Agenda item

At a meeting of the Committee in June 2012 Members agreed to receive a six monthly update on key children’s safeguarding issues. This is the fourth report that updates the Committee on key local and national safeguarding developments since July 2013.

Members considered a report which provided them with a six monthly update on key children’s safeguarding issues, in particular key local and national safeguarding developments since July 2013.

The Assistant Director (Children’s Specialist Services) explained that the report was normally co-produced with the Chair of the City of York Safeguarding Children Board (CYSCB). He advised Members that Roger Thompson, the Board’s former independent Chair, had resigned from the role in August 2013 and in November 2013 Mr Simon Westwood had been appointed as new independent Chair of the Board. Members noted that Mr Westwood was currently in his induction period but would chair the meeting of the CYSCB later that month and would co-produce this report in future and attend the next meeting of this committee.

The Assistant Director updated Members on the results of the peer review which had been commissioned by the local authority and its partners to consider the effectiveness of local board arrangements. He advised Members that the review had confirmed some key strengths and also found some areas for further development and improvement which he explained to Members. He advised that a detailed improvement plan had been agreed by the Board and had achieved rapid and significant progress against all the areas identified for improvement, including the development of a new qualitative performance management framework and the introduction of an involvement strategy for the Board.

Members were advised that a regional challenge event which looked at the outcomes of the biennial multi agency audit of local safeguarding arrangements had taken place the previous week and  it was agreed that the results of this event would be presented to the Committee at its next meeting in March.

Members commented on the results of the Stand Up For Us 2013 survey which has been running since 2011 with the aim of monitoring the prevalence and nature of bullying in schools. They raised concern that only 84.6% of secondary school pupils felt  safe while travelling on public transport. They were informed that over last 10 years, there had been a pattern of bullying moving out of schools but learnt that Danesgate Community had been carrying out some good work to tackle bullying and their young people had produced a DVD on bullying which had won an award. Members were advised that Danesgate Community and First York had put together an action plan looking at working to promote safe travelling to and from school.

Members raised concerns that it was not clear how matters were escalated onto the Practice Improvement Plan (PIP) (1 Dec 2013 to 28 Feb 2014) which was appended to the report at Annex D and who took responsibility for identifying something as requiring practice improvement. The Assistant Director advised Members that the Practice Improvement Plan was not a stand alone document but was intended to demonstrate how to take lessons from serious case reviews and turn them into practice improvements. He explained that it was a document which fed other tools and he offered to present the plan in its full context at a future meeting to make it easier for Members to understand.

Resolved:     

(i)         That the long standing contribution of Mr Roger Thompson as the Chair of the City of York Safeguarding Children Board (CYSCB) be acknowledged by the committee.

(ii)        That an update on the outcome of the Section 11 audit regional challenge event be presented to the next meeting of the committee on 19 March 2014.¹

(iii)       That the following information be included in an update to be presented to the committee at its meeting in July 2014:-

·         a more detailed report on progress against the Board’s improvement plan

·         a report on the outcome of the thematic inspection.

·         A detailed update on developments within children’s social care

·         A further update on the progress of the Keeping Families Together strategy.

·         The Practice Improvement Plan (PIP).²

Reason:         To allow Members to be fully informed on key children’s safeguarding issues in York.