Agenda item

To consider new items of business as per item 2.

 Local Authority Designated Officers Report April to December 2013

The Committee considered a report by the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) which provided open information on the referrals of allegations against adults who work with children, including a profiling analysis of allegations made in the borough, comparative data and an update of the interventions and development work completed between April and December 2013. Having considered the details of the report the Committee questioned

• The thresholds in place
• The  presentation of the data as the number of allegations put forward to the LADO were small but when compiled into a percentage format could provide a misleading  picture

The Committee felt that there was a need to understand the information behind the data  with further analysis  focussing on whether there  were allegations against particular gender  or particular age group ,and was  there more than one allegation against a person?

The total number of allegations made was 79 and the Committee questioned this number in  comparison to other boroughs and also felt this number maybe too small given the total population in Haringey was over 250, 000.

 A question was asked by the Chair about young people’s understanding of the LADO process and how well they know who to go to as their first point of contact if they want to report abuse. The routes  to the LADO were explained as well as the reminder given of the role of the LSCB which provides training to schools staff about how they take forward children’s and young people reported concerns . There is a named person at a school that children and young people can go to with concerns about abuse and maltreatment. The Chair continued to be concerned about the awareness among young people at school about whom they can go to especially if English is their second language.

Agreed that there be a follow up report to Committee by the LADO

• Answering broader questions on the interaction with the LADO.
• Identifying trends behind the data and reporting on this
• Providing an assessment of the awareness of the LADO by checking procedures for reporting into the LADO and how effective these are
• Provide some comparative data

To further inform this report back, agreed that referrals into the LADO are analysed and understanding reached on how an enquiry becomes an investigation and how it is decided that no further action is required by the LADO.  It was further agreed that the 53 enquiries which did not meet the threshold for LADO investigation are also analysed and information provided to the Committee on why they did not meet the threshold for LADO investigation.

The Committee also advised officers of the need to ensure the process was robust and detected false allegations as unproven claims could have a marked detrimental impact on the career and life of the person that was being investigated.

 Update on Children’s Services Staff Changes

The Chair asked the Deputy Chief Executive to provide an update on the recent senior staff changes in the Children’s services and sought assurance that  there was not an  impact on the safeguarding services provided to children in the borough. The Deputy Chief Executive outlined the interim structure in place and the work being done to ensure that all staff in the service was fully aware of their reporting lines. This included ensuring communication about staff changes reached staff quickly and  they were clear on  who they needed to send information to and seek necessary agreements from .The Director of Children’s Services(Acting) and Deputy Director for Schools  and Learning were also visiting all  Children’s  service teams on a daily basis. The CE and Deputy CE were also holding   information sessions with all Children’s staff to share information on changes quickly and in person. 

The Committee were advised that the delay in recruiting  to a permanent Director of Children’s services was unavoidable and  it would take around 6 months to recruit  to this post . The appointed director would then need to appoint their management team. In the meantime, the interim structure was focussing on the core business of the service and ensuring that the day to day core business of the Children’s  Service was meeting the needs of children.  Although, there may be administrative changes in the names of managers, effort was being made to ensure that  this did not impact on the  daily activities of social workers and their line managers.

 It was further explained that  Children’s service  staff were all located on the 1^st Floor at River Park House with  the Acting Director as well as all the AD’s. They were visible, making both formal and informal contact with staff.