Stockton Local Safeguarding Children Board

Briefing for schools and education settings no. 22

Context

Each local authority is required to establish a Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) for their area and Section 13 of the Children Act 2004 specifies the organisations and individuals (other than the local authority) that should be represented on LSCBs. This includes representation from the Education sector. This briefing note is put together by these representatives as a means of ensuring the key discussions, information and action points arising from the Board meetings are communicated to schools as swiftly and as accessibly as possible.

Briefing from Board meeting May2016.

  • The Learning and Improving Practice Sub- Group annual report

The Learning & Improving Practice Sub Group (LIPSG) oversees governance of the Local Learning Reviews and Serious Case Reviews for the Board. It monitors the actions from them and holds partners to account for ensuring that learning is effectively disseminated. During 2015 / 2016 the reviews identified the following recurring key themes:

Professional Challenge;

Risk Assessments;

Decision making;

Lack of professionals’ effective response to indicators of chronic neglect;

Pathway & protocols for ‘Did not attend and missed appointments’;

No multi-agency (TAF) meetings held to obtain a full picture of the child;

Over-reliance on parental reporting.

These themes have huge relevance for work in education and have been the subject of forum presentations, particularly the issue of disguised compliance by parents and professionals being over-confident in parents’ responses. The need for multi-agency meetings as soon as possible has also been highlighted to enable a full picture of the family to be ascertained early to inform assessment. Health professionals now consider ‘Did not attend’ cases as ‘Child not brought’ cases to place the emphasis on the parents’ lack of care rather than the child missing an appointment. Pathways are now in place to ensure any ‘child not brought’ case is followed up.

  • LADO

The SLSCB received a report regarding the Local AuthorityDesignated Officer (LADO) activity covering 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 with regard to

managing allegations against staff, carers and volunteers. Stockton Borough Council has a full time dedicated LADO, Philip Curtis, who hasbeen in post since November 2014. The post of LADO with Stockton Borough Council is an independent role within the authority, which ensures the LADO remains impartial.

The role of the LADO is to provide management and overview of cases where there are allegations against staff, cares or volunteers who work with children from all sectors. The LADO ensures that advice and guidance is given to Designated Officers and Senior Managers within organisations; this includes the monitoring of progress and timescales of these cases. The LADO ensures that there is a consistent approach to the application of policy and procedures when managing allegations and maintains a secure information database for all allegations.

It was particularly pleasing that the education sector has been referring to the LADO regularly and appropriately. The report recorded:

The greatest number of referrals received by the LADO came from Education who were responsible for the submission of 34% (43) of the referrals. Children Services were responsible for 18% (22) of the referrals recorded. Within these agencies there is a clear understanding and awareness to refer individuals who come within LADO reporting criteria, be it through employment or voluntary work, in order to safeguard children.

It is also pleasing that the number of referrals from health is increasing: There was a noticeable increase in referrals from Health with 10 referrals made (8%). This followedwork with HR at UHNT and is an encouraging improvement on the one referral received during2014-15.

The largest number of referrals to the LADO concern allegations of physical abuse,

with 59 referrals, with sexual and misconduct also accounting for a number of referrals with 18 and 17 recorded respectively. Of the 59 physical referrals, when broken down it shows 26 came from Education, 12 from Children’s Residential Homes and 5 from Nurseries, the remainder are from settings such as Health, Sports Coaching and Foster carers. Of the 26 linked to schools only one resulted in dismissal, 3 allegations were proven to be malicious, 8 were unfounded or no further action. The remainder resulted in management advice and guidance or training.

From 1st June 2016 the Stockton LADO will move to Hartlepool Authority and work in theMultiagency Children’s Hub based in Hartlepool. The hub will cover both Hartlepool and Stockton.

Please continue to seek the advice of the LADO; contact 01642 527413. All allegations should be reported to the LADO within one working day.

  • Early Help Operating Model

Please see the attached report which sets out a new way of working to achieve a more cohesive and responsive early help offer. This work, alongside the new Children’s hub, should quickly enhance the level of support and intervention for families and children in need.

  • Stockton Safeguarding information

Please remember all resources from the forums and all recent briefings are available on our website:

The next Safeguarding Forumis on 28thJune 2016, 9am-12pm, venuePreston Hall.

The agenda includes:

  • Presentations from school leaders around approaches to e-safety;
  • The launch of a free service for schools which provides an app for pupil reporting;
  • A new DVD around Hate Crime;
  • Input on how to ensure quality chronologies;
  • Learning from local and national serious case reviews;
  • Consultation from DfE regarding Parts 3 & 4 of KCSIE;
  • An opportunity to meet the new Chair of the SLSCB.

For any further information or queries, please contact Diane McConnell, Assistant Director of Schools and SEN,in the first instance:

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