Agenda item

For the Select Committee to receive  the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2020/2021.

Sir Francis Habgood, Independent Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Children Safeguarding Partnership highlighted the following key points regarding the annual report which covered the year to April 2021:

·       The Children Partnership is made up of the three statutory partners, the local authority, the police, and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) as the representatives of the health sector. These are equally and jointly responsible for all issues around safeguarding, which is a significant change from the Children Safeguarding Board.

·       The year to April 2021 had been significantly impacted by the pandemic with a much higher volume of cases, many with significantly more complex or significant issues. Sir Habgood thanked all workers and volunteers involved in safeguarding issues. The report covered several key issues including:

(i)                   Contextual safeguarding (considering the context in which young people live and understanding when to start thinking about risks) emerged from a thematic review.

(ii)                Thinking “family”; a theme which was raised in several of the sub -group reports considering that it was important to understand the family context of each case and include the needs of the parent and any particular risks that they might have

(iii)              A robust tracker was now in place to ensure that; (i) recommendations are      understood, (ii) the changes are embedded and (iii) the impacts are understood

(iv)               4 reports have been published but date back to incidents from 2016-2018 when the safeguarding teams were in a different position but important issues were raised relating to: safeguarding across borders, neglect, a baby, pre-birth procedures and youth violence

·       Work continues on exploitation with a focus on ensuring that there is not duplication of work between the Adults Board, the Community Safety Board and this partnership board.

·       Work would continue on the transition between young people and adults.

·       Training has been heavily impacted by Covid-19. All training has been done online during the pandemic, and the offer would now be reviewed to assess the use of conferences, briefings and learning events to communicate key messages from reviews, policies and practices.

·       All partners continue to fund their partnership to the same level, without any inflationary increases.

During discussion, comments and questions raised by the Committee included:

·       Sir Habgood advised that face-to-face training had been affected by the Covid pandemic. The partnership no longer delivered all the training itself. At present, an Excel provider delivers training online. A return to face-to-face training was anticipated, as this would enable discussion between the number of different professionals involved in the process. Core and specific training is supported by a network of people from across different organisations and included training by the police or health sector to gain a broader understanding on different topics. Finally, the learning process would also include information delivered through briefings, learning events and virtual conferences as well as training.

·       A Councillor queried whether the number of children missing from education (65) was of concern. Simon James stated that the actual number is significantly higher, however, it has reduced since Covid. The team is ensuring that those children are visited frequently, and Ofsted had confirmed that this is the case. The size of the team has also been increased.

·        The development of the new 3-year business plan was progressing and a planning meeting had been held on the 20^th of January 2022, which representatives from children and social care, the police and health services had attended and where some key issues (e.g. safeguarding) were discussed. It was anticipated that a draft version of the plan would be completed for inclusion in the safeguarding partnership meeting in March. Sir Habgood thanked the Councillors for their offer of support from the council.

·       In response to a question, Sir Habgood highlighted two benefits of having a single chair for the children and adult safeguarding boards, this being   a recent development for Buckinghamshire. First, both safeguarding boards share some common themes, such as exploitation and domestic abuse, thus understanding the risks and how services are delivered across the boards was beneficial. Second, the transition between children and adults is critical, and there is a risk that the services are no longer offered to an individual at a certain age, despite their needs remaining the same. Currently, a review is being commissioned by the Adult Safeguarding Board, however, it links closely to Children’s Services. It was anticipated that the results would be published soon.

·       Sir Habgood informed the committee that roughly 60 % of the Partnership’s expenditure is spent on staffing, and the majority of the remaining funds is spent on training. The exact figure is available on request.

·       A member wished to know what joint strategic work, mentioned in last year’s report, is planned over the next 12 months. Sir Habgood stated that the report covers up to April 2021, and that the ongoing pieces of work covering the links between exploitation and domestic abuse, and neglect would continue going forward. A task and finish group on the subject of neglect was led by Dr Leslie Ray, and drew on good practice around the country. It was currently working on revising the neglect toolkit. Strong links had also been made with the new Domestic Abuse Board.

·       A Councillor was interested in the impact of the increasing number of children moving to Buckinghamshire from outside the UK on the service’s existing workload. Sir Habgood explained that this issue has not been featured in the work of the partnership. Richard Nash, Corporate Director for Children's Services, advised that children’s services provided by Buckinghamshire Council serve all children in Buckinghamshire, as is the statutory expectation. These services were tailored to the individual needs of the children and their families, including understanding any cultural differences.