To provide detail on the work of the prevent and disrupt group to address child exploitation in Herefordshire.

The report was introduced by the assistant director, safeguarding quality and improvement, supported by the head of service safeguarding and review.

Following the presentation, the following key points were highlighted in the debate:

·        The proposed safeguarding database would be a tool to map out hot spots and this approach had been successful in other councils, officers offered to provide an update once the database was in operation;

·        The use of soft intelligence to lead to gathering hard intelligence and how to appropriately share information about a child that may be at risk;

·        The ability of other settings such as youth provision to provide a source of additional information and the lack of such settings at the current time;

·        A joint mulit-agency conference on child exploitation had been held with colleagues from Worcestershire shortly before the committee meeting at which powerful testimonies had been heard, there had been good feedback and the outcomes of the conference would be shared.

It was queried that no serious case reviews had been published on the safeguarding board website for some time. Some reviews had been paused due to the pandemic but the assistant director undertook to clarify where and when reports were published.

The recommendations below were proposed by Councillor Jennie Hewitt, seconded by Councillor Elizabeth Foxton and unanimously approved by the committee.

RESOLVED: The committee recommends that arrangements for future meetings and sessions of the prevent and disrupt group that committee members could attend should be advised to the committee.