Nick Bye: We must not let Torbay's children down

It has been a privilege to serve as Torbay Council Lead Member for Children's Services since May 2023. All councillors have been determined to work together for children and young people in the Bay putting behind us the 'inadequate' judgements of Ofsted when they came to inspect in 2015 and 2018.

No one cheered louder than Yours Truly when we were judged 'good' in March 2022 and we are fortunate indeed to have a passionate and professional team of colleagues in children's services working with partners to ensure children are not only safe but can have the best possible start in life.

It surprises many people when you explain Torbay is a unitary council, responsible for all council functions in the local area and that the lion's share of the money goes on 'people services' either for adults or children. 

Of the circa £138million net revenue budget in the current 2024/25 financial year, a whopping £110million plus goes on adults and children's services, about £55million on each. This reflects the demography of the Bay with an exceptional number of over eighties,  plus the consequences of deprivation which resulted in historic numbers of children coming into the care of Torbay Council.

Fortunately we are making progress in reducing safely the overall number of children in care, with earlier help and support for families, also achieving greater workforce stability and better relationships.

Torbay has been a trailblazer for Family Hubs providing advice and a helping hand where needed. I have been pleased to see firsthand what goes on. We have made real progress in increasing breastfeeding rates and are beginning to see wider improvements in young children's development. It's an initiative which is working and I am pleased can continue after some uncertainty of future funding.

I am looking forward to the launch of the Mockingbird project to provide more support for foster carers later this month. 

In a nutshell more experienced foster carers will provide support for new recruits and we have our first 'constellation' ready to go. We are always looking for new potential foster carers and provide some amazing events for our carers and cared for children, for example the Train of Lights thanks to the Dartmouth Steam Railway and our Fair Play Day at Torre Abbey Meadow thanks to Anderton & Rowland/the DeVeys.

Every year we have a celebration of the achievements of our cared for children at the Riviera Centre and last year for the first time we had a further celebration for our kinship carers and children.

Councillors are corporate parents with responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of our cared for and care experienced children and young people. Five of us serve on the corporate parenting board which I chair.

An area of weakness is the availability of suitable accommodation for care experienced young people and I have done my best to persuade colleagues to support the proposals from the YMCA for the desperately needed 'move on' units in Paignton.

I was lucky enough to have my own place by Paignton harbour when I was in my twenties, so why not these youngsters?

The recent cabinet decision to support a pilot 'Locality Model' of delivery to help children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities feels like a step forward at last and I was delighted to hear school leaders advocating for this change and 28 primary schools are now taking part.

The game changer was health colleagues coming on board to support this pilot which will focus on language, speech and communication which is the bedrock of all learning and behaviour.

Hopefully some of our secondary schools will reflect further on how we provide support for pupils with SEND. We really 'must do better' as my old headmaster might have put it with very high rates of youngsters suspended and excluded from schools, poor school attendance and exceptional numbers of secondary school pupils now 'Elected Home Education' having basically given up on school.

It has been calculated 47 per cent, nearly half of Torbay secondary school pupils, attend a school rated by Ofsted as 'requiring Improvement" so clearly there's more to be done.

The cabinet decision also promises a fresh start for the Parkfield/My Space building, very much a legacy of my term as elected mayor but which has never reached its potential. The proposal is Mayfield Special School will increase its capacity and move its sixth form there with a wide range of community based youth activities taking place outside of school hours.

Really good news is the completion of the nearly £1 million investment in youth provision at the Acorn Centre, Barton and I am looking forward to taking a look as soon as everything is up and running.

Finally, Torbay has been accepted onto the UNICEF programme to be recognised as a Child Friendly Place. It's in all our interests we achieve this accolade.

Quite simply our children and young people are all our futures.