South Tyneside leaders back children’s services shake-up after scrutiny review

Over the last year, the council’s Children Safeguarding and Young People Scrutiny Committee, which is made up of councillors from several political groups, has been taking a deep dive into children’s social care services.

The service is one of the council’s largest areas of responsibility, covering statutory services that protect and support vulnerable young people and their families.

Every year, thousands of children and families in South Tyneside rely on social care for help, protection and guidance and the council is required by law to keep children safe and ensure their wellbeing.

A report presented to South Tyneside Council’s Labour cabinet on September 24, 2025, heard the outcome of the scrutiny commission, which was originally set up to help the council better understand social care demand, forecasting and capacity planning.

Councillors gathered information from social workers, foster carers, kinship carers and young people in care to hear about their experiences and the challenges they face.

The scrutiny commission’s final recommendations included a recommendation to promote ‘fostering friendly’ employee policies across South Tyneside to better support foster carers in the workplace.

This includes using the council’s “Pledge Network” of local businesses and employers to ensure “the unique needs of foster carers are recognised, and that they are supported in the challenges they face.”

The second scrutiny commission recommendation included the council “continuing to work with local communities to ensure the integration of new children’s homes in the borough”.

This included “engagement with local communities to understand the need for children’s homes in the local area” and to “assist in providing a positive, welcoming atmosphere for young people in our care.”

The third recommendation included work “to enable the creation of a broader choice of accommodation for care leavers, underpinned by the council’s joint housing protocol for care leavers and the local offer for care leavers.”

This aimed to offer more choice and support as young people move into adulthood.

The report to cabinet also highlighted the significant financial pressures facing children’s social care, with around 36 per cent of the council’s core budget spent on these services.

Rising placement costs, particularly for external and out-of-borough residential care, mean the council is paying significantly more for care, even as demand and complexity of need increase.

In a previous statement, the council said that an out-of-borough residential placement can cost more than £224,000 a year— more than eight times the cost of an in-house foster placement.

Town hall bosses said they were working to address this issue, and to keep more children closer to their families, schools and communities, with council investment in three new children’s residential homes.

The scrutiny commission report also called for more partnership working, stronger links with the community and regular checks to make sure new changes are working and having a lasting impact.

Councillor Katharine Maxwell, chair of the Children Safeguarding and Young People Scrutiny Committee, presented the final commission report to the latest meeting of South Tyneside Council’s cabinet last week.

Cllr Maxwell praised those who had worked on the scrutiny commission over 2024/25 and said the three recommendations were identified in addition to the actions council children’s services teams had already identified.

Councillor Liz McHugh, cabinet member for children and families, social care, education and skills, welcomed the “important work” of the scrutiny commission and outlined actions the council would take.

“South Tyneside will continue to actively promote fostering friendly policies both within the council and the organisations linked to the Pledge Network, this will entail raising awareness and needs of the foster carers to the businesses’ employees and employers in the borough to ensure that they consider support for the foster carers in their workforces,” she said.

“For recommendation two we will continue the work that the council undertakes opening new children’s homes.

“We will continue to positively promote and champion residential services for South Tyneside children in their communities, ensuring that we all collectively view these children and young people as our children and our young people who need to be supported and live within our own communities.

” For recommendation three […] to create a broader choice of accommodation, at a recent Corporate Parenting Panel meeting we heard directly from the care experienced young people.

“They need more choice regarding the type of accommodation on offer to them, as well as a variety of options in relation to the level of support that they can receive.

“To ensure this takes place, we have tasked officers to investigate options to increase the choices for our young people, we will continue to be updated by the officers at the Corporate Parenting Panel and the meetings in which young people regularly attend, to ensure that their voices are heard and taken on board fully.”

Councillor Jim Foreman, cabinet member for governance, finance and corporate services, said the scrutiny commission report was “excellent” and “gets right to the heart of the matter”.

He also asked if the council could “reiterate” support for foster carers in council policy, particularly around giving them “priority in housing”, to “make sure that the support is given to the foster carers as well as the children that they foster.”

Following discussion, all three recommendations from the scrutiny panel were backed by South Tyneside Council’s cabinet.

The council’s director of children’s services is expected to “prepare a response and action plan to progress the recommendations.”

Councillor Tracey Dixon, leader of South Tyneside Council, added: “On behalf of cabinet can I just say thank you for the work that the scrutiny committee has done on such an important commission.”

The report presented to cabinet can be found via South Tyneside Council’s website.