Minutes

The minutes of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) meeting held on 17 July 2015 were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

·         A bid for funding to the DfE Innovations Fund had been unsuccessful.  Ten projects had been selected from across the country and updates on the outcomes of these projects would be provided as the projects concluded

·         The outcomes of an audit of the Safer Lives Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) process were still awaited.  These would be followed up with the Community Safety Team  (Action: Jonathan Picken)

·         Training had been provided to staff to raise awareness of MARAC and its reporting processes

·         Thames Valley Police have raised their concerns about the difficulties that had been experienced in securing appropriate adults with the Chief Executive’s of the Berkshire local authorities. As a result, work was underway to recruit more Appropriate Adults specific data was however still awaited. 

·         The Board was informed that the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) function was currently under review across all six Berkshire Authorities.  The Appropriate Adult function was not currently part of this review and it was agreed that including the role in the review would be raised with the review team and the EDT Annual Report would be presented to a future LSCB meeting. (Action: Jonathan Picken/Alex Walters)

·         It was agreed that the Emergency Duty Team Annual Report would be presented to a future meeting.  (Action: Jonathan Picken)

·         The Nine Signs of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) social media campaign had been a success and there were plans to run a similar campaign on the misuse of technologies

·         A Pan Berkshire CSE meeting had been held for LSCB Business Managers, Local Authority leads and Chairs of LSCB Sub-groups

·         As the host LSCB for the Section 11 Pan Berkshire Sub-group, Bracknell LSCB had received a letter from the three West Berkshire LSCBs expressing concerns about the functioning of the Sub-group.  A robust response to the concerns had been sent by the Chair of Bracknell LSCB and the letter and subsequent reply would be circulated for information (Action: Alex Walters)

·         It was stressed that the Section 11 process was working effectively and meetings were productive.  This followed a change in methodology used and now included invitations to partner agencies to present and discuss their S.11 returns

·         Following an exceptional meeting of the Pan Berkshire Policies and Procedures Sub-Group, Sandra Davies had stepped in to lead a review of the online procedures and to help streamline the pan-Berkshire policies.  TriX had now merged with another company and work was taking place to develop a new core set of policies and procedures for all Berkshire LSCB. This additional function would require increased funding from each LSCB.  Once this work was complete local policy sets would be developed for individual LSCBs. Input would be required from the LSCB to help develop the policy set which would be available by Christmas.  It was agreed that a full update would be brought to the next meeting.  (Action: Sandra Davies)

·         The LSCB  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

·         Thames Valley Police was still undergoing a priority based budgeting review. It had been suggested that as the two smallest local policing areas (LPAs) in the Thames Valley region Wokingham and Bracknell Forest LPAs merge.  If approved the proposal would merge the back office functions and middle management positions and improve the resilience of the local force. This would achieve savings of approximately £250,000.   It was agreed that the Chair would write formally to Thames Valley Police seeking assurance in relation to the force’s continued involvement with the LSCB and clarification as to its impact on safeguarding

·         Berkshire East Clinical Commissioning Group was working with Thames Valley Police on mental health triage processes

·         Lay members had been introduced to the LSCB process four years ago and with the current vacancy it was considered an opportune moment to review the role and profile of lay members.  It was requested that any feedback on the subject be forwarded to Jonathan Picken and Peter Floyd and a report would be brought to the LSCB’s next meeting.  (Action: Jonathan Picken/Peter Floyd)

·         Thames Valley Community Rehabilitation Company had now been operational for seven months.  A recent legislative change had resulted in a significant increase in the company’s workload and work was taking place to change the approach to the distribution of cases.  Probation officers would now provide a specialised service to an identified offender cohort (Men aged between 18 and 25, older males and women).  Officers would also work out in the community and across local authority boundaries more than had previously been the case.  These changes were expected to be fully implemented by the end of December 2015 and could impact on representation at the LSCB.  It was agreed that safeguarding themes emerging from each of the CRC’s offender cohorts would be incorporated into the Annual Report to the LSCB.  (Action: Helen Morris)

·         Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHFT) would be subject to a Care Quality Commission inspection the week commencing 7 December 2015.  The inspection would review all the Trust’s services and would include discussions with stakeholders and partner agencies

·         Frimley Health Trust would be subject to a Care Quality Commission inspection on 6/7 October 2015

·         Approval had now been given to increasing the funding levels for the Children’s Social Care workforce as well as changes to the way that the workforce operates.   A summary of the implications of these changes would be circulated to the Board. (Action: Lorna Hunt)

·         As part of the sector led arrangements, the Care Leavers Service would be subject to a peer review in October and the LSCB would be appraised of their findings.  (Action: Karen Roberts)

The LSCB received a report setting out performance data for the first quarter of 2015/16 (April to June 2015).  Arising from the subsequent presentation the following points were noted:

·         Data relating to domestic violence notifications was still outstanding.  It was expected that this would be available in October

·         The LSCB considered whether at lower levels neglect could be being dealt with by individual partner agencies as a one off problem.  Consequently neglect may not always be picked up at an early stage and agencies would need to consider how they increase awareness of the early signs of more serious neglect amongst practitioners and the need for targeted collaborative responses

·         It was confirmed that Youth Services do carry out return interviews with children who go missing.  Records are kept of the return interviews and feedback given to the CSE/Missing Operational Group.  It was agreed that data relating to the Youth Services interviews would be provided. (Action: Karen Frost)

·         The significant reduction in the % of young people in treatment using amphetamines was attributed to the jailing of a number of drug dealers

·         Context was required to ascertain whether the 19% successful completion rate for users of opiates living with children was an increase or decrease on previous periods and what benchmarking data was available.  (Action: Abigail Simmons)

·         CAMHS would be able to provide a separate data report on a six monthly basis from January 2016

·         Data relating to the number of households living in temporary accommodation outside of Bracknell Forest would be provided  (Action: Claire Dorning)

·         Data which separated permanent and fixed term exclusions in the data set would be included in future returns.  (Action: Amanda Wilton)

·         Data relating to safeguarding training undertaken by Probation staff needed to be split according to whether they were employed by the National Probation Service and the Community Rehabilitation Company. (Action: John Ennis/Helen Morris)

·         Data relating to training only covered multi-agency training and did not reflect the single agency training that took place. Data relating to single agency training for health professionals would be provided. (Action: Sarah Bellars)

It was agreed that deadline dates would be re-issued to all those expected to provide performance data. (Action: Alison Burnell)

It was agreed that all data owners must provide a brief narrative to provide local context to their data.  It was recognised that further work would be needed in some areas i.e. workforce data but that overall the data set provided a clearer picture of performance in Bracknell Forest and enabled the LSCB to provide appropriate challenge.

The LSCB received the Local Authority Designated Officer’s (LADO) Annual Report for the period 2014/15.  The report provided an overview of activity during 2014/15, a summary of the progress made on actions identified in the 2013/14 annual report and recommendations for further development of the LADO service.

Nicola Johnstone had been appointed as the Interim LADO for Bracknell Forest and that as a qualified social worker Bracknell Forest continued to be compliant with the requirements for LADOs to be social worker qualified.  This appointment left a vacancy in the Child Protection Chair role and work was taking place to recruit to the post.

It was reported that in 2014/15 the LADO had received 72 enquiries relating to possible allegations or concerns.  Of these 39 were subsequently evaluated as being allegations and 33 as consultations that required advice but no further action. These figures represent a small rise on the previous year (In 2013/14 there were 60 enquiries made up of 42 referrals and 18 consultations).  This rise was attributed to a combination of greater awareness amongst employers about allegations and safer recruitment and a requirement from Ofsted that agencies must consult the LADO over all child safeguarding allegations.  It was noted that the criteria for allegations to be investigated is a narrow one and not all allegations met the necessary criteria.  It was suggested that this might be a training issue with practitioners being encouraged to discuss concerns with their agency’s designated safeguarding lead first rather than going straight to the LADO.

In relation to the proposed allegations process flow chart it was suggested that the chart appeared to be difficult to follow and needed some refinement/amendment.  It was requested that any further comments on the process be forwarded to Sandra Davies.  (Action: All)

The Board endorsed the recommendations within the report.

The LSCB received the Children’s Social Care Complaints Annual Report for 2014/15.  The report provided an overview of the work of the Children’s Social Care Complaints Manager, identified key issues arising from complaints and considered development areas for the service.

During the period covered by the report 47 complaints were received.  Of these 15 complaints were either deferred or declined, 11 were investigated under the statutory complaints procedure and 21 were investigated under the Council’s corporate complaints procedure.  In addition to this, 31 concerns were identified that were addressed by Children’s Social Care Managers without recourse to formal procedures.  Two complaints had been considered by the Local Government Ombudsman but neither had been upheld.

It had been found that families were increasingly using the complaints procedure to help support them during private court proceedings and this had contributed to the rise in the number of complaints received.  The service had also received 15 enquiries from local MPs (compared to 5 the previous year).  This increase was attributed to people making multiple complaints to multiple organisations on the same matter.

Following the conclusion of complaints at stage 2 of the process ‘Lessons Learned’ meetings were held to identify any areas for improvement.

The report also provided an overview of compliments received, which showed a significant increased and provided and opportunity for the LSCB to receive evidence of the work undertaken by Children’s Social Care.

The LSCB noted the report and welcomed similar reports from partner agencies.

The LSCB received the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Service’s Annual Report for 2014/15.  The Service played a key role in assuring the quality of the local authority’s care planning for looked after children and the annual report supported the continuing development of the service and informed the locally set strategy for children’s services.  The Annual Report provided a clear overview of the arrangements and quality of work with Looked After Children, highlighted areas of good practice including children’s participation, identified areas where the IRO had challenged services and the measures that had been subsequently taken to address these challenges.  The LSCB noted that the report clearly demonstrated the challenge function of the IRO Service.

The LSCB noted the report and commended the evidence that it provided as to the quality of the services provided to Looked After Children by Children’s Social Care as well as the education and health support provided to this vulnerable group.

The LSCB received a report providing an update on the work of the Drug and Alcohol Action Team.  The report included the outcomes of a recent Overview and Scrutiny Review of the service and actions identified for improvement.

The LSCB noted the lack of information pertaining to substance misuse by parents and carers and requested that future reports include greater detail on this area.  In order to support the development of such reporting the Chair and Business Manager would meet with representatives from these services.  (Action: Alex Walters/Jonathan Picken)

It was noted that the monthly surgeries with Children’s Social Care had originally been set up to ensure that communication lines were clear and to improve joint working.

The LSCB noted the report.

David Cochrane, Broadmoor Hospital, gave an update in respect of the work taking place at the hospital in relation to child safeguarding.

It was reported that the number of children approved to visit patients at Broadmoor Hospital had fallen significantly over the past twelve months (28 children in 2014/15 compared to 49 children in 2013/14) due to the discharge of one patient who had twenty two children approved to visit them.  In 2014/15, 14 children had visited the Hospital compared to 33 in 2013/14.  The Hospital had a dedicated suite for child visits and all visits were supervised.  Notes of any visits were recorded and reviewed.  Feedback was obtained from children following any visits and most feedback was positive.  Any applications received for child visits were reviewed by the Child Visits Panel and Children’s Social Care provided input into these panels.

The West London Mental Health Trust was reviewing the policies in relation to child visits and safeguarding at Broadmoor, Ashworth and Rampton Hospitals with a view to harmonising the policies across all three facilities.

The Hospital’s Admissions Policy had been reviewed in June 2015 and an addendum added to cover the arrangements in the event of the potential admittance of a seventeen year old, which included contact with the LSCB Chair and the Director of Children’s Social Care.

The Hospital had appointed a new Named Doctor with responsibility for children’s safeguarding.  All clinical staff had attended child safeguarding training with 100% of staff completing level one training, 94% completing level two training and 72% completing level 3 training.

A recent audit of safeguarding awareness, focused on the safeguarding of both adults and children, had found that awareness of neglect and abuse was high and staff were aware of their responsibilities in this area.  It was planned to undertake this annually. 

A GAP analysis had been carried out following the publication of the Lampard report of independent oversight and assurance of NHS and Department of Health investigations into matters relating to Jimmy Savile which had concluded that the Hospital had robust volunteer policies in place.  It was agreed that this would be circulated to the LSCB.  A review of governance arrangements had been held and modifications made to governance arrangements and meeting agendas.

The recently published Care Quality Commission inspection report had reviewed both Broadmoor Hospital and the West London Forensic Service.  Whilst the inspection had identified concerns in relation to staff morale and recruitment at Broadmoor Hospital no specific issues had been identified in relation to safeguarding or child visits at Broadmoor Hospital.

Construction of the new building was underway and a new dedicated child visiting suite was programmed for 2017.

The LSCB thanked David Cochrane for the verbal update and looked forward to receiving a written report in due course.  (Action: David Cochrane)

John Ennis provided the Board with an update on the recent activity of Bracknell Forest’s Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). 

It was reported that seventeen offenders were currently classified as being Level 2 offenders.  Children’s Social Care was actively involved in eight cases and both the Youth Offending Services and a residential provider were involved with two cases each.

It was suggested that a recent case involving a seventeen year old sex offender targeting fellow school pupils might be a good case to audit to identify any potential learning points.

Duty to Co-operate training would start in early 2016 and this would be free to partner agencies.

It was agreed that the more substantive annual report would be brought to the LSCB meeting in January.  (Action: John Ennis)

In the absence of this report it was agreed that the item would be deferred to the LSCB’s November meeting.  (Action: Amanda Wilton)

The LSCB received and noted a report providing an update on the activity of the Child Death Overview Panel in 2014/15.  It was reported that the Panel would be invited to present its full Annual Report to a future meeting of the LSCB Forum.

The LSCB received the final draft of its Annual Report for 2014/15 following consultation.   It was requested that any final comments on the report be forwarded to Jonathan Picken in the next week but the Annual Report would now be presented to the Council’s Executive in October and the Bracknell Forest Health and Wellbeing Bboard in December.

Partners were thanked for their contributions.

The LSCB received the mid-term revision of the LSCB Business Plan for 2014-2017.  The Plan had been aligned to the LSCB’s seven agreed priorities and had been refocused to make it clearer which agencies/partnership governance were being held to account for carrying out work.

It was questioned whether the current focus remained appropriate and it was requested that any feedback on this be sent to Jonathan Picken.

It was agreed that the Business Plan would be considered as the first substantive agenda item at the Board’s November meeting.

The LSCB was informed that there were no new updates to report in relation to requests for increased funding since the Board’s last meeting. 

It was noted that Thames Valley Police had agreed to a one-off increase in their funding contribution and the force was exploring the possibility of introducing equal funding levels across all the LSCBs in its area for 2016/17

To date no response had been received from the Berkshire East Clinical Commissioning Group to the letter sent asking for increased funding and this would be followed up.  (Action: Sarah Bellars)

It was agreed that the Chair would again write formally to the Chief Executives of all partner agencies raising the question of funding levels for 2016/17.  (Action: Alex Walters)

The LSCB noted a report presented to the Bracknell Forest Health and Wellbeing Board on 4 June 2015 providing an update on the work taking place to improve the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services at both a local and national level.

The LSCB noted a report providing an update on the Families in a Strong Community initiative.   The initiative was funded by the DCLG and would establish a programme of community volunteer led very early support and intervention in three areas of the Borough, Harmans Water, Wildridings and Great Hollands.

The LSCB noted the annual report on the Child Protection Conference Process which had been updated to reflect the Board’s comments at its last meeting.

It was clarified that it was the responsibility of individual social workers to determine the professionals that were to be invited to Child Protection Conference based on their contact with a family.  Consequently including raw data setting out who should have been at conferences in future reports may not be readily obtainable although the possibility would be explored.  (Action: Sandra Davies)

The LSCB noted a report providing a summary of recently agreed changes to the Children’s Social Care workforce.

The LSCB noted the minutes of recent meetings of: the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Adult Safeguarding Board, the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board,  the Community Safety Partnership and the Corporate Parenting Advisory Panel.

These would be included as a standing agenda item at future meetings to enable the LSCB to raise any queries/seek clarifications/provide comments to the respective partnerships and to provide further assurance of the work being undertaken by other key partnerships.

The LSCB noted the Family Justice Board National Annual Report for 2013/14.  It was a requirement for the LSCB to establish formal arrangements with the Local Family Justice Board and discussions were ongoing to clarify this interaction.  (Action: Lorna Hunt)