To consider the progress of the safeguarding children agenda plans, milestones and challenges.

The Board was provided with an update by the director for children’s wellbeing and the head of safeguarding and review.

The board had responsibility to understand outcomes in this area and this report provided an overview. More detail would be presented to the safeguarding board and the health and social care overview and scrutiny committee.  The focus was for the board to consider priorities and work to be commissioned.  The key points of the report were:

•           positive improvement, for example, steps being taken to increase adoptions for children with complex needs, with recruitment and marketing to increase placement opportunities;

•           the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) processes were improved. Of the 500 contacts into MASH each month, half met the threshold for care. Domestic violence was a key feature of many referrals, with many of the 247 children on child protection plans being under the category of emotional harm as a consequence of domestic violence.  There is a high level of understanding and awareness of the issues but there are resource implications. For example, there were no child protection plans relating to sexual abuse 12 months ago, but now there are more than 20 due to an increased awareness of child sexual exploitation;

•           achievements have been made in overcoming recruitment difficulties for social workers and the social work academy was bringing home-grown professionals to the service.   Agency workers have reduced to 29% of the workforce which is improving outcomes for children. There was also some planned recruitment for high calibre overseas social workers.  In the meantime, casework progression would be slower than hoped. 

The director of adults and wellbeing confirmed that an adult safeguarding update would be included in the board’s work programme.

Board members made the following comments and observations in response to the update:

•           whilst safeguarding could be improved, the hard work and good intent be noted;

•           problems in relation to social care and skill mix were recognised;

•           court outcomes may lead to a reduction in children coming into care and services would need to look at how children make the transition into adolescence;

•           the report highlights the extent of the problems such as domestic abuse and that greater awareness was leading to an increase in reporting, especially from children who are more confident to report what is happening in their life;

•           the current situation was well-understood by providers and commissioners and the service was in a better position than previously, but inspections focused on the current picture rather than where services were heading and expected to see improvements compared with previous visits;

•           it was recommended that both the children’s and adults’ safeguarding boards be asked to look at the gaps in commissioned services for mental health as this has an impact on safeguarding; 

•           it was critical to have a shared vision and be clear on priorities and to be sure that collectively ambitions for children are high enough so that all professions were reminded of their responsibilities;

•           commissioners have made mental health and safeguarding their top priorities and the profile of children’s services is also much higher on council agendas, with more training for groups such as school governors.

RESOLVED

That the health and wellbeing board review progress and identify any further actions necessary.