Agenda item

The Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) and the WSCB Business Manager had been invited to present the Board's Annual Report 2017/18.

By way of introduction, the Independent Chair made the following main points:

·       He reminded the Panel that last year's annual report had been less than positive but had reiterated the commitment to partnership working.

·       Although this year's report was more positive, there remained a gap and work was ongoing to improve further.  The drafting of the neglect strategy (which would come to the WSCB in December 2018) was a positive development as was work with partners looking at domestic abuse and sexual violence from a children's safeguarding perspective.

·       Child Sexual Exploitation remained a priority but the WSCB was also looking beyond CSE to the wider context of adolescent safeguarding, including drugs, County Lines and other violence.  Superintendent Damian Pettit was leading this work.

·       Members were informed that, collectively, Early Help remained an issue although lots of improvement work was being undertaken.  The dissemination of information to professionals was key.

·       It was important to ensure that the voices of young people were heard so that professionals were aware of the lived experience.

·       The WSCB would continue to act as a critical friend in relation to the Service Improvement Plan.

·       He confirmed that the WSCB budget had been underspent at the end of the last financial year, the result of one post remaining unfilled and a greater return than expected on a training project.  The Board was talking to partners about how to use this money and was keen to ensure that public money was not wasted.

·       From September 2019, the WSCB would no longer exist.  Partners (including the local authority, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the police) were now working to design new arrangements.  It was anticipated that the new arrangements would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary and the direction of travel would be to take the best of the current arrangements while working more closely with the Safeguarding Adults Board.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·       In response to a question about whether information sharing was still a problem, Members were informed that although things had improved there was still room for further improvement.  The introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had caused some people to step back.  Although it was acknowledged that partners needed to be legally compliant, the Board wanted to foster an ethos of 'dare to share' if it was in the interests of the child.

·       It was confirmed that, although the situation had improved since the Board's last report and safeguarding was in a better place than last year, there was still a way to go.

·       With reference to CSE, the agenda report referred to the absence of an up to date multi-agency CSE Problem Profile.  It was confirmed that this work was now much further forward with an interim profile having now been produced.

·       The Panel was informed that work was ongoing to develop better communication between schools and early help.  With reference to targeted family support, it was important that partners understood what an appropriate referral was and developed a greater willingness to pick up responsibility without automatically looking to refer.  There was still further work to be done, and training and awareness-raising was ongoing, with the aim of reducing the number of inappropriate referrals to the Family Front Door.

·       The Board continued to undertake multi-agency case file audits and although inappropriate referrals were still received, there was also a huge amount of work being undertaken to refine the systems.  The Board aimed to support communications initiatives via practitioner network meetings, the education safeguarding adviser to schools, newsletters, e-communications and training.

·       It was confirmed that the 25 Child Death Notifications included all child deaths in Worcestershire in the year covered.  This was the lowest number since 2006.  The modifiable factors which were present in 11 of the deaths referred to cases where it was felt something could have been done to prevent the death.

·       Members were interested in the local secondary school referred to in the report, which had undertaken work to support students who might be aware of another child's suicidal thoughts or behaviours.  This school had done some impressive work to develop a process to allow other young people to report their concerns.  Discussions were ongoing about wider dissemination of this work to other Worcestershire schools. 

·       It was confirmed that the 25 Child Death Notifications received during the year were not necessarily the same children as the 25 reviewed by the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) as there was a time delay in cases coming before the CDOP.

·       A question was asked about whether the review of children's safeguarding arrangements would provide an opportunity for more joined-up working with the Adult Safeguarding Board, particularly with reference to transitions and looking at the whole family.  The Independent Chair replied that it was an absolute imperative for the 2 Boards to work together.  Transition was a time of particular vulnerability and should be made seamless, with social workers being encouraged to 'Think Family'.  It was suggested that adolescence did not end at 18 but could extend to 24.

·       It was confirmed that, although there was no physical service user presence on the WSCB, the Board undertook lots of engagement with young people.  It was suggested that former service users who were now adults could have a place on the Board in the future.  Members were informed that sub groups in relation to particular issues, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and suicide prevention, had included former service users.

·       With reference to the unfilled post, a question was asked about how this had impacted on the effectiveness of the Board.  Members were informed that a colleague being on long-term sick leave had increased the pressure on other officers to deliver training programmes.  This had been taken forward in as cost effective a way as possible, using consultants and sessional trainers.  Multi-agency training continued and all courses were delivered as planned, due to the hard work of the Business Manager and the Business Unit.

The Chairman thanked the guests for attending.