Agenda item

To receive the Annual Report of the Buckinghamshire Children Safeguarding Partnership  2022-2023 presented by the Chair, Walter McCulloch.

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Portfolio Holder Children’s & Education

Walter McCulloch, Chair of the Bucks Safeguarding Partnership Board

Cabinet Member, Cllr Anita Cranmer introduced Walter McCulloch, Chair of the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. She explained that the Partnership is a statutory multi-agency body, which oversees children’s safeguarding across Buckinghamshire acting both as a critical friend and as a champion for best practice across agencies.

Walter McCulloch summarised the annual report and highlighted the following points:

·       The Safeguarding Partnership concentrated on four domains:

o   Using data to evidence the impact of the work done

o   Ensuring qualitative assessment

o   Listening to the voices of staff

o   Bringing the voices of those with lived experience to the forefront

·       There had been good examples of lived experience contributing to case reviews. At multi-agency events, presentations made as personal testimony, giving specific examples of lived experience had been very powerful and valued highly.

·       In children’s safeguarding, there has been an issue about how incoming concerns are handled collectively by the different agencies.  The use of data evaluation had led to the development of a challenge event focussing on the use of the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub. This had been subject to difficulties around staffing levels and unprecedented levels of work in the last year

·       There was an acknowledgment that there should be a work focus to improve continuity between services for 16 to 25 year olds

·       There is good evidence that cross border work happens effectively – neighbouring local authorities and police forces are working well together

·       A revised business plan for the Safeguarding Partnership is being signed off in December. This would cover the four domain areas as well as further development of the partnership, strengthening the initial triaging of cases, bringing to the forefront the use of information from the “lived experience” and ensuring evidence of the impact of case review work.

The Chairman invited Members’ questions. In response to questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

·       There is a need for analytical work on child death figures by the Child Death Overview Panel. The figures for child deaths during the pandemic had been submitted as part of a three-year catch-up report to the Partnership and had been correctly analysed. The figures for 2021 to 2022 were now required to complete the picture for previous years. The child death overview panel covers the ICB area and has data from this geographical area.

Action: Walter McCulloch to circulate comparative child death information from the ICB area, statistical neighbours and nationally

·       Partnership working across the agencies which help young people is good and will be developed further, for example, by enhancing joint collaboration when the system is under pressure. Walter McCulloch is in regular contact with the Chief Constable of Thames Valley police, the Chief Executive of the council and the ICB Chief Executive to ensure further development of partnership working and to develop the effectiveness of the front door service.

·        170 children are currently missing from education. There is a team dedicated to finding the children who are missing and both housing and health information are used to help find them. In most cases, children are found within two to three weeks but some are absent from education for longer than six weeks.  These children stay on the council’s list until they are located or reach the age of 18. Many children that had been found had moved schools to out of the local authority area. The vast majority are located.

·       There is a risk register for schools where safeguarding needs to be improved.  Currently there are only 3 schools on the list.  Robust training on safeguarding is being delivered by officers to ensure processes are secure.

·       It was noted that there were no figures in the report showing the number of children suffering harm or violence. These figures were presented to a different Select Committee as there is an overlap with community safety. Walter McCulloch noted the need to streamline the governance arrangements regarding the reporting of this information.

·       The Safeguarding Partnership can provide more detailed data which compares safeguarding issues, the youth justice system and custody rates across other council areas.

Action: Walter McCulloch to provide information from the modern slavery & exploitation subgroup showing occurrence of harm levels.

·     Work is underway to listen to the voice of young people in the “hard to reach” group.

·       The services for young people in the 16 to 25 age group are difficult to navigate due to the different age cut-off points for services such as housing and mental health. More work is needed to improve the continuity of provision. Case reviews are being used to help improve the transition from Children’s to Adults’ services. A report would go to the ICB in the new year to look at the themes in this area of work.

·       The voice of lived experience had recently been brought forward to the Partnership by several agencies.

·       A piece of work is being undertaken by the Youth Justice area on Buckinghamshire’s custody rates comparative to other areas

Action: WM to provide some broader data/performance information including custody rates at the same time as issuing the committee with the new business plan once agreed.

The Chairman thanked Walter McCulloch for the report