Agenda item - Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Update

Report of the Independent Chair of the LSCP (copy attached).

32.1    The Board considered a report from Chris Robson, Independent Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership.        

 

32.2    Mr Robson explained it was a statutory duty for the LSCP to produce an annual report and to present it for information to the local Health & Wellbeing Board.

 

32.3    Mr Robson outlined the major achievements and challenges that the LSCP had dealt with over the past year.

·         Safeguarding is very busy, with more than 17,000 contacts in the past year

·         Local partnership structures are well developed and healthy

·         There are fantastic individuals and well-developed systems in place across the city

·         An ILAC inspection has recently been announced – it is heartening to see that children’s social care has welcomed the inspection as an opportunity

·         There has been a big focus on Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in recent months. Mr Robson undertook some independent scrutiny of local processes. The local authority and police made outstanding contributions to this work and there was an immediate local response to concerns raised in the report

·         A new performance dashboard has recently been launched

·         There is a really good local safeguarding training package available

·         An anti-racist practice conference was delivered recently – this was exceptionally well organised and well attended.

 

32.4    Members asked questions on issues including:

·         The length of time it takes for learning from case reviews to be disseminated

·         Support for new fathers, including via the ‘Dad Pad’ app

·         Strategic approaches to dealing with the growing problem of self-harm.

 

32.5    RESOLVED – that the report be noted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assurance through Monitoring and Evaluation.

 

21.8    Some other areas carried out are monitoring and evaluation which are effective tools that makes appropriate decisions for safeguarding children. Safeguarding children and young people experiencing neglect. This was addressed through the audit.  There are a lot of challenges on how information is shared, and people must not be deterred from sharing information. Brighton and Hove have a system in place for sharing information. We completed Pan Sussex audit and audit for neglected children. Independent Scrutineer said he would be happy to stand up in court to admit sharing of information if it would safeguard a child.

 

Examples of Assurance and Improvement through Audit

 

21.9    We have audits; it is a multi- agency audit, and we want to improve the outcomes for neglected children. Members were directed to the summary of the findings in the report to read to get a better understanding. In conclusion it was explained that this is a multifunction agency to improve practice to safeguarding children.

 

Learning and Development

 

21.10  Brighton does this very well. Learning and development are vital for our practitioners; you cannot expect practitioners to go out doing the work they do without learning new things. We have to afford them the opportunity to learn, and we offer a good safeguarding package for Brighton and Hove. A multiagency package has been produced to afford training. We launched dad pad.  A full training needs analysis is to be completed.

 

Antiracist Practice Conference and Safeguarding Week 2022

 

21.11  The Independent Scrutineer attended the conference and reported that it was excellent and well attended. There was good learning to be had from it. There was stall holders with information and anti-race practice.  It was well organised with passionate speakers; it was multi-agency and there were good learning outcomes. Everyone came away with something learnt. There were workshops that represented disadvantaged area for the Board to consider in the report.

 

Learning through Case reviews

 

21.12  It was reported that local safeguarding practice and rapid case review and tragic cases must be dealt with.  Some of the reports can be distressing and families and persons working with them are impacted by the issues.  One such review is called, child delta and reported in the press the tragic death of a child in 2019. The mother of the child reported has now been convicted in relation to the death of the child. There was a reviewer brought in selected by the national panel who came highly recommended. The Partnerships stepped in when the draft report was produced, they felt that the report was lacking the terms of references. It was felt that the review was not hitting the mark.

Much to the credit of Brighton and Hove, Leaders stepped in to say the report was not good enough, which gave us the opportunity to introduce changes.

 

 

21.13  As an independent person much is being done but there is room for improvement. Brighton and Hove have excellent leadership within social care.  There is never-ending work to keep things together. A lot is done but could be done better.

 

21.14  The chair thanked the report author and said the report was important and would be open for discussion. The floor was opened for questions and comments.

 

In response to questions, it was explained that:

 

Systems

 

21.15  Systems had been put in place that will get learning out and to disseminate the learning at the early stages. We do a rapid review and look at information from all agencies within fifteen days and we can get some immediate learning out. There is encouragement from Government. Brighton and Hove have signed up to this. There are hurdles getting this out in 6 months.  What we try to do and the police in Brighton and Hove are good.  Even if there are parallel process, we will ask the police if we can get learning out, that does not impact a case. We try to do rapid and not long response.

 

Myth of Invisible Men and support page 144

 

21.16  The report was created by the National Panel; it is trying to deal with dads and non-birthing partners being left out.  It was all about mothers. The app was created by Dads and carers who felt left out, and it recognises the direct links between the two deaths of children. You will see Dad pad and the apps give real pointers to dads and co carers. There is help and support and it will be developed as a partnership, we will continue to improve Dad pad, it is a massive improvement.

 

 

Positive impact and strategy

 

21.17  Independent Scrutineer mention that Sarah or Debbie might have something add in addition to his response.  Updates are in progress self-harm is a real concern there is action on strategy around this and it is a key area of business, health with lead on this the action on strategy Chris suggested taking this to the leads and the response brought back to the Board.

 

21.18  The Executive Director of Public Health said that a paper was coming in for discussion on the issues raised on self-harming and the two items are linked.

 

How are safeguarding duties for monitoring Children in social care teams how is the service coping considering the cuts to contact service. How is the impact of this being monitored long-term.

 

Question directed to Debbie.

 

21.19  There have not been significant cuts children safeguarding service as part of the budget 2024-2025. there’s been a 50,000 saving around the children contact because of underspending 2022-23 there is no service reduction in delivery.  When children need supervised contact with their families it will happen and should it exceed what is reflected in the budget savings, then they would look at that.

 

21.20  In response to further questions on service impact delivery due to cut in services; Debbie gave assurance that a safe safeguarding service is being carried out and savings being put out in front line services are in line with budget and will not impact the service.

 

 

 

21.21  Chair asked the board if they agreed to note the report.

 

RESOLVED – Agreed the Board noted The  Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Update.

 

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