Issue - meetings

At the last meeting, the Committee  were  made aware also that training on information sharing  was being provided to staff within the service as well as advice and guidance to other agencies . The Committee wanted to also explore the engagement with wider community groups on the changes relating to information sharing and their roles and responsibility. On behalf of the Committee , the independent member undertook to report on the outcome of these training activities by auditing a sample of new referrals.

Following changes to the screening of cases referred to the Children and Young People’s service, as a result of the Judicial Review in March, there had been a change to information sharing protocols.  Training had been provided to staff within the service and guidance to agencies on the new protocols. The Independent Member of the Committee had completed an audit   of a sample of new referrals to provide the Committee with a further understanding of how the changes were being implemented.

 The Committee considered the results of the audit and were advised by the Acting Head of First Response that of the 23 contacts which had been examined, previously half of these would likely have gone through to the MASH for additional information. Staff were more confident about requesting further quality information from the referrer and checking if information can be shared.   However, it was also reported that in some cases social workers were going out to addresses with less information than previously held to investigate some contacts further.