- Effective partnerships are in place to commission and fully deliver integrated, high quality sustainable outcomes for people
- People are encouraged to be involved in the design and delivery of their care and support as equal partners
Children, Families and Safeguarding
Our partnership with Housing Services: an update from Katie Clubb, Head of Strategic Housing Services.
Throughout 2025/26, Housing and Social Care have continued their joint working arrangements to support more integrated pathways and enhance our prevention-focused approach. A key development has been a pilot where a Youth Service worker has been embedded within the Homeless Duty Team. This model has delivered early outcomes for young people, and the approach has now been commissioned on a longer-term basis.
A new jointly commissioned Homelessness and Social Care Prevention role has commenced, based within the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). This role aims to provide an earlier, more coordinated response for individuals at risk, ensuring that homelessness risk is identified sooner and that interventions are better aligned across services. The Social Care and Housing Working Group continues to meet regularly, ensuring that capital grant projects are aligned and that decisions around new opportunities or change of use to existing properties or projects respond to identified need.
A working group has also been established to explore what provision is available to young people leaving residential care at 16 and the demand for move on placements at 18+. Their remit includes the review of processes, ensuring there are clear links and regular communication between Social Care and Housing colleagues.
At a senior leadership level, the Head of Children, Family and Safeguarding Services and the Head of Integrated Adults and Community Services sit on the Housing Service Improvement Board, which includes oversight of the Housing Support Grant programme. Through this board, we have started work to improve and redesign accommodation and support pathways for young people, ensuring they better reflect the needs of young people in Conwy.
New Children’s Accommodation within Children Looked After and Disabilities Services
This year, three new services for young people were successfully opened and registered, providing a total of 13 placements across a range of care options.
- Bwthyn y Ddôl offers four short-term assessment placements
- Eryri provides two temporary emergency placements and was registered in July 2025
- Sylva Gardens delivers three self-contained flats for long-term placements and secured its registration in April 2025
- Hafan y Wern operates as a four-bed children’s residential service and received its CIW registration in October 2025.
All services are now operational, with two fully functional and the third expected to reach full capacity later in 2026. This will increase our offer to support young people in Conwy with high quality care within their communities, living their best lives.
A new standalone Responsible Individual (RI) role has been implemented, providing oversight and service governance. This role is now well established and effectively supports service development, playing a key role in the development and registration of these new areas.
Some key achievements include Bwthyn y Ddôl undergoing its first CIW inspection, achieving a ‘Good’ rating across all categories. Inspectors highlighted strong development, committed staff and positive outcomes for children. Other services are due for inspection later this year, with ongoing work supporting them to be fully inspection-ready, based on lessons learned from Bwthyn y Ddôl’s review.
At Sylva Gardens, young people are making strong progress and family contact has increased to multiple visits per week. One young person has developed life skills, moving from daily fast food to cooking meals and using cutlery properly. Community engagement is active, with regular outings, and one child calls the home his “Happy Place”. Peer friendships are growing, and school attendance is increasing to full days. Hafan y Wern has developed rapidly and is now fully functional, with four young people currently placed there who would otherwise have been placed some distance from home. A key strength of the service is the collaborative work with the social work team, and this is currently being demonstrated with one young person and their potential return to a supportive family environment. The team has been working closely with the parent and extended family to establish appropriate living arrangements, contact schedules, and visits, providing additional support to maximise the potential for a successful reintegration. This approach also reflects the service’s interest in exploring a model change, demonstrating a commitment to innovative ways of supporting young people and their families.
The services are new, and staff are continuing to learn and grow as they become more integrated into our wider service profile. These are exciting times for the service, with clear opportunities to develop and refine their approach.
Challenges exist with staffing and recruitment; however, the introduction of the new carer progression pathway for care workers has helped to strengthen the staff resource and expand opportunities for individuals who want to work in this sector.
Working with education services to prevent family breakdown
The Strengthening Families Team works collaboratively with partner agencies to prevent family breakdown, reduce risk, build on strengths and works holistically to offer targeted therapeutic and practical interventions to families where there are identified needs. A multi-agency approach is essential to ensuring that families receive holistic, timely and outcome-focused support. Our relationship with Education Services is vital to supporting that approach:
Participation in multi-agency panels: Education representatives regularly attend Early Intervention and Edge of Care Panels to contribute to planning for children where concerns or risks are escalating. Their involvement is instrumental in identifying education-related barriers and exploring solutions that promote stability and progress.
Youth Initiative: we have already mentioned the Youth Initiative earlier in this report, which aims to support children and young people where there are escalating risks in the community around exploitation, risk-taking behaviours, or behaviours that challenge. A large proportion of these young people are on reduced education timetables which can increase pressure within the home and heighten risk-taking behaviours in the community. The work from the Youth Initiative will involve close collaboration and active discussion with Education professionals to ensure aligned and effective support.
Joint therapeutic planning: We work alongside Education professionals to develop therapeutic plans where education has become a barrier to a child’s well-being or progress. This joint approach includes both practical and therapeutic interventions for children, young people and their families.
Neurodiversity Lead collaboration: The team’s Neurodiversity Lead works closely with education settings to support children experiencing difficulties in school. This partnership aims to promote understanding, improve child and school experiences, prevent breakdown, and enhance overall stability.
Therapeutic support to prevent exclusions: The SFT provides therapeutic support jointly with Education professionals for children and young people whose behaviour presents challenges. This collaborative approach helps reduce the risk of school exclusion, increases time spent in education, and strengthens the impact of joint planning from both educational and therapeutic perspectives.
Case Study
The following case study demonstrates positive joint working to discharge a care order:
Intervention was provided to a large family with multiple needs. Children were looked after and subject to a Placement with Parents arrangement; the school was escalating concerns regarding presentation, regulation, and safety. A nursery day‑care placement was funded for one of the younger children as the school felt that they could not meet the needs of the child, which was costly to the local authority.
Through careful planning, shared professional spaces and consistent communication between school, family, and SFT, we were able to build a clear and shared understanding of the children’s needs. Collaborative assessment identified underlying neurodevelopmental needs, which informed the development of Individual Development Plans, targeted support strategies, and tailored de‑escalation approaches across home and school. The intervention opened support for communication and understanding between all involved.
The coordinated intervention ensured consistency, predictability, and a reduction in environmental triggers. As a result:
- All children are now settled and fully engaged in their educational settings.
- Risks have significantly reduced, with fewer safeguarding incidents and improved emotional regulation.
- Protective factors have strengthened, including increased parental capacity, improved school–home communication, and consistent implementation of strategies across environments.
This demonstrates the impact of early identification, shared formulation, and multi‑agency collaboration in promoting stability, safety, and positive developmental outcomes. The next step for this family is awaiting a court date to discharge the care order.
Moving forward, the SFT aims to support a reduction in the use of reduced education timetables where these are implemented in response to behaviours that challenge. Instead, SFT advocates for an increased use of therapeutic timetables that incorporate vocational and recreational activities for children and young people who are experiencing difficulties within the school environment. Such behaviours are frequently linked to instability, unmet need or trauma. As a result, providing consistent structure, routine, and supportive engagement is crucial in helping children overcome these barriers. This approach also mitigates the risks associated with extended periods of unstructured time in the community, where we frequently see increases in risk-taking behaviours and escalating concerns that can ultimately contribute to children entering Local Authority care. A strong preventative focus remains paramount. By promoting therapeutic, relational and holistic educational support, we hope to stabilise young people’s experiences, enhance engagement, and reduce the likelihood of crises that lead to higher tier statutory intervention.
SFT have noticed a gap in which we could attend the education forum to share information and therapeutic support services offered by SFT. We are going to ask to present at an education forum to share the Criteria and Referral pathway. We will hope that this will help to support families where there are emerging needs, utilising an early intervention approach and further strengthening the relationship and working between SFT and education.
Period Proud Conwy Activities
2025-2026 marks the seventh year Conwy has been awarded Welsh Government’s Period Dignity Grant which supports the Period Proud Action Plan. The plan aims to achieve period dignity by 2027 by ending period poverty and stigma, improving access to free products and education, promoting environmentally friendly options, and strengthening community engagement.
This year, the initiative was formally branded Period Proud Conwy, supported by the launch of a dedicated page on the CCBC website and a shared mailbox: periodproud@conwy.gov.uk.
Key Achievements
- A successful procurement process led to awarding PHS the supply contract, offering a wide range of 100% plastic free and / or reusable products.
- Secondary schools and community settings now use PHS’s online ordering system, giving them autonomy to choose products based on local need and feedback.
- £16,400 worth of products were provided to all Year 5 pupils, recognising that some children may start their periods as early as age 7.
- £33,400 was allocated for secondary schools, Ysgol Gogarth and the Pupil Referral Unit to place their own products.
- £43,250 is being used to provide products across community settings, including libraries, Family Centres and foodbanks.
Education and Engagement
- New guidance for teaching about periods and for hosting pupil consultations was developed with Education, Health and Wellbeing colleagues. All secondary schools have been asked to gather pupil feedback.
- The Sex Education Company delivered training on periods and period products which was attended by all Family Centre staff. They reported increased confidence in discussing periods. An additional interactive session was held at Conwy Connect as part of Her Health Hub initiative.
Next Steps
- Ensure free period products are available in all Conwy buildings with public toilets, supported by a marketing campaign.
- A steering group will meet once pupil and community feedback is collected, helping refine and improve next year’s offer.
Integrated Adults and Community Services
Refreshing the North Wales Learning Disability Strategy
We told you in last year’s report that we would be working in partnership with the other North Wales local authorities and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to refresh our North Wales Learning Disability Strategy. Covering the ten-year period 2025 to 2035, the new strategy sets out a vision to support people with learning disabilities to live happy, safe and fulfilled lives within their communities.
Created by Dr Ceryl Teleri Davies from Bangor University, the refreshed strategy is underpinned by the values of inclusion, co-production and person-centred support. The overarching aim is to enhance support and opportunities so that everyone with learning disabilities can reach their individual potential through a collaborative, whole-systems, and lifespan approach.
The strategy has been informed by focus groups with professionals, regional workshops, questionnaires, and visits to over 20 services across North Wales, including day and work opportunity services in Conwy, and Conwy Connect Moving On Solutions clubs.
Key priorities for the next ten years include:
- Reaching potential
- Feeling safe and supported
- A focus on health and well-being
- Empowering self-advocacy by offering voice, choice and control to individuals
- Access to transport
- Improving housing options and supported living matching processes
- Building pathways to lifelong learning and paid employment
The strategy includes an implementation framework to ensure the priority areas (15 in all) have meaningful actions attached. Implementation will be monitored through regional governance structures, with regular reviews to ensure progress is tracked and priorities remain relevant across the ten years.
We are still working on an accommodation strategy for disabled adults and will be able to provide you with an update in next year’s report.
Creating a Family Centre for the west of Conwy
Conwy’s Family Centres operate across the county, but the west family team do not have a permanent base from which to deliver services. They are therefore required to work peripatetically across their area and hold weekly drop-in sessions from hired community venues in five of the larger towns. Office and storage space for resources used by the team are currently temporarily located at the Conwy North Family Centre in Llandudno.
Referral data gathered by the team, Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation data, and the recent expansion of Flying Start areas have identified that some west localities would benefit from a more permanent family support presence in Llandudno Junction. Delivery of this proposal will:
- Safeguard the existing service offer for the future
- Allow enhancement of the existing service with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and other partners, and bring it in line with other Family Centres in Conwy
- Remove the risk of potentially losing the use of community facilities by having a permanent base.
The first phase of this project, for which £200,000 Integrated Rebalancing Capital Funding has been allocated, will be to undertake a feasibility design and costing exercise, and to develop and submit a Business Justification Case to be submitted to Welsh Government. In terms of progress to date:
- The design team have been procured and are working with stakeholders to build up the specification of requirements
- Workshops have been held with stakeholders to finalise the Client Brief
- We consulted with families to ask what they would welcome in a purpose-built facility, and their feedback will be considered in the design
- The architect is preparing a pre-planning application
- Colleagues from Environment, Roads and Facilities are managing the due diligence surveys for the site and will conduct a full ground investigation once we have finalised the design
- We have drafted the Business Justification Case and are consulting with regional partners before submitting it to Welsh Government.
We will provide you with a progress update on this exciting development in next year’s report.
Creating an Extra Care Housing scheme for the Colwyn area
We mentioned plans for a new Extra Care Housing scheme for the Colwyn area last year, and you have already read about the exciting work and training opportunities getting underway for students at Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
We can also update you about the building project itself, which is progressing well. The Programme is seeking support from Welsh Government’s Housing with Care Fund (HCF) and Integrated Rebalancing Capital Fund (IRCF) for the capital construction elements of the proposal. In order to bid for funding a Five Case Model Business Case is required, with stages of submission being Strategic Outline Case, Outline Business Case and Full Business Case. For the Programme we are currently at Outline Business Case stage and will submit the case to Welsh Government in summer 2026 in order to seek approval to move to Full Business Case. We secured funding from Welsh Government to develop the Outline Business Case in January 2025.
Development of the Outline Business Case has progressed well over the last 10 months, with the following highlights:
The Programme is being supported by OaqGrove Ltd to develop the Outline Business Case. Workshops have been held with stakeholders, along with fortnightly meetings with the Programme Manager. At the time of writing the Strategic Case and Management Case elements of the Business Case are pretty much complete, with the Economic Case and Commercial Case around 80% complete. The Financial Case has made good progress but can only be completed once capital build costs are known, and once the impact on revenue is completely understood. A Revenue Workstream was established to identify the impact on revenue, and the draft outcome of the work undertaken by the workstream presented during February/March 2026.
Willmott Dixon have been appointed through the Major Projects Framework to support the programme with the development of the detailed design. Through their instruction they have appointed a Design Team and a number of workshops have been held with stakeholders to identify employer requirements. They are now in the process of refining those requirements in order that a costing exercise for the construction can be undertaken and included in the Outline Business Case.
An Expression of Interest exercise with all Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) was completed in May 2025. Three RSLs expressed an interest and were taken through to the next stage which was a more formal exercise via Sell2Wales. Grŵp Cynefin were identified as the preferred RSL moving forward for the current stage. They have been engaging with the Design Team in respect of the Extra Care Housing design and have also begun to undertake some cost modelling exercises to inform the final elements of the Commercial Case and contribute to the Financial Case.
We’ll update you on the building project in next year’s report.
Implementing a new case management system
We are in the process of replacing our case management system, a vital tool that allow us to centralise and manage information about the people we support, streamline workflows between different teams, and generate reporting data to measure our effectiveness. As part of a regional group, we are working collaboratively with Welsh Government, the Welsh Local Government Association and colleagues from partner agencies to develop a national digital programme. The aim is to integrate information across community, mental health and social care services in Wales.
This is a huge task to implement, and our Systems Support Team, working alongside project officers, are busy preparing for the changeover in autumn 2026, refining processes, testing the system, creating training plans for our staff, and cleaning up data ready for migration from the old system to the new. We’ll provide an update in next year’s report on our final months to ‘go-live’.
Setting our residential care fees
Local authorities in Wales set ‘standard rates’ for care home fees to establish a maximum weekly rate they will pay for care. This year we have used both Laing Buisson and Care Cubed fee setting tools to inform our fee setting to ensure that it takes proper account of the true costs of care, builds in appropriate inflation mechanisms, reflects sector cost pressures, and provides a fair and sustainable fee that will maintain quality care and support for our citizens. Our local care providers are involved in the fee setting process throughout the year, not just at the end of the financial year. They were advised in writing of our proposed 2026/27 fees in January 2026 and invited to meet with us in person the same month. Our fee incorporates the full Real Living Wage increase of 6.7%, however it should be noted that the funding provided by Welsh Government is not sufficient to meet this requirement. For comparison, the Revenue Support Grant allocation for Conwy was only increased by 4.1% for the 2026/27 period.
