The Directors are pleased to present the Strategic Report highlighting progress in overcoming challenges faced by Slough Children First (the Company) over the year.

Our context

The Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Slough Borough Council (the Council) and is constituted as a company limited by guarantee. The Company is governed by a Board of 7 Directors appointed by a combination of the Board and the Council in consultation with the Department for Education (DfE) to ensure operational independence from the Council.

The Company was established in response to inadequate OFSTED ratings following inspection of children’s services at Slough Borough Council in 2011, 2013 & 2015. The service is now rated overall ‘Requires Improvement’ though a statutory direction to improve remains in place.

In addition to child safeguarding, these services constitute specialist support and social care, targeted early help, youth justice, respite children’s homes, contextual safeguarding, family placement, Independent Fostering Agency and Voluntary Adoption Agency for children and families in Slough.

The Company works closely with partners to provide support for children, young people and families who need support in daily life to access health, education, housing, community safety, police and community organisations in Slough.

During the financial year 2024-25 the Company Board, responsible for directing business, held 7 formal Board meetings.

Attendance at board meetings:

The work of the Board was supported by its sub-committees:

• The Audit and Corporate Governance Committee

• The People, Quality and Practice Committee

• The Remuneration, Nominations and Appointments Committee

The Finance Committee which was set up during the year, with the first meeting held in April 2024.

With the resignation of the Chair of the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee, it was approved by the Board to integrate the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee with the Finance Committee to streamline decision making and allow a single lens on financial oversight and risk management. This is now the Audit and Finance Committee.

The sub-committees met throughout the year with regular reporting to the Board on key issues to inform strategic plans.

Our vision and objectives

The Company’s vision remains for children and young people in Slough to be happy, safe & loved, thriving. Our objectives are set out within our Articles of Association. These are to provide social care, youth justice and other related services and support to children, young people and their families for the advancement of the community.

The Company has 6 priorities for our children and young people as set out in the Business Improvement Plan for 2025/26 – 2027/28, with safeguarding being a central theme across all our services. The priorities are:

Priority 1:

Children, young people, and their families must be able to easily access Early Help and know where to go and who to speak to when they need it.

Priority 2:

Education and learning are vital to ensure that our children have the best start in life and are empowered to go on to rich and fulfilling lives though work.

Priority 3:

Children in our care will have a stable place to live and our care experienced young people can access their own affordable homes.

Priority 4:

Children and their families will have effective support and care from a stable workforce.

Priority 5:

We will work with our children and young people to enable them to participate and shape services with us.

Priority 6:

We will work in partnership with colleagues across the Council and all services that work with children, young people, and their families.

Our progress and performance

In May 2024 Ofsted conducted a focused visit and highlighted positive improvements. The reduction in our staff turnover and the associated improvement in workforce stability was noted as having a positive impact on the consistency and quality of practice. Our senior leadership team was found to have a sound understanding of the further progress needed to achieve our vision of a sustainable and resilient service for children, and a strong focus on continuous service development.

In October 2024 HMIP (His Majesty’s Inspection of Prisons) conducted an inspection on our Youth Justice Service. Whilst we have solid plans in place to implement a new adolescent service the current practice, including the involvement of partner agencies, was found to be below the required standard and is a priority focus in our improvement plans moving forward.

In March 2025, Ofsted conducted a full inspection of SCF’s fostering agency, which is regulated as an Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) due to SCF’s status as an arm’s length company wholly owned by Slough Borough Council. The service was rated ‘Good’ overall, with inspectors highlighting foster carers’ commitment to children’s personal and academic growth and the strong relationships across staff and partner agencies.

Breakaway, SCF’s short breaks home for children with disabilities, achieved its first ever ‘Outstanding’ rating from Ofsted following its inspection in March 2025. The service was previously rated ‘Good’ in February 2024. Inspectors commended Breakaway for providing exemplary care tailored to each child’s complex needs and for fostering a nurturing, inclusive, and engaging environment. Children were observed enjoying enriching activities, and staff were praised for their dedication, creativity, and strong communication with families.

The SCF improvement plan ensures a consistent approach to overall improvement throughout all our services, including Youth Justice. We are still on a journey, but we know that the quality of practice is changing and several of the areas of challenge identified in the previous inspections have now been successfully addressed but need to be maintained.

Performance monitoring in 2024/25 has focused on demonstrating impact across service quality, leadership, and partnership effectiveness. KPI dashboards and qualitative audits indicate a maturing QA framework and a culture of continuous improvement. Internal audits and moderation processes have highlighted strengths in timeliness of assessments.

Performance oversight continues via the Children’s Improvement Board, which monitors progress against the Business Improvement Plan. Regular reports have been shared with the SCF Board and the Strategic Groups, providing assurance and scrutiny.

Cabinet formally approved our Corporate Parenting Strategy in May 2024 with a formal launch later that month at an event lead by young people.

The key Strategic Priorities contained within the Corporate Parenting Strategy are:
1. Supporting engagement and achievement in education, training, and employment.
2. Ensuring that our children looked after, and care experienced young people have stable homes and the right help.
3. We will listen and respond to the voice of our children, young people, and care experienced young people. They will help to develop and shape our strategic plans and delivery of services.
4. Ensuring that our children, young people, and care experienced young people are healthy. We will help our children and care experienced young people to have access to help for their physical needs and emotional wellbeing.
5. Developing a highly effective Care Leavers partnership to provide ongoing help in various ways.
6. Supporting children, young people and care experienced young people to have fun and have new experiences to develop their own interests.

There is increasing corporate support for the delivery of Corporate Parenting, including from key partners in Adult Social Care, Housing and Public Health that has enabled a more cohesive and joined up approach to how we support young people during their transition to adulthood and supporting them to access their homes. Pathways for both strategic and operational oversight and delivery are now in place and coming increasingly embedded across the system.

The local social and demographic context remains complex, with continuing diversity in need and presentation. Slough continues to serve a fast-growing, highly mobile and ethnically diverse population of children and families, which places consistent demands on early help, safeguarding, and care services.

The high number of temporary accommodation in Slough, housing both Slough and other Local Authority families remains a pressure on our system which we are monitoring carefully.

However, average caseloads during 2024/25 were lower than budgeted, easing the pressure on front line services and delivering savings. Combined with a much improved workforce retention and permanency rate, agency spend reduced by over £200k per month v 3 years ago.

One significant demographic shift has been a reduction in the number of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) supported in-year, which has contributed to a lower-than-budgeted looked after children (CLA) population. While this has resulted in some cost savings, it has also reduced the associated grant income. To mitigate this, Slough Children First is working proactively with the Home Office to explore increasing UASC placements through the National Transfer System.

Placement spend accounts for approximately 40% of SCF’s annual costs and not only have SCF have brought spending on Looked After Children back in line with statistical neighbours and England averages, having previously been an outlier and more expensive, but are in fact “bucking the trend” seen in other LAs. SCF are spending less per week per placement than statistical neighbours and England averages on residential care placements. SCF also have few per 10,000 population in residential placements and the introduction of the External Placement panel has delivered over £1m savings in placement costs during the financial year.

Key activity data

The rate of Children subject to a child in need plan per 10,000 is 98.8 (443 children), which is a decrease on March 2024 when it was particularly high at 128.7 (571 children) and is now more in line with national averages.

The rate of Children subject to a child protection plan per 10,000 is 36.1, which is lower than the March 24 value of 44, lower than national averages and represents a decrease of 33 children.

Numbers of looked after children have decreased over the year by 24, with 177 children being looked after. The rate of full time Children looked after per 10,000 is 39.5, which is lower than the 45.4 per 10,000 which is where SCF was at the end of March 2024. The strengthening of the services downstream in Early Help, CIN, CP and PLO are positively impacting entry into care.

Part of this could also be explained through the low numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASCs) that SCF are supporting at the end of March 2025 – 26 v 0.07% number of 44 and v a budget of 50 which was set against the context of the high numbers seen in 23/24. This represents 15% of the total CLA population.

The proportion of number of children escalating into care proceedings have reduced as most work is undertaken in pre proceedings preventing children coming into care. The average number of children in proceedings during 24/25 was 25 v the last 3 years where it was at 50.

Young people eligible for services as care experienced young people is stable with 241 young people, the same number as it was 12 months ago. However, we are seeing a growing need to support care experienced young people in accommodation, 88 v 58 in March 2024. This is explained in part to the growing number of UASCs aged 18+ SCF are supporting who are awaiting their status decision from the Home Office who have no other recourse to public funds, as well as a sign of the pressure on identifying social housing in Slough four our young people to move into.

Key areas of focus for the future

We have refreshed our 3-year business plan and our clear vision remains the same; that children in Slough are Happy, Safe & Loved, Thriving.

Our key areas of focus for 2025/26 and beyond are implementing Social Care Reforms, Demand Management and Corporate Parenting.

The three most significant transformations coming from the national social care reforms focus on Family Help, Multi-agency Child Protection Teams (MACPT) and Family Led-Decision Making.

Following on from the publication of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, the Children’s Social Care Review, Stable Homes, Built on Love, and Government response, the DfE published Keeping Children Safe, Helping Families Thrive in November 2024, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, December 2024 and the Families First Partnership Programme Guide in March 2025.

The legislation and the guidance will significantly shape the landscape of children’s social care and the journey of children, young people and families providing support that is delivered at the right time, by the right practitioner at the right level of need maintaining the consistency of the Lead Practitioner.

Implementation of the reforms will require significant transformation across Slough Children First, services for children to enable the local design of an end-to-end system of support and protection to rebalance the system whilst keeping children safe.

The key strands of the transformation nationally and locally are;

• Family Help – the merging of existing Targeted Early Help Service and Section 17, (including the potential for partner agencies taking on the Lead Practitioner role in multi- disciplinary teams) providing seamless support for children, young people and their families

• Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPT’s), the creation of a specific team to lead all safeguarding and child protection activity from a strategy discussion, S.47 enquiries / investigations, through to a Child Protection Conference and Child Protection Plan, including the Lead Child Protection Practitioner, chairing of Child Protection Conferences, quality assurance and Risks Outside of the Home.

• Family Led Decision Making, embedding a Families First approach to empower families to successfully care for their children, including Family Group Conferences before the Public Law Outline and Care Proceedings.

The implementation of the reforms will require;

• Engagement with children, young people families, communities, colleagues, partners, Safeguarding Children’s Partnership- co-producing new ways of working and approaches associated with the child’s journey and evidenced based practice based on the unique needs of children and young people in Slough.

• Data and needs profiling- updating the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), understanding needs at a locality level, Risks Outside of the Home, vulnerability and risk profile

• Improved Information Sharing, Data and Intelligence including partnership intelligence and data sharing, and an outcome’s framework.

• Revision of policies and procedures - Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, Threshold and Continuum of Need and the Local Protocol for Assessment and Support.

• Stakeholder Engagement and Communication- internal, external, partners, children, young people, families, communities, members and partners

Conversational Model

In response to the reforms Slough Children First is developing a conversational model at the Front Door, that will transform the approach to making a referral about a child / young person in need or in need of protection. This will see a model that will move away from electronic referrals to Social Workers taking calls directly to have a conversation about the needs of the child, strengths of the family, vulnerabilities and risk factors.

The introduction of the conversational model is in line with our vision of children are Happy, Safe & Loved, Thriving and working with our communities to meet need at the earliest point of opportunity.

A multi-agency Strategic Implementation Group (SIG) has been developed to oversee the reforms, chaired by the Director of Children’s Services and Chief Executive of Slough Children First. The workstreams for Family Help, MACPT, Family Led Decision Making and the Conversational approach will report into the SIG and the Safeguarding Children’s Partnership.

Family Group Decision Making

Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), including Family Group conferences (FGC) are also integral to the Social Care Reforms and it is expected that all families in pre-court proceedings are offered such a meeting. They are meetings led by family members where family, friends, professionals, and community networks, come together to plan, and make decisions for and with a child or young person who has been assessed to be at risk.

Risks can vary for each child and young person depending on their own individual circumstances and vulnerabilities. The risks can be related to Edge of care, placement breakdown, safeguarding, school exclusion, gang affiliation, exploitation, missing episodes, criminality, social isolation, neurodiversity, gender characteristics and health.

The aim of the FGC Service is to work in a collaborative and empowering way with families, children, and young people to ensure they have a ‘true voice’ and play a pivotal role in the statutory decision-making processes that impact on their future lives, well-being, connections, identity, and safeguarding. The relationship model ensures that we work with families and not ‘do to’ them.

We know that families, friends, and community are a rich resource that when worked with proactively brings about inclusive practices and sustained change and keeps children and young people safe and within their family networks, where appropriate to do so.

Principal risks and uncertainties

There are significant changes that Slough Children First will need to engage proactively with over the coming two years:

• Childrens social care reform

• The ending or extension of the contract with Slough Borough Council

• Local government reform

The first of these is within the control of Slough Children First with action plans in place. It will require a wholescale restructuring of service provision which service users and colleagues will need to be supported through.

The contract with Slough Borough Council and local government reform are significant in terms of how children’s services are provided – but do not directly impact on service provision. The Council is considering the most appropriate method of delivery going forward supported by the provision of external advice. The contract is currently due to end 30 July 2026 with services to transfer to the Council at that point. The company relies on the Council for significant parts of its infrastructure which will support any transfer. There are a number of options for how to structure the service going forward should the contract end which the company will seek to support the Council in working up.

Local government reform could result in changes in how children social services are delivered. However, given that local changes will not occur imminently Slough Children First is monitoring but not proactively responding. The priority in the immediate term is to successfully implement children social care reform within the context of a potential imminent end to the contract with the Council.

Until recently the company struggled to operate within budget. However, since it was reset the company has operated within budget and through strong contract management and invest to save initiates has for the last two years delivered improving services at less than the contracted budget. The current financial year has a deficit forecast, reflecting cost pressures that emerged after the budget was agreed. There is a contractual mechanism in place to respond to such pressures. Subject to final confirmation from the Council it is intended to manage the 2025/6 overspend by drawing on a reserve held from 2024/5.

The reform agenda will require spend to deliver – and earmarked funds have been provided by central government for this purpose. The company will carefully monitor grant conditions to ensure that it does not need to be returned and that reform objectives are delivered to time.

Staff stability until recently was a challenge, particularly for qualified social workers see paragraph 12.1. Work over several years has however resulted in almost all qualified staff being permanent with a consequent reduction in staff turnover. The stable workforce has resulted in caseloads per employee being relatively low. As the reform agenda rolls out care will need to be taken to contain staff anxiety as roles are redesigned.

Now that financial and staffing pressures have reduced the company is concentrating on developing practice. A significant constraint is the labourious nature of data input and retrieval. There are IT systems with limited interconnectivity for data reporting and separate capacity constraints reduce the opportunity to roll out PowerBi as widely as is desired. Where in place it has enabled significantly faster and more tailored performance monitoring. Manual compilation of performance data continues. While this is sufficient it impedes performance improvement, is costly and manual compilation increases risks to data integrity.

Section 172(1) Statement

The Company believes that engagement with its stakeholders is key to achieving successful delivery of its business plans and alignment of its strategy with a changing market, helping it to be a responsible, sustainable business in the long term.

How the Company engages with its key stakeholders is set out below:

Service users

The participation programme has significantly grown over the past year, with a number of different events and approaches to ensure that the voice of the child is being captured.  The Young Ambassador programme has recently been launched which has allowed for  number of the individual activities to be encapsulated into a singular process for the young people, this approach has been well received by the young people with a keen sense of engagement from them.  We are keen to see this grow and develop further with their engagement and to shape the services.  A key activity with the programme will be to ensure that they are engaged with the future changes to the service as a result of the Social Care Reforms.

We are proud to say that young people have co facilitated 2 major events over the past year, the Corporate Parenting Launch and Also the Children in Care Celebration event.  The young people co hosted both events, assisting in writing of the scripts, designing the events and ensuring that the attendees were engaged through out.

Other key pieces of work include animations outlining the qualities of ‘a good social worker’ video which is shared within the corporate induction and also booklets which are shared with young people who are being placed into care for the first time.  The recent Big Business Challenge resulted in a young person beign invited to present to council and councillor colleagues on their ideas and also engagement with the services.   We have launched the young inspector programme with the first area of focus being the UASC policy and process, young people have met with us to share their experiences and what can be improved for the future. 

We are immensely proud of the young people who have engaged so far and the passion and insight that they have provided to us.  They have shown us that they are as keen as we are to see improvements within the service.  They know what good looks like and they are ready to be the champions of this change.

Workforce

SCF is committed to the ongoing development of staff and this supported via the Academy, which was launched in 2024 and has been well received by all staff.  The Principal Social Worker and the Academy Team have further supported enhanced working relationships with partner agencies and Education colleagues, providing training, guidance and support to all colleagues.  The career development framework is being developed, with the Social Care reforms a key factor to support this and will be shared with the workforce.

Employees have the ability to discuss all areas of working with Slough via the Shadow Board, the People forum, PSW drop-in session and also the all staff briefings.   Communication is an area that is always being looked at to develop, to ensure that all staff are engaged and advised of the key information.

SCF is richly diverse in its demographics, which is something that is celebrated where possible.  Different diversity groups are encouraged to celebrate awareness sessions and these are staff led – in the as year we have celebrated Pride, Black History Month, Breaking Eid, Christmas to name just a few.  SCF links in with SBC in regard to support groups and encourages all staff to attend.

Suppliers

The company is engaging and developing effective relationships with suppliers of services, spanning SMEs, incumbent suppliers,  competitors and new market entrants to ensure social value and localised services.  This is being achieved in 6 ways:

1. Early and proactive market engagement - The company hosts early and proactive market engagement where it hosts market sounding events where upcoming needs, feedback gathering  and market shaping are key themes, prior to formal tenders, informing how best we can deliver the best services and what services need to be delivered in Slough.

2. Mitigating entry barriers for SMEs, Third Sectors and new entrants – Contracts are broken into smaller lots, enabling more local and specialised providers to bid without feeling overwhelmed by an all-inclusive specification.

3. Fostering Supplier Diversity and Supplier Relationship – The company hosts supplier events which are designed to solicit ideas, build partnerships, whilst also cultivating collaborative relationship building.

4. Embedding Social Value – The company has introduced alignment of supplier commitments to local outcomes, such as career opportunities, apprenticeships, community engagement and embedding into contracts with measurable targets.

5. Contract Management and ongoing collaboration – Ownership of end-to-end commissioning that includes procurement, management of contract, quality assurance, Supplier Relationship Management and Supply Chain Management is ensuring clear processes and one stop ownership for the commissioning process.

6. Innovative and continuous learning and improvement – The company is embedding strategic sourcing into its procurement process and ensuring fit for purpose, clear and concise specifications, with platforms for suppliers to propose new solutions and value add services.

The Company is looking to review and update its Sufficiency Strategy in 2026 to identify and ensure PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technical. Environmental and Legal) changes are updated in its drive to continuously meet the needs of the community it serves.  The strategy continues to form our strategic approach to children’s placements and is helping to shape the market to be able to provide innovative, effective, sustainable and commercially competitive services to children, young people and families.  The strategy is developed primarily to ensure the company meets the needs of children in care in a timely appropriate and cost-effective way, while understanding the demographics, and assessed needs which is paramount. The strategy also includes wider set of considerations, to ensure the right type of mix, quality of placement are available and individual outcome are continuously achieved.

Community and environment

The Company sees the community as a key resource in enabling it to deliver a sustainable model for the future. Engagement of the community and voluntary sector, as well as faith and community groups is essential to jointly develop lower-level support mechanisms. This is an area highlighted for further development in the business and improvement plan and also as a clear priority going forward. This is an endeavour shared with the Council and a task and finish group is leading on work to support increased collaboration between the Council, Company and community faith groups.

Building on this, the Company has begun to align with the national social care reform agenda, including the development of a Community Connector post within the MASH. This role is designed to strengthen early intervention pathways, improve access to community-based support, and better integrate the work of statutory services with the local voluntary and community sector.

Government

With the backdrop of rising demands and reducing budgets, the Company work with government departments and local sector led improvement leads to drive new and/or tried and tested initiatives that can meet the needs of our families in as cost-effective manner as possible. The Company bids for new government funding to help support new initiatives where appropriate.

In the past year, the Company has actively participated in regional and national SLIP (Sector-Led Improvement Programme) activity, including engagement with North Yorkshire’s “No Wrong Door” model and more recently with Leeds around the implementation of a conversational approach at the front door. These partnerships have influenced local thinking and service design. In parallel, there has been a transition in government oversight, with the departure of the Children Social Care Commissioner and the appointment of a Lead Adviser, whilst the Council continues to operate under Statutory Direction.

Energy Emissions

The number of staff in the Company exceeds 250 and therefore exceeds two of the three threshold criteria for being a large company. It is therefore required to report under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon regulations.

The Company is required to report on its direct and indirect emissions, encompassing travel and mileage undertaken by staff while delivering services, along with emissions from office locations and other buildings used for the provision of children’s services. These come under the three scope headings of:

• Scope 1 Direct Emissions – Emissions from activities owned or controlled by ourselves

• Scope 2 Indirect Emissions – Electricity purchased and used for operations

• Scope 3 Other Indirect Emissions – Emissions because of actions but that are not controlled or owned directly e.g. business travel.

Comparatively the total year’s energy emissions have slightly increased predominantly due to the ending of the impact of COVID with more staff travelling and a higher utilisation of office accommodation.

Source

The Company is atypical insofar as it owns no assets and leases premises from the Council and therefore the data is sources from:

Gas        Council bills x pro rata of office space used by Company

Electricity    Council bills x pro rata of office space used by Company

Transport    Mileage claims from employees for the year @ £0.45 per mile            

Intensity Ratio

The chosen intensity measurement to report is CO2 emissions per employee as this seems the most relevant to the organisation.

Per employee    Annual accounts        495.01    kgCO2

Per sqm        Rent charges        67.71    kgCO2

Quantification and reporting methodology

We have followed HM Government Environmental Reporting guidelines including: streamlined energy and carbon reporting guidance March 2019 in order to produce the report; government conversion factors for Company reporting to calculate CO2 emissions

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-Company-reporting

Measures taken to improve efficiency

The best use of technology is a focus for the company. This will help reduce the requirement for paper reports and postage. It also ensures staff are working as efficiently as possible and not duplicating efforts.

The Financial Position at the year end

The P&L shows a surplus of £248k for the financial year ending 31st March 2025. It became apparent during the financial year that SCF were predicting a large underspend of circa £2M and it was agreed at the Board meeting of January that this amount would be offered back to SBC in the form of a credit note. At March Board this amount was finalised at £2,820k, reducing the contract sum from £39,049k to £36,229k.

Expenditure for 24/25 at £43,733k is £2,463k lower than budget, whilst income at £43,981k is £2,215k lower than budget.

The closing balance sheet shows a small surplus of £249k, with assets higher than liabilities by this amount and the cash balance at year end was £7,060k.

Areas of note within income in the management accounts include an overall adverse variance of £2,215k.

The reduction to the Core Contract is noted above. The DfE running costs grant was agreed at a slightly reduced value after budget setting, and there were small underspends across all agreed posts.

A favourable variance of £650k in other income arose from prior year settlements of funding for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) income, offsetting the in-year funding being lower than budget due to fewer numbers of children in care from this cohort. 100% PbR from the Strengthening Families Programme was awarded to all LAs during the year, a further favourable variance from the 75% SCF budgeted for given the more stringent success criteria for 24/25. £150k of additional Transformation funding from SBC helped support an Improvement post and project support during the year. Additional interest income due to SCF’s positive cash position and additional grants supporting spend in areas including Youth Justice, serious youth violence and supported accommodation for 18+ care leavers offset reduced contributions to placements and packages of support for children with disabilities from Health and lower DSG for PPG+ for children in care, again due to lower numbers of children in care.

Expenditure was favourable v budget by £2,463k.

Combined salaries and agency costs had a joint underspend of £44k, with a favourable variance in permanent staff from vacancies, some held deliberately due to lower caseloads. Agency costs were higher than budgeted, in part covering a high number of staff on long term sick leave or maternity leave and additional resource helping deliver on the Improvement plans. An element of the agency spend was funded by the SBC Transformation grant and wAppenas therefore not forecast in the original budget.

Lower than expected UASC volumes helped deliver a reduced placement spend, being £3,386k lower than budget, along with the additional oversight from the External Placement panel introduced during Summer 2023. Volumes of children supported in accommodation were 50 lower than budget, 23 being from the UASC cohort, and £72 per week lower than budget following rigorous challenge in External Placement Panel around support levels and alternative providers coming into the market.

Increases in other child support costs arose from higher than budgeted family support costs preventing, or delaying, entry to care. Numbers of care experienced young people being supported in accommodation was 7 higher than budget, but at a reduced average weekly rate of £75 per week per placement leading to a small underspend in this area of £44k.

Considerable reductions in legal costs are now being realised in terms of volumes in proceedings. Average volumes were 27 in proceedings for the first 9 months of 2042/25 v budget of 47. The legal gateway process is delivering robust decisions as to whether to issue proceedings and whether to engage the services of counsel, senior barristers, and the numbers of Independent Social Worker assessments being requested by court is also reducing.

The savings target of £2,644k has been fully achieved during 24/25.

Savings in staffing fell short of its target due to ambitious targets for reducing agency need in favour of permanent staff. At one point during the financial year, there were 12 agency staff covering maternity and long-term sick leave. Aside from the need for this extra cover, SCF move into 25/26 with much fewer agency staff in established posts filling vacancies.

Another area falling short of its target was in Other Child Support costs due to delays in the recommissioning of short breaks.

Legal savings were met in full and income and placements achieved more than target to help offset the above deficits.

The balance sheet shows a net loss of £2.167m (2023: £9.70m) including pension liabilities of £2.17m (2023: £4.39m). Actuarial gains on the defined pension scheme were £1.4m in year contributing to reducing the pension liability position. Cash balances were £9.81m (2023: £2.22m).

Our vision and objectives

The Company’s vision is for children and young people in Slough to be happy, safe & loved, thriving. Our objectives are set out within our Articles of Association. These are to provide social care, youth justice and other related services and support to children, young people and their families for the advancement of the community.

The Company has 6 priorities for our children and young people, with safeguarding being a central theme across all our services. The priorities are:

Priority 1:

Children, young people, and their families must be able to easily access Early Help and know where to go and who to speak to when they need it.

Priority 2:

Education and learning are vital to ensure that our children have the best start in life and are empowered to go on to rich and fulfilling lives though work.

Priority 3:

Children in our care will have a stable place to live and our care experienced young people can access their own affordable homes.

Priority 4:

Children and their families will have effective support and care from a stable workforce.

Priority 5:

We will work with our children and young people to enable them to participate and shape services with us.

Priority 6:

We will work in partnership with colleagues across the Council and all services that work with children, young people, and their families.

Our progress and performance

During 2023/24, the company has continued to see practice improvements, alongside a small reduction in demand for its services following on from the positive foundation set by the Company during 22/23. Since the appointment of its permanent Director for Children’s Services in February 2022, other permanent appointments to the leadership team were also confirmed. The Company is now led and managed by a permanent team of Heads of Service in the management group. This has contributed to greater staffing stability.

The OFSTED focussed visit during Spring 2024 noted these positive improvements including reduction of staff turnover and how the associated greater workforce stability has had a positive impact on consistency and quality of practice.

The Principal Social Worker post, established towards the end of 22/23, has made great progress on building better practice across the social care workforce. Our Practice framework and operational audit programme have become increasingly embedded during the last year, providing a line of sight to practice for leaders, enabling a strengthened and iterative programme of improvement to drive the company’s delivery of services. The refreshed Children’s Participation Strategy and the appointment of a dedicated participation officer has seen increasing co-production and participation of children in the design and delivery of their own services.

We are refining our use of data insight, projections, and modelling to support service design and to manage demand in a safe and predictable way. However, further analysis is needed to look at the change in demand of activities undertaken to further inform our future financial planning and forecasting alongside practice improvements.

Demographic growth and predictions on external factors such as the Cost-of-living crisis aim to inform the need for our services over future periods. Over the last 5-year period, costs have increased by 33%. Caseloads have increased by 64%, partly through a result of the transfer of Early Help Services and associated budgets coming under the remit of the Company. Our cohorts of cared for children have increased by 11% in the same period, largely because of an increase in Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. The uplift coincided with Slough hosting several Asylum hotels in the area. Whilst these numbers are now stabilising, and in some areas reducing, national government continues to be challenged by net migration and the arrival asylum-seeking families and children which has seen unexpected surges in demand.

Key areas of focus for the future

We have refreshed our 3-year business plan and our clear vision remains the same; that children in Slough are Happy, Safe & Loved, Thriving.

Slough Borough Council (SBC) continues to face extraordinary financial challenges with continued oversight and scrutiny by Commissioners appointed by Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), (replacing the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities). Inevitably these financial challenges affect the work of Slough Children First (SCF) as the financial position of the Council directly impacts its expectations of SCF and the ‘contract sum’.

Despite these constraints we must demonstrate that we provide services effectively and efficiently evidencing best value for money. SCF is also held to account by the Department for Education (DfE) appointed Commissioner who also scrutinises services for children with SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities).

Year one of our 2023-26 business plan represented bringing SCF into a steady state, focused on improving the quality of practice and building solid foundations on which to deliver our 6 key priorities as set out above.

Our refreshed business plan will set out how we are to drive forward business re-design and our ‘invest to save’ projects that will create further improvements, efficiencies and value for money.

Our modelling reflects a priority in Early Help through targeting a 5% reduction in the number of families stepping up into statutory social care. This is through additional Targeted Early Help teams. In addition to these teams, the continuing development of partnership working will mean that half of the children in need plans that close will be stepped down to Early Help teams and half to community partners.

Children who are being considered for care but have not entered it (defined as ‘Edge of Care’) will be supported with a specific Edge of Care team to support them to remain in their family home. This will avoid entering care alongside an increase in the reunification of children coming home from care (where appropriate).

With this support and focus our placement costs will start to fall, particularly in the high-cost residential placements for those children with complex needs around Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Edge of care teams will also impact legal fees as they will also reduce as the volume of proceedings reduce.

Our in-house fostering service will continue to develop their support model and make Slough a great place to be a foster carer and to grow our Slough Family. Increasing their numbers and developing their specialist skills will help us to avoid placing with external fostering agencies also removing the margins we are charged by third parties - all driving greater value for money. We will target five new households by the end of next year, along with 2 resilience foster carers, with further recruitment planned in future years. This work is aided by joining the SouthEast Regional Hub for fostering recruitment and retention.

Our spend on placements for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) and Care Leavers is also expected to benefit from some commissioning initiatives aimed at targeting the rates paid and driving better value for money. This will be done through identifying multiple occupancy accommodation available for Semi-Independent and Independent living.

A stable workforce will be a priority and through successful international recruitment and our on-going ASYE programme, the ratio of permanent to agency social work staff is modelled at 77%:20% with the remaining 3% factored for vacancies. This is based on our current data and in future years we expect to improve this by 1 percentage point each year.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The Board note the principal risks to service delivery and financial sustainability being:

• Financial dependency on Slough Borough Council

• Turnover and capability of the workforce

• Forward planning & development - cost control

• Forward planning & development - service improvement

(Principal risks and uncertainties continued)

There is an increase in the complexity of needs, growth in children presenting to Slough seeking refuge from unsafe situations in their own countries, a cost-of-living crisis, rising prices and residual issues arising from the Covid pandemic, such as emotional and mental health impacts. Our financial model reflects this and incorporates the key activity needed in 2024/25 to realise benefits, as well as further phases of our plan, such as an Exploitation team and increasing partnership working in later years. Although we cannot reduce the demand we experience, we can implement strategies to meet it.

There are significant challenges for young people who we struggle to engage in services to help them and are therefore increasingly vulnerable to adults who seek to exploit them both criminally and sexually. We must focus on getting alongside our children and young people and work with our partner agencies to find ways to disrupt the adults who exploit them.

We are doing more participation work directly with the children and young adults we support to ensure their voice is heard in helping to shape services to better meet their need.

The Board of Directors, responsible for ensuring that the Company’s approach to risk management is robust and appropriate and includes risk management as part of the regular board agenda. All risks are actively managed by the Strategic Leadership Team of the Company through regular reviews.

In this context the Company is working on improving governance to manage its resources with more efficacy through improved processes that deliver improved outcomes and better value for money.

Section 172(1) Statement

The Company believes that engagement with its stakeholders is key to achieving successful delivery of its business plans and alignment of its strategy with a changing market, helping it to be a responsible, sustainable business in the long term.

How the Company engages with its key stakeholders is set out below:

Service users

We are developing our communications with service users, ensuring use of correct channels that are aligned to meet their needs. A revised and updated participation strategy is going through an approval process to ensure mechanisms are established to include service users views and the voice of the child. Children and young people have been involved in the recruitment process for senior posts.

The Company holds annual surveys to capture the voice of the child, this information is used to develop practice and create Good outcomes for Slough’s children and young people. The Company engages with parents to shape local provisions to meet needs, ensuring the service is fit for purpose.

Workforce

The Company has a dedicated workforce and has a responsibility to ensure that all employees work in a safe environment and have opportunities to learn and develop their careers. The Company is implementing its workforce strategy, which creates clear development pathways. The strategy seeks to develop leadership skills to provide strong supervision and guidance.

There are various engagement mechanisms in place to allow staff to exchange their views. The Company undertakes staff surveys to gauge morale and any issues arising. Survey results are presented to the strategic leadership team and the relevant Board sub-committee to allow for adaptations to the workforce plans.

The Company is an equal opportunities employer and has a formal whistleblowing policy in place to allow employees to raise any concerns or issues they have confidentially.

(Section 172(1) Statement continued)

Suppliers

The Company is engaging with and developing its relationships with local providers and SMEs. Developing local services is a key strategy and the commissioning function has held several provider forums to engage suppliers to develop the local market. This includes market engagement with providers for 2 commissioning tender exercises now published, 1 for the delivery of Short Breaks to children with disabilities and the other for advocacy services for children.

The Company updated its Sufficiency Strategy in 2023 to identify the ongoing needs of the community it serves. The strategy forms our strategic approach to children’s placements and is helping to shape the market to be able to provide effective, sustainable and commercially viable services to children, young people and families. It is reviewed and refreshed every 3 years and is developed by ensuring an understanding of the demographics and assessed needs, hearing the voices of Slough’s children, gap/market analysis and benchmarking offers with other Local Authorities.

The Company is developing standard contractual terms that will help protect both parties to ensure amicable relations are developed and timely resolutions to operating or contractual issues can be achieved.

Community and environment

The Company sees the community as a key resource in enabling it to deliver a sustainable model for the future. Engagement of the community and voluntary sector, as well as faith and community groups is essential to jointly develop lower-level support mechanisms. This is an area highlighted for further development in the business and improvement plan and also as a clear priority going forward. This is an endeavour shared with the Council and a task and finish group is leading on work to support increased collaboration between the Council, Company and community faith groups.

Government

With the backdrop of rising demands and reducing budgets, the Company work with government departments and local sector led improvement leads to drive new and/or tried and tested initiatives that can meet the needs of our families in as cost-effective manner as possible. The Company bids for new government funding to help support new initiatives where appropriate.

Energy Emissions

The number of staff in the Company exceeds 250 and therefore exceeds two of the three threshold criteria for being a large company. It is therefore required to report under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon regulations.

The Company is required to report on its direct and indirect emissions, encompassing travel and mileage undertaken by staff while delivering services, along with emissions from office locations and other buildings used for the provision of children’s services. These come under the three scope headings of:

• Scope 1 Direct Emissions – Emissions from activities owned or controlled by ourselves

• Scope 2 Indirect Emissions – Electricity purchased and used for operations

• Scope 3 Other Indirect Emissions – Emissions because of actions but that are not controlled or owned directly e.g. business travel.

The Financial Position at the year end

The P&L shows a surplus of £210k for the financial year ending 31st March 2025. It became apparent during the financial year that SCF were predicting a large underspend of circa £2M and it was agreed at the Board meeting of January that this amount would be offered back to SBC in the form of a credit note. At March Board this amount was finalised at £2,820k, reducing the contract sum from £39,049k to £36,229k.

Expenditure for 24/25 at £43,663k is £2,463k lower than budget, whilst income at £43,981k is £2,215k lower than budget.

The closing balance sheet shows a small surplus of £204k, with assets higher than liabilities by this amount and the cash balance at year end was £7,867k.

Areas of note within income in the management accounts include an overall adverse variance of £2,215k.

The reduction to the Core Contract is noted above. The DfE running costs grant was agreed at a slightly reduced value after budget setting, and there were small underspends across all agreed posts.

A favourable variance of £650k in other income arose from prior year settlements of funding for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) income, offsetting the in-year funding being lower than budget due to fewer numbers of children in care from this cohort. 100% Payments by Results from the Strengthening Families Programme was awarded to all LAs during the year, a further favourable variance from the 75% SCF budgeted for given the more stringent success criteria for 24/25. £150k of additional Transformation funding from SBC helped support an Improvement post and project support during the year. Additional interest income due to SCF’s positive cash position and additional grants supporting spend in areas including Youth Justice, serious youth violence and supported accommodation for 18+ care leavers offset reduced contributions to placements and packages of support for children with disabilities from Health and lower Dedicated Schools Grant for Pupil Premium Grant+ for children in care, again due to lower numbers of children in care.

Expenditure was favourable v budget by £2,463k.

Combined salaries and agency costs had a joint underspend of £44k, with a favourable variance in permanent staff from vacancies, some held deliberately due to lower caseloads. Agency costs were higher than budgeted, in part covering a high number of staff on long term sick leave or maternity leave and additional resource helping deliver on the Improvement plans. An element of the agency spend was funded by the SBC Transformation grant and was therefore not forecast in the original budget.

Lower than expected UASC volumes helped deliver a reduced placement spend, being £3,386k lower than budget, along with the additional oversight from the External Placement panel introduced during Summer 2023. Volumes of children supported in accommodation were 50 lower than budget, 23 being from the UASC cohort, and £72 per week lower than budget following rigorous challenge in External Placement Panel around support levels and alternative providers coming into the market.

Increases in other child support costs arose from higher than budgeted family support costs preventing, or delaying, entry to care. Numbers of care experienced young people being supported in accommodation was 7 higher than budget, but at a reduced average weekly rate of £75 per week per placement leading to a small underspend in this area of £44k.

Considerable reductions in legal costs are now being realised in terms of volumes in proceedings. Average volumes were 27 in proceedings for the first 9 months of 2042/25 v budget of 47. The legal gateway process is delivering robust decisions as to whether to issue proceedings and whether to engage the services of counsel, senior barristers, and the numbers of Independent Social Worker assessments being requested by court is also reducing.

The savings target of £2,644k has been fully achieved during 24/25.

Savings in staffing fell short of its target due to ambitious targets for reducing agency need in favour of permanent staff. At one point during the financial year, there were 12 agency staff covering maternity and long-term sick leave. Aside from the need for this extra cover, SCF move into 25/26 with much fewer agency staff in established posts filling vacancies.

Another area falling short of its target was in Other Child Support costs due to delays in the recommissioning of short breaks. Legal savings were met in full and income and placements achieved more than target to help offset the above deficits.

The balance sheet shows net assets of £3.827m (2024: £2.167m liabilities) including pension assets of £3.623m (2024: £2.168m liabilities). Actuarial gains on the defined pension scheme were £5.784m in year contributing to reducing the pension liability position.

Other information and explanations

Environmental matters

The Company remains committed to minimising the impact of its activities on the environment and to continually improve its environmental performance through initiatives such as the use of electric cars for local business travel, flexible working allowing staff to work remotely, along with the use of technology to reduce the reliance on paper.

Statement of internal control

The Company is responsible for ensuring financial information and accounting records are accurate with strong mechanisms in place to mitigate risks identified. Internal and external auditors review internal operational controls and management protocols and provide improvement recommendations.

The Company continues to develop and embed systems of internal control. These include:

• Policies and procedures regarding key systems – finance, payroll and children in care payment services.

• Internal audits through Slough Borough Council

• A Managers driving licence to equip leaders with the right skills in areas such as financial management and HR.

• Clear, communicated schemes of delegation.

• Development and recruitment of experienced and suitably qualified staff. Regular supervision along with annual appraisals to identify development needs will be used to maintain standards of performance.

On behalf of the board

The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The principal activity of the Company continued to be that of providing support and social care services for children, young people, and families in Slough.

The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:

The results for the year are set out on page 17.

The company is now in a more stable and sustainable position than previously but is not immune to the significant local and national budgetary pressures and requirements of local and national government. Whilst we have achieved a stable financial position within our contract sum in the last two years, there remains significant financial challenges for the wider Council which impact on SCF as a wholly owned subsidiary. The Company Board is stable having retained the same membership since May 2023, until November 2024 when one of the Non-Executive Directors (NED) retired. That role is now held by a newly appointed NED who brings with her significant national leadership experience. The Board continues to represent the interests of children and families in the work of the Company, alongside the needs of the wider Council.

The Strategic Leadership Team can now be considered as a long-standing permanent, integral part of the governance of the company and our Heads of Service are a stable group, increasingly growing into confident leaders.

The SCF improvement plan ensures a consistent approach to overall improvement throughout all our services, including Youth Justice. We are still on a journey, but we know that the quality of practice is changing and several of the areas of challenge identified in the previous inspections have now been successfully addressed but need to be maintained.

We want to become leaders in practice, helping children think beyond their current circumstances and strive for something greater. To achieve this, we must focus solely on:

• Growing a stable and well-equipped workforce

• Solid Social Work practice

• Much wider and stronger early intervention, providing innovative timely support at the right time and reduce the need for higher level intervention.

• Ensuring we have the required supporting infrastructure to succeed.

We know where we need to focus to improve services for families and the next steps are all about making those changes and realignments incrementally to achieve this.

Our 2 year transformational roadmap shows our priorities and focus for the next 2 years and they include the following areas:

• New Adolescent Support Service

• New Early Help Model

• Phase 2 of the Slough Academy, followed in year 2 by phase 3

• Improved SEND services

• Front Door re-design

• Reshape and realignment of Transitions to Adulthood

• Sector partners for Edge of Care work

• Redesign of the Care Experienced Young People service

• Innovative new stable homes

The auditor, Mercer & Hole LLP, is deemed to be reappointed under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006.

So far as each person who was a director at the date of approving this report is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the company’s auditor is unaware. Additionally, the directors individually have taken all the necessary steps that they ought to have taken as directors in order to make themselves aware of all relevant audit information and to establish that the company’s auditor is aware of that information.

The Directors are of the view that Slough Children First is a going concern for the next 12 months.

The current contract end date for the company to deliver services on behalf of Slough Borough Council is 31st July 2026. Should the contract not be extended at the date of filing the accounts, the services currently being delivered will be transferred back to the Council, including all assets and liabilities.

Services providing care and support to children and families of Slough will become the responsibility of Slough Borough Council (SBC); staff delivering these services will be TUPE’d to SBC; Slough Children First contracts will be novated to SBC and all cash, assets and debts, including pension balances will also transfer. Therefore, there is no risk to continuity of the services provided to the residents of Slough and any transfer is likely to be unnoticed by children, families and staff.

The future cash flow position is a positive one, meaning the company can meet all its obligations as they fall due, and this position will be transferred to the Council.

The company is working towards an agreed financial funding sum from SBC for 2026/27 which will support the delivery of services currently included in the contact, as well as company costs for as long as it continues.

The Company had sufficient liquidity at the end of the financial year, that on the 31st March 2025, it was able to repay the £5m loan back to SBC. In its place, an agreed revolving credit facility has been put in place to further ensure the company as a going concern.

As last year, while the Directors have a reasonable expectation that the Company has adequate resources to continue its operations for the foreseeable future, they are obliged under FRS 102 to disclose that its parent, the Council, is under extended intervention from MHCLG and increased financial scrutiny with the appointment of an additional Commissioner, the MDC, from November 2024.

Slough Borough Council has provided a letter of support to SCF for the delivery of children's services which they will fund in accordance with the funding agreement and this continues for a period of 12 months from the date of signing the accounts.

It is to be further noted that intervention by the Department for Education, overseeing the working practice of Slough Children First, has now reduced from a Commissioner to an Improvement Advisor, demonstrating that the company has made great improvements to securing a sustainable financial position.

Therefore, the Directors continue to adopt the going concern basis for the preparation of the financial statements for the Company for 2025/26.

The Company had an establishment of 347.33 full-time equivalents or 362 posts and employed 321 permanent staff and 36 agency workers as at 31 March 2025. Within the workforce 23% are qualified frontline practitioners and as a total 83% are female and 17% male this shows a slight increase in the number of male employees, and the proportion of the workforce who are qualified frontline practitioners.

As an equal opportunities employer, the mean gender pay gap as at March 2025 2.5%, an increase from the previously reported 1.65% but remains below the national average.

The directors are responsible for preparing the annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law, the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the surplus or deficit of the company for that period.

In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.

The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

We have audited the financial statements of Slough Children First Limited (the 'company') for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the income and expenditure account, the statement of comprehensive income, the balance sheet, the statement of changes in equity, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the company's affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of its surplus for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The directors are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:

• the information given in the strategic report and the directors' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the strategic report and the directors' report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the strategic report or the directors' report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of directors' remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

As explained more fully in the directors' responsibilities statement, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.

Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

• discussions with management, including considerations of known or suspected instances of non- compliance with laws and regulations and fraud;

• gaining an understanding of management's controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities; and

• identifying and testing journal entries.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

The income and expenditure account has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions relating to medium-sized companies.

Slough Children First Limited is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Observatory House, 4th Floor, 25 Windsor Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 2EL.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.

The Directors are of the view that Slough Children First is a going concern for the next 12 months. true

The current contract end date for the company to deliver services on behalf of Slough Borough Council is 31st July 2026. Should the contract not be extended at the date of filing the accounts, the services currently being delivered will be transferred back to the Council, including all assets and liabilities.

Services providing care and support to children and families of Slough will become the responsibility of Slough Borough Council (SBC); staff delivering these services will be TUPE’d to SBC; Slough Children First contracts will be novated to SBC and all cash, assets and debts, including pension balances will also transfer. Therefore, there is no risk to continuity of the services provided to the residents of Slough and any transfer is likely to be unnoticed by children, families and staff.

The future cash flow position is a positive one, meaning the company can meet all its obligations as they fall due, and this position will be transferred to the Council.

The company is working towards an agreed financial funding sum from SBC for 2026/27 which will support the delivery of services currently included in the contact, as well as company costs for as long as it continues.

Slough Borough Council has provided a letter of support to SCF for the delivery of children's services which they will fund in accordance with the funding agreement and this continues for a period of 12 months from the date of signing the accounts.

The Trust's income relates principally to revenues receivable from Slough Borough Council for the provision of Children's Services within the borough, but also includes grant income from the Department of Education and other smaller bodies.

Contract and grant income is recognised on an accrual accounting basis. Grant income is recognised only when there are reassurances that the Trust has complied with the conditions attached to the grant and that the grant will be received. In addition grant income is recognised as income over the period necessary to match them with related costs for which they are intended to compensate.

Cash at bank and in hand are basic financial assets and include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts.

The company has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the company's balance sheet when the company becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Other financial assets, including investments in equity instruments which are not subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures, are initially measured at fair value, which is normally the transaction price. Such assets are subsequently carried at fair value and the changes in fair value are recognised in surplus or deficit, except that investments in equity instruments that are not publicly traded and whose fair values cannot be measured reliably are measured at cost less impairment.

Financial assets, other than those held at fair value through surplus and deficit, are assessed for indicators of impairment at each reporting end date.

Financial assets are impaired where there is objective evidence that, as a result of one or more events that occurred after the initial recognition of the financial asset, the estimated future cash flows have been affected. If an asset is impaired, the impairment loss is the difference between the carrying amount and the present value of the estimated cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. The impairment loss is recognised in surplus or deficit.

If there is a decrease in the impairment loss arising from an event occurring after the impairment was recognised, the impairment is reversed. The reversal is such that the current carrying amount does not exceed what the carrying amount would have been, had the impairment not previously been recognised. The impairment reversal is recognised in surplus or deficit.

Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the company transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.

Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the company after deducting all of its liabilities.

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and loans from fellow group companies that are classified as debt, are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derivatives, including interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts, are not basic financial instruments. Derivatives are initially recognised at fair value on the date a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently re-measured at their fair value. Changes in the fair value of derivatives are recognised in surplus or deficit in finance costs or finance income as appropriate, unless hedge accounting is applied and the hedge is a cash flow hedge.

Debt instruments that do not meet the conditions in FRS 102 paragraph 11.9 are subsequently measured at fair value through profit or loss. Debt instruments may be designated as being measured at fair value through profit or loss to eliminate or reduce an accounting mismatch or if the instruments are measured and their performance evaluated on a fair value basis in accordance with a documented risk management or investment strategy.

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the company’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

The tax expense represents the sum of the tax currently payable and deferred tax.

The tax currently payable is based on taxable profit for the year. Taxable profit differs from net profit as reported in the profit and loss account because it excludes items of income or expense that are taxable or deductible in other years and it further excludes items that are never taxable or deductible. The company’s liability for current tax is calculated using tax rates that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting end date.

Deferred tax liabilities are generally recognised for all timing differences and deferred tax assets are recognised to the extent that it is probable that they will be recovered against the reversal of deferred tax liabilities or other future taxable profits. Such assets and liabilities are not recognised if the timing difference arises from goodwill or from the initial recognition of other assets and liabilities in a transaction that affects neither the tax profit nor the accounting profit.

The carrying amount of deferred tax assets is reviewed at each reporting end date and reduced to the extent that it is no longer probable that sufficient taxable profits will be available to allow all or part of the asset to be recovered. Deferred tax is calculated at the tax rates that are expected to apply in the period when the liability is settled or the asset is realised. Deferred tax is charged or credited in the profit and loss account, except when it relates to items charged or credited directly to equity, in which case the deferred tax is also dealt with in equity. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are offset when the company has a legally enforceable right to offset current tax assets and liabilities and the deferred tax assets and liabilities relate to taxes levied by the same tax authority.

Provisions are recognised when the company has a legal or constructive present obligation as a result of a past event, it is probable that the company will be required to settle that obligation and a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation.

The amount recognised as a provision is the best estimate of the consideration required to settle the present obligation at the reporting end date, taking into account the risks and uncertainties surrounding the obligation. Where the effect of the time value of money is material, the amount expected to be required to settle the obligation is recognised at present value. When a provision is measured at present value, the unwinding of the discount is recognised as a finance cost in surplus or deficit in the period in which it arises.

The costs of short-term employee benefits are recognised as a liability and an expense, unless those costs are required to be recognised as part of the cost of stock or fixed assets.

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the company is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due. The contributions to the Teachers Pension Scheme are treated as payments to a defined contributions scheme as explained in note 13.

The cost of providing benefits under defined benefit plans is determined separately for each plan using the projected unit credit method, and is based on actuarial advice.

The change in the net defined benefit liability arising from employee service during the year is recognised as an employee cost. The cost of plan introductions, benefit changes, settlements and curtailments are recognised as an expense in measuring profit or loss in the period in which they arise.

The net interest element is determined by multiplying the net defined benefit liability by the discount rate, taking into account any changes in the net defined benefit liability during the period as a result of contribution and benefit payments. The net interest is recognised in surplus or deficit as other finance revenue or cost.

Remeasurement changes comprise actuarial gains and losses, the effect of the asset ceiling and the return on the net defined benefit liability excluding amounts included in net interest. These are recognised immediately in other comprehensive income in the period in which they occur and are not reclassified to profit and loss in subsequent periods.

The net defined benefit pension asset or liability in the balance sheet comprises the total for each plan of the present value of the defined benefit obligation (using a discount rate based on high quality corporate bonds), less the fair value of plan assets out of which the obligations are to be settled directly. Fair value is based on market price information, and in the case of quoted securities is the published bid price. The value of a net pension benefit asset is limited to the amount that may be recovered either through reduced contributions or agreed refunds from the scheme.

No management judgements in applying the accounting policies of the Company were made that have a significant effect on the financial statements.

The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:

Their aggregate remuneration comprised:

Key management personnel are considered to consist of only the directors mentioned on the company information page.

The actual charge for the year can be reconciled to the expected charge for the year based on the profit or loss and the standard rate of tax as follows:

The employment legal fees provision represents potential legal costs and claimant pay outs in relation to open disability discrimination and unfair dismissal cases. It is expected to be utilised between 1 and 2 years.

Contributions of £230,136 (2024: £219,784) were outstanding at the balance sheet date.

The company is a member of the Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund which is a defined benefit scheme under the terms of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the pension fund administering authority, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and are invested in a wide range of quoted and unquoted investments by scheme investment managers.

Assumed life expectations on retirement at age 65:

The amounts included in the balance sheet arising from the company's obligations in respect of defined benefit plans are as follows:

The cumulative amount of actuarial assets/(losses) recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income was £3,383,000(2024: £(14,315,909)).

The Company expects to contribute £1,772k to its Defined Benefit Pension Scheme in 2025.

The actual return on plan assets was £705,000 (2024 - £2,410,000).

The company is limited by guarantee, not having a share capital and consequently the liability of members is limited, subject to an undertaking by each member to contribute to the net assets or liabilities of the company on winding up such amounts as may be required not exceeding £1.

Non-distributable reserves relates to the company's defined benefit pension scheme liability.

Income and expenditure account represents cumulative profits and losses.

During the year, the directors of the company provided services to the company as agents. The total of this service provided amounts to £126,031 (2024: £206,439).

Slough Children First Limited is a 100% owned subsidiary of Slough Borough Council

A prior year adjustment has been made to correct the classification of the defined benefit pension movements between pension costs and interest on pension assets in the profit and loss account and actuarial gains in the statement of comprehensive income. This did not impact the overall surplus for the year, balance sheet assets and liabilities or reserves carried forward.