Issue - meetings

The People and Communities Directorate would like to set out for the Panel the work of the Local Safeguarding Children Board during 2017-18 and the completed Business Plan for 2015-18 along with new priorities to be actioned in the new Strategic Plan for 2018-21.

Robert Lake, LSCB and LSAB Independent Chair introduced this item to the Panel. He said that credit for the production of the report should go to Dami Howard and Lesley Hutchinson.

He stated that the main purpose of the Board was to ensure that partner agencies work together and it was his role to oversee this on behalf of the Board.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked what the implications of the LSCB being abolished are.  She asked for assurances about funding as the phrase ‘hopefully more proportionate contributions from the two additional statutory partners’ (para 3.2) doesn’t sound terribly reassuring. She asked how negotiations with these partners were going. 

Robert Lake replied that the guidance on Working Together had only been published last week. He added that discussions were ongoing with partners in relation to both future arrangements to replace the existing LSCB and funding.

The Director of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance added that Officers recognise the need to maintain local oversight and also understood that some agencies / partners may need to attend multiple Boards. She said that a plan for the new arrangements must be submitted within 12 months and that a further 3 months will be given to allow these arrangements to be implemented.

Robert Lake stated that the role of the Board will remain while the new arrangements are developed.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if a shared electronic management system for Early Help would make a difference.

Robert Lake replied that he was not sure that there was an easy solution, but he would take the comment to the Early Help Board.

Councillor Matt Cochrane asked about the increase in LADO referrals and whether we should we be surprised by this.  He asked is there the capacity to respond to these increases or does the Panel need to recommend more resources to deal with this. 

The Safeguarding Children & Adults Boards Business Support Manager replied that there had been an increase and this was due to historical football abuse allegations which had led to raised awareness locally.

They also said that the increase is a national trend alongside a rise in the complexity of cases. Already in 2018-19 the numbers are not showing such an increase. She added that locally additional capacity had been added to the LADO function. 

The Chair commented on the success of Connecting Families within B&NES and asked if the work would be able to continue after 2020.

Councillor Paul May replied that there has been no indication from the Government as to whether the initiative will continue. He added that B&NES should be very proud of its work as it had been recently benchmarked as 6th in England out of 152 Local Authorities and the best performing authority in the South West.

He said that the passion from the staff involved is stunning and that their interventions really are key.

The Director of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance added that the model has been led by staff within the Council and also include our  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22