KIRKLEES SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN BOARD
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD MONDAY, 11th JULY 2016, 2.00PM – 5.00PMAT
BROAD LEA HOUSE, BRADLEY PARK, DYSON WOOD WAY, BRADLEY, HUDDERSFIELD HD2 1GZ.
Bron Sanders / Independent Chair
Caroline Rhodes / Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board Manager
Christina Quinn / Director of Quality, Locala Community Partnerships CIC
Tahira Iqbal / Non-Executive Member
Christina Fairhead / Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children, Greater Huddersfield CCG & North Kirklees CCG
Osman Khan / Superintendent, West Yorkshire Police
Clive Barrett / Head of Safeguarding, Mid Yorks
Gill Ellis / Assistant Director for Learning, Children & Young People, Kirklees Council
Mandy Williams (observing for Lee Thompson) / Interim Manager, Safeguarding Assurance, Well-Being & Integration – Safeguarding & Support
Mick Frost / Non-Executive Member
Nicky Hoyle / Consultant in Public Health, Commissioning, Public Health & Adult Social Care
Penny Woodhead / Head of Quality & Safety, Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group
Kerry Warhurst / Senior Nurse, Quality & Safety, NHS England
Councillor Erin Hill / Council (Joint) Lead Member, Portfolio Holder Lead for Children
Julie Warren-Sykes / Assistant Director of Nursing, South West Yorkshire Partnership
Jeanette Tate / Head Teacher, Ravenshall School, Dewsbury
Andrew Sinclair / Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC)
Victoria Thersby / Head of Safeguarding, CHFT
Carly Speechley / Interim Assistant Director, Family Support & Child Protection, Directorate for Children & Young People, Kirklees Council
Rachel Holmes / CAFCASS
Linda Johnson (for Robert Scott) / Safeguarding Co-ordinator, Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing
Caryn Hansom / Business Support Officer, KSCB
Apologies:
Gini Whitehead / Head of Probation, Kirklees & Wakefield National Probation Service (NPS)
Robert Scott / Head of Community Support Services, Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing
Gill Parry / Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children & LAC
Sarah Callaghan / Director for Children & Young People, Kirklees Council
Lee Thompson / Head of Safeguarding & Social Work, Well-Being & Communities Directorate, Kirklees Council
Non-Attendance
Amanda Taylor / Acting Operations Director, Action for Children
In Attendance:
Commissioning Manager, Commissioning & Health Partnerships, Kirklees Council
Assistant Director, Children’s Services, Barnardo’s
Head of Stronger Families Programme, Commissioning & Health Partnership
1. / INTRODUCTIONS, APOLOGIES, NEW MEMBERS/CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP
BS welcomed all to the meeting, introductions were made and apologies noted as above.
Substitutes for Board Members: welcome to the representative from Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing for RS. Also, to Kirklees Wellbeing & Communities representative, who will be observing for LT.
In respect of a representative for Kirklees Corporate Parenting & YOT (Youth Offending Team), CS informed that the roles have recently changed and she agreed to let BS know who will be the future representative on the Board.
2. / DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None
3. / MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING (6th MAY 2016) AND MATTERS ARISING
The minutes of the meeting held on the 6th May 2016 were agreed and matters arising were as follows:-
Pg. 4: Feedback from the external stock-take has been received by BS and discussions have taken place and some of the issues shared. It was noted that there are still some remaining issues. An audit has since taken place in Children’s Social Care which will be going to the Evaluation & Effectiveness workstream.
CAMHS (Children & Adolescent Mental Health Services) Review: the call for evidence was extended and a meeting held last week of the CAMHS review group which had been positive. BS informed that there is still opportunity to provide call for evidence for this review as it was felt there had been a low response from Children’s Social Care even though they are key players. CS agreed to take this up and make SC aware. The report will be written in August and should therefore be ready to come to the September Board meeting. BS explained this review was about a young person’s journey and informed that the Deputy Head from Honley High School had provided excellent input around the work being done with young people. GE explained this has been rolled out through the schools commissioning hub work. PW challenged the scope of the review and informed that some intelligence was potentially outside this scope and people seem to have used it as an opportunity to talk about other things. For example, PW advised that ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder) is not part of CAMHS. It was agreed that BS and PW would discuss this further outside of the meeting and also look at the Terms of Reference which talks about the child’s journey through CAMHS and the earlier levels. PW also felt there would be challenge in tying up some of the things to be commissioned.
Pg. 5: Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers - in respect of unaccompanied young people who may have suffered trauma, this issue would been discussed at the Development & Business Planning group and a report will be provided to the September Board meeting.
NJH advised that the research done for the Whitehouse Centre is not yet complete but will be shared when available.
Paediatric SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centres) update: KW advised that services are at present provided by Mountain Health Care as an interim measure for paediatric services. NHS England are reviewing all services across the Yorkshire and Humber region and explained that Paediatrician’s have to see a minimum number of acute cases per year (Yorkshire and Humber do not have sufficient activity to support centres in every area). At present there are 4 centres which will be reduced to 2 but with a number of spokes or areas to provide support services and follow-up. The commissioning around this has to be negotiated with 4 PCC’s (Police & Crime Commission’s) across the region and currently agreement cannot be reached. Unfortunately, there cannot be a plan or timetable until this has been agreed. Another meeting is planned towards to the end of July to see if a resolution can be reached. The first stage is for agreement to be reached to move forward and then the proposal to go out to consultation. The intention is to invest more into the ‘spoke’ so it can be better than what there is now. TI queried whether the local PCC could influence something for West Yorkshire but KW advised that there is not enough activity in West Yorkshire to support one.
It was agreed this be kept on the agenda.
Pg. 7: Supervision audit – BS requested an update on the progress of the audit in relation to Children’s Social Care in order to complete the multi agency supervision audit. CS advised that she would look into this and update. CR informed that the Business Manager, Kirklees Children & Young People, has identified the cases and the Service Manager, Kirklees Children & Young People had drafted a report which is with LT to finalise.
Pg. 10: Schools Safeguarding Audit – this has now reached 100%.
4. / CSC (Children’s Social Care) DEVELOPMENT BOARD (STANDING ITEM)
CS presented the Children’s Services Development Board update document and advised that the development plan will be circulated later. Actions from this have been completed and are now ready to re-focus key priorities moving forward. A workshop is being held on Wednesday for future planning.
CS informed that a dedicated principal social worker has been recruited who will open up lines of communication with front-line practitioners and be mapping quality of practice. Four practice champions have also been recruited to support the principal social worker to extend her reach - mentoring, coaching and supporting, underpinned by standards and expectations, develop practice guidance, deliver workshops, etc.
Another area being looked at is performance and performance management to achieve a better understanding of the service. A performance framework is being developed which will incorporate the quality performance framework. Performance clinics have now been set up to run monthly underpinned by team performance clinics every week, to which all are welcome to attend. Some progress is being made, things are improving and non-allocated cases are being monitored to check that there is no drift, however, initial child protection conferences remain stubbornly low, possibly due to incorrect early recording or the number of conferences that can be done. This issue is being monitored regularly.
The quality assurance framework has very clear criteria and a piece of work has recently been done around placements for children in the Authority and a more intelligent approach is being taken around understanding the needs of the children and what is being done.
Culture of the organisation – it was identified that this has not been transparent enough in the past and a lot of work is being done around the culture we need to nurture – high challenge and high support. A lot of work has been done with the Leadership team and has now moved out to staff engagement sessions. The organisation is trying hard to link services into the council and to also have a culture of learning and making children the centre of practice. The service is going to be re-aligned.
A task and finish group has been organised around the Voice of the Child - capturing and being informed and encouraging practitioners and managers across the service in decision making.
Engagement in workforce development and strategy. The Principal Social Worker, Family Support & Child Protection and the Improvement Partner,have done some significant work around the ‘risk sensible’ model and training started in June and will be rolled out into the autumn. Investment in front-line management role is critical in driving improvement.
CS took any questions –
PW asked what was being done in relation to the number/turn over and vacancies in front-line staff - CS advised that this was being looked at though the development board. Recruitment and retention of staff is moving together towards a permanent and stable workforce. The development board is also looking towards a permanent service management structure.
PW also queried the health representation on the development board - CS advised that there was only Public Health representation at present.
NJH questioned attachment and child development – CS advised that training is being carried out with staff in attachment theory as it was identified that cases are ending up in court with not enough pre-work having been done.
MF asked around involvement with young people – CS stated that they are meeting groups of children monthly to get their views and are looking into setting up some sort of a child board to feed into. There is the Children in Care Council and Care Leavers report which has very useful learning.
CS explained that along with the new ‘risk sensible’ model for Children’s Social Care the structure will enable a child who comes into the system to have the same worker until permanence. Children’s Social Care are planning a whole round of partnership briefings covering this new model.
CS felt that all partners have given fantastic support in the development of this new way of working and BS acknowledged that a huge amount of work has been done and is being done to move forward in Children’s Social Care.
5. / CONTINUUM OF NEED RESPONSE FRAMEWORK
Consultation Feedback (for information) –
Previously the understanding of thresholds was not as clear and the document did not lend itself to clarity. The four levels are now much simpler. There was overwhelming response, generally positive, from the consultation and the revised document will now be published.
This was agreed.
6. / MASH/MARF (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub/Multi-Agency Referral Form) REFERRAL FORM
General feedback to the referral form was positive and that it was much easier to understand what was needed and was in a clearer and consistent format. Minor amendments had been made and brought back today for the Board to endorse.
Sessions are being held to look at the information coming in, see how difficult it is to get and how much easier it is when good quality information is received. This information will be going to the Evaluation & Effectiveness workstream and then to the September Board meeting.
OK advised that individuals working in MASH have a very difficult job and felt that this simple form was well over-due and gave his full support to it. CQ agreed with this.
TI queried the parental responsibility section explaining that sometimes it is not known if the carer is the biological parent and queried how parental responsibility is determined. CS advised that if this cannot be ascertained to write this explanation on the form. All information is checked out when received.
CB felt the use of this form would be a challenge for Mid Yorkshire Hospitals as they cover both Wakefield and Kirklees and have a joint Signs of Safety referral form. Staff will have to be trained in this ‘risk sensible’ approach as well and this will need to be considered as an organisation.
There was further discussion and challenge around the consent section and obtaining consent from other agencies and Health giving consent to Social Care. CS advised that this is not a mandatory field and is about consent to share information. Social Care will obtain the consent.
BS agreed there was still a lot more to do to get this absolutely right and the recommendations agreed were –
- Implement MARForm
- Circulate guidance + link on website
- A timetable of introduction
- Review in 6 months
7. / FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION STRATEGY
The final version of the draft FGM strategy was circulated for ratification by the Board which will also be considered at the Adult Safeguarding Board tomorrow. This was completed collaboratively with the 3 Boards – Adults and Children Safeguarding Boards and the Community Safety Partnership. A short-term implementation group will be set up and an action plan compiled.
GE felt a link could be included to No Child Out of Sight around children going missing.
Pg. 5: CF queried the arrangements for collation of data and information utilising existing data collection in Health and Police. It was felt this would need some thinking about to avoid duplicate reporting figures. CHFT (Calderdale & Huddersfield Foundation Trust) and Mid Yorks do this every month and GP’s are now recording but there is no way of collating this at present. It was agreed this would be for the task and finish group to take into consideration.
NJH found the map particularly helpful and wonders if this could be done for communities in Kirklees in order to target areas and professionals in these areas. It was agreed this would be for the task and finish group.
All agreed the recommendations and ratified the strategy.
8. / SERIOUS CASE REVIEW UPDATE
This section contains information about individual children who are subject of serious case reviews. The information is confidential and has been removed from these public minutes.
9. / KSCB SELF ASSESSMENT
BS will be continually keeping this document up to date in preparation for the Ofsted inspection and will be happy to receive any contributions/feedback.
Pg. 3: Areas for development/actions required – to include reference to engagement sessions held at The Textile Centre.
Pg. 5: 3) – to add reference to ‘…. equality, particularly ethnic minority perspectives …’
Pg. 6: 4) – should read ‘The SCR workstream is chaired by the designated nurse (CCG – Clinical Commissioning Group);’
10. / YOUNG CARERS (PRESENTATION)
Welcome to the Commissioning Manager, Commissioning & Health Partnerships and the Assistant Director, Children’s Services, Barnardo’s.
The Commissioning Manager explained he is responsible for the Young Carers contract which has been in place since 2006. Since then there have been a lot of changes and the market has opened to new opportunities. The Care Act came in and changes were made to meet new needs and also to incorporate the new council approach. Barnardo Services Ltd were awarded the contract which commenced on the 1st May 2016.
An update on the Kirklees Young Carers and Young Adult Carers Service summary was circulated for information.
The new contract with Barnardo’s will look at ways to reach out to young people who do not get any support at all. They will be looking at assessments and how young people can be engaged better, also including the transitions period and disadvantaged young people. The new part of the contract looks at supporting young people 16-18yrs giving opportunities and exit points, and will be looking at inappropriate caring roles and carrying out whole family assessments.
The Assistant Director, Barnardo’s advised that she was attending today on behalf of the Barnardo’s Service Manager.
The Assistant Director, Barnardo’s explained that since Barnardo’s had taken over the contract they were ensuring young carers have not experienced any drop in services and ensure that no young people are left out. They are in the process of looking at re-assessment referrals and are also accepting new referrals into the service. Publicity has been circulated to organisations to ensure they know of the new referral route.