Agenda item

·         Steve Ashley / Phil Morris. 

Phil Morris, Business Manager of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, presented the 2013-14 Annual Report.

Boards were required to produce and publish an annual report on the effectiveness of safeguarding children in the local area as mandated in the Children Act 2004 (S14a) as amended by the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.  Under the recently revised statutory guidance, the annual report should:-

-          Provide a rigorous and transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of local services.  It should identify areas of weakness, the cause of those weaknesses and the action being taken to address them as well as other proposals for action.  The report should include lessons from reviews undertaken within the reporting period

-          Be published in relation to the preceding financial year and should fit with local agencies’ planning, commissioning and budget cycles. 

-          List the contributions made to the Board by partner agencies and details of what the Board had spent including on Child Death Reviews, Serious Case Reviews and other specific expenditure such as learning events or training.  All Board member organisations had an obligation to provide Boards with reliable resources (including finance) that enabled it to be strong and effective.  Members should share the financial responsibility for the Board in such a way that a disproportionate burden did not fall on a small number of partner agencies

Key priorities for Rotherham’s Board within its Business Plan and highlighted in the 2013/14 Annual Report included:-

-          Child Sexual Exploitation

The LSCB had provided excellent training and awareness sessions for professionals working with families and the community.  It had audited the risk assessments used on child sexual exploitation cases and identified some improvements which had been implemented.  The priority for support for victims was currently being progressed with the Health and Wellbeing Board and commissioning groups within the Borough

-          Child Neglect

In 2013 the LSCB had undertaken a review of cases where children had been seriously neglected.  The review, the key findings of which were briefly outlined in the 2012/13 annual report, highlighted the importance of identifying neglect early, utilising assessment tools designed to assist in identifying neglect and in assertive interventions with the aim of addressing the factors underpinning the neglectful parenting.

The challenge to all agencies working with children and families was to ensure the review’s lessons were implemented.  To this end, the RLSCB had disseminated the review’s key lessons through presentations at a range of high level strategic inter-agency meetings including the Improvement Panel

-          Domestic Abuse

In 2013 the Council’s Improving Lives Select Commission conducted a Scrutiny Review of Domestic Abuse the focus of which was to develop more integrated domestic abuse service provision that had clear protocols and pathways for all risk levels that were understood by every partner agency.  It was also recommended that domestic abuse should be more integrated at a strategic level so that other workstreams were addressing the impact as it had on victims.  By responding to the review recommendations, Rotherham would be able to

·                Evidence its local compliance with the national Violence Against Women and Girls’ agenda

·                Evidence that the Domestic Abuse Priority Group on behalf of the Safer Rotherham Partnership were proactive in reducing the risk of domestic homicide in line with emerging national best practice that was focussed and co-ordinated

·                Enable the actions of agencies to withstand scrutiny in a Serious Case Review or Domestic Homicide Review

·                Respond to victims and their families effectively

As part of the Service developments, the Local Authority, Police and other partners were implementing a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).  A domestic abuse hub was being developed that would see Police Officers, Social Workers, independent Domestic Violence advocates and other professionals working together to provide an effective and timely response possible to domestic abuse.  This would include the use of a Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment matrix to enable identification of risks, protective factors and the most effective response for individual children and their families.

The definition of domestic abuse had been changed in March, 2013, to include young people aged 16-18.  In 2013-14 13 young people (aged 16-17 years) had been referred to Rotherham MARAC.  The Department of Education had provided funding for a Young Persons Domestic Violence Advocate who had key responsibility for the high risk cases that were referred to MARAC and provided specialist advice to professionals on cases of under 16’s.  In 2013-14 there were 328 (of 455) cases referred to MARAC which encompassed a total of 518 children.

A priority area identified for improvement in Rotherham was the multi-agency response for children and their parents where there was domestic abuse and the victim had no recourse to public funds.

-          Early Help

In the last 12 months the Local Authority had developed an early help dashboard to provide the LSCB members and advisors with an overview of activity in the Borough.  This included caseload information relating to child/young person/family support provided by, amongst others, Children’s Centres, Targeted Family Support Team, Integrated Youth Support Service and Learning Support Service.

-          Voice of the Child

The LSCB had listened to what children and young people had said through:-

·                The results of the Lifestyle Survey

·                The work of the Looked After Children Council on experiences of children in the care of the Local Authority

·                The work of the Youth Cabinet on self-harm issues

·                The advocacy support work for children on a Child Protection Plan

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues raised/highlighted:-

-          An executive summary at the beginning of the document would be useful

-          The report would be submitted to the Health and Wellbeing Board, Cabinet and the Police and Crime Commissioner.  Partners reported that they would be taking through their respective governance structures

-          It was a public document and attention should be drawn to the fact that it was available

-          There was an open invitation from the Chair of the LSCB for contact with any professional within or outside the Borough or member of the public

-          The annual report had been due to be published in early September and referred to the previous business year.  The introduction had been changed acknowledging the Alexis Jay report.  Progress on the Jay report recommendations would be reported on a frequent basis to the Board and would be reflected in the 2014/15 annual report

-          The Board placed great value on the voice of a child and there were a number of specialism in terms of listening to what a child said e.g. for Looked After Children there was the Corporate Parenting Panel which the Board saw as being the primary forum for Children in Care having a voice and being listened to.  The Board took assurance from the Panel that action was being taken and responded to the voice of children in care

-          The challenge was to say how a training course attended by an officer made any difference to the outcomes for children.  Following completion of the training course feedback sheets, the Board undertook a 10% sample 3 months later asking what difference the training had made.  Audits were used within the quality assurance framework to ascertain if the learning had been translated into outcomes  

-          Early Help Services/Youth Worker/Welfare Officer/Health Visitors etc. needed to ensure they were capturing the voice of the child so they had a safe journey

-          The Board had had discussions with the National Working Group for CSE, regarding understanding the motivations of offenders, to ascertain if any research had been conducted nationally either by the Group or in partnership with an academic institution which might be useful 

-          Differences in the statistics contained within the Board’s annual report and those quoted in the newly published Ofsted report 

-          Suggestion that the Performance Indicators in terms of vulnerability were too narrow and should include Mental Health, CAHMS, Sexual Health, school attendance and Police

-          The report referred to the work of the Youth Cabinet and Lifestyle Survey

-          Senior managers would have a visible presence and would accompany front line staff on visits

Resolved:-  That the report be noted.