On Monday 23 May 2022, Young Lives Leeds were pleased to welcome Councillor Fiona Venner, Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Health and Social Care Partnerships at Leeds City Council to their bi-monthly forum meeting to talk about the recent Ofsted report into Leeds Local Authority Children’ Services, concerns about increasing child poverty amidst the cost of living crisis, and aspirations for Leeds to become a trauma informed city.

Ofsted

Following a recent inspection, Leeds is the only core city in the UK to maintain a rating of outstanding and this is testament to the brilliant team working under the leadership of Councillor Venner, and Saleem Tariq, Director of Children and Families. Cllr Venner was keen to stress that whilst outstanding does not mean perfect, in order to maintain this rating Leeds needed to demonstrate during the inspection not only that standards had been maintained since 2018, but also where improvements have been made.

As Councillor Venner said to attendees, it is brilliant to have some positive news to share about children’s social work as a counterpoint to some of the distressing stories that have gained national media attention recently.

At the time of the meeting the publication of the McAllister Review of children’s social care was imminent (now published) and although it was difficult to predict the findings, the interim report suggested a move to a more preventative approach as adopted by Leeds.

READ THE REPORT HERE

READ THE FINAL INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE REPORT HERE

Leeds – A Trauma Informed City

Councillor Venner explained that she is passionate about Leeds adopting a trauma informed practice (TIP) approach and the cultural shift we are seeing around this is long overdue. In the past it was common to perhaps ask ‘what is wrong with you?’, when we should be asking ‘what happened to you?’. Institutions such as the police are moving towards this approach, which could be revolutionary if embraced and embedded across services. Part of the challenge will be to get organisations delivering services to commit to TIP. As yet there is no standard training but it is envisaged that trauma informed practice will become as embedded in the work of the sector as safeguarding is today.

An online event took place last year with over 500 attendees from key institutions and sectors from across the region  coming together to explore TIP and a strategy is set to be rolled out for consultation in the coming months.

Cost of Living Crisis – Increasing Child Poverty

Councillor Venner alluded to recent reports of huge numbers of children set to fall below the child poverty threshold in the coming year due to the cost of living crisis and explained that this crisis is the biggest challenge the council is currently facing.

Cllr Venner explained that during 2021 there was a decrease in child poverty due to the temporary uplift in Universal Credit but this has since reversed and the picture is bleak. It is important to note that the areas of the city with the most children are also those with the most deprivation.

The Child Poverty Impact Board, which Councillor Venner heads, has seven workstreams aimed at reducing the impact of poverty including on maximising benefit uptake per household, safe and secure housing and best start.

READ LEEDS CITY COUNCIL’S CHILD POVERTY STRATEGY HERE

At the meeting we also heard from Marvina Newton, Mental Health Inequalities Lead for Children and Young People at Forum Central. Marvina gave a presentation on her work in this area with an update on different initiatives. If you would like more information on this work please contact Marvina directly: marvina.newton@forumcentral.org.uk

The next Young Live Leeds forum meeting will take place on 13 July 2002 at 14:00. If you would like to attend, please email Ann Crossland: ann.crossland@val.org.uk