Issue - meetings

This report accompanies the previous  report from Iain Low,  on Safeguarding and Support and provides information on individual cases to  illustrate the issues raised in the report.

The independent member of the Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee introduced the report which accompanied the previous report on the Safeguarding and Support services and specifically focused on Child Protection Plans, their challenges and issues.  The independent member had examined a small sample of 15 cases starting with referrals and assessment undertaken in the first week of November, examining their case notes in February and looking at their outcomes in the first week of March.

The Committee noted and discussed the findings of this qualitative research.  It was noted that six of the 15 cases were closed or planned to be closed. Two of the children had a Child in Need plan, two children were in the care system. The remaining 5 children had good child protection plans in place.  There was concern communicated about the timescales for holding Initial Child Protection Conferences which were required within 15 working days of strategy discussions and would have  helped agencies come to a quicker conclusion on the child’s needs. This was attributed to pressures on the conference timetable as the need for an ICPC can only be identified at the end of strategy discussions and therefore arrangements for the conference initiated after this time.  It was also important to note, the timing of the audit, which was the lead up to the OFSTED inspection and also the seasonal time of year for staff leave.   There had been previous independent audits commissioned by the Deputy Leader on adherence of the service to quality and timing of assessments which showed good practices in place.  These key service area audits had also looked at the initial responses to a referral, strategy discussions and if the child had been seen alone. Because of the good improvement of the service, the audits were now concerned with examining practices in different parts of the services. The service itself also completed a high number of internal audits to continually monitor working practices and adherence to mandatory timescales and this could be an area of work which was reported on to the next Joint Committee meeting.

Further to considering this agenda item, the Joint Committee members noted that Members enquiries related to children’s services could be sent to Debbie Haith, Deputy Director for Children and Families.

 The Chair thanked officers for their attendance and contributions to the Joint meeting.  It had been useful and worthwhile for the Committee to explore and discuss the areas of child protection which overlapped between the responsibilities of both Committees.   Twice yearly meetings of the Corporate parenting Committee and Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee were planned and in the intervening periods the Committees would refer relevant issues to each other.