potential impact on safeguarding arrangements in Croydon.

  
  

Closing statement

The Executive Group reaffirmed its commitment to effective partnership working and continuous improvement in safeguarding practice. Members recognised the challenges facing services but welcomed the progress being made in strengthening data, learning, partnership oversight and youth engagement.

Partners agreed to continue working together to ensure safeguarding arrangements remain responsive, effective and focused on improving outcomes for children and young people across Croydon.