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 Chair had provided information on work carried out in Surrey with Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) colleagues and the Named GP in relation to their role in the Child Protection Conference. The Berkshire East CCG had worked with GPs in Slough in relation to their role in Child Protection Conferences and would be replicating this work with GPs in Bracknell Forest and an update would be provided to the LSCB at a future meeting.
· Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust were often asked to send practitioners from multiple teams to the same conferences and work was underway to explore how one professional might represent multiple branches of the Trust at conferences and reduce the pressures on resources. An update on the progress made would be given at a future meeting. (Action: Nancy Barber)
· The tool used to audit the Child Protection Conference process was being reviewed. Once complete audits would provide a more qualitative assessment and focus on the quality of the contributions made at conferences
· It was confirmed that training to help staff understand their roles at Child Protection Conferences was provided, in partnership with Slough and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and there was currently one course scheduled between now and the end of the financial year. It was stressed that the current trainer was leaving and it would be necessary to identify a Child Protection Co-ordinator commission an external trainer to deliver this course and to ensure that the training provision was sustainable
· An update was given in relation to the dissemination of the LSCB’s Information Sharing Protocol. It was stressed that Clinical Commissioning Groups did not hold any identifiable data so any information sharing requests would need to be made directly to providers. They would however be willing to share any unidentifiable data that they did hold but would not be signatories to the Information Sharing Protocol.