Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr B Allbut and Mr B Banks.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 12 September 2017).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 14 August 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Derek Benson, Independent Chairman of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) attended the meeting to present the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2016-17.

Since the report had been written Essex County Council had been formally appointed as Worcestershire's Improvement Partner to develop a programme of work to provide support and challenge to service improvement.  Mr Benson pointed out that changes made to services since March 2017 were not included in the report.

In August 2016, the Independent Chairman informed the Panel that WSCB could not be assured of the effectiveness of local arrangements in respect of children in the child protection system.  The quality and consistency of frontline basic practice needed improvement and more work was required in particular areas to ensure children were safe in Worcestershire.

During 2016/17 WSCB focused on:

·       Healthy relationships and Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

·       Early Help

·       Integrated Family Front Door (FFD) and Thresholds

·       Young people at the point of transition (with a specific focus on sexual exploitation)

·       Children with disabilities

·       Strengthening of the Board's Learning and Improvement Framework

By the end of March 2017, the Board had fully implemented its two year Child Sexual Exploitation Strategy 2015-17 now replaced by a refreshed Strategy for 2017-19.  In the main, partner agencies continued to demonstrate a high level of engagement in development of the strategies and in implementation of the action plans.  However in its review of the Local Safeguarding Board in October 2016 Ofsted noted that the number of changes in strategic leads, namely Children's Social Care and West Mercia Police, had impacted on pace in the area of CSE.  The Board had now been provided with assurance that there would be greater consistency of personnel going forward.

A specific piece of work undertaken by the Board during the year was the implementation of the 'Whole School Approach to Healthy Relationships' framework and the Board would continue to seek assurance from schools regarding embedding of the framework and its impact.  A self-assessment audit undertaken during the year indicated that the majority of agencies were meeting the CSE standards referenced, but where this was not the case, action plans were in place to address any deficits.  Whilst CSE remained a priority, it wasn't yet possible for the Board to be fully assured about the ability of the system to respond robustly and consistently to CSE concerns in Worcestershire.

Throughout the year, the Board monitored the early help offer in Worcestershire, paying particular attention to feedback from practitioners who had continued to express confusion about this and the pathway for accessing early support for children and families.  Targeted interventions by commissioned early help providers continued to receive positive evaluations with low levels of re-referrals, albeit this related to the much smaller cohort of children and families than those who needed to access early help support from universal services.  The number of recorded Early Help Assessments significantly dropped throughout 2016/17, whilst the number of referrals to the FFD continued to rise.  There remained questions about: the capacity of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 289.