Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio:                 Leader of the Council

Strategic Directorate:           Children and Young People’s Services

Consideration was given to a report that was submitted for pre-decision scrutiny ahead of the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 15 June 2020 in respect a report on Support Services for Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Exploitation: Commissioning and Procurement Approach.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Neighbourhood Working and the Joint Assistant Director Commissioning, Performance and Inclusion attended the meeting to present the report and to answer members questions.

It was noted that the current contracts with providers to support adults who are survivors of child sexual exploitation would be coming to an end in December 2020 and that it was proposed that support services should be recommissioned for at least three more years in order to provide ongoing support to Rotherham residents who were vulnerable due to their historic experiences. It was noted that existing contracts that had been awarded in 2016 for the provision of services with the current providers of support services being Rotherham Rise, GROW and Rotherham Abuse Counselling Service (Rothacs) had been extended until 31 December 2020, so as to enable the procurement of new services in a way that did not leave any gaps in service provision.

The Joint Assistant Director advised that since 2016 there had been many changes to how the impact of historic child sexual exploitation was responded to in the Borough, most notably by the establishment of the NHS Stovewood Trauma and Resilience Service (TRS) in 2018.  It was noted that since its establishment the TRS had established its role as a neutral hub that was available for consultation and support,  and that the providers of CSE support commissioned by the Council were now fully aligned with the TRS and were benefiting from the level of cohesion and coordination that it provided.

The Joint Assistant Director noted that the role of the TRS  had been fully taken account of in the drafting of the needs analysis that would define how CSE support services would look like in Rotherham in the future.

The Joint Assistant Director provided information on how the needs analysis, the key document that would inform the recommissioning of CSE support services had been created, noting that it had been prepared by drawing together a range of qualitative and quantitative information from a range of sources that had included:

·       contract monitoring information for the lifetime of the contracts

·       a service review undertaken in 2017 in response to concerns about waiting lists

·       an independently commissioned pre-consultation report, provided by the All-Party Parliamentary Group report on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

·       working directly with service users who had been working with GROW, Rotherham RISE and Rothacs

·       a benchmarking exercise with other local authorities who have similar service provision, led by a sub-group of the Improving Lives Select Commission

·       a web-based public survey.

The full draft needs analysis was attached as an appendix to the officer’s report.

Members noted that it was very positive to see the wide ranging consultation that had taken place as well as the communication that had been carried out with the TRH in  creation of the needs analysis.

The Chair of the Improving Lives Select Commission provided further information on the benchmarking exercise that had been carried out by the sub-group of the commission. The Chair advised that the other local authorities that had been contacted to share their experiences regarding the provision of post-CSE support had engaged well, but noted that the work carried out had not been as detailed or as thorough as the sub-group would have liked due to limitations put on it by having to meet the timescales originally allocated for the recommissioning processes. The Chair of the Improving Lives Select Commission noted that the benchmarking exercise had shown that the provision offered by Rotherham compared favourably when compared to other local authorities provision. The Chair advised that the Improving Lives Select Commission planned to continue to benchmark provision in Rotherham with services provided elsewhere.

Councillor Clark, who had been part of the sub-group, and who had been invited to the meeting by the Chair of the Overview and Performance Management Board noted the limitations of the benchmarking work that had been carried out and stated that it was important that the work of the sub-group continued and fed into to how support services in Rotherham were provided.

Members welcomed the report and noted that the continuing support of survivors of CSE was an essential service for the Council to provide. The Joint Assistant Director noted that the new services that would be commissioned would offer 12 months of support before services were stepped down in a managed way so as to ensure that dependency on the service was not created. The Joint Assistant Director assured members that after 12-months re-referrals to the service could be made if required. Members asked for clarification on how the decision to limit service access to 12-months had been arrived at. The Joint Assistant Director advised that this had been informed by an in-depth study of the time spent on the current programmes by existing service users, and noted that as well as not creating dependency, limiting access initially to 12-months would help to manage waiting lists and ensure that all of those residents needing support could access the services that they required.

Members asked that due to the Covid-19 pandemic whether the proposed timescales for the commissioning and procurement processes could still be met. The Joint Assistant Director assured members that everything that was would be done to ensure that the new services were implemented on time as planned.

The Chair asked for further information on the impact of the current support services on survivors of CSE. The Joint Assistant Director referred to the report and advised that the outcomes from existing service provision have been broadly positive with a majority advising that the services had impacted positively to an extent on their health, their ability to cope and on their ability to make decisions and take control of their lives. The Joint Assistant Director advised that the service users were extremely vulnerable and that even small improvements in how they felt were an achievement, but also noted that moving forwards it was hoped that the new services would help to improve the outcomes for service users further. The Joint Assistant Director provided information on the procedures that would be in place to monitor the performance of the support services that would be commissioned.

The Leader thanked the members of the sub-group of the Improving Lives Select Commission for the benchmarking work that they had carried out and that had fed into the development of the draft needs analysis. The Leader welcomed their commitment going forwards to monitoring performance and to carrying out further benchmarking, noting that this activity and passion clearly showed the commitment of members in ensuring that survivors of CSE in Rotherham were well supported.

The Chair thanked the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Neighbourhood Working and the Joint Assistant Director Commissioning, Performance and Inclusion for attending the meeting and answering members questions.

Resolved: -

1)    That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.

2)    That, subject to Cabinet approving the recommendations set out in the report, the benchmarking exercise by Members of Improving Lives Select Commission be continued, with interviews with Members from other authorities being prioritised to better inform the approach to the procurement process.

3)    That, in view of the individual personal circumstances of victims and survivors, the specification for the contract ensure that the re-referral process be expedited swiftly to ensure that service users receive timely support.

4)    That Improving Lives Select Commission monitor the effectiveness of the service and contract arrangements on an annual basis.