Julie Ross / Interim Chair, Chief Officer, Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group / JR
Patrick Boyle / Senior Manager, Children’s Social Care, NCC (deputising for Head of Children’s Social Care) / PB
Graham Cook / Lay Member / GC
Steve Day / Safeguarding Standards Manager & Principal Social Worker, NCC / SD
Julie Dodson / Director, Voluntary & Community Sector / JD
John Douglas / Detective Chief Inspector, Northumbria Police / JD
Carole Goodman / Senior Head of Service, Cafcass / CG
Helen Guy / Community Safety Manager, Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service (deputising for Alex Bennett) / HG
Karen Herne / Public Health Service Manager, Children and Young People and Sexual Health, Public Health Directorate, NCC / KH
Andy Johnson / Director of Education, NCC / AJ
Dr Naomi Jones / Designated Doctor, Child Protection, Northumberland CCG / NJ
Liz Kelly / Director of Offender Management, Northumbria Community Rehabilitation Company / LK
Daljit Lally / Executive Director Wellbeing & Community Health Northumberland County Council & Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust / DL
Linda Lincoln / Designated Nurse, Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group / LL
Julie McVeigh / Assistant Director, Barnardos East Region / JMcV
Vida Morris / Group Director, Northumberland Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust / VM
Saira Park / Safeguarding & LAC Quality Assurance Officer, Business Support to NSCB, NCC / SP
Linda Parmley / Senior Manager, Adult & Children’s Services, Northumbria Health Care NHS Foundation Trust (deputising for Debbie Reape) / LP
Gillian Physick / Children’s Services Manager, Action for Children / GP
Peter Tilson / Principal Solicitor, Northumberland Legal Services, NCC / PT
Lucy Topping / Assistance Director of Patient Experience, NHS England / LT
Julie Young / Principal Housing Services Manager, NCC / JY
Apologies received
Robert Arckless / Policy Board Member for Children’s Services, NCC / RA
Alex Bennett / Chief Fire Officer, Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service (represented by Helen Guy) / AL
Phillip Soderquest / Head of Public Protection Manager, NCC / PS
Debbie Reape / Deputy Director of Nursing, Northumbria Health Care NHS Foundation Trust (represented by Linda Parmley) / DR
Jane Bowie / Head of Safeguarding & Strategic Commissioning, Adult Services / JB
Anna English / Strategic Safeguarding Manager, Northumberland Safeguarding Adults Board / AE
Did not attend
Maureen Gavin / National Probation Service / MG
In Attendance
Jane Abbott / Named Specialist for Safeguarding Children, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust / JA
Carol Leckie / Team Manager, Health & Wellbeing Team inc Safeguarding / CL
Karen McDonald / Service Manager for Looked After Children / KMcD
Catheryn Marr / Safeguarding Report Writer/Minute Taker, Northumberland Children’s Services Safeguarding Unit / CM
Agenda
Item / Discussion and Actions Agreed / Person Respo-nsible
1 / Welcome, Introductions & Apologies
- JR introduced herself as the interim Chair and welcomed Members;round table introductions were made. New/returning Board Members attending today are Gillian Physickwho will be representing Action for Childrenin place of John Egan and Graham Cook, Lay Member, returning after an absence due to work commitments.
- Apologies received are noted above.
- DL informed Members that NCC and Richard Burrows have agreed to end the current arrangement under which RB, through a company, was engaged as the LSCB’s independent Chair. The Council felt that a different style of chairing arrangement was now more appropriate and RB has agreed that he would not wish to continue to fulfil the role in a manner which no longer seemed appropriate to the Council. RB has demonstrated considerable knowledge of children’s safeguarding issues and best practice and NSCB has greatly benefitted from this. He took the multi-agency group through an Ofsted inspection in 2012, which highly commended Northumberland’s safeguarding arrangements and has helped to navigate the Board through a period of major change and the ongoing pressures caused by austerity. DL extended the Board’s gratitude and best wishes to RB for all his new projects.
2 / Correspondence
- LT summarised a letter from NHS England to all Chairs of LSCBs. In June 2014 a national investigation was launched in regard to the Child Health Information System (CHIS) following a discrepancy in data recording in East Anglia. Remedial action was taken and the incident is now closed with no evidence of harm to children. This triggered an assessment of all CHIS by national incident team which resulted in 6 CHIS being identified as having poor data transfer processes. Some of these second level discrepancies are in the North East area but are not in Northumberland where alignment of data sharing systems is better than a lot of other regions.
3 / Minutes of last meeting & Matters Arising
- Pg 2, (3.1): Governance Arrangements: the draft protocol for governance arrangements between Northumberland Safeguarding Children’s Board (NSCB) and the Health & Wellbeing Board (HWBB) has been to HWBB and has been amended by Jane Bowie. SD will contact JB for the finalised version and circulate to members.
- Pg 3: Signs of Safety: presentation of the update report has been deferred until the March Board.
- Pg 3: Development Plan: the Board Review Day will be deferred until a new Independent Chair is appointed.
- Pg 3: Section 11 sampling: this has been discussed at the Performance & Quality Assurance Sub-committee and an audit event is being arranged.
- Pg 3: The revised Child Protection Conference Standard document has been distributed and included in the latest TriX update.
- Pg 4: SP reported that work to populate the NSCB website is ongoing. The site is not yet live but Members can click on the link provided to test access. SP encouraged all agencies to provide information for the site and provide feedback to her.
- Pg 4 (5.1): The multi-agency Threshold document will be refreshed to includeFemale Genital Mutilation (FGM). LL suggested that her successor as NCCG Designated Nurse, Margaret Tench, should be involved with this refresh from the start as she will be able to contribute her knowledge of the activity and progress made in Newcastle where the process is further developed. Allan Brown’s report on FGM has been distributed and a draft Strategy and Action Plan is being developed which will be reported to the Board at a later date.
- Pg 5 (5.2): The update of the Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)action planby PB and the Vulnerable Adolescents Sub-committee is ongoing and progress will be reported at the Business Sub-committee and then to the Board.
- Pg 7 (5.3): it was noted that the that the Reviewing Officer Child Protection Activity Update Report & 2014/15 Annual Report will be presented at the NSCB meeting in May 2015. The monitoring of workloads and demand on CSC and health services in the south east of the county is now an agenda item for the Performance & Quality Assurance Sub-committee.
- Action 20 - Future updates and annual reports from IRO service will report on missing children/children placed outside of the authority - The person responsible should read SD not C’OR.
- Pg 8 (5.4): Action 24: Vida Morris will provide information on restraint from NTW – VM queried the level of information needed about restraint. Within NTW if restraint is used inappropriately or a complaint is received that it has been abusive this information is reported via the IR3 incident reporting system; this then links into the Safeguarding reporting system and the LADO system. An example of this in operation is recent incidents at Ferndene resulting in the unit being visited by Chris O’Reilly, LADO. However, in some cases restraint is factored into care plans with the involvement of patients and/or family. As NTW has more than one source of restraint information VM wanted to clarify whether data already captured and reported via the safeguarding reporting route was sufficient for NSCB purposes. AH agreed that it was.
- Pg 8: Action 25: John Douglas will liaise with the CPS to provide information about CP prosecution outcomes.- JD reported that the CPS has had problems providing information with the required breakdown of child protection data but he will report this to the Board as soon as the CPS are able to provide it.
- Pg 10: Monitoring of attendance at Child Protection Conferences will be reported in the Performance Report at the March Board.
- Pg 11 (5.8): In response to the figures showing a fall in 2014 in NTW attendance at NSCB trainingVM assured the Board that NTW is providing an internal programme of training. They have worked closely with Anne Lambert to endorse training standards. Figures for 2014 were:
Level 2 – 96.4%
Level 3 – 85.9%
- Pg 12 (5.9): JD reported that Northumbria Police had not received an NSCB invoice and requested that this be sent to him as the named recipient. In the absence of a substantive Chair funding issues will be discussed outside the Board meeting.
- Pg 12 (5.10): DL provided an update about recruitment to the post of Head of Children’s Social Care. It has not been possible to short-list for the post and utilising internal resources is being considered.
SD
PB
JD
AH
4.1 / Annual Report 2013/14 on the use of Physical Intervention in the Local Authority’s Children’s Homes – KMcD
- Northumberland has 6 secure homes including the Short Break Service. All staff are trained in the hierarchical programme (CALM) for the non-confrontational management of young people. The training is focussed on de-escalation. The report contains figures up to September 2014 but KMcD now has additional data for October-December 2014. Restraints are categorised from 1 – 5; 1 being low–level intervention such as moving the person to a different area and 5 being the most serious. Occasionally children will ask to be taken to the floor or put themselves to the floor but these incidents are still recorded as ‘prone’.
- The smaller community house model allows staff to build more developed relationships with the children. Children are involved with writing part of their own care plan and can say how they would prefer staff to respond to their behaviour.
- Kyloe House is a national resource with a reputation as a good service. There are few children from Northumberland and most come from the larger cities. Kyloe is very different to the other services as it is not an open service and the option to go out outside is not available. In this locked environment a different approach is needed.
- Update data for October – December 2014
Kestrel – 1 incident
Thornbrae –2 incidents (Thornbrae has seen a significant decrease in the use of physical intervention due to re-training).
Kyloe – 43 incidents (November had 20 physical interventions – during this time there were 2 young people in Kyloe with mental health issues and a history of self-harm; intervention to cut a ligature is also recorded as a physical intervention).
- Homes are now required by Ofsted to complete Location Risk Assessments which also include information on local schools and crime data including MAPPA information. There has been a significant increase in partnership working by Home staff with local police, social workers and mental health services.
- JR thanked KMcD for her clear and helpful presentation.
4.2 / Update re Ofsted Inspection to Schools – CL
In 2013 a process started whereby education settings were expected to complete Section 11 self-assessments to show that their safeguarding standards were at an acceptable level when measured against clear criteria. This was a joint Education-Children’s Services exercise.
Kyloe House was not included in the audit but academies were. All those asked to complete have done so and schools have seen it as a positive process which has led to some setting up Safeguarding groups of their own in order to look at the issue more holistically. Prudhoe High School had received some criticismfrom Ofsted in regard to safeguarding but recently their Ofsted inspector noted their Sec 11 document.
A 3 tier level of response has been established:
- 1 =directed by Chair of the LSCB, intervention in a setting to conduct a Section 11 audit and produce an action plan for improvement, triggered by a safeguarding concern
- 2 = directed by Director of Education & Skills, a request to the setting to review safeguarding standards using Section 11
- 3 = a request from the Senior Manager with responsibility for safeguarding to submit their current Section 11 audit
Section 11 is audited at least annually and the NSCB is considering using an on-line tool.
The Partnership Co-ordinatorsin each Education Partnership will take on a safeguarding quality assurance role.
Training is being looked at by Anne Lambert with a view to refreshing the training plan which will include an offer of safeguarding training for governors.
Schools are now more accountable and CL has had a positive response from them.
- JR commented that 100% for returns was a very good. CL assured her that in future she would be including Kyloe House.
- AJ said that independent schools need to be included as well. CL confirmed that they were being offered support at the moment and figures should be available by Easter.
- Karen McDonald has supported Sec 11 at Ridley Hall residential school.
- AJ commented that residential settings are a grey area and it can be difficult to pick up safeguarding issues. The inadequacy does not lie in the policies and procedures but in the application of them. Ofsted recently picked up a safeguarding issue 1 week after Northumberland picked it up. Action has been taken to ensurethe school is now safe. Lack of training for governors was an important factor in this case.
- CL said that academies made up a large proportion of schools volunteering their Sec 11 information. As a double check it is also included in Health & Wellbeing visits. AJ explained that the LA was not empowered to intervene directly in academies except in safeguarding circumstances.
- In response to a query by KH about further education, AJ said that the LA was responsible for Sixth Forms and the under 18s. SD suggested that the next logical step would be to broaden out to include Kirkley Hall and Northumberland College.
- LT said it was important not just to have policies but to ensure governors implemented them and wondered how this message is shared. AJ explained that the ultimate action is to remove the governing body, which in recent case would be the board of governors. Governing bodies rely on the Headteacher or SENCO to ensure polices are implemented.
- Safeguarding will be top of the agenda for Partnership Co-ordinators as the main concern is that children are safe in school.
- If school cannot provide CL with evidence theimpact oftheir policies she changes the RAG rating from green to red.
- Report made 3 recommendations:
- That the Board note the contents of the report and the ongoing development for partnership working with schools regarding Section 11 auditing –
- That the Board gave consideration to the option of cross-moderation over the range of services completing Section 11 audits.
- That Board members promote all colleagues to participate in the consultation to review ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.
- The Headteacher representative on the NSCB has been long term absent due to sickness. AJ will ask the school community to propose a name for a new school Board representative.
- GC commented that is was good to hear that there were developments in relation to independent schools and academies. He endorsedthe action to identify a new school representative.
- JR commented that the report was comprehensive and very useful.
The Board accepted the report recommendations and formally approved the 3 tier response to safeguarding issues.
4.3 / Performance Information -AH
- The data set is based on the one used by West Midlands and the aim is collect data about Children’s Services activity and evidence that standards in relation to Child Protection Conferences are being met. AH explained that today’s report is a draft version as some data has been received from other agencies and there may be some issues of interpretation to resolve. The report also includes some questions for the Board and reference to key data raised at the November NSCBabout the Children’s Services data set
- Appendix 1 of the report is an example of the data collection template for partner agencies and shows the level of specificity involved. A difficult aspect of the data collection has been identifying the most appropriate person in each agency to provide the data.
- Since the last Board there had been few reports by partner agencies of barriers to providing performance indicator data.
- Processes are in hand to collect CSE data and missing children data.
- CG said that at a previous meeting the issue of Family Justice System & PLO had been raised but there was something of a disconnection between what is reported here and elsewhere. AH agreed this information would be useful.
- LP said that where some indicators did not appear to have NHCFT date she would progress these and update AH.
- LK queried how probation information would be divided between the National Probation Service and Northumbria Community Rehabilitation Company.