Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board Meeting Minutes

Transcription

1 P a g e 1 Keeping children safe is everyone s responsibility Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board Meeting Minutes Boardrooms 5&6, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, HA9 0FJ Thursday 19 April :30-16:30 Present: Designation Brent LSCB Independent Chair Brent CCG - Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children Brent CCG - Assistant Director Brent Council - Operational Director Safeguarding, Performance and Strategy Brent Council - Operational Director, Integration and Improved Outcomes Brent Council Offender Management Strategic Lead Brent Council Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Brent Council Strategic Partnership Officer Brent Council - Director of Public Health Brent Council Training Coordinator Brent Council Governance Officer Brent Council Early Help Manager (observing) College of North West London Former Principal College of North West London Principal Central North-West London Mental Health Trust - Associate Director Quality, Safety & Safeguarding Secondary School Representation Executive Headteacher, Wembley Technology College Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command Barnardo s - Assistant Director Children's Services West Locality London Ambulance Service (LAS) - Quality Governance & Assurance Manager Queens Park Rangers in the Community Head of Safeguarding Metropolitan Police North West BCU - DCI for Safeguarding Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) Trust Head of Safeguarding Brent Council- Lead Member for Children and Young People (Observing) Primary School Representation - Headteacher, Stonebridge Primary School London North West Healthcare (LNWH) Trust Head of Safeguarding National Probation Service - Assistant Chief Officer Apologies: Designation Brent Council - Strategic Director, Children and Young People Brent Council Head of Community Safety CAFCASS Enhanced Family Court Adviser Brent Council - Head of Adults Services Name Mike Howard Dr Arlene Boroda Duncan Ambrose Brian Grady Nigel Chapman Megan Hatton Sonya Kalyniak Wendy Proctor Dr Melanie Smith Janine Georgias Nikolay Manov Sasi Srinivasan David White Stephen Davis Catherine Knights Gill Bal DCI John Foulkes Marie Moody Chris Miles Janet Barr DCI Cath Edginton Trish Stewart Lucy Elgood Pamela Stewart Sophie Esenwa Chris Kingham (Ms) Councillor Mili Patel Sophie Allen Carol Ann Williams Clare Ansdell Name Gail Tolley Karina Wane Katie Warren Helen Duncan-Turnbull LSCB 19 April 2018 Approved by Mike Howard (Independent Chair). Yet to be tabled at the LSCB

2 P a g e 2 Metropolitan Police Brent Borough Command Special School Representation Headteacher, the Village School Absent: Designation Brent Council Head of Housing Needs Det Supt Owain Richards Situl Karia Kay Charles Name Laurence Coaker Angela Clarke Item 1 Introduction, Welcome & Apologies Chair All apologies for absence were noted on pages 1 and 2 of these minutes. Item 2 Minutes of the Previous Meeting Chair The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 1 February 2018, were accepted as an accurate record. Item 3 Matters Arising Chair Actions of Previous Meeting Safeguarding Hub CSA update Information sharing between the Police and Schools The Chair noted that most actions arising from the previous meeting had been addressed. The Chair informed members that he had met with Chris Miller (Chair of the London CSA Steering Group). The Group had produced activity reports and it sought support from safeguarding boards to promote these activities. Dr Arlene Boroda noted that working with children who had been sexually abused or had witnessed sexual abuse had to be recognised as specific area of work. She pointed out that it was necessary to create a centre of excellence as the number of children was too low to work at a local level. She referred to the United States of America, where a multiagency approach with holistic centres had been adopted. Dr Boroda said that no funding was required at this stage of the project and if the service proved to be effective, local authorities and CCGs would be asked to contribute. Moreover, the Hillingdon CCG had prepared a draft business case for a hub in North West London, but approval by the London North West Health Care NHS Trust was still pending. It was noted that information sharing between the Police and Schools came under the umbrella of operation Encompass. 48 disclosures had been made to designated safeguarding leads (DSL) at Brent schools since February 2018 (20 in February 2018 and 28 in March 2018). The Police would consider ways of formalising and streamlining the process. Board members commented that it had been difficult to acquire the name and the direct address of the DSL at some schools. This had been addressed by populating a full list of DSLs and by arranging training sessions for DSLs. These would take place on 22 May 2018 and 19 June 2018 and would be attended by a representative of the Police s community safety unit who would provide more information on the way the Police dealt with incidents. In addition, participants would be able to find out more information about operation Encompass and there would be a workshop on domestic abuse. In relation to a question about positive outcomes from notifications, it was pointed out that in most cases it had been sufficient to ask the class teacher to monitor the individual children.

3 P a g e 3 Item 3 Matters Arising Chair Another issue discussed by the Board was the differences in information sharing protocols adopted by various agencies. For instance, the National Probation Service was not always aware if parents were on a community order or a licence, which had a negative impact on their ability to assess the risks they may pose to children. The Chair commented that it would be helpful to discuss information sharing between agencies in the context of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at the next LSCB meeting on 28 June Update on meeting of Lay members and LADO London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWUH) Referral Form Update A meeting had not taken place, but a date would be agreed. The Board heard that there would be one referral form used by LNWUH Trust across Ealing, Brent and Harrow. Item 4 LSCB self-assessment Chair Key points The Chair said that the last LSCB self-assessment had taken place three years ago and Ofsted had considered it to be honest and realistic. He invited Board members to provide feedback on the recently completed self-assessment. Some of the key points raised by members included: o It would be useful to summarise what the Board had not been able to achieve due to the lack of resources; o It would be helpful if the self-assessment could provide more information on what difference the LSCB had made and on the benefits of working with the community; o The Board should set clear priorities for the year ahead. It would be beneficial of these could provide time-driven results, i.e. in the next three months the LSCB will achieve ; o The self-assessment should celebrate success by reflecting on what had worked well. The Chair noted that using examples rather than statistics in last year s annual report had been received well. Other positive comments related to usefulness of the training hub and the format in which the self-assessment had been presented. The Chair expressed his gratitude to all members for supporting the LSCB and encouraged them to send any further comments to Wendy Proctor. Item 5 LSCB transition 2018/19 Chair LSCB priorities The Board highlighted that the transition arrangements towards the new safeguarding arrangements and the future priorities of Brent Safeguarding Partners had to be aligned with the principles of contextual safeguarding which could be applied to either specific areas or trends in the Borough. The Chair noted that although Brent LSCB had four priorities (domestic abuse; neglect; child sexual abuse; and child and parental mental ill health), it would be sensible to consider reducing them to three by removing child and parental mental ill health which fell under the responsibilities of Brent Children s Trust. Members discussed widening the scope of work in relation to exploitation beyond child sexual exploitation (CSE). However, it was noted that the wider issue of exploitation was examined by the Safer Brent Partnership. In addition, Duncan Ambrose said that mental ill health was a common factor among troubled families so a new, more systematic approach, similar

4 P a g e 4 Budget / resources Contextual safeguarding and methodology to the one applied for adults, would be adopted by the CCG. It was expected to become operational in April The majority of referrals made to the Brent Family Front Door (BFFD) were related to domestic abuse and the members were in agreement that the issue should remain a priority for the LSCB. The Chair said that neglect should be kept among the LSCB s priorities as otherwise the physical wellbeing of children could be overlooked and this could have detrimental impact for instance, a recent child death which could be a subject of a serious case review (SCR) might have happened as a result of neglect. The Board had started working on a neglect strategy and included this within the thresholds guidance updated earlier this year. The Chair referred to the safeguarding board in Sutton which had compiled a list of factors to consider when determining if a child had been neglected. It was suggested that a similar checklist was created so staff at various agencies could recognise neglect and report it accordingly. The Chair informed the Board that Wendy Proctor had been promoted to the position of Strategic Partnership Lead for Safeguarding Children and that she would provide strategic support to both the LSCB and the Brent Children s Trust. The contracts of the Strategic Partnerships Data Analyst and the LSCB Business Administrator had ended on 31 March 2018 and there were no plans to fund these posts in the future. In relation to the LSCB s budget, the Chair noted that there were reserves, but the Board had not conducted a Serious Case Review (SCR) and there could be a requirement to commission SCRs at any time. The Chair expressed his gratitude to the Chairs of the LSCB sub-groups. He said that he would be meeting with them to discuss future arrangements, taking into account the transition period before the new safeguarding arrangements were implemented. A member of the Board commented that some organisations were making significant contributions to the LSCB budget and they had to be involved in the decisions made by the Board. The Chair proposed to discuss specific concerns outside the Board meeting. Directing members attention to contextual safeguarding and methodology, the Chair said the LSCB would continue to consider undertaking SCRs until instructed otherwise. Furthermore, the Board was still responsible for coordinating the work of the bodies represented on it and it had an assurance role, i.e. the Section 11 Audit carried out in 2017 measured the awareness of safeguarding among staff working at partner agencies. In response to a question about training to provided youth workers at Queens Park Rangers in the Community, Janet Barr explained that safeguarding training was provided regularly to coaches who were encouraged to report any concerns to her. Coaches had been identified as a suitable segment of staff to be trained as children often related to them and confided in them. All coaches had been given a card containing basic safeguarding information that they could refer to if necessary. In relation to parks, Megan Hatton said that the Community Protection Team was looking at introducing Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) in some parks in the Borough and engaging contractors in safeguarding, but operational details had not been confirmed yet. The Board discussed safeguarding children at specific locations that had been considered to be unsafe. Members commented that making these spaces safe should take prevalence over ensuring that children did not spend time there for instance, if children gathered in an area because they had access to wireless internet (WiFi), stopping the WiFi could make them go to areas that were even more unsafe for them. Similar approaches had been adopted by the London Boroughs of Hackney and Merton.

5 P a g e 5 Role of Brent Safeguarding Partners A member of the Board suggested that support could be offered to organisations recruiting volunteers. The Chair reminded members that the Government s proposals made under the Working Together Consultation regarding the new safeguarding arrangements had been approved by the Department for Education and would come into force in spring Safeguarding boards would no longer be statutory and new safeguarding arrangements would be adopted. Under these, the CCG, the Police and the Local Authority would provide strategic direction for safeguarding. The transition to the new arrangements would take approximately one year and the contract of the incumbent Chair had been extended to reflect this. In addition, the membership of the safeguarding Keep in Touch meetings had been expanded to include a senior representative of the Police and a senior CCG officer. The meeting was adjourned for a comfort break between 3:11 pm and 3:30 pm. Item 6 LSCB Multi-agency Learning and Development Offer Janine Georgias The Chair said that as David White (Chair of the Learning and Development Sub-group) was moving to a new job, it was expected that Stephen Davis would take his role. Janine Georgias presented a paper outlining two options, informing the development of the 2018/19 LSCB learning and development programme. o Option A consisted of a programme with both classroom and distance learning and development opportunities, available in a range of topics relevant to the LSCB s priorities and identified training needs. Its key advantages were that the courses would be adapted by Brent staff for Brent staff and the method would be cost effective in comparison to commissioning an external training provider. However, a drawback would be that professionals would be away from their day to day roles. o Option B provided for a programme with limited classroom and e-learning courses available relevant to the LSCB s priorities and the needs of professionals in Brent. The courses would be limited to basic safeguarding awareness due to the lack of capacity of partners to contribute to content and deliver courses. It could be possible to commission external trainers to deliver the courses and the content if commitment among partners was low. It was recognised that while this option would achieve consistency in classroom delivery, this would come at a high cost ( per session). Members of the Board expressed preference for Option A as it provided for a clear link with contextual safeguarding and the Making Every Contact Count programme, while creating conditions for multiagency training. In addition, it made it easier to identify training needs and allowed practitioners with limited front-line exposure to learn from best practices applied by professionals working on the forefront of safeguarding. In response to a question about working with other boroughs and delivering multiagency Level 3 training, the Chair said that the Board had considered creating a joint training offer with Harrow Safeguarding Children Board (HSCB), but this would depend on the way the new safeguarding arrangements were implemented. Nevertheless, invitations to training courses were sent to colleagues from HSCB. Brent s LSCB had been collaborating with Brent s Safeguarding Adults Board to identify common themes. Ms Georgias confirmed that the training offer for 2018/19 included plans to deliver Level 3 training as well as refresher courses on topics which had to be covered every 12 months. The Chair and Ms Georgias emphasised that the scope of the training offered would depend on the commitment of LSCB partner organisations. A member of the Board suggested that the online training on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was expanded in response to feedback from schools that the content of the offer

6 P a g e 6 was useful, but it had not been refreshed. Furthermore, the Signs of Safety model had to be added to the core training offered by the LSCB to reflect the Board s priorities. Members of the Board discussed courses, topics and modules that they considered useful to be added to the training offer for 2018/19. The Chair encouraged them to write down any ideas on the forms provided which were later collected by Ms Georgias. A member of the Board expressed concern about the capacity of agencies to deliver training as outlined in Option A. However, it was noted that the benefits of Option A outweighed the disadvantages associated with it, especially the ability to tailor training to the local context. The Chair suggested that Ms Georgias carried out additional work on the content of the training offer and reported back to the Board at the meeting on 28 June Brian Grady said that he could support Ms Georgias as he was keen to provide assurance that Option A was fit for purpose. It was noted that if enough partners could volunteer time and resources to deliver training, then Option A would be approved. Alternatively, additional consideration could be given to Option B. The Chair encouraged any further comments on the syllabus of the training to be sent to Ms Georgias. Item 7 Item 8 Duncan Identification of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Brent Update Ambrose Duncan Ambrose reminded the Board that an update report on Identification of Female Genital Mutilation had been presented to Brent Council s Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee. A number of recommendations were made, asking the LSCB to provide assurance from across the partnership that relevant agencies offered the required level of training and awareness on FGM as per training guidance and key performance indicators (the full list of the recommendations is available here). Mr Ambrose pointed out that the rate of reporting FGM in Brent was very high which was due to the fact that a substantial proportion of the Borough s population originally came from countries which were prone to FGM. However, there was a good level of awareness among health professionals, including those working at the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). In response to a question about data from non-statutory sources, it was noted that the Board had to continue to build on the community profile by working with the voluntary sector, community groups, non-statutory agencies and health providers which were not NHS contractors. A member commented that the recording of FGM referrals had to be improved, especially in relation to referring organisation which had not been recorded in 280 out of the 410 cases reported to Brent CCG. In relation to linking the identification of FGM with the work carried out in relation to preventing violence against women and girls, Davina Smith said that she would enquire whether it would be possible to include identification of FGM in the agenda for the next meeting of the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Delivery Group. DCI Cath Metropolitan Police changes to the Borough Edginton DCI Cath Edginton, who attended the meeting on behalf of Det Supt Owain Richards, informed members that the police forces of Barnet, Brent and Harrow would be merging to form the North West Basic Command Unit (BCU). She explained the structure of the new organisation and said that the expected go-live date was 12 November 2018, although this was subject to change.

7 P a g e 7 A two-sector model (east and west) had been considered, with two main sites Wembley Police Station and Colindale Police Station (Headquarters). Crime investigation and safeguarding would be split across both sides due to the sizes of the areas. The North West BCU would aim to take a holistic approach to safeguarding, meaning that investigations would cover sexual abuse, domestic abuse and violence. A safeguarding partnership would be created to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), missing persons and mental health issues. In addition, co-location with local authorities would be increased across the three boroughs, i.e. the Child Abuse Referrals Team would be co-located in council offices, with liaison officers, the MARAC coordinator and the support detective being more visible. It was noted that the BCU recognised that each of the three boroughs faced distinctive challenges and had an individual approach to tackling problems. Therefore, dedicated ward officers and school engagement officers would be deployed in each neighbourhood and opportunities for collaboration would be sought where possible. It was clarified that Katy Harbour would be the Safeguarding Superintendent at the BCU once she returns from a career break (Det Supt Richards would deputise). Representatives of the Local Authority commented that the introduction of agile working would be welcomed. As the proposed arrangements had not been finalised yet, the Chair encouraged members to any comments on the Metropolitan Police changes to the Borough to DCI Edginton and Det Supt Richards. Item 9 Community Safety Strategy Davina Smith Davina Smith delivered a presentation on Brent s Community Safety Strategy Consultation. She said that the Community Protection Team aimed to produce a strategy for the Borough which focused on the next three years of delivery and addressed the key challenges present in the area. The Safer Brent Partnership had an overall responsibility for the strategy and consultation had been carried with the Partnership s stakeholders. Ms Smith reminded members of the Safer Brent Partnership s priorities for 2017 and highlighted the key achievements of She spoke of the challenges in relation to each of the five priorities and provided an overview of partnership actions that could be taken to address these. The Board heard that the proposed priorities for the Community Safety Strategy would be: Reducing the Impact of Gangs and Knives Reducing Anti-Social Behaviour Reducing Offenders and Perpetrators from Reoffending Reducing Domestic and Sexual Abuse Reducing Vulnerability and Increasing Safeguarding Ms Smith noted that the trend had remained the same, but some issues had been consolidated into wider themes. Feedback that had been received so far related to tackling aggressive/organised begging and protection of rough sleepers, both of which would be reflected within the Reducing Vulnerability and Increasing Safeguarding priority. Item 10 Annual Report 2017/18 Chair The Chair noted that the LSCB Annual Report 2017/18 would be presented to the Council s Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and encouraged members to send examples of multi-agency safeguarding action taken in relation to specific cases to Wendy Proctor. Item 11 Any Other Business Chair The Board wished DCI John Foulkes well in his retirement.

8 P a g e 8 The Chair reminded members that GDPR came into force on 25 May Implications for the LSCB and its partner agencies would be discussed at the next Board Meeting. Pamela Stewart put on record her gratitude to the LSCB and Wendy Proctor in providing direct support during an Ofsted inspection of a nursery in Brent. The nursery had been judged as good with outstanding features. Agreed Actions Action Action Owner Deadline The Chair to discuss the approval of a potential CSA safeguarding hub with Carol Ann Williams, Head of Safeguarding at London North West Healthcare Trust. Mike Howard 28 June 2018 Consider ways of formalising the information sharing process DCI Cath Edginton / Det between the Police and schools Supt Owain Richards 28 June 2018 Add an agenda item to discuss information sharing between Wendy Proctor / Nikolay agencies in the context of GDPR Manov 28 June 2018 Carry out additional work on the content of the training offer for Janine Georgias / Brian 2018/19 if option A was to be adopted. Circulate any findings Grady / Volunteers prior to the meeting on 28 June June 2018 Send comments on the syllabus of the training to Janine Georgias. All 28 June 2018 Send comments on the Metropolitan Police changes to the Borough to DCI Edginton and Det Supt Richards All 28 June 2018 The meeting closed at 4:38 pm.