Members will receive a report set out by Councillor Mark Statham, Portfolio Holder for Children’s, Families and Lifelong Learning at Walsall Council, which highlights the remarkable year of progress for children’s services, and what the priorities are moving forward. 

“ The last twelve months have been groundbreaking for children’s services at this council, and it’s been driven by our relentless focus to give all children and young people the best possible start in life.

The overarching achievement from 2025 was of course the ‘outstanding’ judgment from our Ofsted ILACS inspection. The opening line of the inspection report says it all, ‘children are at the heart of Walsall Council’. This external scrutiny has proven clearly that our continuous improvement journey – which started back in 2017 - was the right path, and we are so proud to have achieved such an accolade which is usually reserved for parts of the country with much lower levels of deprivation than Walsall. It should not be underestimated how much of an achievement this truly is.

Walsall is pioneering national change and is front and centre of children’s social care reform that will be felt nationwide for years to come, and we are already hearing about the real difference our Families First for Children programme is making to local families. At the core of all our work are the voices of children, young people and families, who are directly influencing how we deliver services and best support them.

None of these achievements can be done by a single organisation, and it’s with clear strategic focus through our Walsall Right 4 Children vision and through the work of our Children and Young People’s 2040 Alliance that progress is being made. I extend my sincere thanks to the leadership team and officers, schools and our partners. Together we are striving for excellence so children and young people can thrive, be happy, and become positive citizens of the borough. “

Councillor Mark Statham, Portfolio Holder for Children’s, Families and Lifelong Learning
Walsall Council

The report details other several achievements, including:

• Establishing a new Family Help service through the Families First for Children programme.
• Improving timeliness of Education, Health and Care Plan assessments for children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities - 98.7% of assessments were completed within statutory 20-week timeframe in 2025.
• A 43% increase in SEND specialist school places and 82% increase in places within Specialist Resource Provisions.
• Positive feedback from Walsall’s Youth Justice thematic inspection showing how the partnership supports young people in the youth justice system – e.g. through projects such as lived experience mentors, and using sport and music as outlets for young people to express themselves.

Looking ahead at future priorities, the ILACS inspection identified two key areas for improvement: the effectiveness of practice with every child who is experiencing harm from neglect and the effectiveness of support for all care leavers. In addition to that, the service aims to expands its Safe Spaces scheme launched in November 2025 and continue to work on a new, £50 million pound, centrally-funded secondary school in the borough which will educate over 1000 local young people.

The full report can be found on the council’s committee management system.