Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Worcestershire Safeguarding Children's Board

Minutes:

Derek Benson, the Independent Chairman of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children's Board explained that the annual report was for 2016-17, so did not include the follow up from Ofsted regarding Children's safeguarding in Worcestershire or the appointment of Essex Council as an Improvement Partner.

 

Ofsted had reviewed the Safeguarding Board and found that it required improvement to be good.  An action plan was in place against which progress was being charted on a quarterly basis and progress was being made.

 

During 2016/17 the Board had a particular focus on 6 main areas. They included:

 

·       Child Sexual Exploitation - Superintendent Kevin Purcell was the strategic lead for that area of work in Worcestershire,

·       Early Help. The pathway was being looked at and consideration was being given to whether partners were aware of the role,

·       Family front door – this was launched in July 2016 but there were certain issues such as inappropriate placement of thresholds and processes not being robust enough,

·       Young people at the point of transition

·       Children with disabilities

·       Strengthening the Board's learning and achievement framework

 

The Board was compliant in its statutory requirements (although they could be subject to change under the Children and Social Work Act) however that was not enough; the Board needed to do more to make a difference to the lives of children. There was a strong commitment amongst partners to safeguarding children, but there were failings. The Board would seek reassurance around the early help offer and the family front door would be monitored. There was a lot of work to be done.

 

It was hoped that by the time of the next annual report the Board would be more positive.

 

In the ensuing discussion the following points were made:

·       When asked what effort was made to involve District Councils in the work of the Board the response was that a Chief Executive of a District Council was a member of the Board but more could be done such as the Chairman visiting more District Councils to update them and involve them in improving services,

·       The number of health reviews for Looked After Children had dipped; unfortunately this was the same around the country,

 

Felix Borchardt, Chairman of the Child Death Overview Panel, joined the meeting at a later point and explained that the relatively small numbers of deaths meant that statistical conclusions could not be reached and their focus had been on modifiable factors. Such factors were determined locally and Worcestershire made a point of including more factors than some other areas so that there was more opportunity for learning and action. However this did mean that it was difficult to compare figures with other regions or nationally. Nonetheless the importance of smoking and obesity in raising the risk of child death should not be ignored.

 

Working with other agencies had been effective on issues such as the safer sleeping initiative. They had now resolved the previous backlog of looking at cases.

 

RESOLVED: that the Health and Well-being Board

a)     Noted the key headlines and conclusions from the 2016/17 Annual Report;

b)    Considered any points which may inform future work of the Board in respect of its strategic priorities; and

c)     Should in future identify any cross cutting themes where the HWB had a role to play in reducing risks to Children.

 

Supporting documents: