Agenda item

A report from the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services presenting the executive response to the Final Report of the Safeguarding Children and Young People Task Group. The Task Group’s report can be viewed here (link to Wiltshire Council website).

The Task Group was established following an Ofsted inspection of Safeguarding and LAC Services in Wiltshire, undertaken in March 2012. The Task Group’s report was endorsed by Children’s Select Committee on 28 March 2013 and the Committee agreed that the Task Group should continue, but with the following terms of reference:

1.     To monitor the implementation of any recommendations made by the Safeguarding Children and Young People Task Group that are endorsed by the Children’s Select Committee and accepted by the executive.

2.     To scrutinise Wiltshire Council’s delivery of improvements to safeguarding children and young people as set out in the Safeguarding and Adoptions Improvement Plan.

3.     To receive a twice-annual report from the Council’s Lead Member for Safeguarding Children and Young People providing details of their safeguarding activity.

4.     To continue/conduct ongoing scrutiny of services for Looked After Children (LAC).

5.     To work in collaboration with the Safeguarding Children and Young People Panel to clarify future joint-working arrangements [the establishment of which is proposed under Recommendation 35]

The Committee is asked to consider the executive response and comment or recommend further activity (by the Committee or by the Task Group) as appropriate.

The Select Committee received a report which set out the response of the Lead Member for Children’s Services to the Final Report of the Safeguarding Children and Young People Task Group which was endorsed by the Committee at its last meeting on 28 March 2013.

It was reported that the Task Group’s final report along with an update on the implementation of improvements had been added to the Cabinet Forward Work Programme which would be considered by Cabinet on 18 June 2013.

The report had been presented to the April meeting of the Safeguarding and Adoption Improvement Board, whose independent chairman and also the Department for Education representative had commented favourably on the Task Group’s work and recommendations.

Action on the 41 recommendations of the Task Group were set out in Appendix 1 to the report from which it was noted that five of the recommendations had been completed and a further 19 were being progressed with action taken.  It was noted that:-

(1)       Action on the following 3 recommendations would happen in the future as requested by the Task Group:

R6       Reports on the Safeguarding and Adoption Plan to highlight milestones which are slipping ie: red or amber

R7       “SMART” approach to all reports to the Improvement Board

R28     Safeguarding training for the Safeguarding Children and Young People Panel

(2)     The following 4 recommendations were being considered before a decision was made:

R8       Creating a new, permanent ‘Safeguarding Peer Liaison’ post

R9       Attendance at MAFs by Safeguarding Peer Liaison’ post or a social worker – links to R8

R20     Review and optimise the alignment of the various geographical clusters

R41     “Safeguarding considerations” section in all committee and Cabinet reports

(3)       The following 6 recommendations would be subject of future scrutiny:       R10     Quality assurance of MAFs

R12     Social care workforce strategy and key workforce performance indicators

R19     Referral and assessment.

R29     Mid-term progress and annual report from WSCB

R30     WSCB business plan implementation through analysis of minutes of meetings.

R34     Rapid Scrutiny exercises will take place

It is also noted that:

·         Scrutiny Members would visit teams and services (R31)

·      The Safeguarding Children and Young People Task Group would be re-established (R32)

·      The Task Group would continue its work for at least 18 months after the Safeguarding Improvement Board had been disbanded and that the group would  receive an update on the work of the Safeguarding Improvement Board (SIB), or from the WSCB upon the SIB’s demise, at each meeting (R33)

After discussion,

Resolved:

1.         To note the executive response to the Final Report of the Safeguarding Children and Young People Task Group.

2.         To urge the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, and the Cabinet as a whole, to respond positively to Recommendation 41 in the Task Group’s Final Report: “All reports to Wiltshire Council committees, including Cabinet, should include a dedicated ‘Safeguarding considerations’ section”, with a trial of this system being considered as a possible option.

3.         To request that the executive response document be amended to include details of timescales for implementing the recommendations and that it be circulated to members of the Committee.

4.         To note that Recommendation 6, “Any groups scrutinising the delivery of the Safeguarding and Adoption Improvement Plan should be provided with a ‘RAG-rated’ exception report highlighting which milestones are slipping (i.e. red or amber milestones)”, has now been implemented.