Agenda item

Report by Maggie Rae, Corporate Director

Cllr Laura Mayes, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, presented a report which provided Cabinet with a review of the Council’s CSE Action Plan, since consideration of a report to Cabinet in May 2015. In the course of her presentation, Cllr Mayes introduced Cllr Jacqui Lay, Chair of the Scrutiny Task Group, Terence Hebert, Associate Director, and Blaire Keltie, Manager of the CSE Team, emphasising that tackling CSE was a team effort. Cllr Mayes thanked the team of officers and members who had worked hard to raise the profile of the issues within and outside the Council.

Issues highlighted in the course of the presentation and discussion included: that Wiltshire Council’s plan was cognisant of other partners’ plan; that officers had looked at best practice in other areas; that the three main strands of the plan were prevent, protect and pursue; that the team had visited most of the Area Boards and Multi Agency Forums within Schools; that the team had put on the play, Chelsea’s choice, to highlight the issues in schools; how all looked after children were screened to assess their vulnerability to CSE; that the team was working with 55 children who were either victims or at risk; the action that had been taken to disrupt and prevent some activities of perpetrators; that 5 men had been arrested as direct result of work being undertaken; that Ofsted had already made some suggestions e.g. monitoring training impact and improving screening test; that they had undertaken mandatory CSE training for taxi drivers seeking to renew their license; that it was hoped to roll out training further to more staff and relevant people – such as fast food and car park attendants; how outside agencies, such as the RSPCA, that may not be obvious partners, could be liaised with; how parents could be better informed, particularly of the risks to children through contact on the internet via games and messaging apps; the links to regional partners to ensure a cross-boundary approach was taken.

In response to a question from Cllr Dick Tonge, Carolyn Godfrey, Corporate Director, confirmed that only two local schools had declined showing the play Chelsea’s choice, and that she would be writing to the Head and Chair of Governors of each school to emphasise the importance of the work.

There was some debate around the possibility of using an app or other appropriate electronic means to aid efforts in this area to enable children to seek assistance or report incidents.  Officers were asked to explore this further and provide a progress report to Cabinet on this.

Resolved

(a)  To note the progress made against the CSE action plan since May 2015.

(b)  To ask officers to consider options for the development of electronic communication tools, and to report progress to the June meeting of Cabinet.

Reason for Decision:

Wiltshire Council has a zero tolerance approach to CSE and treats CSE as a high priority.

It is important the Council maintains oversight of progress in relation to the implementation of the CSE action plan.