Agenda and minutes

(Agenda Item 1)

An apology for absence was submitted by Councillor Davies.

The Chair will consider the admission of late items of urgent business. Late items will be considered under the agenda item they appear. New items will be dealt with at Item 11 below.

(Agenda Item 2)

There were no items of urgent business submitted.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is being considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of the consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member’ judgement of the public interest.

(Agenda Item 3)

There were no declarations of interest put forward.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2010.

(Agenda Item 4)

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

To consider the terms of reference for the committee for the municipal year 2010/11.

(Report of the Assistant Director for People and Organisational Development  - Agenda Item 5)

We noted that, when the committee was established in April 2009, it had been agreed that its terms of reference would be the subject of a review by the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People  service after one year’s operation.  A year had subsequently passed and the terms of reference had been put forward to the June meeting of the committee. The committee had, at this meeting, requested further time to consider them as the membership of the committee had, with the exception of the independent member completely changed. After further consideration of the terms of reference the committee questioned the location of this committee as an advisory committee of the Cabinet. Clarification was sought on the original purpose for establishing this committee as a sub body of the Cabinet as its current role and function suggested more of a connection to the scrutiny function of the Council. We learned that this committee was created as a Cabinet sub committee to enable it to have prominence in the committee structure of the Council. The Cabinet is the policy and decision making body of the Council and meets on a monthly basis. The minutes of its sub committees are considered at these meetings and therefore information from these meetings can be widely circulated. After considering this information the chair proposed that there should be further analysis of the function and purpose of this committee and recommended it be included in the current governance review.

Understanding was sought from new members about their own role and function on the committee.  The past work of the committee was referred to and members learnt that  this committee provided the opportunity for them  to: gain a wider knowledge of the  policies  being followed  in safeguarding,  check  the work of  safeguarding services  through independent audit work , and allowed committee members  and officers  to undertake practical exercises in safeguarding such as  tracking  cases  through the system.

RESOLVED

1. That the Chair of the committee discusses with the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and Leader of the Council the inclusion of this committee in the current governance review.

Feedback and information from the Chair’s and independent member’s attendance at the Haringey Safeguarding Children Board.

(Report of the Chair and Independent Member of the Committee – Agenda item 6 )

The committee considered a report back from the chair and independent member on their attendance at the local safeguarding children board (LSCB) meeting in July. We were reminded that the local safeguarding children board is a key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations in each local area will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the particular locality and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do. The functions of the LSCB are set out in primary legislation and regulations and therefore the role of the LSCB is complementary to that of the local children’s trust.  There was wide representation at the board meetings with health, police, CAFCASS, voluntary sector, probation service, local authority housing services, schools and children and young people’s service all attending. The board usually  consider a range of issues from individual  cases concerning children i.e. serious case reviews to overarching issues such as best practice delivery, quality assurance, domestic violence training and development .  It had been reported to the LSCB at this July meeting that the serious case reviews on baby Peter were planned for publication but a date had yet to be set. The written reviews were currently going through a process of anonymization. We noted  past practice which  had been not publishing serious case reviews but making the executive summaries along with the recommendations available to the public. The new government was changing this practice and had already made two other serious case review findings publicly available.

The committee continued with discussion about the LSCB and raised concern about the number of attendees at these meetings.  The committee were advised that, although there were a large number of attendees at the LSCB meetings, there was an executive board of the LSCB which involved the providers of services to children and this meeting did allow for focused discussion. There were also sub groups which dealt with training and policy. The committee learned that there can be different arrangements for LSCB’s  and the only way in which Haringey  may differ to others   is  by having a   high attendance levels at meetings from involved agencies which can  have the effect of making the meetings quite large.

The chair recommended that committee members attend an LSCB meeting as this provides a useful insight into their work.

RESOLVED:

 That the committee note the work of the LSCB.

The committee to consider the scrutiny review into the transition of young people with assessed needs , from children’s services to adult services in Haringey.

(Report from Independent Member of the Committee – Agenda item 7 )

At the previous meeting of the committee it had been agreed that information be considered on the relationship between Children and Adult Social Care services. We now considered an Overview and Scrutiny Committee commissioned review into the transition of young people with assessed needs, from children’s services to adult services in Haringey which had been completed in March 2010. The committee were advised that successful transition planning is crucially dependent on collaboration between children and adult services. Well planned transition improves clinical educational and social outcomes for young people. We learned that Haringey has a well established multi agency approach to transition planning which involves young people and the professional organisations which they will deal with. The scrutiny review put forward a number of recommendations but the report did not touch upon what happens to vulnerable children assessed as having a high threshold of need i.e. those with child care plans, experiencing domestic violence or involved in a gang culture and how they do or do not pass from Children’s services to Adult Services. The independent member of the committee recommended completing a scoping exercise with the assistant director for safeguarding in order to report back to the next committee meeting on how the committee can investigate the levels of responsibility for high threshold vulnerable children . They would look at  how much contact they have with children’s services and see if this progresses through to adult services or another service.   Past cases can be referred to in order to track the contact with services and find the eventual outcome for the child into adulthood.

RESOLVED

1. That the report be noted.

2. Agreed that the committee consider, at their next meeting the scope of a review into how the committee can investigate the levels of responsibility for high threshold vulnerable children. This will involve examining the contact they have with services and the impact this has on their outcomes.  

To inform the committee about the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework in Haringey.

(Report from the Chair of the CAF Panel – Agenda item 8 )

At the last meeting of the committee in June the panel had requested a report on the role of CAF to gain a wider understanding of how this process works. The panel noted that the common assessment framework (CAF) is a standardised approach to conducting an assessment of a child’s additional needs. It can be used by practitioners across children’s services in England and is a tool for identifying a child’s needs and what is working well in their life, then putting in place a plan to make sure they get the support that they require. The process followed by officers when receiving a referral was set out in the report. It begins with contacting the CAF team in order to check that a CAF already exists or if the child is in contact with social workers. There will follow a meeting with involved practitioners, parent, and child to complete a CAF form. The committee were advised that the CAF is a voluntary process and has to be agreed with by the parent/carer before submission to the CAF panel. The advantage of the CAF is that it can be undertaken by a number of people and  therefore it can be completed by the professional who knows the child well. It was important to note that the CAF is resource based and will mean directing eligible children to the available resources. To further aid committee members understanding of how a child’s need is assessed it was important for members to have information on the thresholds of need used by Children and Young Peoples’ service with Haringey Children and young people’s partnership agencies. This is a document that sets out agreements on levels of need and risk which will trigger referrals to universal or targeted services. It provides a guide to practitioners in all agencies that work with children to assist in assessing and identifying children’s level of need and think about which services might be available to meet those needs. The committee agreed that it would be useful to receive this document to further aid their understanding about how children are located to the CAF process or child protection service.

The committee were informed about how the CAF panel works. This meeting was described as a live process as it involves multi agencies coming together and considering the CAF applications together on the computer database. This allows a good discussion on the received applications with information sharing about the families which maybe in contact with more than one agency. The meeting also allows agencies to understand if there are any gaps in service provision to the families. The committee shared their own experiences about  the CAF process and commented on:

• The length of time needed to complete the CAF form as it   impacts on the speed in which a child can access a service. There is a hidden cost element as involves time given to information gathering and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of the items below as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972(as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paras 1&2 ;namely information relating to any individual , and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

( Agenda item 9)

 The press and public were excluded from meeting for consideration of the subsequent agenda item as the report contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972(as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paras 1&2; namely information relating to any individual, and information likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

To consider a report back  on the  audit of common assessment frameworks which  has been completed by the independent member of the committee.

(Report from the Independent Member of the Committee – Agenda item 10)

In January 2010 Members of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Performance Advisory Committee considered a report on thresholds for Children and Young People’s Services. Members were concerned about children who might have significant needs but whose needs did not meet the thresholds for specialist social care services. It was considered likely that such children and young person would have their needs assessed using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and where necessary access universal and targeted services. The independent member of the committee undertook an independent audit of a sample of CAFs considered at the June CAF panels and reported to the committee her findings.  These were: concerns about the delay in decision making on referrals to services, a small number of the cases looked at that  did not require the completion of a CAF as the issue was quite minor and  also little evidence of   a lead professional being allocated where there was a team around the child.  The independent member recognised the good work of the CAF panel in ensuring that key professionals were meeting and assessing the applications as this was a good way of identifying a range of needs for a child quite quickly and therefore she agreed to further consider the speed of the CAF assessments before the establishment of the CAF panel to further understand the scale of improvements.  The independent member further agreed to track some cases after processing by the CAF panel and also read through the information considered by the CAF panel at their meetings.  Following this exercise the independent chair would report back to the next meeting of the committee her findings

Continuing with the subject of CAF audits, the independent member of the committee advised that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People had recently commissioned an independent audit of CAF cases recorded on Framework I and proposed that the committee request, from the Cabinet Member, consideration of the findings of this audit and subsequent action plan. The Chair concurred with this proposal and suggested that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young people be invited to the next meeting of the committee to share the findings of the audit and action plan.

RESOLVED

1. Agreed that Children and Young People’s Service record more detail of the CAF discussion about each child on Framework I, including the name of the lead professional on each case and key members of the team around the child.

2. Agreed that the independent member of the committee complete further follow up work on CAF cases as detailed above and report back her findings to the next meeting.

3. Agreed that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People be invited to the next meeting of the committee to share the findings and action plan of the independent audit of CAF cases input onto Framework I.

4. Agreed that, where there are categories of ethnicity   presented in reports, that figures are compared to the ethnic breakdown  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Date of next meeting  15 November 2010

Date of the next meeting

The chair advised that the next meeting of this committee on the 15 November had to be altered to allow a Leader’s conference meeting to take place on that evening.  The proposed new date for this committee meeting was the 29^th November. We noted that there were no meetings on this evening involving members of this committee and the members attending agreed, in principal, to the new meeting date proposed.  It was agreed that a meeting request, via outlook, be sent out members of the committee.

Agenda items for the next meeting on the 29^th November  were:

1. Scope of a review into how the committee can investigate the levels of responsibility for high threshold vulnerable children.

2. Consideration of Initial and core assessments which have been used previously for training purposes.

3. CAF work

• Results of mapping exercise into the number of CAF forms  received from schools.

• Follow up work on audit of CAF cases being completed by Independent member (see CSPPAC18).

• Audit of CAF cases recorded on Framework I and Action Plan.

 Noted that there were CRB checks still outstanding for new members of the committee and agreed that Personnel be contacted to progress this matter.