Agenda item

Context:

We received a report to provide members with information and analysis regarding the safeguarding of children and young people. Comprehensive strategic and operational information was provided via a suite of three cross referenced report.

Key Issues:

Safeguarding children and young people is a key responsibility for the Council.  These duties apply to all officers and Members of Council and include the specific child protection duties carried out via Children’s Services.

In November 2012 Estyn carried out an inspection of the Local Authority and found that the arrangements for safeguarding were unsatisfactory.  A monitoring visit in February 2014 found that whilst the Local Authority had made some good initial progress the shortcomings identified in the strategic management of safeguarding had not been addressed well enough. This judgement was echoed by a Welsh Audit Office inspection in March 2014. It was partly as a result of this that the current suite of reports were commissioned to ensure that Members had access to comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of the state of safeguarding in Monmouthshire.

CSSIW carried out inspections of Monmouthshire Children’s Services in April and November 2014. Whilst confirming that children involved in the child protection process were safeguarded, CSSIW did identify some key deficits and areas for improvement including the consistency and quality of management oversight within Children’s Services and the effective embedding of performance management and quality assurance arrangements.

Estyn Inspectors will be carrying out a further inspection of the authority in November 2015. The focus will be on how the authority has responded to the recommendations following the November 2012.

Member Scrutiny:

Members questioned if we were satisfied that other agencies were as committed to safeguarding as MCC.  In response we heard that it was difficult to provide a generalised answer due to the number of agencies involved. Assurance was provided that the Regional Safeguarding Children’s Board was a statutory body which sought to hold statutory partners to account.

Detail on the strengthening between the Regional Safeguarding Board and the Council would be brought to a future meeting if requested.

Members questioned why it was not the case that everyone had access to safe recruitment training.  We were informed that the target areas were recruiting managers who were recruiting into regulated posts.  All recruiting managers were encouraged to attend training as good practice.

Safeguarding Officers were aiming to create a central register of people who had undertaken the training, where each directorate would be held responsible for their own area. Safe Recruitment Safe Workforce Champions had been appointed in each directorate in order to take this forward.

It was questioned if we were strict enough with our ruling, and should we increase benchmarking.  In terms of schools, we noted there were many people involved with schools and were we satisfied that people were fully DBS checked.  In response we heard that there was a set criteria for regulated activity. An MCC employee appointed to a regulated activity post would not be able to start until the DBS certificate and 2 satisfactory references had been issued.  There were a range of people who would be in and out of school buildings and not all would be checked.  In those circumstances we were working with head teachers on awareness of the safe management of those individuals.

In terms of monitoring schools, spot checks were carried out by People Services, and a robust link through payroll.

A self-harm app had been created named Buddy, designed to be accessed by any young person to obtain facts and figures on self-harm.  There would also be a therapeutic aspect aimed at preventing, distracting and deterring.  The app was not yet launched, and would be done when officers were satisfied it was just right.

We heard that progress was being made with volunteer training processes and Members noted it was an area of concern.

The Cabinet Member commended officers on the achievements over the last 2 years, in communicating across the organisation the meaning of safeguarding.

Recommendations:

Children and Young People Select Committee were recommended to receive the reports, noting the progress and areas for further work and using them as the basis for challenge.