Agenda item

The Panel received the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2022-23, as set out in the published agenda papers at pages 111 to 160, along with an accompanying sets of slides which were published as tabled papers. The annual report and presentation were introduced by David Archibald, Chair of HSCP. The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families was also present for this item, along with the AD for Safeguarding and Social Care.  The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel sought assurances around the confidence levels felt by the independent chair in terms of how Haringey was performing. In response, the independent chair set out that he was confident with respect of the improvements made in delivery of services and how well the Council and its partners worked in relation to safeguarding. It was commented that the Council and its partners needed to continually learn and to get better. There were a number of audits and other opportunities in this regard which would allow them to reflect on how well the Partnership worked and to improve further.

b.    The Panel commented that information sharing was often a key issue when different partners were working together and assurances were sort around how well information sharing was working. In response, Mr Archibald acknowledged that this was a key issue and that it was something that was often highlighted in case file reviews. The Partnership shared information well but that they were continuing to work on how to improve this.

c.    The Panel sought clarification about how the Partnership operated. In response, the Panel was advised that it was a partnership body that worked across borough and had three statutory partners – Police, Health and the Council. The Partnership was not externally based and all partners had to work together to achieve effective safeguarding. In response to a follow up, Mr Archibald advised that the Partnership undertook a huge amount of activity to improve the effectiveness of safeguarding in the borough. These included: Multi-agency training, including training on working together as different agencies; improved performance data collection and monitoring; and learning from the different reviews that the Partnership had to undertake.

d.    A co-opted member of the Panel raised concerns about the lack of accessibility in reports and highlighted the fact that a high proportion of parents in the borough did not speak English as first language. The co-opted member also questioned the extent to which schools had access to the Partnership and was engaged by them. In response, officers set out that it was the responsibility of the Partnership to ensure that the Annual Report was accessible and that the Partnership Executive Board would be working to ensure that it was more accessible in future. In relation to ensuring that schools were involved in decision making, the Partnership had recently recruited a former head teacher to sit on the Board and that they would also be seeking further opportunities to engage with other head teachers. Safeguarding partners met every six weeks and there was a regular newsletter that went out. Officers advised that school governors should raise any safeguarding issues to the LADO and the safeguarding leads for their respective schools. Officers advised that they would take these comments on board when preparing the next local authority quarterly briefing for school governors.

e.    The Panel queried what some of the key difficulties were that the Partnership faced in relation to multi-agency working. In response, Mr Archibald advised that whilst the three statutory partners had vey different roles, their agendas in relation to safeguarding overlapped to a significant degree. The partners worked well together and there was little conflict when it came to safeguarding, any challenges in terms of working across different agencies were rapidly overcome. The Cabinet Member added that the Partnership had been going for two years and that it had made a real difference in that time. The Cabinet Member emphasised that safeguarding was everyone’s business, not just the Council’s and that Partners had taken seriously their roles in safeguarding. It was commented that the Board sat within the Council’s structure and the Council provided most of the funding, however it was important to emphasise that this was multi-agency partnership and it and it had an independent chair.

RESOLVED

Noted