Agenda item

To consider and note an update report on the progress of Haringey Safeguarding Plan including feedback on the recent OFSTED visit.

The Committee received the report on the Safeguarding Plan for Haringey, introduced by Peter Lewis, Director of Children & Young People’s Service (CYPS) and noted that nearly all but two (1.19 and 1.20 – page 23) milestones had been achieved.

Milestone 1.19 – Agree, implement and train staff on a Critical Incident De-briefing model within organisations and across multi-disciplinary teams – this was rated red although partners were working together to achieve this.

Milestone 1.20 – All Appropriate staff attend Safeguarding Induction Programme – the Council was slightly behind schedule on this milestone, which would be completed in the next two months.

The Committee asked that more detail be provided on the priorities for further improvement in safeguarding and requested an update on progress for milestone 2.12 (Analyse cross-partnership training needs in management, supervision and safeguarding and develop a programme of training). 

The Committee noted the progress report from Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors who visited the Council in January 2010 and that the Council was given an overall judgement of “good” and was considered to be improving at an “appropriate pace” with the efforts of staff being recognised.  The Committee thanked staff for their hard work.

The Committee asked what was being done to reduce the large number of agency staff and noted that the First Response Team would see a decrease in agency workers in the forthcoming year as it had been overstaffed in the past year, this will enable temporary staff to apply for permanent vacancies in the Council.  High numbers of agency staff was a London-wide issue for Children’s Services but Haringey salaries were comparable with competitors.  The Council was taking part in a national recruitment event in May 2010.

Committee Members expressed concerns at the sickness rates in the Service and it was requested that in future these were provided with a more detailed breakdown including long-term and short-term sickness and some commentary to show that rates were not an indicator of problems within the service. The Committee also expressed concerns that sickness targets of 8.5 days were unrealistic. The Director CYPS explained that he would report back to the Committee when he had discussed the possibility of reducing the Service¹s sickness targets with the Human Resources Departments.

Jane Elias, Great Ormond Street Hospital, informed the Committee that the health visitor service currently had only 6 vacancies for health visitors. Targeted focus was on vulnerable and disabled children but the service would cover more areas in future.  At present every family received a visit when a child is new-born, every family had access to weigh-in services although this was conducted by health visitor assistants with a health visitor present and all families had access to further advice and support. 

Some Committee Members highlighted individual cases and expressed concerns that today¹s reduced Health Visitor service was not adequate in safeguarding children.  The Director CYPS suggested providing Members with a report showing how the Council met the needs of families and was properly safeguarding including the mechanisms in place to monitor. 

The Committee raised the issue of Post Natal Depression as this might not be picked up during the initial visit from the Health Visitor Service leading to potential problems in the family remaining undetected. The Committee requested that Post Natal Depression, and how this was identified in the first few years was included in any report on how the Council met the needs of families and was properly safeguarding.

In response to its questions the Committee noted that where families missed health visitor appointments these were followed-up and that the Council had constructed an outreach strategy to engage with families who were not using health visiting services.

The Committee agreed that the Chair would write to the Primary Care Trust and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) expressing concerns that the Committee had not been consulted on the withdrawal of Universal Health Visitor Services in 2008.

RESOLVED

i.          That the progress in delivery of the Safeguarding Plan milestones and key performance indicators be noted.

ii.         That the arrangement in place for managing programme level risks be noted.

iii.        That the outcomes of the Ofsted follow-up inspection in January 2010 and the plans for refreshing the Safeguarding Plan in order to enable our safeguarding of children and young people to be recognised as being among the best by 2012 be noted.