Agenda item

-           Director of Children and Young People’s Services to report.

Councillor Lakin, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families Services, introduced a report by the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services, which described the two recent reports into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham and the work which would be carried out in response to them by all partner agencies engaged in Child Sexual Exploitation work in the borough and across South Yorkshire.   The report was published by the Council and Barnardo’s on 11th December, 2013.

The Barnardo’s Rotherham Practice Review Report was commissioned to carry out a practice review into the current work in the Borough on Child Sexual Exploitation and included a desktop review, followed by interviews with key professionals and Council Members, including an on-site visit to Maltby Public Protection Unit where the Child Sexual Exploitation team was based.

The review of current practice, which was commissioned as part of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board action plan, found positive examples of how agencies were working well together to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation. They were commended for their “transparency, openness and honesty” throughout the review process.

A number of areas were identified as good practice in the review report, which were set out along with areas for further development in the report.

The review also commended the links between Rotherham Council’s Youth Service and local Protecting Young People Police Officers (PYPPOs), with their combined work in identifying and reducing the numbers of vulnerable people in the community, in schools and identified “hot spot” areas.

It was recommended that this approach be expanded to include links with faith groups, migrant communities and the local business community, including hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation; housing and social landlords; taxis and public transport; takeaways and food outlets, shopping centres and public spaces, pubs and clubs.

The HMIC Report into South Yorkshire Police’s Response to Child Sexual Exploitation made a number of time specific recommendations and these were being managed through a Force Action Plan.

In addition, the Council would be seeking assurance that South Yorkshire Police have addressed concerns in the HMIC report around workload management, clear objectives for the CSE team in Rotherham and the need for a CSE outcome framework that had safeguarding children at its forefront.

The representative from South Yorkshire Police confirmed that HMIC recognised the current Sheffield model as good practice and it was recommended that other areas follow their model. However, upon further examination the key difference identified between the Rotherham and Sheffield models was the location of multi-agency teams. Work was being progressed to consider similar arrangements in Rotherham.

The findings from the Barnardo’s and HMIC reports would be incorporated into the Rotherham delivery plan. This plan was previously presented to the Cabinet meeting on the 18th September, 2013.

The delivery plan had been discussed at the extraordinary Rotherham’s Local Safeguarding Children’s Board on the 13th December, 2013.

As reported separately, the Council had also committed to an Independent Inquiry of historic Child Sexual Exploitation cases and this commenced in November, 2013.

Clair Pyper, Interim Director of Safeguarding Children and Families, gave a summary of the close system of working with individual children and vulnerable groups and the actions to progress a single manager position overseeing staff from both the Police and Children’s Services.

Cabinet Members noted the good work taking place, which was acknowledged in both reports, the completion or nearing completion of the recommendations arising from both the reports and the significant area of growth in young people coming forward to report concerns.

Resolved:-  That the responses be received and the contents noted.