Report No. 185/2017

Report No. 185/2017 from the Independent Chair of the Leicestershire & Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board and Safeguarding Adults Board was received.

The Director for People, Dr T O’Neill, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to advise the Cabinet of the key findings of the Annual Reports of the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board (LRLSCB) and the Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adult Board (LRSAB) for 2016/17 for information and comment. 

The Annual Reports were to be presented for approval to a joint meeting of the Boards on 20^th October 2017.  Any comments or proposed additions and amendments made by the Cabinet would be addressed in the final reports before they were presented to the Board and subsequently published.  The final report would be the report of the Independent Chair who must publish an annual report on the effectiveness of child safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the local area.  This was a statutory requirement under section 14A of the Children Act 2004.

During discussion the following points were raised:

1. Mr S Westwood, Independent Chair of the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board and Safeguarding Adult Board summarised the report highlighting that:

·         Key messages were stated in pages 5 and 6 of the report;

·         More work was required in ensuring that financial and domestic abuse was recognised and people were made aware of how to respond when cases were identified;

·         There should be a focus on notification of safeguarding concerns for adults in health settings to ensure that agencies were reporting incidents to the Local Authority and analysis could be done on responses to these referrals.  This was a general trend, not unique to Rutland;

·         As reflected in the inspection, Early Help Services were improving outcomes for Children in Rutland; and

·         The Board was committed to drive improvement and the business plan identified areas of focus.

2. Mr Foster confirmed that due to the close working relationship with the Board there were no surprises in the report, in spite of being a smaller authority issues in Rutland were given as much consideration as those in larger authorities;
3. Mr Walters requested clarification that although “Signs of Safety” is a valuable tool, it is only one tool which can be used in child protection and early intervention and should not be used in isolation from other information and evidence.  Mr Westwood confirmed that Signs of Safety should be used to compliment the care planning process, it was aimed at building on the strengths in the family setting and engaging families and children in decision making, but should be used alongside other methods;
4. Mr Walters requested clarification on the need for improvement in support services for victims of domestic abuse, particularly children under the age of 13. Mr Westwood confirmed that work was required to establish clarity around the governance of domestic abuse, all agencies recognised this as an important area.  It was appropriate for Community Safety Partnerships to take a lead role in this area   and provision of support should be through partnership of existing services such as Schools and Police working together.  Dr O’Neill confirmed that this area would be considered as part of a programme of Community Safety reviews due to take place this autumn.  Support in this area may be too adult focused and there should be a whole family approach to the impact of domestic abuse, the reviews would identify the issues in this area and recommendations would be taken on board;
5. It would be helpful to have comparative data going back over several years in order to highlight the areas where progress was being made;
6. The provisions of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 would be implemented by September 2019 and would abolish Local Safeguarding Children Boards.  The Board had therefore started to look at the executive arrangements that would be required in order to approve the introduction of local arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. 

DECISION

1.    Cabinet NOTED the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board and Safeguarding Adults Boards’ Annual Reports for 2016/17.

Reason for Decision

1.    The Safeguarding Boards had produced their Annual Reports for 2016-17 assessing and analysing the activity and performance of the Boards and partner agencies regarding safeguarding adults with care and support needs and children.  These Annual Reports were presented to Cabinet for their information and input.

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Mr S Westwood left the meeting and did not return.

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