Agenda item

The  Committee to consider the recommendations  and  action plan arising from the Internal Audit on information compliance, compliance with local and statutory requirements, and records management within the Service.

Following on from the Judicial review and  findings against the council in respect of  information sharing,  The Director of Children’s Services had  requested  that the Council’s Internal Auditors, Deloitte and Touche Public Sector Internal Audit Limited conduct an exercise to provide assurance on data and information compliance, compliance with local and statutory requirements, and records management within the Service. Tests were carried out on a number of documents, policies to understand if they were up to date and followed the required line for information sharing between partners. Also the accessibility of the documents to residents was checked there was also a testing completed   on a sample of 10 cases to understand how they were progressed to a section 47 investigation.

Committee members considered the list of documents and protocols that were checked, audit action plan and management action plan arising from the findings of the audit.

The Committee asked the Acting Head of First Response on how confident the team were with implementing and following the legal requirements around the sharing of information.  The committee   noted that there was more confidence in the team following the added training and guidance received on information sharing. Members note d that this would be an ongoing conversation with staff to continually ensure that the requirements behind the information sharing protocols were continually adhered to

 The Chair reiterated the important of following the legal requirements of the information sharing and continually managing risks in relation to keep children safe.  The Chair was assured that there was an increase in recording and Social Workers and Practioners were recording reasons behind their actions. For example, if   consent to share information could not be obtained and information held indicated there was a necessity to act in the   overall safety of the child. The Committee continued to note that there was a stronger sense of the information sharing rules within the service and there was a sense of ownership   for the information being given and teasing out the thresholds by social workers and practioners.

The Chair enquired about the work with partners and ensuring they had an understanding about what their responsibilities were as part of the protocols for information sharing.  It was noted that workshops   had been held with children’s centre staff so they knew the types of information they needed to share.

 More understanding was sought on the nature of the term ‘significant harm’ and the circumstances to trigger a section 47 investigation.  It was explained that this could involve a range of circumstances such as physical abuse, emotional harm or risk of sexual abuse. Social Workers, Practioners and mangers would need to assess risk, impact, and consequence.  This would mean asking questions and gathering information to enable this understanding to be reached.  Committee Members  noted that  this  was a continuing  analytical process , recording and  being aware of serious case reviews findings   , research ,   social work experience, all contributing to  the final judgement of the Social Worker . It was commented that how this judgement was reached depends on the quality of information at hand and the information given by partners and how the contact with family is recorded.   It was agreed for the Independent Member of the Committee to take forward a qualitative case audit, focused on recording around decision making. It was agreed that the audit of cases will be for the week beginning the 16^th September and reported back to the next meeting in January.

 The Assistant Director for Children and Young People’s service commended the Acting Head of First Response for continuing to manage the busy daily work of the First Response team together with managing the changes to working brought about by the judgement.  The Assistant Director felt that First Response team were continuing to keep the balance between the statutory obligations attached to information sharing and making sure that children were safeguarded.  In response to  a question about the key components to  taking forward a contact correctly , this was about continually keeping an open mind about  the  nature of  the information received , having the training and experience to judge the information at hand  and this   could be achieved by  continually having  high quality staff working in the  First Response team.