Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Chair of Haringey Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB), Sir Paul Ennals, on the LSCB’s Annual Report.

The Panel welcomed Sir Paul Ennals, Independent Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board.

He reported that arrangements for effective safeguarding were improving and that there were no immediate issues, although there were a number of matters of concern on the horizon.  Ofsted had rated the service as requiring improvement when it had visited in 2014 and had flagged up a number of areas where improvement was required.  These included:

·         Gangs and engagement with girls at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE);

·         Children missing from care; and

·         Engagement with schools.

Good progress had been made against each of these. 

Serious case reviews were the issues most likely to attract public interest into the work of the LSCB.  The report into the case of Child O had been published and had flagged up a number of issues requiring attention including;

·         Out of borough placements;

·         Work with mental health services; and

·         The quality of risk assessments. 

The learning from these had been implemented.  Two further serious case reviews had been commissioned.

The LSCB faced a number of specific challenges;

·         Partners were still not good at sharing performance data;

·         Engagement with children and young people still required improvement;

·         All agencies were facing budget cuts and these would probably impact most severely on staff most likely to have a role in supporting multi agency work;

·         The increasing fragmentation of services

He reported that a review was taking place on the future role of the LSCB and this was due to report in April.  There was a need to consider partnership working beyond borough boundaries, possibly on a sub regional basis. 

Specific work had been undertaken to improve how the views of children and young people were sought and responded to by the LSCB. New and better tools for listening had now been developed and progress would be monitored regularly.

In answer to a question, he stated that he met annually with Aspire and had twice met with them so far.  In terms of peer advocacy, the benefits of this were well proven.  However, a lot of funding that could be used for such initiatives had gone and it was not a cheap option. 

In terms of issues relating to data, this was a London wide problem.  Most agencies worked beyond borough boundaries and their data systems therefore were not coterminous with Haringey’s.  The data available to Haringey needed to be broadly the same as that available to other LSCBs as well as meaningful and proportionate.  It was also essential that core data was focussed on the areas of greatest risk.

Sir Paul felt that the partnership was working better than it had been 15 months ago.  He encouraged strong challenge and this needed to be taken properly and responded to effectively. There were considerable resource issues for partners though.  For example, the Police sat on 7 different LSCBs whilst the Whittington Hospital and the North Middlesex sat on 3.  Action had therefore been taken to reduce the number of meetings and alternatives such as the use of video and telephone conferencing had been explored.  Attendance had nevertheless been good.   Partners had sought to preserve the front line but the next year was likely to prove a challenge with further reduced resources.  Whilst it was possible to do more on a sub regional basis, there would still be a continuing need for local provision. 

Partners had been encouraged to respond to the recent government review of the role of LSCBs and it was noted that the Council intended to respond to this.   The number of child protection plans (CPPs) had gone up and this had been driven, to some extent, by improved data on children. 

Jon Abbey, the Director of Children’s Services, commented that the number of child protection cases was increasing.  There had been a decrease in the number of Looked After Children (LAC) of over 100 in the last 14 months with figures going down from 514 to 413.  This was still higher then the average for London and statistical neighbours.   The number of LAC had an impact of child protection figures.  In terms of the duration of CPPs, data on these showed that Haringey was coming into line with statistical neighbours. 

In answer to a question, Sir Paul stated that there was strong evidence of the link between CSE and gangs in Haringey.  Unlike other areas, there was little evidence of the involvement of middle aged men so far.  Although men that were older than victims were involved, they were not markedly older.  It appeared likely that there had been CSE related to gang activity for some time but the Police were now starting to make inroads in respect of the issue. 

Sir Paul commented that there was a need for all partners to become more effective at intervening early.  By the time cases came to the attention of the LSCB, it could be more difficult to address problems.  A large proportion of funding had previously been spent on placements for LAC.  Early help provided better long term outcomes and could reduce levels of risk.  A consequence of early help could be not taking some children into care who previously would have been and effective monitoring was required to ensure that judgements were sound.  Levels of risk had to be kept as low as possible during the transition process.

Sir Paul reported that in all cases where a child died or suffered a serious injury, a serious case review panel that included representatives from all agencies was required to be set up under an independent Chair.  This made recommendations to the LSCB.  It was often the case that serious case reviews could not be published for some considerable time and acting upon the learning arising from them did not wait for this.  The relevant Cabinet Member briefed Councillors whilst the Chair of the LSCB briefed the Opposition lead.  The full report was made available and the focus was on promoting learning.  The ultimate aim was to make services better. 

In answer to a question regarding to stability of placements, the Director of Children’s Services reported that the percentage of children who had had three or more placements was 7.6% in 2015-16 and 7.5% in 2014-15, which compared to an average in London of 10% and 13% amongst statistical neighbours. 

Sir Paul stated that work to address violent behaviour and reduce thresholds of what was acceptable took time to take effect.  Early help and training were important parts of this.  There had been a consistent message that the quality of assessments needed to be improved and the “signs of safety” scheme had been developed in response to this.  This would require the retraining of staff across the partnership. 

In terms of female genital mutilation, Sir Paul reported that Haringey had one of the highest rates in London due to its demographics.  A lot of work had been undertaken by the LSCB on the issue, particularly with health colleagues and reference to it appeared on threshold documents. 

Panel Members stated that they were keen to keep CSE under the spotlight.  In addition, they also wished to focus attention on the further development of early help and, in particular, step down.  In addition, they would also be interested in hearing more about the signs of safety initiative.

The Panel thanked Sir Paul for his attendance at the meeting.

AGREED:

That the Chair of the LSCB be invited to report further on progress to a meeting of the Panel in the late autumn.