Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

To note any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Dunstall.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business (late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with as noted below).

None.

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

None.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting on 9^th September 2025 were agreed as a coirrect record.

To receive and make recommendations on the 2026/27 Draft Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2026/2031.

The Panel received a report for their consideration and comment, on the Council’s draft 2026-27 Budget and 2026-31 Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) proposals that related to the Panel’s remit. The report included the Budget/MTFS report that went to Cabinet on 11^th November, along with appendices that set out the General Fund revenue and capital budget proposals relevant to the Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Panel. The report was introduced by Neil Sinclair, Head of Finance and Ann Graham, Corporate Director of Children’s Services as set out in the agenda pack at pages 9-78. Also present for this item were the Director of Early Help, Prevention and SEND and the Director of Safeguarding & Social Care. Cllr Brabazon, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families was also present for this item.

Mr Sinclair identified that the financial position of the Council overall continued to be very challenging, driven by increasing demand and the rising cost of services. The Council was seeing trends from the current year continue into next year, with significant overspends in Social Care, TA and inflation costs. Other areas of overspend for next year included housing benefit overpayments and the Council’s property estate. The Panel was advised that the current forecasts showed that an additional circa £30m was required to cover the projected overspend for 2026/27. There were £7m worth of new savings/ costs reductions in the budget and £14.9m of previously agreed savings due to be delivered next year (£21.9m in total). The current projection for Exceptional Financial Support was £57m  for 2026/27. This was in additional to £10m of EFS for 2024/25 and £37m of EFS in 2025/26. The Panel was advised that the final figures would be known at the end of the financial year, once the existing budget was subject to closure. The Cabinet Member advised the Panel that Children’s services had managed their budget well, including their contributions to overall savings for the Council. The Cabinet Member commented that the numbers of agency staff had gone down, the number of placements had gone down and the Safety Valve programme had been managed. There continued to be an overspend in the Dedicated Schools Grant, which was related to SEND, and was deemed to be manageable. Cllr Brabazon set out that in the context of a budget that where costs had risen significantly, the service had done a commendable job in containing the budget.

The following arose as part of the discussion of the report:

1. The Panel sought clarification around the budget pressure relating to Rising Green youth centre and queried where the funding would come from to replace the grant funding that had come to an end. In response, officers advised that a dedicated report had been submitted to Cabinet that set out all of the issues in relation to funding. The Panel were advised that the youth centre would be funded corporately as a growth budget in order to maintain that service provision for the next two years. The service was committed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

To note the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2024-25.

The Panel received a copy of the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) Annual Report 2024-25, for noting, as set out in the published agenda pack at pages 79-121. Accompanying the Annual Report was a set of presentation slides that were tabled at the meeting and have been published as part of the agenda papers for this meeting. The presentation and the Annual Report were introduced by David Archibald, Independent Scrutineer HSCPB. Also present for this item were the Corporate Director, Children’s Services and the Director of Safeguarding and Social Care, along with the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families. The following arose as part of this discussion of this report:

1. In response to a query about the extent to which the HSCP was a new set up, the Panel were advised that up until 2019, each authority had to have a safeguarding children’s board. From September 2019, there was a change which required councils, police and health to have joint accountability. Subsequent changes meant that there was no longer an independent chair, instead the chair rotated between the three lead partners. The role of independent scrutineer was also brought in.
2. The Panel noted that the report contained a lot of qualitative data and queried whether there was any quantitative data that showed how the partnership was performing. In response, Mr Archibald advised that the partnership had been developing  a dataset to evaluate progress on a range of areas of children’s safeguarding and that there was also work underway to encourage HSCPs to do this nationally. Mr Archibald advised that he chaired a recent HSCP leadership group meeting which included a progress report on performance data. In general, the data showed that the partnership was performing well. It was commented that there was a huge and complex set of potential data, and the challenge was to use this data to show where improvements could be made. The Corporate Director of Children’s Services advised that her team followed the movement and flow of the data closely, and that when the dataset moved up or down they would interrogate it, in order to understand possible areas of concern.
3. The Panel sought clarification about how the partnership worked with housing to tackle issues such as damp and mould, which had a serious impact on the health and wellbeing of children. In response, officers advised that within the responsibilities of the HSCP, there wasn’t anything the partnership could do to allocate housing. Officers would contact housing if they came across any housing issues. The introduction of Awaab’s Law brought in specific timescales for landlords and housing providers to deal with serious issues such as damp and mould. Officers also commented that Haringey’s Children Safeguarding Board had a housing sub-group and that this provided an opportunity for different sections of the Council to work together to deal with housing challenges. 

*Clerk’s note at 20:20 – Cllr Abela left the meeting at this point.*

4. The Panel queried access to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

To note the work programme.

RESOLVED

That the work programme was noted and any amendments were agreed.

To consider any items admitted at item 3 above.

N/A

15^th January

26^th February

15^th January

26^th February