Well-being Objective 1 - Our Future - Pembrokeshire County Council

Well-being Objective 1 - Our Future

Enabling the best start in life for our children and young people, equipping them with skills for the future.

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

We have focused on improving literacy standards amongst younger pupils. In autumn 2025, around 2,800 pupils were assessed under the New Group Reading Test (NGRT), which showed modest improvement in middle to high reading outcomes. However, some weaknesses remained in early reading years. In quarter 4, Schools and Learning O&S Committee and Cabinet both endorsed a strengthened local authority approach to improve early reading through the Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme.
We have aimed to improve support for numeracy and mathematics among all pupils across Pembrokeshire. GCSE outcomes showed positive improvements in a number of secondary schools, including Greenhill, Harri Tudur and Penrhyn Dewi. However, data shows that there are still more improvements to be made, with attainment gaps in maths disproportionately affecting girls and Free School Meals (FSM) pupils.
We have worked on increasing parental engagement in children’s learning, particularly in Early Years. In partnership with Carmarthenshire County Council and Ceredigion County Council, we have developed a Regional Parent Champion Network to strengthen how parent voice is integrated within Early Years and family support services. This model is being co-designed and implemented by Children in Wales. Eight Pembrokeshire parent volunteers have also been recruited across Pembrokeshire to act as ‘Signposting Champions’ in their local communities, which will help to improve families’ access to information, advice and support.
An Attendance Strategy has been implemented to try and improve attendance levels across schools. Whilst actions and approaches from the Strategy have remained on track, there has been minimal impact on attendance so far. From September 2025 to March 2026, attendance remained fairly static when compared to the previous year, with 92.38% attendance in primary schools and 89.07% attendance in secondary schools. Attendance figures were also included in the Corporate Performance Scorecard 2025-26 papers to Cabinet on 1^st June 2026.
During the 2025–26 academic year, three schools in Pembrokeshire were placed in Estyn special measures. These schools are receiving intensive support from the Local Authority and Partneriaeth to secure the urgent improvements required and to strengthen leadership, teaching and learner outcomes. Additional ACP funding of £1.34m has been directed towards these schools to support their improvement journeys, including the brokering of strong school-to-school support arrangements with effective partner schools to build capacity and share best practice. Strong improvement plans are in place and progress is being monitored closely through robust challenge and support arrangements.
Updated child poverty data was published in March 2026. It indicates that 23.4% of children in Pembrokeshire are living in relative poverty, higher than the Welsh national average of 21.2%. According to the WIMD 2025, Pembrokeshire also has more education deprivation than the national average. This particularly impacts the communities of Milford: Hubberston 2, Pembroke Dock: Llanion 1, Pembroke: Monkton, which fall within the 10% most educationally deprived LSOAs (lower super output areas as defined in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation) in Wales. To alleviate this, the Education Directorate has been supporting the implementation of actions from the PSB’s Poverty Strategy. This includes the PWR Project, Education Support Fund, SPF People and Skills programme and Family and Community Engagement Project (FaCE). In particular, £22,065 of the Education Support Fund was used in 2025-26 to support families in Pembrokeshire needing urgent support towards school-related costs (such as uniform, kit and equipment). Additionally, 166 families have participated in FaCE programmes across the county, helping parents and carers to better support their child’s learning and progression at home.
On March 13th the PSB’s third Tackling Poverty Summit was held at The Pavillion in Haverfordwest. Approximately 100 professionals gathered to participate in the event, and feedback was extremely positive in relation to the quality of speakers and relevance of the agenda.
A report was taken to Schools and Learning O&S Committee in November 2025 to provide an update on mental health and wellbeing in schools. It outlined that the mental health and well-being needs of young people have increased significantly over the last 10 years, primarily due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of measures are being undertaken in Pembrokeshire to support mental health needs, including refreshing the Whole School Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, training teaching assistants to become Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs), continuing to carry out Trauma Informed Schools (TIS) training, and connecting schools to the Health Board’s School In-Reach (SIR) service.
We have continued to progress the Sustainable Communities for Learning (SCfL) programme and school re-organisation throughout 2025-26. Progress on the redevelopment of Milford Haven schools has been on schedule, with the Strategic Outline Case approved by Cabinet in July 2025. In December 2025, approval was granted by Welsh Government to progress to the Outline Business Case (OBC) stage. Proposals include the co-location of the English medium primary and secondary schools, as well as the establishment of a new Welsh medium primary school to address the demand in the wider Milford Haven area. The proposals were approved by Council in May 2026, and the school organisation process will be commenced throughout 2026-27 to advance this work further. This work will also support the Council in delivering its Welsh in Education Strategic Plan.
From November 2025 to January 2026, we consulted on the discontinuation of three Pembrokeshire primary schools: Manorbier, Clydau and Cilgerran. This decision was taken following Council’s consideration of a School Modernisation Working Group report in May 2025, which highlighted the extent of surplus school places set against a considerable decline in pupil population:

The consultation reports for Manorbier and Clydau schools were taken to Council in March 2026, highlighting that respondents overwhelmingly disagreed with proposals to close the schools. Due to the number of surplus school places, as well as significant damage caused to the original Manorbier school building in the 2022 fire, Council agreed that the Director of Education should be authorised to publish a Statutory Notice to discontinue the schools.
The consultation report for Cilgerran school was taken to Council in May 2026. The majority of consultation respondents disagreed with proposals to close the VC school and reopen as a 3-11 Community School. Due to a significant decline in pupils numbers across the Preseli area, as well as high surplus capacity at Cilgerran school, Council agreed that the Director of Education should be authorised to public a Statutory Notice to discontinue the school and establish the same as a 3-11 Community School.

We have invested in our Youth Service and remodelled a significant portion of the ground floor of County Hall and refurbished as a Youth Centre. The Youth service views this investment as akin to a custom build specification that will provide opportunities to deliver a broad range of 11-25 services. We are further developing use of the space by working with a range of internal and external stakeholders, including DWP Job Centre colleagues to establish a Youth Hub model in line with national policy. This will also support our own NEET strategy, working in close collaboration between the Youth Service, Futureworks (our Employability and Skills provision) and Adult Community Learning.
In 2025-26, we conducted a more proportionate and consistent safeguarding response, underpinned by improved front-door practice and multi-agency decision-making. A new service manager for front-door and preventions was appointed in August 2025, and we commenced more partnership working, specifically with police, to further reduce demand at the front door. These practices helped to reduce:

The number of children on the Child Protection Register – 131 in March 2025 to 70 by March 2026.
The number of children entering care – An average of 6.5 children per month by the end of 2025-26, compared to an average of 25 children per month at the beginning of the previous year.

From March 2025 to March 2026, the number of children in residential care reduced by around 15%. In order to further develop our residential children’s home capacity, we acquired an additional property to be converted into a four-bed children’s residential home and we are also undertaking due diligence in respect of purchasing three existing children’s residential homes from the private sector. Additionally, our existing residential home (West Lodge) and respite provision (Holly House) received outstanding Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) inspection reports during the year. An update report on children’s residential care was also taken to Social Care O&S Committee in January 2026, noting that there have been significant efforts to improve residential care for young people over the last two years. This ensures that children are receiving high quality care and support to achieve the outcomes that are important to them.
We are committed to keeping children safely within their own families by supporting kinship care and special guardianship. To do this, we have strengthened our in-house fostering service by introducing an increased foster carers allowance and a discretionary council tax discount. At its 16^th March 2026 meeting, Cabinet approved the eligibility criteria for the foster carer council tax discretionary scheme, and this will be piloted starting in 2026-27. In addition, we have appointed a new Recruitment Officer who has significantly increased the number of enquiries, initial visits and fostering assessments being undertaken.
The 0-25 Preventions Programme is a key work programme under the Transformation and Innovation Board and aims to introduce place-based approaches to prevent children entering care, addressing risky adolescent behaviour and improving parental support. In particular:

A place-based preventions team has been established in Milford Haven to build relationships with the community and create stronger connections with local schools.
The Edge of Care team has delivered positive outcomes, and team expansion to 11 practitioners is now complete. 171 children across 108 families have been supported over the past year, and most of these children (88%) were remaining at home or with their family networks rather than entering care, which is providing a significant benefit to the Council in terms of cost avoidance.
The ‘Blues’ and ‘Bouncing Back’ programme was delivered to around 400 year 8 pupils across two secondary schools. There have been measurable improvements in emotional well-being, coping and confidence, as well as reductions in depressive symptom scores.
The Parent Advocacy Network was moved into the Picton Centre, and a series of regular parent cafes will be held starting from April 2026. These will support parents with issues such as well-being, isolation and confidence.

Youth Justice data indicates that First Time Entrants (FTE) into the service are beginning to reduce following a post-pandemic increase. There was a total of 23 FTE’s in 2025 (January to December), a 13% decrease from 2024 and a nearly 38% decrease from 2023. However, many offences are now being dealt with by Out of Court Disposals. 2025-26 has also seen an increase in high profile Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) incidents, which will be targeted moving forward by implementing a local multi-agency strategy to reduce youth related violence and large scale ASB.

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions - what can we do better and how?

Enhance Early Years literacy outcomes by implementing a structured programme of literacy rich activities, professional development and sector support.
Implement the new ‘School Readiness’ initiative to ensure that children entering reception class are better prepared to be in school.
Continue to implement the Council’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme to improve school learning environments, prioritising projects in Milford Haven, Preseli and Neyland PRU.
Delivery of improvement in Individual School Balances though greater engagement from schools in budget management and recovery process and implementation of robust Licenced Deficit Agreements.
Increase in-house residential and foster carer capacity to meet demand.
Introduce Family Group Conferencing and accelerate reunification work in Children’s Services.
Continue to develop and invest in the preventions approach for children, young people and families, to support earlier intervention, stronger coordination and continuous learning.
Produce a 5-year strategic work plan for Youth Justice by September 2026.

Annual Self-Assessment 2025-26

Well-being Objective 1 - Our Future

Assessment of current performance – how well are we doing?

Evidence – how do we know?

Improvement actions - what can we do better and how?