Agenda item

 

·         Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services to report. 

The Improving Lives Select Commission considered and discussed the information presented by the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services that related to the report of the Home Affairs Select Committee entitled ‘Child Sexual Exploitation and the response to localised grooming’, published on 10^th June, 2013.  The report encompassed 36 general statements and/or recommendations.

 

Councillor P. Lakin, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families’ Services was also in attendance to answer the questions of the Improving Lives Select Commission. 

 

Rotherham’s Chief Executive and Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services had been called to give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Commission on the 8^th January, 2013.  Tackling the sexual exploitation of children and young people remained the highest priority for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, and the Council welcomed the Select Committee report as a body of evidence and advice to be used by local authorities around the Country to improve their response to these horrific crimes.  It was noted that Rotherham was one of the small number of local authorities that had a multi-agency response to the Home Affairs Select Commission report; nine local authorities in the region did not have a response in place. 

 

Following publication of the report, the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board’s Manager and the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services had undertaken a self-assessment against the 36 recommendations/statements within the report. This exercise had highlighted three areas where the Council was undertaking work as identified in the recommendations but where the work was not reflected in the existing Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan.  These were: - 

 

·         Recommendation 4: Improvements in Residential Care;

·         Recommendation 8: Return interviews for children who had been reported missing;

·         Recommendation 31: Resources for the voluntary sector. 

 

Rotherham’s Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan would be updated to reflect the activities taking place.

 

The Council’s response to the Select Committee findings would be met from existing resources.  However, the Improving Lives Select Commission were informed that an additional £50k per year had been secured for the work of the Child  Sexual Exploitation team from Safer Rotherham Partnership managed funds via the Police and Crime Commissioner for each of the next three years. 

 

The Strategic Director explained how the publication of the Home Affair Select Committees’ report enabled the Council and its Partners to review their practices to ensure that all children and young people were safe.  All Partners held that strengthened multi-agency working must lead to enhanced disclosure and evidence gathering, investigations and ultimately prosecutions by the Police.  All Partners fully acknowledged the deterrent effect that successful prosecutions could bring.

 

The Strategic Director’s report also outlined the other areas of quality control and scrutiny that were expected to be undertaken on Children and Young People’s Services and Partner Organisations/Agencies.  Children and Young People’s Services would be externally assessed by Barnardo’s, and it was expected that a review of Children’s Services in respect of Child Sexual Exploitation would be undertaken before December, 2013.  All Partners welcomed these opportunities. 

 

Appendix One to the submitted report outlined each of the 36 recommendations, the self-assessment that had been undertaken in relation to Rotherham’s arrangements, and identified actions.  The Strategic Director spoke about Rotherham’s actions in relation to each recommendation. 

 

Discussion ensued amongst the Improving Lives Select Commission and the Strategic Director and  Cabinet Member in relation to the information presented.  Issues raised included: -

 

·           Support for the  victims of Child Sexual Exploitation;

 

·           Training: -

o    All Residential Staff had been trained on Child Sexual Exploitation issues;

o    The Learning and Development Sub-group of the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board would expand and had created six modules of mandatory training relating to Child Sexual Exploitation, including on issues of how victims were perceived and worked with;

o    Work was underway to develop training/awareness raising programme for all frontline officers;

o    Partner organisations including Parish Councils and School Governing Bodies were also included;

o    Role for Licensing partners in sharing lessons learned;

 

·           Protocols and procedures for when children were reported missing from care provision;

 

·           2002 Home Office Report;

 

·           Approaches undertaken by other local authorities and how these differed from Rotherham’s;

 

·           Role of Scrutiny process;

 

·           Data collection and standardised recording across a national data set;

 

·           No agencies or individuals (apart from family members) were protected when Serious Case Reviews were researched or published;

 

·           Rotherham’s Child S Serious Case Review had been available for publication with the Department for Education for over a year, but to date, had not been published by the Government Department;

 

·           Dubious training opportunities provided by some private providers;

 

·           Risk Assessments – overall numerical incidence and analysis of each case: -

o    89 cases were open to the Child Sexual Exploitation Team;

o    6 cases had undergone a Core Assessment;

o    83 cases were open to Social Care Professionals to work with appropriately;

o    600 cases were open South Yorkshire Police Force;

 

·           Children and young people who had been victims of sexual exploitation had priority to work with CAMHS and RDASH and a Sexual Health Worker.  This was a watching brief for the Sexual Exploitation Sub-group to ensure that there were appropriate resources in place;

 

·           Education and awareness raising with Year 6 and 7 students would be piloted during 2013/14.  Tailored programmes had been developed to increase their efficacy, including programmes for Special Schools, topics for consideration in Personal, Social and Health Education lessons, age-appropriate content and peer mentoring opportunities;

 

·           The Children and Young People’s Services’ Improvement Panel would monitor the issues on an ongoing basis;

 

·           Prosecutions of suspected offenders through the justice process was a priority within Rotherham and the most desire outcome for the cases involving Child Sexual Exploitation.  This was explained through the evidence-giving process to the Home Affairs Select Committee;

 

·           Response in relation to the contact between victims of Child Sexual Exploitation and Political leaders;

 

·           Tailored packages of support for victims of Child Sexual Exploitation going through the legal process;

 

·           Differences between conviction rates for different areas.  Figures for local authorities often included all child abuse convictions, which included a wider range of crimes than ‘just’ Child Sexual Exploitation;

 

·           Rotherham had a number of Child Sexual Exploitation prosecutions that were pending court cases;

 

·           Collaborative working with the Police and engaging with their Child Sexual Exploitation structures and response units;

 

·           South Yorkshire Police had increased the strategic-focus of their sub-group, from Tier 3/4 to Strategic level;

 

·           The Action Plan was a ‘live’ document and would shortly be presented to the independent Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board for comment. 

 

The Chairperson of the Improving Lives Select Commission thanked the Strategic Director for her presentation and contribution to the discussion.  The Improving Lives Select Commission requested that regular ongoing updates against the Action Plan were provided to the Commission. 

 

Resolved: - (1) That Rotherham’s self-assessment against the Home Affairs Select Commission’s 36 recommendations be noted.

 

(2) That the Cabinet’s agreed method of receiving progress reports against the local Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan (incorporating the 36 recommendations) be noted.

 

(3) That the Improving Lives Select Commission continue to receive information, as part of their work programme, in relation to the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board and regular updates in relation to progress against the Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan. 

 

(4)  That the issuing of quarterly updates to all of Rotherham’s Elected Members be circulated in relation to these issues.