South Glos Local Safeguarding Children Board

21 October 2016

At the last LSCB meeting, the following issues were discussed:

  • Survive opened the meeting, sharing an example of a family with whom they had worked. This was an example of how Survive, schools, staff from another Local Authority, South Glos Council’s Assessment and Social Work teams had all worked well together to keep children safe.
  • It was agreed that a Practitioners’ Board will be set up. This will be made up of staff, including reps from the voluntary and community sector, who work directly with children and young people in South Glos. The aim of the Board will be to feed messages from practitioners to the LSCB and to ensure that decisions taken at LSCB have the right impact on how we work with children and young people who may need to be safeguarded. If you want to be a rep on this Board, please contact me at .
  • The death of a child in South Glos has resulted in the LSCB commissioning a formal Case Review to see if there is learning for how we work to protect children in South Glos. It was agreed that the learning will be explored in more detail at the forthcoming LSCB development day.
  • There was an update on how early help services in South Glos are working together to intervene early, so that children’s needs do not escalate. The positive role played by schools, Health Visitors, the voluntary sector and others was mentioned in this update.
  • It was agreed to develop and embed work that has already started to allow children and young people to have a greater say in how the LSCB works. South Glos Council participation staff are leading work to involve and consult with all children and young people in South Glos to ask what are their Safeguarding priorities. They will also consult with children who have experience of South Glos’ Safeguarding services. Children and young people are already involved in some of the LSCB sub group work. This will continue and they will be involved and running pieces of work on specific Safeguarding issues.
  • There was a presentation on the Safeguarding arrangements in the NHS, in which the highly complex health service structure and the split between commissioners and providers were explained. The various Health reps on the LSCB pointed out the need to not ask for a “health rep” or “health view” as there are so many different organisations involved in delivering health services in South Glos.
  • The Council’s Gypsy and Traveller service gave a presentation on gypsy and traveller children in South Glos.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about the work of the LSCB, please contact me at .