Agenda item - LOCAL SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN BOARD ANNUAL REPORT

Report of Mia Brown, LSCB Business Manager (copy attached)

1)    That the Committee noted the Local Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report.

74.1    The Committee considered Local Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2015-16. The report had been considered by the Health & Wellbeing Board at its meeting on 31 January 2017; it was referred to the Children Young People & Skills Committee for information. The report was introduced by Graham Bartlett, Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB).

74.2    Councillor Brown thanked Mr Bartlett and the Local Safeguarding Children Board for all their work. Councillor Brown noted that one area, which was listed as a high priority, was Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and she asked what steps were being taken to address that. Mr Bartlett said that this was a relatively new area of child abuse, and there were high level governance arrangements looking at what the agencies were doing. Two audits had been undertaken on CSE, and one was the only audit where we had children speaking to us about their experiences. There was good inter-agency work and dedicated teams within the Police and Children’s Social Care, as well as the Voluntary Sector who were picking up on the highest risk children. Some of those children had been through some very difficult experiences before becoming victims of CSE, so they had complex needs and there were variety of ways in place to help them.

74.3    Councillor Phillips noted that this report related to 2015-16 and asked when the report for 2016-17 may be available. Chair of the LSCB said that he hoped it would be available in September 2017.

74.4    Councillor Phillips asked if the cuts to the Early Help service would impact on the work of the LSCB and the MASH.  Mr Bartlett said that a sub-committee of the Board had been asked to look at the work and effectiveness of the new Early Help system.

74.5    Councillor Daniel referred to Return Interviews, and asked why they were important and what steps were taken to make sure they were regularly conducted. Mr Bartlett said that at the beginning of 2016, the Missing People group were commissioned to conduct Missing Return Interviews on behalf of the three authorities in Sussex. The LSCB were due to meet shortly, and the Board would be looking at the data from those interviews to assess how effective they were. The interviews were important as children went missing for a number of reasons and it was important for them to talk to someone about why they went missing, and what they may have been exposed to whilst they were missing. The interviews were carried out by trained and independent people.

74.6    Councillor Daniel asked how GPs were encouraged to engage with the work of the LSCB and if there was anything Councillors could do to help with that. Mr Bartlett said that there was a GP who sat on the Board, however GPs were independent and it could be difficult to engage with them on new initiatives. Doctors were subject to the Care Quality Commission, which covered safeguarding of children and the need to identify Child Protection Issues and to identify groups of children who were starting on the pathway to becoming vulnerable.

74.7    Councillor O’Quinn noted that there had 15-16 recorded cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) within the city, and asked if that was an area the LSCB were involved with. Mr Bartlett said that those cases related to adults rather than children, but it was something the Board would be addressing where appropriate.

74.8    RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the Local Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report.