Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting on 25 November 2016 were approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

• A multi-agency audit process had been undertaken to examine the effectiveness between partner agencies and the LADO around the management of allegations. Learning from this work would be disseminated to the LISG in February and to the LSCB in March.(Action: LISG)
• Jonathan Picken had met with Leah Thompson to discuss a training provider who had delivered training on self-harm to pastoral leads in schools. It was agreed that this would be progressed through the Training and Professional Development Sub Group (Action: LISG)
• It was noted that the report on the Pan-Berkshire hosting arrangements was still a fluid document, as discussions were still ongoing regarding the transfer period. Jonathan noted that the CSE Sub-Group would be required to meet once more under Bracknell Forest before transferring to Slough. JP is to meet with Pradip Panchmatia on 7^th March 2017 to progress and will submit an updated report to the Independent Chairs meeting on 8^th March 2017. (Action: Jonathan Picken)
• Ian Dixon updated the Board on work to examine e-safety provision. The Children and Young People’s Partnership had met on 10/1/17 and reconsidered the aim of the task and finish group which had been established to provide assurance that e-safety would be established across the partnership boards. At the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Partnership, it had been recognised that e-safety and all other forms of safeguarding within schools were the responsibility of the Headteacher and Governing body. It was therefore suggested that e-safety be incorporated into the routine S175 school audits and sampling processes to gain assurance of the level of understanding. Referrals of specific e-safety concerns to the Local Authority would be raised with schools on an individual basis. It was also recognised that due to the speed at which technological trends were developing, a new guidance document or protocol would soon be out of date if maintained by Bracknell Forest. Rather, it was agreed that existing guidance from the Department for Education be disseminated to all schools. The existing task and finish group would be re-tasked with forming an implementation strategy for existing guidance which will be shared with members of the LSCB.
• With regard to the discussion around e-safety, Jonathan Picken commented that LSCB training schedule may be adapted to incorporate this and any other related topic the Board thought helpful eg. impact of pornography.
• Alex Walters commented that the functions previously undertaken by the CSP E-safety sub group would need to be reviewed to ensure all the work was being addressed. (Action: Ian Dixon)
• With regard to the discussion around e-safety, Ian Boswell commented that the outcomes of an ongoing Prevent Chanel Panel may lead to useful learning to be disseminated. Ian commented that the referral to Chanel had been appropriate, and that effective safeguards had been identified or put in place.
• The report on the MASH evaluation had been received in draft, and would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Erika Hyett, BHFT reported that the Children’s Serices at BHFT had been redesigned in order to be more integrated and effective. A launch event was to be held on 3 April 2017, and all partner agencies were invited. The Board requested a briefing note or report on the new structure, along with a structure chart of staff. (Action: Erika Hyett / Lucy Cooke)

Lorna Hunt reported on the increase in children subject to Child Protection plans and re-registrations over the last three months. There were a number of possible hypotheses as to the cause and it was noted that this was an item under performance later on the agenda.

Lorna Hunt updated the Board on the Innovations bid to DfE. This had progressed and was now awaiting sign off by the Minister. Once the funding was confirmed, Lorna commented that multi-agency board would be formed to discuss the implementation plan.

Ian Dixon reported that Francesca Hamilton had been recruited as the new Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and was now in post. It was requested that this be communicated formally to schools. (Action: Ian Dixon)

It was noted that Angella Wells, Head of Performance and Governance was currently off work and that there were a number of interim IRO and CP Chairs. Alex Walters commented that this had resulted in the 6 monthly CP Chairs report not being presented to the LSCB and this would be pursued.

Peter Floyd informed the Board that a joint LSCB / Involve Voluntary, Community and Faith sector safeguarding event was due to be held on 28 February 2017 to raise awareness of safeguarding and sexual abuse in particular. The Board will also contribute to a community engagement event being held on 11^th March 2017 which will compliment the ongoing programme of community consultation via Parish and Town Councils.

Lisa McNally reported that Public Health were due to feature in BBC Berkshire’s Brighter Berkshire event on 22 February to discuss their work around Mental Health with children and schools. BBC News were also doing a feature on 9 February around Bracknell Forest Public Health work and anti-stigma work with schools.

John Ennis presented the MAPPA update report to the Board.

It was recognised that the number of MAPPA cases in Bracknell had decreased from 103 total in 2015 to 97 total in 2016.

John commented that MAPPA meetings in Bracknell were robust, and that Children’s Social Care attendance was good.

John raised a concern regarding high risk individuals who may be made homeless, due to Bracknell Forest Homes’ (provider) policy not to rehouse if an individual has made themselves homeless as a result of committing a criminal offence. John was concerned that this would mean that high risk individuals would be more difficult to find if they did not have a fixed address. Work was ongoing with Bracknell Forest Homes to resolve this, however John commented that solutions were often reactive rather than proactive.

Alex Walters resolved to submit a formal request to review the Bracknell Forest Council and Bracknell Forest Homes policy, and John Ennis agreed to prepare the evidence base for this request. (Action: Alex Walters)

The Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences update was given under the Domestic Abuse (6 Month Update Report)

Ian Boswell presented the 6 monthly Domestic Abuse Update Report.

Ian commented that the number of Domestic Crime and Non-Crime Occurrences had remained largely static over the past three years. The Board were pleased to recognise that non-crimes were also now recorded.

With regard to the MARAC data for the year 2015/16, the Board recognised that of the 33% of referrals which came from partner agencies, 17% of these came from Berkshire Women’s Aid and 20% of these came from Children’s Social Services. The Board commented that more partner agencies should be referring straight to MARAC rather than signposting to other services.

The Board recognised the good work conducted by Children’s Social DAPS service which had resulted in a good improvement in their referral rates to MARAC.

The recent MASH audit had taken account of approximately 500 calls throughout July 2016. It was noted that for the period of the audit the MASH system did not have the ability to identify domestic abuse, but that this was now in place. Ian commented that recommendations resultant from the MARAC audit were still underway, concerning MARAC and DASH training, issues with the referral system Modus and induction for new DMOs.

The Board recognised that the available budget for Domestic Abuse work had decreased from £100,000 to £89,000 per annum.

Arising from discussion, the following points were noted:

• The Board were glad to recognise an increase in the number of male, BME and LGBT domestic abuse victims being reported to MARAC.
• The Board were reassured that Berkshire Women’s Aid were continuing to  accept referrals, although due to funding cuts the number of refuge beds provided in Reading had decreased from 25 to 15. The Domestic Abuse Co-ordinators in Berkshire were developing a joint bid for PCC to fund a strategic review of refuge provision. Ian Boswell agreed to raise this issue with the DA Executive and provide an update to the next meeting of the Board. (Action: Ian Boswell)
• Alex Walters stressed that it was incumbent on all agencies to raise awareness of the MARAC reporting procedures and ensure staff were referring correctly and that the CSP may wish to explore the use of marketing materials such as those used by Public Health and the LSCB.
• The Board recognised that Thames Valley Police had improved their non-standard crime reporting. However, it was recognised that as the level of harm decreased, it was more difficult to demonstrate evidence of outcomes.

Safeguarding Education Annual Report

Debbie Smith presented the Safeguard Education Annual Report for the academic year 2015-16.

Debbie commented that there were three primary schools of concern with regard to the number of fixed period exclusions. The LSCB was facilitating a current audit on the six primary school children who had received permanent exclusions.

A Local Authority officer attended all Governors Disciplinary Committees (GDC) for permanent exclusions, and wherever possible for fixed period exclusions. There had not been any Independent Review Panels in the academic year 2015-16, but one was scheduled for an academy school who had decided not to have Local Authority representation.

There had been a total of 45 students referred to the Fair Access Panel, which had resulted in 40 managed moves and 35 reviews. There were no concerns around support for Looked After Children.

The Safeguarding Visits to schools had been reshaped to form a one day visit to schools to assess the critical safeguarding areas informed by the annual S.11 audit process.

Resulting from discussion, the following points were noted:

• The Board welcomed the review of S11/175 processes and the engagement of Designated safeguarding leads is very high

• All fixed term exclusion pupils were encouraged to engage with the appropriate services, and all exclusions were cross referenced with the Youth Offending Early Intervention Service.
• It was suggested that a break down of the FAP school data could be included in the report. (Action: Debbie Smith)
• The Board agreed that behavioural units (previously proposed)  were not the appropriate resource for excluded pupils, and that strategies should be implemented to encourage mainstream schooling. 

Elective Home Education Annual Report

Ian Dixon presented the Elective Home Education (EHE) Annual Report for the academic year 2015-16.

Ian commented that as there was no legislative right to check on families who choose  home education,. Parents were encouraged to engage with the Local Authority, and where possible, visits were conducted. Families were not obligated to give a reason for EHE, and in Bracknell Forest there were an increasing number of families home educating.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

• Children who had never attended school did not attend school would only be entered to the wider system if they registered at a GP surgery or presented to another partner.
• There were currently 63 children known to be home educated within Bracknell Forest, of which 73% were engaging with the Local Authority and 27% were not. Very little was known about the children whose families were not engaged with the Local Authority.
• One factor for parents choosing to home educate was families not being allocated their preferred secondary school place.
• It was not thought that academisation in itself was connected to the rise in home schooling, as numbers were rising before schools began to turn to academies.
• It was recognised that families arriving in borough and home educating were more at risk of being unknown than those whose children were born in the borough.
• If a family failed to make  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

Karen Roberts presented the Child Sexual Exploitation and Missing Strategic Sub-group 6 monthly update report.

The report demonstrated progress made including the updated Pan Berks CSE screening tool, the CSE group considering the Overview and Scrutiny on CSE and leading on the response, reviewing the training package for taxi drivers and training awareness activities at a school and residential provision for disabled children as well as a local church. SEMRAC has considered 111 young people in the period,69 persons of interest as well as children missing episodes. There is increasing evidence of disruption and that the use of abduction notices was reducing the harm to potential victims. Alex Walters commented that the Board was aware of issues with the support provided from Bracknell Forest Communication and Marketing team, and agreed to raise this again. The Peer Review team had suggested that a partner agency could lead on the promotion of CSE campaigns to help autonomy.

Lisa McNally offered the help of Public Health for social media campaigns, and Peter Floyd offered to help through the Communications Sub-group. The Board also commented that a recent SCR from Bristol LSCB had good examples of the messages from children and learning from communications.

The report set out future actions for the next 6 months

The Board thanked Karen for her report.

Alex Walters presented the LSCB Performance Report Quarter 2 2016-17.

The Board recognised the significant increase in the number of children on Child Protection plans since September 2016, and agreed that the narrative behind this increase needed to be established in order to understand the reasons. Work was underway to consider how best to undertake this analysis.

The Board also received the LSCB Audits and Surveys 2016-17, and agreed that this report and the learning from audits and progress tracker would be brought to be Board routinely as part of the performance report at each meeting as opposed to 6 monthly.

Lisa McNally presented the Consultation on Commissioning of School Nursing and Health Visitor Services from 2018 report.

Lisa reported that the Health Visiting and School Nursing services were currently funded through the Public Health grant which was due to end in March 2018. The contract was currently provided through BHFT, and this contract was also due to end in March 2018. The Public Health team were in consultation with partners and professionals about the future, and had received good representation and ideas. A month long public consultation was due to begin shortly, and partners were encouraged to participate.

Public Health officers had spoken with BHFT, the Children and Young People’s Partnership, the CCG and others, and continued to discuss the options. A report would then be presented through the Council’s Executive report route to ask for permission to go out to tender, and a budget would be established as a result of the Executive decision.

The Board thanked Lisa for her update, and commented that they were keen to establish the scope of the service going forward irrespective of the provider, as this was the key issue.

The Board received the LSCB Risk/Challenge Log 2016-17.

Partners were reminded to see this as a flexible live document and to provide updates where applicable.

Dave Philips presented the Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board Annual Report.

Dave commented that the Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board had also undertaken a peer review which had been beneficial.

The Partnership was working with Jonathan Picken to establish the transition between adult and childrens safeguarding services.

At the recent Overview and Scrutiny presentation, Members had raised issues with the attendance of the Partnership’s membership, but it was recognised that effective partnership working was more important than regular attendance, and that lots of partner agencies work cross boundary.

The LSCB asked whether the transition between children and adults services would also include disabled children and young carers, and requested that this be included.

Lorna Hunt asked that the LSCB request a CAFCASS update as she was aware of a re-organisation. Alex Walters confirmed that following a number of requests there was a CAFCASS representative, Spencer Hird who would be attending future Board meetings who will update the LSCB. It was also noted that the report from the Family Justice Board report had not been received despite requests and that LH would assist with the continued efforts to pursue this. (Action: Lorna Hunt)

Erika Hyett informed the Board that Karen Cridland was the new Director of Children’s Services at BHFT, and would be in place from 1 February 2017.

Debbie Hartrick informed the Board that she had assumed the role of Designated Clinical Officer for SEND in addition to her existing roles. Debbie informed partners of a SEND conference taking place on 16 March 2017 at Maidenhead Town Hall, where Action For Children would be speaking.

Alex Walters thanked all partners for their constructive engagement with the Peer Review process.

The next meeting was scheduled for the 24 March 2017.