Agenda item

The People and Communities Directorate would like to set out for the Panel the work of the Local Safeguarding Children Board during 2015-16 and the priorities for 2016-17 work programme along with further areas to be actioned during 2017 - 18.

The Chair stated that she was very impressed by the report and that the breakdown by Sub-Group was very welcome. She did though highlight the use of acronyms without definition.

Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) & Missing Sub-Group

She asked if B&NES Council regularly engaged specialist agencies to support complex cases.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they try to cover most cases within the Council. He added that an expert on CSE has been employed to provide support.

The Chair asked what emphasis has been given to moving towards a whole place budgeting approach to service delivery.

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that the LSCB has received some guidance on this matter and that discussions were ongoing.

The Chair asked how open and effective is our information sharing with other statutory agencies.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that she was confident that we have good arrangements in place. She added that the Board were going to look at this area of work in more detail over the coming year.

The Chair asked what steps have been taken by B&NES Council to ensure all teaching staff are appropriately trained in identifying children at risk of suffering poor mental health.

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that this would be picked in many areas of work including; PSHE Training, Public Health Award, Assist Training and Attachment Aware.

The Chair asked when B&NES Council was last subject to a Local Government Association safeguarding children peer review.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that the Council would need to request such a review. He added they had recently been involved in Peer Reviews carried out by Gloucestershire and Somerset on the topics of CSE and Social Work Supervision.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance added that the Council has also been involved in Section 11 Audits alongside other Local Authorities.

Councillor Liz Hardman if we can be assured that there  are sufficient safeguarding measures in place, given the continuing financial pressures on funding, especially if funding is at a national or sub regional level rather than a local level, as well as the challenge of recruiting and retaining social workers.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that the Board maintains a risk register so that it is fully aware of any financial pressures.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care added that there were currently no Social Worker vacancies, which was a positive position to be in. He said that the Council has worked hard on this area of work over the past 18 months and had introduced a Social Work micro site to its website.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked how effective is our multi agency approach in dealing with missing children, bearing in mind the link between children missing from home or care and sexual exploitation.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that partner engagement on this issue has been brilliant and that the CSE / Missing Sub-Group is well attend by the right people.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance added that discussions with the Responsible Authorities Group (RAG) happen alongside those of the LSCB.

The Chair commented that the CSE / Missing Sub-Group are to be congratulated on what appears in many respects to be an excellent example of good practice. She asked if the CSE information meetings result in joint action plans.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they do.

The Chair asked what support is available to current, potential and historic victims of CSE.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that locally support is provided by BASE (Barnardo's Against Sexual Exploitation) and the Willow Project.

The Chair said that she welcomed the training provided to B&B’s, hotels and taxi offices. She asked if training was provided for environmental health officers.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that the training had been well received so far, but they had not yet been able to train any environmental health officers.

The Chair asked how many abduction notices have been issued where they are appropriate to safeguard children from sexual exploitation.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that none have been issued as the current activity with the Police to disrupt incidents is working.

Jake Bishop-Ponte asked as PHSE lessons are being rolled back in some schools how will young people become engaged on this issue.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they would look to provide information to young people in different ways. He said that the contact details for the Willow Project would be distibuted and that further information would be shared with school’s Equalities Teams.

The Panel RESOLVED the following recommendations relating to CSE:

i)  The CSE Sub-Group should extend its activity to focus on victims needs, the ongoing support and therapeutic interventions that children affected by CSE may need

ii)  The CSE Sub-Group should continue to strive to engage with all communities. The Rotherham Inquiry made it clear that the council had failed to work with and engage local minority ethnic communities and in particular the women of those communities on the issue of CSE and other forms of abuse. Both the Manchester and Rotherham reports made a series of recommendations about engaging with all communities, the C&YP PDS recommend the CSE sub-group evaluate these recommendations to see if they could be appropriately applied within B&NES.

iii)  The CSE Sub-Group should continue to strive for greater awareness and education among professionals and the wider community. The training provide to hotels and taxi offices should be extended to all those in frontline community roles, such as pharmacists, school nurses, bus drivers, housing officers.

iv)  The CSE Sub-Group should ensure professional attitudes and use of language are applied thoughout B&NES Council. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry and report recommended that the use of the term ‘child prostitution’ should be removed from all government documents and strategies. The recent Coffey report also recommended that there should be no references to child prostitution in any documentation. The dated language has been found in a number of areas and the CSE Sub-Group should review all of the Council documentation related to CSE and ensure that references to child prostitution are removed.

v)  Maintain robust leadership, challenge and scrutiny around CSE by the LSCB.  The Rotherham Inquiry found that “the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board and its predecessor oversaw the development of good inter-agency policies and procedures applicable to CSE. The weakness in their approach was that members of the Safeguarding Board rarely checked whether these were being implemented or whether they were working.” The report drew attention to the vital importance of the challenge and scrutiny function of the LSCB

vi)  Enhance coordinated, strategic responses and performance management. The Panel recommends the Council and LSCB establish joint commissioning arrangements for CSE, sexual assault, rape and domestic abuse support services; common thresholds for interventions across agencies; clear referral pathways; pooling of budgets across the police, council children’s services and health services.

Children in Care and Quality Assurance Sub-Group

The Chair said that she felt that this Sub-Group was struggling with its identity in relation to IROs.

The Panel RESOLVED the following recommendation relating to the Children in Care and Quality Assurance Sub-Group:

The Panel recommends that the terms of reference for the LSCB Children in Care and Quality Assurance Sub-Group are reviewed and re-developed with the IRO and that clear objectives are set.

Communications Sub-Group

The Chair on behalf of the Panel congratulated the Communications Sub-Group on a very productive, outcome driven year. She asked if the new LSCB web-site was now live.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that it was scheduled to go live in October.

Policy, Procedure and Performance Sub-Group

The Chair commented that she would also like to extend the Panel’s congratulations to the Policy, Procedure and Performance Sub-Group on having a very productive, outcome driven year.

She added that as a member of the local Police & Crime Panel as well as Chair of this Panel she would write to Police & Crime Commissioner Mountstevens regarding the lack of Sub-Group attendance by the Police in the sincere hope this regular absence can be rectified.

Professional Practice Group

The Chair commented that the work of the Professional Practice Group appears to be of a very high quality. She asked how the Professional Practice Group engages with the Connecting Families agenda, or with locally targeted interventions aimed at tackling domestic abuse.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that members of the Group have taken part in Themed Reviews by the Board. She added that at the last Board meeting a Themed Review took place on Early Help. She stated that the issue of Domestic Abuse was a clear priority for the Board.

Serious Case Review Sub-Group

The Chair stated that the Panel should welcome the fact that the Serious Case Review Sub-Group also provides a mechanism for the LSCB to deliver reviews of cases that do not meet the threshold for a SCR. She asked what psychological support is provided to members of the Serious Case Review Sub-Group to help them manage their own personal response to cases.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that each agency has its own counselling service and that members support each other.

Training and Workforce Development Sub-Group

The Chair said that the Training and Workforce Development Sub-Group is to be congratulated on the number of courses run. She said that she would have liked a scorecard of feedback from participants on the courses and that perhaps this could be included in the report next year. She asked how it monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of on-line learning.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that it is not monitored currently and that they would give some thought on how this could be done in the future.

Task and Finish Groups

The Chair said that she welcomed the focus on children affected by parental imprisonment as this was an area that could be easily overlooked.  She explained she is also Chair of the advisory Board of the government funded National FGM Centre and would be interested in conducting a private review of the output of this task and finish group personally.

Summary of activity

The Chair asked can nursery staff working with private providers of childcare complete a common assessment framework.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that they could.

The Chair commented that all recent evidence indicates that vulnerable children living in Foster Care do better emotionally and academically than those who remain with their families with social worker support. I am concerned that the B&NES stated aspiration to reduce the number of children coming into foster care is driven by cost rather than by acting in the best interests of the child.  Can you provide an evidence based, academically accredited, alternative reason for this aspiration?

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care replied that results could be due to the impact of the Virtual School and the use of Pupil Premium.

Councillor Liz Hardman said how thorough she thought the report was. She asked if the underspend of 2015-16 can be carried forward and are there plans to spend more money next year.

The Head of Safeguarding & Quality Assurance replied that the underspend is multi-agency money and that the underspend is recognised as a contingency should Serious Case Review be required to be carried out.

The Chair commented that the Local Government Association commissions Safeguarding Children Peer Reviews with local authorities as a national programme available to all Councils at a time that makes sense for them. She added that the LGA use the learning from the reviews to contribute to the developing body of good practice to be used by Councils in their own improvement journeys. 

The Strategic Director for People & Communities informed the Panel that an Ofsted inspection regarding Safeguarding was due and therefore asked that any recommendation regarding a Peer Review on this matter be scheduled appropriately.

The Panel RESOLVED to recommend that B&NES Council requests a Local Government Association Safeguarding Children Peer Review within the next six months.