Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made at this meeting.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

There were no issues to report.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, held on 27^th July, 2016, be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Consideration was given to the 2015/16 Annual Report of the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board.

The Improving Lives Select Commission welcomed Mrs. Christine Cassell (Chair of the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)) who presented the Annual Report.

The report and accompanying presentation highlighted the following issues:-

: Children and Social Work Bill, currently being considered in Parliament, which will change the statutory guidance provided for a Local Authority’s Local Safeguarding Children Board (LCSB);

: the LSCB will co-ordinate what is done by each person/organisation and promote the welfare of children and ensure the effectiveness of work being undertaken to safeguard children;

: the report of the Office for Standards in Education (2014 Ofsted Report) had concluded that the effectiveness of the Rotherham LSCB was inadequate at that time;

: as a result, the LSCB received an increase in resources to enable it to carry out its functions effectively;

: the LSCB now uses the same performance framework as the Local Authority Improvement Board, so as to monitor the effectiveness of safeguarding;

: the past year has included an increase in the number of audits; the LSCB will consider the individual audits of the safeguarding role of partner agencies and organisations; these audits are open to scrutiny and challenge;

: open meetings are held in which partners challenge each other’s processes – a means of ensuring organisational transparency in respect of their work to ensure the safeguarding of children;

: there is evidence of good work being undertaken by the Evolve Team dealing with child sexual exploitation;

: there is already improved compliance with statutory guidance (eg: assessment work being completed on time);

: the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), established by the Borough Council, the Police and other partner agencies is undertaking good work by sharing information and making early decisions in respect of safeguarding;

: the re-launch of the Early Help Service (in February 2016) was an important part of the Safeguarding process;

: a future challenge is to improve service quality (eg: of front-line work with families and vulnerable children and young people); such improvement will require good multi-agency understanding of the thresholds, which in turn determine the level of intervention needed for individual cases, based on the assessments undertaken;

: one LSCB priority area is to ensure that organisations take responsibility for determining the degree of Early Help required; some organisations must take the lead in respect of this aspect of safeguarding;

: the Rotherham LSCB priorities for 2016/17 are : governance and accountability; community engagement and the voice of children and young people; scrutinising front-line practice including Early Help; the safeguarding of Looked after Children; child sexual exploitation and children who go missing;  Neglect (an issue which encompasses domestic abuse, alcohol and substance misuse by parents, as well as mental health issues affecting both children and young people and their parents);

: the mantra that safeguarding is everyone’s business (eg: of both the statutory and voluntary organisations and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The Select Commission received a presentation from Mrs. M. Meggs, Deputy Director of Children and Young People’s Services, about the proposed inspection framework for children living with domestic abuse.

The presentation highlighted the following salient issues:-

: the Government’s  definition of domestic abuse as “any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 years or over, who are or have been intimate partners or family members”; this definition includes but is not limited to the following type of abuse : psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional;

: domestic abuse can be significant and harmful for children who witness it and is often categorised as : emotional abuse; physical abuse; neglect.

: the impact is on every aspect of a child’s life;

•         Education (including attendance at school);

•         Emotional well-being (children may feel they are to blame);

•         Social well-being;

•         Cognitive (brain) development;

: statistics about the prevalence of domestic abuse and specific details relating to the Rotherham Borough area; referrals would usually be from the Police who have a system of assessing the incidents of domestic abuse as either low, medium or high risk;

: the serious lifelong impact of domestic abuse, including different impact upon males and females;

: the statutory agencies must take the necessary action to : protect the child; empower the non-abusing parent and hold the abuser to account (in order to end the abusing behaviour);

: the protection of the child ought to include early referral to the relevant agencies and to support services and the following actions/assessments in accordance with the needs of the individual:-

–          Child Protection Plan  (Section 47, Children Act 1989 assessment)

–          Child in Need Plan

–          Early Help

: further reading of the “In Plain Sight” document, containing the evidence from children exposed to domestic abuse, from the Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA);   Internet website link below:-

http://www.safelives.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Final%20policy%20report%20In%20plain%20sight%20-%20effective%20help%20for%20children%20exposed%20to%20domestic%20abuse.pdf

: the key questions for the scrutiny of support services responding to domestic abuse:-

•         How well does the Council identify and support victims of domestic abuse?

•         How well does the Council work with others to identify and support victims?

: Future actions:-

•         Innovation Bid (for funding) jointly by all four South Yorkshire Councils;

•         Scale-up the Doncaster MBC model – it is known that domestic abuse has begun to reduce after the introduction of this model;

•         A programme of work with communities which are known to experience high levels of domestic abuse.

Members’ questions referred to the following issues:-

(i) the way in which evidence of domestic abuse is obtained, in order to assess its impact upon families – the basic social work assessment will examine the circumstances in which families are living; some victims will self-identify; the Police are now empowered to progress prosecutions without the need for testimony from victims; statutory agencies being able to understand the whole perspective (of family circumstances) and therefore recognise signs and symptoms of domestic  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

Further to Minute No. 17 of the meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission held on 27th July, 2016, consideration was given to a report, presented by the Senior Adviser (Scrutiny and Member Development), concerning the outline work programme for the Improving Lives Select Commission for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

The specific topics discussed were;-

(i) the role and function of the Corporate Parenting Panel and issues concerning this Authority’s Looked After Children (including the placement of Looked After Children as a consequence of the closure of this Authority’s Children’s Residential Homes);

(ii) alternative delivery models of social care and how this impacts on accountability, improvement and the delivery of this Authority’s statutory social care duties;  and

(iii) from within the Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions, the forthcoming progress report about the Council’s response to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children Dispersal Scheme; it was noted that this matter was being considered from a whole region (Yorkshire and the Humber) perspective, as well as on a sub-regional basis; a decision on the Dispersal Scheme was expected to be made during January 2017.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and its contents noted.

(2) That the Deputy Leader (and Lead Member for Children and Young People’s Services) be requested to refer the minutes of the Corporate Parenting Panel to the Improving Lives Select Commission.

(3) That the Improving Lives Select Commission shall undertake a review of the effectiveness of alternative delivery models of social care and how this impacts on accountability, improvement and the delivery of the authority’s statutory social care duties (Members were asked to volunteer to join the sub-group for this review).

(4) That the report about Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children Dispersal Scheme be submitted for consideration at the next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, to be held on Wednesday, 2nd November, 2016.