Agenda item

Derek Benson, Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) appointed on 1 April 2016 attended the meeting to present the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2015-16.

In September 2015, Diana Fulbrook, then Independent Chair, 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 are safe in Worcestershire.

As of 31 March 2016 and now, the view of the WSCB was that it couldn't be assured as to the robustness of the child protection system and that this was clearly a risk for everyone to consider and address. The Board formed this view by taking into account evidence from data, audits, reports and learning during 2015/16. These processes however,  demonstrated that there was a strong commitment to safeguarding children across the WSCB partnership and that safeguarding arrangements were in place, they just needed to be better more co-ordinated to deliver a better service for the children and young people in Worcestershire. Demand for services across the whole system continued to increase and, whilst recognising that improvements had been made to some aspects of frontline social work practice, other practice improvements had not been achieved as quickly as had been hoped at the start of the year.

During 2015/16, the Board's priorities were:

·         Implementation of the Board's Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Strategy

·         Early Help

·         Integrated Family Front Door (FFD) (incorporating the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub ethos)

·         Children's Social Care 'Back to Basics' Improvement Programme

As of August, the key messages from the Service Improvement Board were:

·        LAC and children on a Child Protection Plan were being seen and visited within required timescales

·        Missing children return interviews were now being completed (100%)

·        CSE/Missing children was gaining traction at the FFD and delivering results for young people and efficiencies for staff and partners.

The other issues from 2015/16 worthy of note were that:

·         No Serious Case Reviews were initiated during the year, although a number of cases were brought for consideration.

·         Only a relatively small number of child deaths are found to have modifiable factors. Cumulative data in respect of babies whose deaths were classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) suggested that smoking and co-sleeping were often significant factors. In the deaths of unborn or extremely young babies factors such as maternal obesity, smoking, alcohol and other environmental factors were often present in some combination.

·         Learning from Multi-Agency Case File audits (MACFAs) undertaken during the year has informed a number of the Board's priority work streams for 2016/17:

Ø  Voice of the Child/child's lived experience (limited evidence of child's voice being used to inform assessments or decisions)

Ø  Review of safeguarding arrangements for disabled children (some evidence of drift where there were concerns about neglect of disabled children)

Ø  Professional Curiosity and Think Family (half of all cases reviewed had a combination of domestic abuse, parental mental ill health or parental drug/alcohol use)

Ø  CSE and missing children (in all cases reviewed multi-agency safeguarding practice was judged 'inadequate' or 'requiring improvement')

In summary, the WSCB reported that during 2015/16 it fulfilled its statutory functions. A new structure had been implemented which enabled clearer oversight from the Board to the sub groups. Funding had been sustained at the current level for a number of years in spite of competing financial pressures for the partner agencies.

The Board concluded that the body of evidence from data, audits, reports and learning during 2015/16 demonstrated that there was a strong commitment to safeguarding children across the Worcestershire partnership and that safeguarding arrangements were in place. Demand for services across the whole system continued to increase and, whilst recognising that improvements have been made to some aspects of frontline social work practice, other practice improvements have not been achieved as quickly as had been hoped at the start of the year.

Whilst recognising that strategies were in place to improve frontline practice, the Board couldn’t yet be assured about the robustness of the child protection system and this remained a risk. Further assurance was required as to the effectiveness of the wider Early Help offer and whether it was sufficiently targeted, albeit it was recognised that the quality of provision by local authority commissioned providers was good.  It was clearly important that children and families received the right services at the right time. The impact of the Integrated FFD and the revised Levels of Need guidance would be monitored, as would the need for all partners to play their full part in the provision of support services to children and families at the earliest opportunity to prevent escalation of need and risk.

The Board recognised that these were challenging times for partner agencies, many of whom were facing reductions in resourcing. In this climate of competing demands, however, there was evidence of some partners investing in their safeguarding services which is indicative of the strong commitment across the WSCB partnership to prioritise the protection of children.

During the opportunity for questions, the following main points were made:

·         In response to the concern raised about Elective Home Education (EHE) in relation to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children (GRT) and whether they were receiving appropriate education. It was confirmed that it was on the WSCB's radar.

·         There was also a concern about how EHE was monitored and how safeguarding issues were identified.

·         Taking into account the funding reductions proposed for early help services, it was necessary to have the detail of the reductions before the impact could be understood.

·         It was noted that missing children had increased from 194 in 2014/15 to 311 in 2015/16; this was thought to be as a result of a change in recording methods and better partner agency working in taking missing children seriously.

·         It was confirmed that the WSCB had been given the opportunity to feed into the Consultation process in respect of the Provision of Effective Prevention Services for Children and Young People including Optimising the Use of Children's Centres Buildings.

·         In terms of the effectiveness of the strategies for identifying children in need, it was confirmed that the FFD was the right direction of travel but that it was early days.

·         In response to the question as to whether Worcestershire had a range of evidence based services to assess and meet the needs of children and their families, the Panel were advised that there was a range of services but that they needed continuous improvement and holding to account.

The Chairman of the Panel thanked Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board for attending the meeting and said she looked forward to working closer with the WSCB in future.