Barking and Dagenham Safeguarding Children Board
MINUTES
30 January 2014, 14.00-16.30
Meeting Room 1&2 Ripple Centre, Ripple Road, Barking
PRESENT:Sarah Baker / Independent Chair
Cllr John White / Councillor / Children’s Portfolio
Katherine Smith / Guest / LBBD
Vanessa Lodge / NHS England London / Director of Nursing
Lindsey Marks / LBBD/Thurrock / Principal Solicitor
Bernadette Horton / Schools / Head Teacher St Josephs
Matthew Cole / LBBD / Director of Public Health (rep Sue Levi)
Erik Stein / LBBD / Group Manager, Integrated Youth Services
Meena Kishinani / LBBD / DD Strategic Commissioning and Safeguarding
Avraamis Avraam / LBBD / Group Manager Safeguarding
Carmel Lynch / BD College / Safeguarding Officer
Tony Kirk / Borough Police / DCI Met Police
Sue Newton / CCG / Designated Nurse Safeguarding
Helen Jenner / LBBD / Corporate Director Children’s Services
Lucy Satchell-Day / London Probation / ACO, London Probation
Liz Winnett / LBBD / Business Manager LSCB
Kevin Jeffrey / CAIT / DICAIT Team
Kamini Rambellas / LBBD / DD Complex Needs and Social Care
Steve Calder / Probation / Probation Officer (Guest)
Damien Cole / LBBD / IWISA Manager
Cherrylyn Senior / LBBD/Thurrock / Principal Social Worker
Gill Mills / NELFT / Integrated Care Director
APOLOGIES:
Paul Trew / Fire Service
Paul Lalgee / BD College / Rep by Carmel Lynch
Andy Ewing / Police / Rep by Tony Kirk
Marian Henderson / Faith / Major, Salvation Army
Jacqui Himbury / CCG / CCG Director Nursing
Diane Jones / CCG / AD Maternity Commissioning
Dr Magid / NELCs / Designated Doctor
Jacqui Malcolm / Voluntary / Voluntary Member
Bob Garton / Schools / Head Teacher (rep Bernadette Horton)
Graham Farrant / LBBD / Chief Executive
Elaine Ryan / LBBD / Safeguarding Lead for Education
Ken Jones / LBBD / Head of Housing Strategy
Sharon cumberbatch / Lay Member / Lay Member
MINUTES
Item: / Discussion / Action: / Action by: /1. / Apologies and Introductions
Group made their introductions.
The Chair raised issue with the significant level of apologies received, where agencies are not represented.
The Chair reiterated that BDSCB agency attendance figures will be published within the Annual Report, as previous years.
Action: SB to send an email to all members accompanied with current %age attendance statistics. / SB
2. / BDSCB Board Minutes 5.12.13
Minutes were agreed for accuracy
Matters arising:
Learning Outcomes: Information that has been received so far has been included in the paper circulation. The Chair advised that this will be a rolling action for members, in order to capture work that has occurred since the last meeting, and work that will be completed before the next one. This will capture a rolling performance on work of the BDSCB.
Action: All agencies to review their submission and send update information to LW at each meeting.
Child Sexual Exploitation: TK provided an update to the Board.
TK will chair the MASE meetings and this will also form part of the CSE Committee. There is a London launch of the CSE protocol is on Monday. Additional CSE training has been arranged for 15.1.14 and will be rolled out to all front line staff. The training is delivered by the Met Police. CP advisors in Schools have already been trained.
Action: Additional training session to be arranged for BDSCB Members at the next meeting on 27th March 2014.
TK/KJ advised that Category 1 CSE team (those at risk of CSE) have been set up. Cat 2 and 3 (those subject to, or have been subject to) teams have been established, but are not fully staffed as yet, although a dedicated SPOC has been allocated.
The Chair has already written to the Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan Howe, in relation to staffing issues.
KR confirmed that the London AD group are also looking at the staffing challenges and the impact on CAIT services.
The Chair also advised that this issue had been picked up by the London LSCB Chairs. KR suggested that work is joined with the London Ads group in order to strengthen the issue.
SB to write to the commissioner again with the support of the additional information from the London AD’s group
Police were thanked for their open and honest approach to the identified risk. This is also captured within the BDSCB risk register.
Action: Police to ensure the risk included within the register captures current detail and risk level.
BDSCB Biographies: The Chair reminded members that it was agreed, following individual 1:1 meetings with the Chair, that a biography booklet would be compiled. This booklet will assist new members to the Board. There are still some outstanding submissions from members.
Action: Outstanding submissions to be forwarded to LW as soon as possible.
E-safety: A single protocol for safety remains outstanding.
Action: AAv to complete by 28.2.14
CP and LAC Data: The issue of numbers of children being taken into care on police protection was audited by KJ. Whilst numbers are high all cases it was confirmed that all cases were justified with no issues raised.
KR informed Board that EDT is being restructured with Adult and Children are splitting. Adult out of hours will be run by NELFT and Children’s will be run by Redbridge. It is envisaged that EDT would accompany Police on visits to assess in the home at the time.
Young Peoples Safety Group: This item is still outstanding. BH still to ensure that pupils and staff are being released to attend the YPSG. BH to raise at the next Heads Forum.
GP attendance at CP Conferences: This is an ongoing discussion between SN and Dr Burack and has been raised at their PTI meeting. CCG have also identified funding for additional training to minimise any gaps in understanding.
The Chair has also written to NHS England (London) in relation to this matter.
VL raised the issue of payment for GPs to attend conferences, as she has identified that some boroughs provide this resource. The Chair stated that GMC guidance 2012 is very clear about safeguarding and attendance at conferences so is surprised that this is being raised as an issue. GPs have a moral and professional responsibility to attend Conferences or at the very least submit up to date reports to the conference chair..
Action: SN to speak with Dr Burack in relation to training
Action: A Report to be taken from the BDSCB to the Health and Wellbeing Board on this issue.
LAC presentation to HWBB: This is still outstanding. LAC presentation was given to HWBB and presenters raised their dislikes in the process. Although HJ has written to Head Teachers, BH to feed this back to the Heads Forum.
Action: BH to feedback to Forum
LADO figures: At last Board updated LADO figures were requested. AAv updated the Board at this meeting:
Last quarter there were 61 allegations received. Most were in relation to Foster Carers/Placements, followed by Schools.
There has been an increase in referrals directly from Ofsted; 15 in the last quarter. This is seen as a positive increase.
Physical abuse remains the highest category.
90% of the referrals came in on time (should be within 1 day) although remainder were received within 3 days (some due to weekend being a factor).
Currently 12 members of staff across the partnership are suspended and AAv monitors these to ensure timescales are followed. Seen of these are from the School environment.
Minutes were agreed. / All
TK
SB
TK/KJ
All
AAv
BH
SN
SB
SB/ HJ
BH
Presentation Theme: Quality and Improvement
3. / Setting the scene
The Chair provided an overview for the remainder of the meeting.
Going forward, the BDSCB will be inspected in its own right and members will be working on the BDSCB self assessment during the round table discussions.
Working Together 2013 asks for a more robust Annual Report to be produced by BDSCBs. Submissions from Partners should be less descriptive of work undertaken and more detailed in relation to evidencing effectiveness and impact on services.
4. / Performance and Quality Assurance
MK presented a power point presentation to the board.
Strengths:
• Good performance on CP plans lasting 2 years or more; 5% in Q3 (12 children) compared to 7% in Q2 - performance is in line with all benchmarks;
• Continued high usage of CAF. In 2013/14, including Q3, 558 CAFs/FCAFs have been initiated. DC now chairs the Early Intervention Committee for the BDSCB. This committee will look at ensuring the correct use of CAF as still too many referrals to social care are being received without a CAF in place.
• Youth offending performance remains good and lower than all benchmarks;
• We have had no offenders who have received level 3 MAPPA reviews reoffending against children in the last 4 years. Probation confirmed this.
• All Schools have E-safety plans in place.
Areas for concern:
• At Q3, the number of children on child protection plans has risen to 239, 43.5 per 10,000 – this is below our SNs but remains above national and London rates. CP numbers to date are higher at 249.
• The number of children becoming subject of child protection plans for a second or subsequent time has increased to 13% (38 children) compared to only 2.5% in 2012/13 however it should also be noted that this figure includes children that were on plans in other boroughs, but now reside in LBBD.
• Transition plans for children with disabilities aged 14 and over is declining; 67% in Q2 2013/14 (out of 30 children only 20 in place) compared to 84% in 2012/13;
• Rate of permanent exclusions is declining year on year and performance is now in line with the national rate, better than London and SN rates. So far in academic year 2013/14, there have 3 permanent exclusions (0.01%); and
• u18 conceptions declining - . Q2 2012 data reduction to 34.2 per 1000, a 37% reduction on the 1998 baseline and our lowest ever quarterly rate. Performance is now RAG rated amber from Red rating.
Risks:
• Timeliness of Assessments is improving but is still too low. In Q3 2013/14, 67% of assessments were completed within 45 days –Authorisation of assessments has improved significantly and over 80% are now being authorised in 1-3 days. KR advised that auditing of cases is attributable to this; however a second round is being commenced.
• Percentage of CP visits completed in 6 weeks still remains too low; as at the end of Q3, performance has dropped to 81% compared to 89% in Q2 2013/14). Performance should be at 100% and this is a safeguarding risk. This data will be submitted to Government from 2013/14 in the new statutory return. It should be noted that in the last two weeks 66 new children have come into the borough, however numbers of Social Workers has now increased in line with that.
• Number of children entering care on police protection is still very high; 102 out of 236. This issue was discussed earlier.
Action: A multi agency audit to be considered on Neglect.
• The number of families living in temporary accommodation is rising; and currently stands at 1000. A lot of work is being completed by Housing in addressing this issue; and
• Level of Child Poverty is high in the borough. 1/3 are living in workless households. A new campaign on Free School Meals is to be launched as the uptake is reducing.
Headlines from Local Dataset:
Contacts into Triage (social care) slightly higher in Q3 2013/14 – 2,068 compared to 2,049 in Q2. 94% of all referrals are progressing to some type of statutory assessment;
Increase in s47 investigations in 2013/14 – 882 as at the end of Q3 2013/14 compared to 689 in 2012/13;
100% of Initial Child Protection Conferences held within 15 working days of Strategy Discussion in Q3 2013/14 compared to 87% as at end of 2012/13;
Year on year increase in allegations referred to the LADO – data from LADO was discussed earlier.
The Chair thanked MK for the presentation and time was allowed for questions:
KR posed a question to the Board on how do we address these issues, based on referrals increasing and resources reducing?
GM provided reassurance to the Board that Health Visitor capacity is on target for increase: 12 appointed in 12/13; 17 due in 13/14 and 11 set for 14/15. NELFT has currently taken on 34 students, an increase for 12. They are in discussions with NHS England around taking on additional cohort in March, with a view to get HV in post by March 2015.
5. / BDSCB Risk Register:
All had sight of the Risk Register. This is a live working document. HJ requested that a category of “Financial Resource” to be added to the Risk Register.
Action: All agencies to review this register and feedback comments and additions to LW. / All
6. / Learning and Improvement Committee
National SCR reviews:
AAv introduced his SCR report using a power point presentation. The full SCR report had been circulated ahead of the meeting.
AAv reviewed all nationally published Serious Case Reviews and detailed the overarching themes.
A copy of the presentation is attached. /