To review progress against the Safeguarding and Family Support division improvement plan 2020 / 2021 (appendix a) and Our priorities definitions (appendix b) produced in response to the Ofsted Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) inspection judgement of June 2018 and the subsequent focused visits carried out in 2019.

The committee considered a report by the assistant director for children’s safeguarding quality and improvement (ADCSQ&I). The ADCSQ&I introduced the report and explained that there was a shift towards robust audits and there had been an increase in the number of audits that had produced good outcomes. Challenges remained around staff supervision, the timeliness of return to home interview and repeat referrals to the Multi-agency safeguarding hub.

During the course of the debate the committee raised the following points:

·         The timeliness of the presentation of data in the quarterly report to the committee. The report before the committee provided data up to the end of September 2020 and it was recommended that the dates of forthcoming meetings of the committee were synchronised more closely with the production of the improvement plan report.

·         The committee queried the work that had been undertaken with other areas including Doncaster and Essex. The DCF, ADS&FS and ADCSQ&I provided detail on the work undertaken with other local authorities to help shape improvements to safeguarding processes and practices.

·         The recommendation from cabinet that the committee undertake a review into barriers to record-keeping for safeguarding cases was raised. It was recommended that future versions of the improvement plan report contain information on the improvements to Mosaic and the use of technology to enable better social work practice. A letter would be sent to the executive to explain that the committee would use the improvement plan to monitor record keeping for safeguarding cases.

·         The committee recommended that in future the improvement plan contain detail of the recording of feedback from young people and the use of the mind of my own (MOMO) app.

·         The risk assessing of children at risk of exploitation was raised and the action to change the target for the completion of risk assessments. The ADS&FS explained that the target was being brought into line with targets used in the rest of the country.

·         The categories of need in child protection plans were raised. Assurance was sought that where a case was considered in the emotional or neglect category but a sexual harm element was present, this was taken into account and not missed. The ADCSQ&I explained that the quality assurance work that had been undertaken had demonstrated that sexual abuse aspects had been identified. The ADS&FS explained that an investigation had been undertaken on the use of the categorisations of abuse and the outcome had shown that there had been no cases where sexual abuse had been missed.

The cabinet member children and families explained that it was pleasing that the trend was positive and that improvement was being made. It was acknowledged that improvement was still required and it was key to the process that the council had a good understanding of itself.

The recommendations below were proposed by Councillor Carole Gandy and seconded by Councillor Phillip Howells and agreed by the committee.   

RESOLVED: That the committee:

·         Recommends that the dates of forthcoming meetings of the committee are timed to coincide more closely with the production of the improvement plan report;

·         Recommends that future versions of the improvement plan report contain more information on the improvements to Mosaic and the use of technology to enable better social work practice;

·         Agreed that a letter would be sent to the executive to explain that the committee would use the improvement plan quarterly report to monitor record keeping for safeguarding cases; and

·         Recommends that in future the improvement plan contain detail of the recording of feedback from young people and the use of the mind of my own (MOMO) app.