Agenda item

A cover report was included in the agenda pack (pages 69-70), and the HSCB & HSAB annual reports were included in the agenda pack at pages 71 & 139 respectively. Patricia Durr, HSCB & HSAB Business Manager introduced the reports and the Board discussed their findings.

The Board were advised that there was a statutory requirement to produce an annual report for both bodies. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager drew the Board’s attention to the Adult’s strategic plan and the five year strategy in Children’s.

Cathy Herman, Lay Member Haringey CCG commented that there was significant work being undertaken between the HSCB and the Enfield Safeguarding Children’s Board and enquired whether there were any plans to develop similar relationships with Islington. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager advised that facilitating greater joint working across London was one of the key enabling priorities identified, particularly in dealing with major issues that existed across London such as CSE. The Board was advised Haringey was part of the wider north London cluster and that she also sat on the task and finish group for the London Safeguarding Board, both organisations also included Islington.

*Clerks Note – Cllr Kober entered the meeting*

Dr Jeanelle De Gruchy, Director of Public Health commented that the VAWG Strategy was presented at the previous meeting of the HWB and during the meeting the Board discussed the impact of VAWG on children and young people. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager reassured the Board that work was being undertaken to understand   connection between the VAWG Strategy and supporting vulnerable young people, a key element in the process was around ensuring that links were made across different services and agencies.

Sharon Grant, Chair Healthwatch Haringey commented that there was a long way to go in terms of gathering enough data to be able understand the problems that existed in adult social care. The Chair Healthwatch Haringey also commented that there were significant issues around incompatibility of systems used between the Council and other partners and questioned whether there needed to be a dedicated performance measure to track referrals into adult social services. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager agreed that there was still some way to go to fully understand where referrals came from and how to track them cross the system.

The Assistant Director of Adult Social Services acknowledged that there was a conversation to be had around ensuring the correct metrics were in place to be able to asses overall performance levels and whether improvements were being made. The Chair Healthwatch Haringey, advocated that the annual report should refer to performance around referrals to Adult Social Services and highlight where the ‘pinch points’ were in the system and how to address them. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager acknowledged these concerns and agreed to check and ascertain whether the information was contained in the accompanying performance report. The LSCB and SAB Business Manager also advised that the system around referrals changed following the implementation of the Care Act and that there were difficulties in comparing statistics across the two reporting systems.

Zina Etheridge, Deputy Chief Executive advised that there was a proposal to hold a joint meeting of the HWB and the Community Safety Partnership sometime in spring 2017 in light of their being clear areas of overlap between the two Boards such as VAWG, alcohol and mental health. 

The Director Children’s Services advised that, from a Children’s perspective, the VAWG Strategy was a key piece of work but strategically sat within Community Safety. In addition, domestic abuse was a key component at monthly vulnerable children’s group meetings involving key partners.  The Director Children’s Services suggested that the police were showing an appetite to improve partnership working and commented that significant progress had been made in the last 12 months, particularly around domestic abuse. The Board was also advised that the CSP recognised the need to work together as a system in order to improve outcomes around VAWG.

Cllr Kober commented that she had been reading the HMFIC report on child safeguarding and a key theme that emerged across London was the extent to which the Metropolitan Police missed cases of CSE and a tendency to mislabel instances of CSE as something else. The Leader suggested that the Board needed to prioritise looking into this issue at a local level, in order to get underneath the issues highlighted in the report. 

RESOLVED:

I). That the HWB notes the HSCB and HSAB Annual Reports