Memorandum of Understanding

Between

Stockport Children’s Trust Board,

Stockport Safeguarding Children Board,

Stockport Health & Well-Being Board

2014

Signed: Chair of Stockport Children’s Trust and

Corporate Director, People (DCS)

Signed: Independent Chair of Stockport

Safeguarding Children Board

Signed: Chair of Health & Well-Being Board

Signed: Director of Public Health

Signed: Independent Chair of Stockport Adult

Safeguarding Board

Memorandum of Understanding

between

Stockport Children’s Trust Board,

Stockport Safeguarding Children Board, & Health and Well-Being Board

and between

Stockport Health and Well-Being Board and Stockport Safeguarding Adults Board

Introduction

1.  This document sets out the expectations of the relationship and working arrangements between Stockport Children’s Trust Board (CTB), Stockport Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) and Stockport Health and Well-Being Board. (H&WB).

2.  It also sets out the relationship between Stockport Health and Well-Being Board (H&WB) and Stockport Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB).

3.  It covers their respective roles and functions, membership of the boards, arrangements for challenge, oversight and scrutiny, and performance management.

4.  The chair of the Children’s Trust, the independent chairs of the SSCB and the SSAB, the chair of the Health and Well-Being Board, the Director of Children’s Services (DCS) and the Chief Executive of Stockport Council, have formally agreed to the arrangements set out in this document, which will be subject to bi- annual review (from the date of initial agreement) or immediately following legislative change.

Background

5.  Whilst there are no longer statutory duties for local authorities to have a Children’s Trust or to develop and produce a Children and Young People’s Plan, partners in Stockport have agreed to continue with our Children’s Trust Arrangements.

6.  Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The SSCB holds partner organisations to account for carrying out this duty.

7.  The Health and Social Care Act 2012 established Health and Wellbeing Boards as a forum where key leaders from the health and care system work together to improve the health and wellbeing of their local population and reduce health inequalities. Working Together to Safeguard Children: 2013 places a responsibility on the Director of Public Health to ensure that the needs of vulnerable children are a key part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment which is developed by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

8.  Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013 provides guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Role of Children’s Trust

9.  The purpose of the Children’s Trust Board in Stockport is to bring all partners with a role in improving outcomes for children together to agree a common strategy on how they will co-operate to improve children’s well-being and to help embed partnership working in the partners’ routine delivery of their own functions.

10. It also provides a strategic framework within which partners may agree to commission services together, with pooled or aligned budgets. The Children’s Trust oversees the Children and Young People Strategy which remains the responsibility of the partners, both individually and together. Within the Children’s Trust Structure each partner’s existing lines of accountability are unchanged, i.e. each partner of the Children’s Trust Board retains its existing formal lines of accountability for delivering its own functions. This avoids any confusion or blurring of lines of accountability within the Children’s Trust Board.

Role of Local Safeguarding Children Boards

11. The role of the Local Safeguarding Children Board is set out in Section 14 of the Children Act 2004; namely to:

·  Co-ordinate what is done by each agency to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in the area;

·  Ensure the effectiveness of that work.

12. The Stockport Safeguarding Children Board is the decision making body for multi-agency safeguarding issues within Stockport. It is a statutory partnership and its work is directed by statutory guidance. This guidance dictates the functions to be undertaken by LSCBs.

13. The DCS has a statutory responsibility for ensuring that an effective LSCB is in place for the Local Authority area. It is the responsibility of the Chief Executive of Stockport Council to appoint or remove the SSCB chair with the agreement of a panel including SSCB partners and lay members. The Chief Executive, drawing on other SSCB partners and, where appropriate, the Lead Member for Children’s Services will hold the Chair to account for the effective working of the SSCB

14. Regulation 5 of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards Regulations 2006 sets out the functions of the LSCB, in relation to the above objectives under section 14 of the Children Act 2004, as follows:

(a) / developing policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area of the authority, including policies and procedures in relation to:
(i) / the action to be taken where there are concerns about a child's safety or welfare, including thresholds for intervention;
(ii) / training of persons who work with children or in services affecting the safety and welfare of children;
(iii) / recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children;
(iv) / investigation of allegations concerning persons who work with children;
(v) / safety and welfare of children who are privately fostered;
(vi) / cooperation with neighbouring children's services authorities and their Board partners;
(b) / communicating to persons and bodies in the area of the authority the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, raising their awareness of how this can best be done and encouraging them to do so;
(c) / monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of what is done by the authority and their Board partners individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and advising them on ways to improve;
(d) / participating in the planning of services for children in the area of the authority; and
(e) / undertaking reviews of serious cases and advising the authority and their Board partners on lessons to be learned.

Regulation 5 (2) which relates to the LSCB Serious Case Reviews function and regulation 6 which relates to the LSCB Child Death functions.

Regulation 5 (3) provides that an LSCB may also engage in any other activity that facilitates, or is conducive to, the achievement of its objectives.

15. Stockport Safeguarding Children Board has an independent chair. The Board is supported in discharging its functions through its governance arrangements.

16. The ‘constitution’ of the Board is in place and agreed and supports the SSCB Governance Framework.

Role of Health & Wellbeing Boards

17. Stockport has its own H&WB. Board members collaborate to understand the local community’s needs, agree priorities and encourage commissioners to work in a more joined up way so that patients and the public experience more joined-up services from the NHS and Stockport Council.

18. The H&WB aims to help communities to have a greater say in understanding and addressing their local health and social care needs.

19. Functions of Stockport H&WB

·  The H&WB has strategic influence over commissioning decisions across health, public health and social care.

·  The Board strengthens democratic legitimacy by involving democratically elected representatives and patient representatives in commissioning decisions alongside commissioners across health and social care. The Board also provides a forum for challenge, discussion, and the involvement of local people.

·  The H&WB brings together the Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group and Stockport Council to develop a shared understanding of the health and wellbeing needs in the Borough. They have undertaken the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and developed a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy for how these needs can be best addressed. This includes recommendations for joint commissioning and integrating services across health and care.

20. By undertaking the JSNA, the H&WB drives local commissioning of health care, social care and public health and creates a more effective and responsive local health and care system.

21. Membership

In November 2013 Stockport H&WB comprised the members:

Name / Function / Status / Comment
Cllr John Pantall (Chair) / Elected Member / Statutory Member / Boards must have at least one elected member
Cllr Brian Leck / Elected Member / Statutory Member
Cllr Tom McGee / Elected Member / Statutory Member
Cllr Adrian Nottingham / Elected Member / Statutory Member
Trish Bennett / NHS
England / Additional member
Jane Crombleholme (Vice Chair) / Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group / Statutory Member / Boards must have at least one CCG member
Terry Dafter / Director of Adult Social Services / Statutory Member
Dr Ranjit Gill / Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group / Statutory Member / Boards must have at least one CCG member
Maria Kildunne / Member of the Public / Additional member
John Leach / Stockport HealthWatch / Statutory Member
Gaynor Mullins / Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group / Statutory Member / Boards must have at least one CCG member
Dr Vicci Owen-Smith / Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group / Statutory Member
Dr Stephen Watkins / Director of Public Health / Statutory Member
Andrew Webb / Director of Children’s Services / Statutory Member

Shared Responsibilities of all Boards

20. The SSCB, H&WB and CTB must have separate identities to ensure there is clarity and transparency within the child protection system. In order to provide effective scrutiny, the SSCB must be independent. It must not be subordinate to, or subsumed within, other local structures.

21. The SSCB provides constructive challenge to the Health and Wellbeing Board (through the DCS who sits on H&WB and is a member of SSCB) and the Children’s Trust Board, to ensure that the commissioning of services is in line with safeguarding practices and is reflected in service level agreements with providers. The CTB, H&WB, and SSCB work together to develop effective commissioning and provide constructive challenge to the SSCB on its role in improving safeguarding practices in Stockport.

22. This need to balance the responsibility of the SSCB to challenge the Children’s Trust Board and Health & Wellbeing Board and its duty to speak independently, with the need for appropriate scrutiny and accountability, is addressed in this memorandum.

Relationship between the independent chair of the Stockport Safeguarding Children Board, the chair of the Children’s Trust Board, and the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013 has a clear role for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Lead Member (as identified in the Children’s Act 2004), in satisfying themselves that the DCS is fulfilling their managerial responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The relationship and working arrangements are governed by agreements and processes within the local authority and among Children’s Trust partners for improving services and outcomes. Targets for improving safeguarding and progress against the agreements are reported to the Children’s Trust Board and Health and Wellbeing Board. Every year, as part of the SSCB Annual Report and Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Annual Report, the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council should make an assessment of the effectiveness of local governance and partnership arrangements for improving outcomes for children and supporting the best possible standards for safeguarding children. In Stockport this responsibility is dispensed by quarterly meetings of the Corporate Accountabilities Group between the Chief Executive, the Director of Children’s Services, The Council Leader, the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Independent Chair of SSCB. It is proposed that the Chair of H&WB be invited to join this meeting in order to provide a direct link between the Chairs of SSCB and H&WB. There is an expectation of mutual challenge and accountability. The agenda covers:

·  Progress against priorities in SSCB Strategic plan;

·  Progress against priorities in the Health and Wellbeing plan;

·  Any issues of concern in relation to the SSCB, including contribution to work plan and priorities;

·  Any issues of concern about safeguarding arrangements which should be reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board or Children’s Trust Board, including the contribution of individual agencies;

·  The effectiveness of the SSCB and its delivery of the work programme

23. The chairs of the Children’s Trust Board and Health and Wellbeing Board receive the annual report of the SSCB. The SSCB Annual Report reports on the effectiveness of local child safeguarding and promoting the welfare of Stockport children. It provides a rigorous and transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of local services. This report is submitted to the Chief Executive, Leader of the Council, the Crime and Police Commissioner and the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

Relationship between the independent Chair of the Stockport Safeguarding Children Board, the Director of Children’s Services, the Lead Member for Children, the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Chief Executive

24. The DCS has the responsibility within the local authority, under section 18 of the Children Act 2004, for improving outcomes for children, local authority children's social care functions and local cooperation arrangements for children's services.

25. The Department for Education Statutory Guidance on the Roles and Responsibilities of the Director of Children’s Services and the Lead Member for Children’s Services states that the DCS will make a key contribution to ensuring effective working relationships between the H&WB and the LSCB. The DCS sits on the Health and Wellbeing Board as a statutory member.

26. The independent chair of the SSCB is responsible for the effective delivery of specific SSCB priorities agreed the SSCB Strategic plan; and for challenging the H&WB and CTB if agencies are not delivering on their safeguarding responsibilities.

Membership of Stockport Safeguarding Children Board, Children’s Trust Board and Health and Wellbeing Board

Individuals

27. Some SSCB member organisations are also Children’s Trust and Health and Wellbeing members and this can help to ensure good communication and co-ordinated developments between the boards These include: