Angus Child Protection Committee Annual Report 2003/04
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Angus Child Protection Committee Annual Report 2003/04 CHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2003/2004 CONTENTS Foreword Page No. Introduction 4 Sub-Committee Reports - Policy 5 - Practice 6 - Training 7 Health 9 Angus Voluntary Sector Children’s Services Forum 11 Education Department 13 Social Work Department 17 Tayside Police 20 Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration 22 Review of Committee’s Action Plan for 2003/04 24 Action Plan 2004/05 25 Appendix 1 - Membership 29 Appendix 2 - Structure 31 Appendix 3 - Constitution of Angus Child Protection Committee 32 Appendix 4 - Roles & Objectives of Sub-committees - Policy 34 - Practice 36 - Training 38 Appendix 5 - Angus Child Protection Register Statistics 2003/2004 40 (Angus Council, Social Work Department) Appendix 6 – Referral Statistics 41 2 Appendix 7 - Child Protection Trends (Angus Council, Social Work Department) 43 3 1. FOREWORD This is the eighth annual report of the Angus Child Protection Committee. The past year has been demanding both of the time of Committee members particularly in relation to the national agenda of Reforming Child Protection. The Committee is also aware of the demands placed on frontline staff to provide quality services to vulnerable children and families in Angus. As Chairperson I would wish to record my thanks to members of the Committee and particularly the Chairs of the three sub- committees and their admin support for their hard work and commitment in the past year. Gordon McIntosh Chairperson Angus Child Protection Committee 2. INTRODUCTION The past year has seen a very full programme of business meetings both for the full committee and the three sub committees. There has been significant additional work for members and agencies responding to the consultation processes launched via the Scottish Executive Child Protection Reform programme. The most significant of these being the development of a Framework of Standards, The Children’s Charter and the Child Protection Committee’s Review. In October 2003 a group was convened by the Chief Executive of Angus Council which included senior representatives from the key local agencies involved in the protection of children. It was been agreed that this group will be known as the Angus Executive Group for Child Protection and it will oversee the work of the Angus Child Protection Committee, meeting on a four monthly cycle. The coming year will undoubtedly be as demanding as the previous one with work on the dissemination of standards to be undertaken within and across agencies and preparation for multi-agency inspections towards the end of the year. The appointment of a Development Manager for Child Protection to service the Child Protection Committee was made in March 2004 and this will assist greatly in the increased demands and responsibilities facing the local committee and its constituent agencies. 4 3. SUB-COMMITTEE’S REPORTS 3.1 POLICY SUB-COMMITTEE This has been another busy year for the Child Protection Policy Sub- Committee which has continued to meet regularly as a core group but which has also been supplemented by co-opted members for single issues (e.g. Getting Our Priorities Right). The sub-committee has produced local reviews and action plans in response to the sudden death inquiries of Caleb Ness, Victoria Climbié and Carla Nicole Bone. The recently published Children and Young People’s Charter and associated Framework for Standards: Protecting Children and Young People have been considered with a view to evaluating each agency’s performance against the standards in terms of policy, procedures and practice. The sub committee has also worked closely on a local working protocol for the Scottish Executive’s guidance “Getting Our Priorities Right” in partnership with the Angus Drug and Alcohol Action Team. Another piece of work focussed on follow-up letters to be issued by the Social Work Department to agencies and members of the public who have referred with child protection concerns. Future plans for the year 2004/2005 include working on the implementation of Getting Our Priorities Right, examination of interagency information sharing, providing guidance on the provision of reports to Child Protection Case Conferences, responsiveness in the field of domestic abuse and organising a seminar to consider thresholds in child protection intervention. 5 3.2 PRACTICE SUB-COMMITTEE The practice sub committee has met on three occasions since a new Chair was appointed. The practice sub committee has 2 roles (1) to periodically examine actual professional practice to ensure practice conforms to child centred principles and meets all agency standards and procedures and (2) to make recommendations regarding proposals to improve practice. Two cases were referred to the practice sub committee during the course of the year. The first case was referred by Tayside Police and the Social Work and Health Department. The second case was referred solely by the Social Work and Health Department. Work in the second case has been delayed due to an agencies internal inquiry and other legal proceedings. Examples of issues raised in the review of practice in the first case included: • the need to improve communication between professionals and the requirement for extending training to professionals whose direct involvement in child protection issues may be very occasional. • information available to and attendance at child protection case conferences. This was taken back to the child protection committee and looked at by the policy committee who are developing a pro forma for providing reports. The sub committee was also asked to review the recording of case planning meetings as one of the action points from the Kennedy McFarlane Enquiry Report Action Plan. This has involved examining the recording in three types of planning meetings: pre investigation planning forums; network meetings to plan ongoing inter agency work in registered cases; and, meetings to plan and review work in cases where there are child protection concerns but where a child has not been registered or a Child Protection Conference is pending. The purpose of this is to achieve greater consistency of recording and ensure that meetings identify the purpose of the meeting and formulate a plan of action with key personnel and timescales identified. This work is ongoing and the Development Manager, Child Protection has been asked to assist in this work. 6 3.3 TRAINING SUB-COMMITTEE All agencies and their representatives have provided good support to the training sub-committee at all events during the past year. Inter-agency Training 2003/2004 Due to changing circumstances within the University of Dundee the institution was unable to act as the commissioned training co-ordinator for Angus, Dundee, and Perth & Kinross Child Protection Committees as it has in the past. The co-ordination of training therefore fell to the training sub- committees. In order to continue the established and successful Pan -Tayside event the chairs of the training committee established a working group to arrange a conference seminar on “Decision Making”. Dr Eileen Munroe of London School of Economics led this event attended by 200 people drawn from all the agencies associated with the 3 Area Child Protection Committees. The event was very thought provoking and challenging, highlighting particularly the different levels of decision-making and complex assessment requirements needed to ensure children are protected from abuse and neglect. Angus Child Protection Committee has also facilitated two development/consultation events and a desktop exercise in partnership with the Angus Drug and Alcohol Action Team to develop a local working protocol for the implementation of “Getting our Priorities Right” guidance. Child Protection Roles and Responsibilities Awareness Training This training was offered on demand to staff groups on a single and multi- disciplinary agency basis. The members of the training sub-committee made a significant contribution to and facilitated a new programme for Angus Council Education Child Protection Designated Officers. 2004/2005 In the coming year advice and training will be provided for all agencies to ensure their staff are aware of the Children and Young People’s Charter and the associated Framework for Standards: Protecting Children and Young People from an individual and agency and inter agency perspective. Training will also be provided/coordinated in response to a training needs analysis being undertaken by Angus Child Protection Committee during 2004/2005 A seminar/conference on a topical subject will again be organised on a Pan 7 Tayside basis. The sub-committee will also look at producing a CD-Rom on the subject of Child Protection Roles and Responsibilities that can be used as the basis of single agency, multidisciplinary event, or individual training. 8 4. HEALTH The Health Service in Tayside has undergone continued reorganisation over the past year towards the creation of the single entity of NHS Tayside, comprising the NHS Board, Primary Care Division, Acute Services Division and Local Health Care Co-operatives (LHCC). Representatives from these organisations continue to work closely together to plan and implement services for the population in Angus, which also serve vulnerable groups, children in need and children in need of protection. Within Angus, Health continue to play a full representative part in Angus Child Protection Committee and it's Policy, Practice and Training sub committees. This includes representation on the Looked