Public Document Pack
Town Hall Trinity Road www.sefton.gov.uk Bootle L20 7AE
To: All Members of the Health and Wellbeing Date: 14 September 2015 Board Our Ref: H&WB Your Ref:
Please contact: Ruth Harrison Contact Number: 0151 934 2042 Fax No: 0151 934 2034 e-mail: [email protected]
Dear Board Member
HEALTH AND WELLBEING BOARD - WEDNESDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER, 2015
I refer to the agenda for the above meeting and now enclose the following report which was unavailable when the agenda was printed.
Agenda No. Item
9. The Local Safeguarding Children's Board - Draft Annual Report (Pages 59 - 146) Report of the Chair of Sefton’s Local Safeguarding Children’s Board
Yours sincerely,
J. COULE
Head of Regulation and Compliance
This page is intentionally left blank Agenda Item 9
Report to: Health & Wellbeing Board Date of Meeting: 16 September 2015
Subject: LSCB Annual Report
Report of: Dr David Sanders Wards Affected: N/A
Is this a Key Decision - No Is it included in the Forward Plan - No
Exempt/Confidential
Purpose/Summary
All Local Safeguarding Children Boards must report annually on the effectiveness of local safeguarding children arrangements and the progress of the LSCB in relation to implementing work against its agreed priorities. The report must be shared with and considered by the Health and Well-being Board, Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Executive of the Local Authority.
Recommendation(s)
The Health and Wellbeing Board should make particular note of key elements contained within the LSCB Annual Report, in particular those relating to Child Sexual Exploitation and Child Neglect; and consider how these aspects inform the Sefton Strategic Needs Assessment and/or can be progressed.
Additional Information
• Due to the lateness of some submissions to the annual report whilst the LSCB Business Manager is on annual leave, there remain gaps in this document. The final version will be submitted to the forthcoming LSCB meeting, 30 September 2015. A late submission of the LSCB Annual Report to the agenda of this meeting was requested, in its current state of development. • One aspect of data re. CSE needs additional explanation to enable the reader to fully understand how data interrelates, however all data in this section is accurate. • The LSCB must produce an evaluation of the effectiveness of work to tackle CSE. A CSE Health Needs Analysis is currently underway. This has involved a series of activities including an extensive consultation with young people. The final report will be available in October and an evaluative summary will be added as an addendum to this report. The full CSE Health Needs Analysis will be reported to the next meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board. • Formatting of the document will be undertaken following all sections of the report being completed. Given that the Health and Wellbeing Board has not had the opportunity to digest all key learning that will be available within the final version, an extended executive summary highlighting key areas can be made available to the Health and Wellbeing Board at the Page 59 Agenda Item 9
next meeting, if required by members.
How does the decision contribute to the Council’s Corporate Objectives?
Corporate Objective Positive Neutral Negative Impact Impact Impact 1 Creating a Learning Community X 2 Jobs and Prosperity X 3 Environmental Sustainability X 4 Health and Well-Being X 5 Children and Young People X 6 Creating Safe Communities X 7 Creating Inclusive Communities X 8 Improving the Quality of Council X Services and Strengthening Local Democracy
Reasons for the Recommendation:
The learning highlighted within the LSCB Annual Report was gained via a range of mechanisms and should be progressed to ensure safeguarding children arrangements in Sefton are effective.
What will it cost and how will it be financed?
Existing services will co-ordinate activities to support effective safeguarding children arrangements.
H&WBB will consider any aspects of the report that have commissioning/service design implications.
(A) Revenue Costs
There are no financial consequences directly arising as a result of this report, which is provided for information. The costs of managing the LSCB and associated Social Care costs are contained within the Council’s budgets and/or those of Partner agencies.
(B) Capital Costs N/A
Implications:
Page 60 Agenda Item 9
The following implications of this proposal have been considered and where there are specific implications, these are set out below:
Legal
The Health and Social Care Act 2012, Local Authority (Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny) Regulations 2013; Working Together 2015
Human Resources
Equality 1. No Equality Implication X 2. Equality Implications identified and mitigated
3. Equality Implication identified and risk remains
Impact on Service Delivery: N/A
What consultations have taken place on the proposals and when? N/A
The Head of Corporate Finance and ICT has been consulted on this report and has no specific comments to make, as there are no financial consequences arising directly as a result of it. (FD3802/15)
The Head of Regulation & Compliance has been consulted and has no comments to make (LD 3085/15)
Are there any other options available for consideration?
N/A
Implementation Date for the Decision
Immediately following the Committee meeting.
Contact Officer: Clare Lawson Tel: 0151 934 3366 Email: [email protected]
Background Papers:
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Page 63
Sefton Local Safeguarding Children Board
Agenda Item9 ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15
Agenda Item9 Contents Page
1. Chair’s Introduction and Executive Summary All formatting to be done 2. Local Population and Services when final report is completed
3. The Work of the LSCB Progress against last year’s priorities Some of our achievements Structure of the Board
Sub-group Work
4. Performance Information
5. LSCB Effectiveness
Page 64 6. Independent Board Member Perspective on 2013-14
7. The work of LSCB Member Agencies
8. Learning and Improvement
9. The Plan for 2014-15; and how we will do it
10.Messages for our Stakeholders
Appendices
1 1. LSCB Chair’s Introduction & Executive Summary
This year has seen a wide range of activity by the Board and our partner agencies with a sharpened focus on learning from practice via multi-agency audit and performance data. This report highlights achievements as well as areas requiring more attention during the forthcoming year.
The work of the Board and its sub-groups is co-ordinated by the LSCB Business Team. Previously, the need for additional resource within the team was identified, to lead on multi-agency safeguarding data and quality assurance. During this year, a new post of LSCB Quality Assurance Co-ordinaotr was recruited. The team currently consists of Clare Lawson, LSCB Business Manager; Neil Massingham, LSCB Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, Beverley Hall, LSCB Learning and Development Officer; Donna Atkinson, LSCB Administrator.
Page 65 Key Achievements in 2014/15
Each year the Board approves a Business plan containing agreed priorities. Over the course of the year, almost all of these targets have been met. The key achievements this year are:
Child Sexual Exploitation processes were embedded across the partnership
918 staff and volunteers were trained on a broad range of topics delivered by the LSCB Agenda Item9 LSCB thresholds for Intervention were reinforced across the children’s workforce . Sefton Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) reported that the application of thresholds at the point of referral has improved. Sefton LSCB also saw evidence of this at a multi- agency development session. Operation Encompass – a process whereby schools are notified of domestic abuse incidents in the home prior to the start of the next school day – was rolled out across all Sefton schools
2 Agenda Item9
Our Self-Assessment
Each year, the LSCB must take stock of its own effectiveness and evaluate where the Board’s attention is required the most. Examination of the Board’s work and structure against the Ofsted framework enables areas of strength and development to be highlighted.
This year, the Board began to focus more on learning from frontline practice. A specialist quality assurance post was recruited to and a new rigourous model of multi-agency audit was commenced, which fully involves practitioners and aims to understand the quality of frontline practice, how good quality practice is enabled or hindered, a nd the child’s journey through different elements of the safeguarding system. An audit schedule was devised and approved by the Board following extensive consideration of available performance information and learning gained from reviews. The LSCB Business Team now has capacity to undertaken more multi-agency audits than scheduled. The capacity of the partnership needs to be assessed and the audit model fully embedded. Following this, the LSCB will need to increase the number of audits undertaken and the number of cases audited. The Sefton LSCB Learning and Improvement Framework is becoming increasingly robust and helpful. This key document enables Page 66 the LSCB to understand the themes emerging from practice and take action. Ultimately, it will assist the Board to carefully plan the work required to know that action has led to improvement.
Key procedures were developed/updated during this year and will be launched during the forthcoming year; at which point, testing the application of these procedures will also take place.
A workforce analysis of training needs has helped the Board to plan a training programme based on need. It will also assist the Board in monitoring that the people ideniified as needing training do gain access to that training. Understanding the effectiveness of training on frontline practice is an area that requires further work. The Learning and Improvement Framework will assist the LSCB with this aspect of its responsbilties as it is increasingly developed.
The LSCB maintains a flexible approach to emerging themes and additional sub-groups were established during this reporting year to support the Board in its work. The influence of the LSCB can be seen in some areas; most notably via the prioritisation of work to tackle child sexual exploitation across all member agencies and beyond. An updated memorandum of understanding across key partnerships requires agreement.
LSCB members tested a new approach to learning about local safeguarding arrangements and undertook visits to the frontline, speaking to staff across six of our partner agencies. This was particularly helpful for the Board to plan its forthcoming priorities and gain an understanding of whether the work of the Board was having an impact at the frontline. This approach will be developed further and the Board has agreed that it will become part of the LSCB’s approach to scrutinising single - and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in Sefton.
LSCB Priorities 2015 – 17
Children and Young people who are victims or at risk of Sexual Exploitation
The LSCB will prioritise the implementation of the strategy to ensure children and young people receive timely help and support to keep them safe and perpetrators of CSE are prosecuted.
Children experiencing neglect Page 67
Sefton LSCB will establish a new sub-group to implement the neglect strategy; helping children to receive timely and effective help at all threshold levels within the continuum of need.
Children in Care from Other Local Authorities
A ‘providers causing concern’ model will be impleme nted, enabling the LSCB to take action when concerns arise in relation to care homes for looked after children.
Children and young people in need of early help Agenda Item9
A wide range of work will be agreed and undertaken to enable all agencies to respond early and effectively to the needs of children and young people
On behalf of all Board members I express thanks and appreciation to the staff and volunteers in all sectors who work to help and protect Sefton children every day. Without their efforts, the work of the LSCB would not be possible.
David Sanders Independent Chair of Sefton Local Safeguarding Children Board – July 2015
3 Agenda Item9
2. Local Population and Services 970 would
be
white british
If Sefton were a village of 1000 children 2 will have self - harmed during the last year 16 will go missing
from home or care this
year 160 would be on 510 would be boys free school meals Page 68
20 would have been 490 would on a child in need be girls 11 would be on a plan at some point child protection plan during this year (4
during the year because they are disabled)
220 would be 8 would be looked living after by the Local in poverty 20 would be Authority disabled
Sefton has an overall population of approximately 273,300 and is one of five metropolitan districts on Merseyside. Children and young people aged 0 to 17 years make up around 20% of the population (approximately 56,000). The population is predominantly White British (96% approx.). The age profile of the borough is older than for the country as a whole, with a greater than average number of people over 50 years of age. Sefton has the largest population of people aged over 80 years of any metropolitan borough .
Sefton’s social care services for children in need are delivered by locality teams and a Multi -agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) was launched in February 2014. Children’s Social Care, Health, Early Intervention and Prevention, Merseyside Police and Merseyside Probation Trust work closely together, sharing information on all referrals to Children’s Social Care in relation to Domestic Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation and Child Protection. By sharing information from the outset decision making is better informed so that the right agency responds in a timely and efficient manner.
Page 69 The Early Intervention and Prevention department of the Local Authority brings together a range of staff from a variety of professions to assist in providing timely help that is most appropriate based on need. The common assessment framework (CAF) has been used to support children and young people since 2007.
At the end of the 2013-14 academic year there were 18 (11 to 16 and 11 to 18) secondary schools (including 9 academies, 1 free school), 2 sixth form colleges, a 14-16 college, 70 primary schools, 3 infant schools, 2 junior schools, 5 special schools and 4 nursery
schools in Sefton. 46 primary and infant schools in the borough have nursery units. 4 of our local schools are independent. Agenda Item9
4
Agenda Item9
3. The Work of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)
The LSCB is the strategic decision making body in relation to keeping children safe. It oversees the work of member agencies, providing challenge and support to drive improvement in the safeguarding services that children and families receive. The main Board is supported by the Business Partnership Group and a range of sub-groups. Each sub-group has a body of work to undertake, helping the Board to achieve its priorities. The LSCB itself has many key achievements to highlight from the previous year, some of which are detailed below.
Progress a gains t las t year’s priorities:
The Business Plan for the previous year included a wide body of work. In summary this work was to:
1. Increase co-ordination of scrutiny, learning, quality assurance and performance management arrangements
Page 70 A Learning and Improvement Framework was developed and implemented. Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) are required to maintain a local learning and improvement framework which is shared across local organisations who work with children and families. This framework should enable organisations to be clear about their responsibilities, to learn from experience and improve services as a result (Working Together 2015 Chapter 4) .
This framework provides a vehicle for Sefton LSCB to meet statutory requirements and ensure sources of learning are considered, recognised and used to drive improved outcomes for children and their families. Through close consideration of the learning gained by the LSCB including via performance data, along with gaps in Board understanding, the Board was able to carefully plan forthcoming audit activity.
Following recruitment of a specialist post to the LSCB Business Team, a new multi-agency dataset was approved and a data testing exercise undertaken. During this testing phase, key gaps in performance data were recognised and work was commenced by partner agencies to enable future data recording and collection.
Two multi-agency audits were undertaken and the learning from these can be viewed on page ?? in the section of this report entitled ‘Learning and Improvement’
2. Understand the safeguarding training needs of the children’s workforce; being assured that those needs are met and evidencing that training has the desired impact upon practice
A joint Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and Local Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) training strategy was drafted and implemented. This outlines the safeguarding training required by professionals in a range of different roles and with varying degrees of contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults.
The training needs of the workforce were analysed against the agreed training levels within the Training Strategy. This has enabled the LSCB to plan effectively for the numbers of staff and volunteers requiring safeguarding training.
Further work is required during the fortchcoming year, to put in place measures that will enable the Board to monitor that the identified training needs of the workforce are met. There were additions to the membership of the Joint Adults and Children’s Safeguarding Training sub-group, providing a stable platform to achieve this next step.
The Sefton LSCB Learning and Improvement Framework (LIF) ensures that when workforce training needs are identified via audit and reviews, they are not considered in isolation of other improvement activities. Similarly, activities planned within the LIF to Page 71 identify if practice has been improved as a result of improvement work will assist in evaluating the impact of training; and prevent training as being seen as an isolated aspect of improvement work.
3. Effectively co-ordinating strategic activity in relation to specific risks to children and young people
The development of a LSCB multi-agency dataset has assisted the LSCB to identify areas requiring closer examination and strategic development activity to co-ordinate local arrangements. This is particularly notable in relation to the area of children who go missing from home/care. A new group was established to revise the local procedure, identify the data required by the LSCB and set in motion the work to monitor this area more effectively. The group reports to the LSCB Child Sexual Exploitation sub-group, Agenda Item9 enabling effective alignment of these closely linked agendas.
Putting in place new sub-groups, with membership from across the partnership is assisting the LSCB to link key areas of business; CSE, Children in the Care of Other Local Authorities placed in Sefton and children who go missing from home or care.
In order to plan forthcoming LSCB priorities, a dedicated session was arranged for Board members. Candidate priorities were identified and available information was presented against each of the candidate priorities. This included: performance data, learning from audit, reviews and Board member visits to the frontline, the voice of the child, national learning and guidance.
Agenda Item9 Structure of the LSCB
Sefton LSCB Structure 2014 - 15
Sefton LSCB – Main Board Communications
advisors – virtual network as and Business Partnership Group when required
Child Sexual Critical Quality Children in Pan - Health Children/ Bullying, Incident Agencies Cyber Page 72 Exploitation/ Assuranc Care of Merseyside Adults Missing from Panel e other Local Child Death Sub- Joint Bullying Home/Care Authorities Overview group Training & E- Panel safety)
Missing Children Strategic Monitoring Group
Task and Finish Signs of Safety Vulnerable Groups Voice of the Child Work/Groups Project Group Project Work Project Work
The LSCB is the overarching decision making body and has several sub-groups to conduct work on its behalf. All of the sub- groups are accountable to this Board and report regularly to the Business Partnership Group.
The LSCB Business Partnership Group is directed to oversee the implementation of the Business Plan which contains the work for the next two years as set out by the Board. It receives reports from the other sub-groups on their progress against the objectives and priority work it is undertaking on behalf of the Board. Any issues, delays or strategic decisions are referred back to the LSCB.
Sub-groups The sub-groups undertake specific activities as indicated by their title. Each sub-group has a Chair from one of our partner agencies. Membership of each sub-group is multi-agency and the people who can help the LSCB fulfill its objectives are asked to attend the meetings and undertake pieces of work. You can read about the work of each of the sub-groups in the next few pages of this report.
When a particularly important piece of work needs to be undertaken, the LSCB will set up a task and finish group to get all or the majority of the work done quickly. This approach ensures that deadlines are set, the right people are invited to be involved and the existing sub- groups are not overloaded with new work and can get on with their already busy work-plans.
Page 73 Other Strategic Partnerships
There are other partnerships in Sefton that have key responsibilities in relation to children and young people. One such partnership is the Early Life O-19 Forum; a sub-group of the Health and Wellbeing Board, whose role is to understand the needs of children and families in the borough and provide services in the best way to meet those needs. The LSCB has an important working relationship with the Health and Wellbeing Board. This is a forum where key leaders from the health and care system work together to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and reduce health inequalities. The Health and Wellbeing Board develops a Strategic Needs Assessment each year. During this year, the LSCB requested that the Health Wellbeing Board look specifically at
the needs of children and young people who have experienced or are at risk of CSE. Agenda Item9
Accountability
The LSCB Independent Chair is accountable to the Chief Executive of the Council. During the last year, regular meetings were held between the Chief Executive, Lead Member for Children’s Services, Director of Children’s Services and LSCB Chair. A Council Chief Exeuctuve from another Local Authority attends these meetings as a critical friend and this helps to bring additional challenge to the safeguarding work that is being undertaken in Sefton.
This section explains the work the sub -groups have undertaken during the previous year. It also illustrates some of their Agenda Item9 achievements and the difference this work has made to practice, the confidence and skills of local staff and how we keep children safe:
Critical Incident Panel
LSCBs are required to consider holding a Serious Case Review when abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in a child’s death, life threatening injury or serious sexual abuse, and there are concerns about how professionals may have worked together, the LSCB must undertake a Serious Case Review.
The purpose of a Serious Case Review is to:
Establish whether there are lessons to be learnt from the case about the way in which local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted upon and what is expected to change as a result;
Page 74 and As a consequence, improve multi-agency working when it comes to protecting children.
If the criteria for holding a Serious Case Review has not been met but the LSCB feels that the case may provide an opportunity to learn about and improve practice, a different type of review will be initiated.
During this year there were no Serious Case Reviews initiated or completed. You can see the learning from these reviews on page ?
Training Sub-group
LSCBs have a number of responsibilities in relation to training. Firstly, to know the needs of the workforce; and then monitor ing that those needs are being met. Lastly, the Board must understand if training is having the desired impact upon practice. 1183 practitioners received training delivered directly during this reporting year, with 43 courses delivered or commissioned by the LSCB. Each application for training is filtered so that staff get onto the courses that they need.
Through good quality and relevant training, underpinned by a safe system and opportunities for reflective supervision, professionals and volunteers are better equipped in their safeguarding role.
The LSCB training offer includes a range of courses, which are fully detailed within the Training Brochure (available on the LSCB website).
11
In December 2013 the joint LSCB and Local Safeguarding Adults Board (LSAB) Training Sub-group was established with the aim to find innovative methods to collaborate on the training functions and priorities of each of the safeguarding Boards. The specific LSCB priorities for this reporting year were:
Workforce needs analysis Monitoring that workforce training needs are met Evaluation of the impact of training upon practice
The following pages illustrate the training delivered and the total numbers of local staff and volunteers that attended. It’s important for the Board to monitor which organisations attend LSCB training so that Board members can ensure that their staff and the entire workforce are appropriately trained.
A training needs analysis was undertaken during this reporting year. This will enable better planning of the numbers of training places required for each course and closer monitoring of agency attendance against identified need. Page 75
Agencies who attend most frequently: Independent Education (schools and Organisations, Voluntary and Community Sector; Children early years) Services; Education, Health. 15% Others Agencies who attend least frequently: Police and Probation. 31% Probation and Police The training needs analysis will be revisited during the 10% Sefton Council Children's forthcoming year to ensure that the expectations of the Agenda Item9 Services LSCB as to which professionals require the various levels Sefton Council - Other of training, have been reported accurately by agencies with low attendance on LSCB multi -agency courses. 18% 1% Independents 1% Additionally, an additional element of the training needs Health 21% analysis will be undertaken to enable the LSCB to understand which staff require basic awareness and Level 3% Voluntary Sector 1 safeguarding trainng and which staff have not received this from their employing agency.
Agenda Item9
Operation Encompass
158 School staff and Early years practitioners were trained on Operation Encompass; a collaborative approach to sharing information between Police and schools when a Domestic Abuse incident has occurred in the home and the child was present. Operation Encompass ensures that the school is informed of the incident prior to the start of the next school day to enable the child to be supported by school staff.
LSCB Thresholds for Intervention and good making quality referrals
113 managers and school designated safeguarding leads received additional training on applying thresholds appropriately and making good quality referrals. This training also explored the knowledge of these staff, who had received training previously. The role of managers and designated safeguarding leads is crucial to ensuring that referrals are timely, appropriate and good quality; and that supervision of other staff reinforces the thresholds agreed by the LSCB. It was noted during this training that these staff were better equipped and confident in applying thresholds than had been Page 76 the case previously.
Working Together to Safeguard Children – 2 day course
214 staff attended this course during the previous year which aims to provide attendees with the knowledge and skills to navigate the safeguarding system with children and families and understand their own role within local processes. This 2- day course has additional learning objectives in relation to outcome focused planning, child in need meetings, core groups and child protection conferences. A mock child protection conference enables newer staff to gain confidence through experiencing a child protection conference; whilst more experienced staff are encouraged to reflect on their practice and the experiences of parents and children within a child protection conference.
Working Together to Safeguard Children – 1 day course
46 staff attended our 1 day course, which was developed for practitioners who do not attend operational meetings for children and young people (eg.child protection conferences) but need a higher level knowledge of safeguarding than Level 1. This includes managers in agencies who may act as the safeguarding lead and oversee referrals to children’s social care, and/or develop policies and procedures for their organisation.
Safer Recruitment
42 staff attended training to assist them with recruiting staff safely and in line with expected standards. The training is targeted at human resources staff and others responsible for recruitment in their organisation.
Safe Sleeping
128 staff and volunteers received training on how to provide the right safe sleeping information to parents and carers. Attendees included, Health Visitors and Nursery staff.
Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Awareness
25 people attended this training to enable them to understand statutory arrangements through which the Police, Probation and Prison Services work together with other agencies to help reduce the re-offending behaviour of violent and sexual offenders living in the community in order to protect the public. Page 77
Working With Resistant Families
70 local staff and volunteers attended this course, designed to equip them with the knowledge and skills to work with families who are hard to help, resist professional support or feign compliance with the advice of professionals when a child in the household is at risk of harm or in need of additional support.
Managing Allegations against Adults who work with Children
Agenda Item9 57 people were trained in this area; enabling them to understand what is an ‘allegation’ as outlined in statutory guidance, and how to respond appropriately. The role of the Local Authority Designated Officer is included in this training along with the role of the employing agency and the Police in investigating the allegation.
E-safety
38 staff and volunteers attended this training aimed at raising their awareness of the dangers of unsafe internet use for children and young people and how to get the right safe internet use messages across to the children they work with.
Agenda Item9
CSE specialist training for Single Points of Contact
27 Single Points of Contact (SPoCs) received specialist training. SPoCs were identified across LSCB member agencies and have a specialist CSE role within their organisation to cascade training and awareness raising to other staff, attend multi-agency operational meetings in relation to CSE individual cases and act as a point of reference for CSE activity within their agency. Further CSE training and awareness raising is highlighted within the CSE sub-group section of this report.
Twilight sessions for schools
3 twilight sessions were held specifically for school headteachers, safeguarding leads and governors. Topics delivered included: CSE; Prevent – Tackling Extremism; Supporting Children of Prisoners; Escalation Procedure; Learning from Practice; Early Intervfention and Prevention; Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub; Private Fostering; Operation Encompass update; Human Trafficking; the work of the LSCB. Page 78
Next steps for the Joint Training Sub-group
The priorities for 2015 -17 have been revised to meet the requirements under Priority Five of the LSCB Business Plan, these include:
Development and availability of LSCB Standardised Level 1 single agency training, in line with statutory guidance and learning from audits and reviews. Development of an LSCB advanced multi-agency safeguarding refresher course, including processes to be reviewed in-line with new learning. Develop robust assurance mechanisms, to ensure that newly developed multi-agency LSCB training has been appropriately quality assured and take account of learning from critical incidents and learning reviews. Develop systems, processes and reporting mechanisms to the LSCB, providing the assurance of safeguarding children training compliance across partner agencies. Develop quality assurance and reporting mechanisms, to provide assurance of the quality of safeguarding training delivery across partner agencies. Develop engagement and assurance mechanisms across the Independent sector (e.g. Children’s Homes) to ensure that staff employed across this sector have the relevant training to support children and young people who are Looked After. Enable continued engagement and support across partner agencies
Child Sexual Exploitation
Reviewing and strengthening arrangements 2014-15
The publication of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (Jay, A; 2013) prompted a review of multi - agency operational practice in Sefton. Proposals were made to the LSCB to strengthen current arrangements and as a result th e LSCB Child Sexual Exploitation Partnership Pathway was devised and became operational in October 2014.
Th The Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation (MACSE) Panel was also reviewed and strengthened. The Panel is now co -chaired by the Detective Chief Inspector responsible for the Vulnerable People Unit and the Service Manager responsible for the Sefton Council Safeguarding Children Unit. The co -chairs are members of the LSCB CSE Sub Group enabling strong links across the operational and strategic groups. The Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel ensures all agencies working with young people are invited to attend a discussion regarding the young person they are working with.
A multi -agency ‘MACSE Plan’ is developed for each child , under 4 of the CSE Strategic Plan headings; Profile, Prevent, Protect and Prosecute, which ensures the young person is prot ected and offenders are disrupted and prosecuted. Regular Review MACSE meetings are held to ensure agencies are undertaking the safeguarding, disruption and investigation actions that were Page 79 agreed.
To ensure that different operational processes share information effectively, the Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) Co-ordinator will ensure that young people aged 16-18 who have been referred to MARAC as a victim of an abusive relationship will be reviewed to ascertain if they are at risk from o r experiencing CSE. Any CSE concerns will be referred to the Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel for a Multi-agency CSE Plan to be put in place to safeguard the young person.
Sefton Council invested in a CSE Business Officer / Analyst post working across the MASH and MACSE panel. The function of this role is to analyse referral sources and report lack of agency referrals to the Local Safeguarding Children Board CSE and
Missing Children Sub Group in the CSE data analysis report. This role takes minutes of all CSE Strategy Meetings and Multi - Agenda Item9 Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Meetings and reports to the Service Manager for Safeguarding, in their capacity as the Multi - Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel Co-Chair and lead for Missing Children, Children placed in Sefton in the Care of Other Local Authorities, lead for Providers of Concern and manager to the LADO function.
The integration of this intelligence ensures that any con cerns regarding children’s homes providers, practice of placing Other Local Authorities (OLA), the placement of high risk OLA ‘looked after’ children in Sefton, Sefton and OLA children going miss ing / absent and considered to be at risk of/experiencing CS E can be brought together via a consistent management overview in the Safeguarding Unit.
Agenda Item9 Implementing the Strategy
The LSCB CSE sub-group leads on implementing the strategy to tackle CSE, on behalf of the Board. The priorities for this sub - group are in-line with those contained within the Merseyside and Cheshire CSE Strategy , and key areas of progress during this reporting year are detailed below:
Profile This included activities to assess levels of awareness and understanding of professionals in relation to CSE. It was conluded that despite extensive training and awareness raising, the understanding of frontline practitoners and managers needed to be increased further and a new plans was devised to that effect. Single Points of Contact (SPoC) for CSE were identified within all member agencies and their role outlined as below:
• Act as the ‘go to’ person in your organisation for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) prevention and operational matters • Ensure that relevant policies and procedures for your organisation include your name and contact details Page 80 • Ensure that relevant policies and procedures for your organisation include basic information on how to recognise
and respond to CSE
• Keep staff up to date on local procedures, national learning and guidance in relation to CSE
• Ensure that local CSE pathway is communicated to staff within your organisation
• Disseminate learning from SPoC training and other relevant CSE training to staff in your organisation and update the LSCB as to who you/your organisation has trained internally • Attend Multi-agency CSE meetings (MACSE) when invited, on behalf of your organisation • Ensure that actions relating to keeping a child safe from CSE (from MACSE, CAF, CiN and core group meetings) are followed up by staff in your organisation • Maintain tight links within your organisation across activities to keep children safe from CSE and activities to provide help and protection to children who go missing • Enable senior staff in your organisation to understand CSE and local arrangements to keep children safe from this form of abuse
Training for SPoCs was commissioned by the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner with a focus on working with parents as partners in tackling CSE and engaging with young people who have been identified as victims or at risk of CSE. Monthly reports on data from the Multi-agency CSE panel are examined by the CSE sub-group. This includes important information on the nature of offences and vicitims; enabling the LSCB to understand of the local profile of CSE. Additionally, these reports highlight which agencies are making referrals to the MASH on potential CSE cases; further assisting the Board to target particular agencies for training and awareness information.
Prevention
Raising awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation amongst children, families and the wider community is a crucial part preventing it. During the previous year the LSCB conducted a campaign aimed at taxi drivers and their customers. Wallet cards, displaying the signs of CSE, were provided to all taxi companies, along with stickers for the windows of each taxi. 100,000 cards for the public were distributed via cardholders within each taxi.
A Merseyside wide campaign, led by the five LSCBs and with significant input from Merseyside Police, focused predominantly on raising public awareness across the sub-region. This involved:
Z Sefton LSCB issued a briefing paper to partner agencies attaching resources ie. Email signature banners, suggestions for agency websites, prompts for organisations twitter feeds, screen saver for internal intranet use. Z A micro-site was developed to support the pan-Merseyside campaign and can be accessed at www.listentomystory.co.uk Z 2 full pages in the Liverpool Echo were secured in March to highlight the issue of CSE. Z Bus back adverts were live from 9.3.15 for 4 weeks on 66 buses throughout whole of Merseyside area. Z
Page 81 A radio debate on Radio Merseyside (Roger Philips Show) was aired in March along with a pre-recorded radio city broadcast including young people’s panel. Z Resources were placed on the Sefton Council website, advertising screens within Council buildings ie. One Stop Shops, Libraries, Leisure Centres etc. Z Partner agencies were provided with materials to raise awareness of CSE with people accessing within their services. Z Resources were provided to all Sefton Secondary Schools ; posters, cards for all young people, leaflets and cards for staff.
Protect Agenda Item9
The ‘protect’ aspect of our work involves ensuring that appropriate training, protocols, pathways and services are in place, for children and young people to get the help they need; and to enable professionals to understand their role and work effectively together in relation to CSE cases. The alterations made to the local system were detailed previously.
In order to evaluate local service provision, the LSCB has commissioned a CSE Health Needs Assessment, with significant support from Sefton Council Public Health department. This exercise will assist the LSCB and local commissioners to understand the available evidence on the efficacy of various responses to CSE, prevalence and the quality of data, the needs of practitioners and the thoughts and views of children and young people. The health needs assessment will continue into the forthcoming year and is expected to be complete by September/October 2015. A large consultation with young people is planned for July 2015 and this will be led by the Sefton Young Advisors – young people consulting with young people .
Agenda Item9 The Safeguarding Children Service provided considerable support to continued CSE awareness raising and training for practitioners, service leads and commissioners which included:
A development morning for Children’s Social Care workforce Public Health Commissioners - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have subsequently been developed for all agencies commissioned by Public Health and the Council to work with young people e.g. Sexual Health Services and Children’s Homes. These KPIs ensure that the agency practices in accordance with the Sefton Local Safeguarding Children Board CSE Pathway, ensures their workforce is trained and make referrals regarding CSE concerns to the MASH. Sexual Health Service Strategic Leads, to ensure that the sexual health workforce identify CSE concerns when a young person requests sexual health advice and/or treatment. Neighbourhood, Anti - Social Behaviour and Domestic Abuse Service staff within Sefton Council, to ensure that when they are working within local communities they raise community members’ awareness of CSE. This will support community members to know what action they can take to protect young people from CSE in their local communities. Adult Substance Misuse Services, so the workforce can raise awareness of CSE with the people they work with. As adults who use substances, they are in a valuable position to identify situations when drugs are provided to individuals Page 82 who are using this as a way of sexually exploiting young people. Children’s Homes Managers
Plans are in place for Sefton Pharmacists and GPs to receive bespoke CSE training in the near future.
Governance
LSCB members have worked hard to ensure that CSE is a priority across all of our partner agencies. Reports provided to the the LSCB CSE sub-group highlight the agencies involved operationally in cases and enable the LSCB to challenge any noted issues with attendance/involvement.
Close alignment of partnership work in relation to tackling CSE, Children in the Care of other Local Authorities (CICOLAs) placed in Sefton and children who go missing from home or care, was important for the LSCB. Two new groups were established during this reporting year; the Strategic Missing from Home or Care sub-group, reports directly into the CSE sub- group and is chaired by the Service Manager for the Safeguarding Unit who is also the co-chair of the MACSE panel. The CICOLA and CSE sub-groups are chaired by the Director of Children’s Services.
Between the 17 th October 2014, when the revised LSCB CSE Pathway was implemented, and 31 st March 2015 there have been 133 CSE referrals made.
Since the CSE Pathway was implemented there have been five MACSE meetings held, up until 31.03.15. During this time 23 initial cases were been discussed. As of the 31.03.15 there were 14 cases open to MACSE. Of the 23 cases, 3 have been transferred to MACSE’s in Other Local Authorities, 4 were closed at a Pre -MACSE Meeting which determined that the CSE was no longer at risk of CSE due to safeguards being in place and 2 cases were deemed by MACSE as not CSE and therefore were not reviewed.
Fig 1. CSE referrals by age and gender Fig 2. CSE referrals by agency
Number of CSE CSE Referrals by Age and Gender Agency/ Service referrals made Hospital 1 40 35 Anonymous 1 30 Attendance And Welfare Service 1 25
Page 83 20 M Education Establishment 12 Count 15 F Foster Carer 2 10 5 Independent Children's Home Provider 7 0 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Sexual Health Service 4 M 2 2 3 3 7 OLA Children's Social Care 1 F 1 1 6 10 30 27 27 14 Mental Health Hospital 1 Merseyside Police 25 Parent 2
Agenda Item9
Strat Strategic Missing Children Monitoring Group
This group was established during this reporting year and is chaired by the Service Manager for Safeguarding, who is also Co- Chair of the Multi-Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel (MACSE) and a member of the LSCB CSE and Missing Children Sub Group. Members of the Strategic Monitoring Group are senior managers re sponsible for all elements of Children’s Social Care, the Detective Inspector responsible for missing people and CSE, Missing from Home and Child Sexual Exploitation Police Officers, Sefton Council Child Sexual Exploitation Business Officer / Analyst, Early Intervention Service representatives (who undertake the Independent Return Interviews), Sefton Council Missing Education Lead Officer, Sefton Council Strategic Lead for Organised Crime Groups and Business Intelligence / Quality Assurance Officers.
Agenda Item9
The Strategic Missing Children Monitoring Group provides scrutiny as to whether agencies are complying with the revised Local Safeguarding Children Board Missing Children Procedure. The Group will also analyse data to identify patterns and trends arising from missing incident reports and information provided by children and young people during their independent return interviews. An integrated multi agency data set has been developed which analyses children missing from home, care and education.
The d ataset also analyses children reported missing who have been placed in Children’s Homes within the Sefton boundary by Other Local Authorities and whether there are any concerns regarding the safeguarding practice of the placing authority or the Care Home provider.
Assurance as to agencies’ compliance with the Local Safeguarding Children Board Missing Protocol is reported to the LSCB CSE and Missing Sub Group. Identified patterns and trends associated with CSE are reported to the Local Safeguarding Children Board and Multi-Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel (MACSE). Links identified to Organised Crime Groups are reported to the Multi-Agency Response to Gung and Gangs (MARGG) meeting. Concerns as to the practice of placing Other Local Authoritie s and Children’s Homes providers are reported to the Local Safeguarding Children Board Children in the Care
Page 84 of Other Local Authorities (CICOLA) Sub Group, which is chaired by the Director of Children’s Services.
Children placed in Sefton by Other Loca l Authorities (CICOLA Sub -group)
Sefton has a significant number of Independent Children’s Homes located within its boundary, predominantly in the North. National Regulations were strengthened by Government in 2014 to ensure Local Authorities placing ‘looked after’ children outside of their boundary notify the area within which they are placing the child. If a child is being placed in an area which is not a Local Authority geographically next to the responsible placing authority, the placing Director o f Children’s Services must discuss this placement with the Director of Children’s Services for the area in which the child is being placed.
Resource has been invested in an Other Local Authority (OLA) Placement Notification Officer. This role has responsibility for receiving all notifications of a looked after child being placed in Sefton by another Local Authority. The revised and strengthened OLA Notification Form requires placing Local Authorities to inform Sefton of any CSE or missing from care risks and any involvement in offending, organised crime, substance misuse or mental health issues. All Notification Forms received are communicated to Health and Education Leads. Any young person who is known to be at risk of CSE is communicated to the CSE Police Officer, Missing from Home Police Officer and CSE Business Officer / Analyst. Any young person considered to be a perpetrator of CSE, offending or organised crime is communicated to the YOT. Any young person with a history of being missing is reported to the Missing from Home Police Officer.
This notification process ensures that ‘looked after’ young people moving into Sefton can be s afeguarded by Sefton agencies and support the placing authority in their statutory duty to safeguard the young person. Details of all notifications of ‘lo oked after’ young people placed in Sefton by another Local Authority are recorded on the Sefton Children’s Social Care electronic data system. As of 11 th March Sefton had received notifications that 203 looked after young people are placed in Sefton placed by the following Local Authorities:
Birmingham Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Bristol Bury Cheshire East Cheshire West & Chester Cumbria Darlington Durham Haringey Kirklees Knowsley * Lancashire * London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham London Borough of Lewisham Liverpool * Manchester Rochdale St Helens Page 85 Salford Slough Stockton Thurrock Warrington Wigan Wirral *
* indicates the Local Authority has more than 5 children placed within the Sefton boundary
In cases of a placing Local Authority not adhering to the Notification Procedure the Service Manager for Safeguarding informs Agenda Item9 the DCS, who is proactive in contacting the placing DCS to discuss this concern. If there are ongoing concerns that the Placing Authority is not acting in a way which safeguards a young person for which they are responsible, Sefton DCS escalates this concern to Ofsted. Sefton DCS has been proactive in initiating consultation with other DCS’ on a nat ional basis as to this approach.
Detail as to the number of children ‘looked after’ by other Local Authorities placed within the Sefton boundary, and action taken to address concerns regarding placing Local Authorities’ safeguarding practice, are reported to the Children in the Care of Other Local Authorities (CICOLA) LSCB Sub Group, chaired by the DCS, and in turn the LSCB.
Agenda Item9
A data analysis report has been developed for Children’s Homes undertaking a Safe Area Assessment as per their regulatory requirement. This enables Children’s Homes providers to understand the risks related to CSE in the area of the Children’s Home and take appropriate action to safeguard the children they are looking after.
Children’s Homes causing Concern – a new approach
Based upon the schools Causing Concern protocol the CICOLA sub-group is implementing a ‘Provider of Concern Protocol’, which enables providers who are failing to safeguarding children in their care to be identified and reported to Ofsted as their Regulatory body. The Protocol will be provided to Children’s Home Providers for consultation in quarter 1 of 2015 – 16.
All concerns raised by the Safeguarding Unit; IRO and LADO concerns regarding a Children Home Provider within Sefton to date have been communicated to the DCS and the CICOLA (Children in Care of Other Local Authorities) LSCB Sub Group.
The proposed Provider of Concern Protocol currently under development involves a multi-agency Monitoring Group, chaired by the Council Commissioning Service. The LADO and IROs will be represented on this Group and intelligence regarding
Page 86 concerns about Children’s Homes Providers in Sefton will be discussed against an agreed Matrix of Concern.
If discussion leads to an agreement that the concerns reach Level 3 of the Matrix of Concern a referral will be made by the Monitoring Group Chair to the Service Manager for Safeguarding Children Unit who will review this and inform the DCS. The DCS will subsequently make contact with the Placement Responsible Individual and Registered Manager, Ofsted and Local Authorities that are known to have children placed with the Provider to inform them of the Local Authorities concerns.
It is planned that this Protocol would inform regional developments of such an approach and that a proposal would be made to the Association of Di rectors of Children’s Services (ADCS), for this to become a national approach to ensuring only ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ children homes care for our most vulnerable ‘looked after’ children.
Formatting
Quality Assurance Sub -group Child Death Overview Panel
The purpose of this group is to gather and analyse information that helps the LSCB know if It is a statutory responsibity for every LSCB practice is good and the safegua rding system is effective. This is done using a range of methods: to review all child deaths in the area with a view to identifying modifiable and Scrutiny – this is how the LSCB looks at a particular agency or area of work and preventable factors in individual deaths and make recommendations where improvements are required. It helps agencies to look any trends or themes emerging from at issues together enabling multi-agency solutions to be found. analysing all child deaths. Practice Audits examine the quality of multi-agency practice by talking to practitioners
involved a case and taking a close look at the records.
Data and performance information helps the LSCB to understand the numbers of The 5 Merseyside LSCBs collaborated to
children and families receiving s ervices at the varying levels of need. This ‘data’ form one joint Child Death Overview Panel; becomes meaningful information by considering and comparing it against a range of a sub -group of all 5 LSCBs. other data and information. In turn, this provides a picture of how effective specific parts of the safeguarding system are as the Board can observe if children are helped The learning from our CDOP activities is and protected or if the risks for them are increasing. included in Section ? ‘Learning and Improvement’; and additional data is You can see the learning gained from the work of this group in the ‘Learning available within Appendix ? and Improvement’ section of this report on page ??? Page 87
Anti -Bullying and E -safety Sub -group
The Anti-Bullying and E-Safety groups merged during this reporting year. The group aims to co-ordinate and support anti-bullying work in
schools and the community. Merging these two strongly linked agendas will continue to strengthen our approach and increase local understanding. Bullying and Cyber -bullying – T McK The focus of the Anti-bullying and E-Safety g roup has been to increase awareness among children, young people and parents about support available for those who experience bullying and exposure to online abuse,. One of the developments of the group is that the Multi-Agency Child
Agenda Item9 Sexual Exploitation (MACSE) group is now represented, so the links with online issues can be explored. Both the E-Safety Strategy and the Anti-Bullying Strategy have been reviewed, refreshed and are now published on the LSCB website. During Anti-Bullying week representatives from all high school councils in Sefton came together for the annual Young Person’s Conference, led by Kayte Walsh from Bully busters.
The “LETS STOP BULLYING FOR ALL” campaign highlights the impact of bullying on children and young people in our schools, communities and in cyberspace. The event provided a forum for discussion and debate on the issues of bullying and on line safety. The conference provided opportunities for the young people to share with the council their views on online safety. The young people were also consulted about the E - safety Strategy.
A survey was conducted in relation to the bullying of looked after children. The results showed nearly 50% of looked after children had experienced some form of bullying. The action ta ken from this was to include a bullying question in the child’s Personal Education Plan. This will ensure that all Looked After Children have an additional opportunity to raise any bullying issues or concerns and seek support.
Agenda Item9
Slightly outside of this reporting year but important to note, an Independent E-safety expert, Karl Hopwood, led a series of sessions in Sefton for schools and the children’s workforce , focusing on understanding how to protect young people online. Karl del ivered materials in relation to offering advice and support on how to develop safer online behaviours and on promoting digital literacy . The learning from this session included the schools reviewing their E-safety practice. People felt they had a greater understanding and therefore, they could utilise the knowledge they
had gained when assessing on line risks. This was received as feedback.
The anti-bullying and e-safety web pages were updated and links to both national and local information sites were added . The web page will be a key channel for providing information to agencies, families and children and young people.
Priorities for 2015/17
Anti-Bullying in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
There will be a specific focus on r educing the bullying of disabled children and young people, and those with special educational needs. The SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIAS) have reported that out of all of the parents they have spoken to, 55 have made reference to their children experiencing some form of bullying. Sefton will be taking part in a project sponsored by the DfE and Anti-bullying Page 88 Alliance to become an anti-bullying SEND Champion. Part of the programme will be to deliver training to schools, children’s workforce and parents.
The sub-group will continue to explore opportunities for younger children to promote anti-bullying and e-safety information through a range of initiatives.
One aspect of this will be promoting ‘CyberSense ’ within the primary curriculum. This will raise awareness of cyber-bullying, provide children with the skills to recognise, respond to and report cyber-bullying and promote staying safe online. The resource adopts a whole-class approach and is delivered by teachers, to provide children with the skills to tackle issues of cyber-bullying and staying safe online.
Critical Incident Panel
Driving key LSCB priorities
LSCB Priority 1: increased coordination of scrutiny, learning and quality assurance
The Critical Incident Panel is responsible for supporting the LSCB to safely discharge its function of undertaking serious ca se reviews (SCR) in accordance with the Childr en Act 2004. When such a review has taken place the panel also supports the LSCB in advising on the lessons learned for all Partner agencies. The Panel considers cases referred to it against the threshold criteria for SCR as defined in Working Together 2013 and recommends, where appropriate the commissioning of independent reviews, internal management reviews and / or audit.
With the agreed model of practice the CIP supports frontline practitioners in their understanding of their roles, responsibilities an d relationship with the LSCB whilst supporting learning. Commissioned reviews provide the scrutiny, challenge and quality assurance of practice and systems affecting frontline practice.
The CIP maintains oversight of the LSCB Local Learning and Improvement framework, coordinated and managed by the Quality Assurance officer who is a key member of the sub group. The CIP working in conjunction with the legal representative / member commenced the development of guidance to support General practice contribution to the Safeguarding reviews
LSCB Priority 2: Safeguarding Training Needs
The CIP ensures that any learning needs identified within the findings of a review are communicated to the training sub group and Partner agencies to ensure inclusio n into training strategies and training plans. This enables the workforce to be better informed and equipped to respond to the needs of children young people and their families.
Progress within 2014-15
The CIP heard six cases throughout 2014-15 none of which met the threshold criteria for an SCR. The CIP recommended that an audit be conducted of practice within a defined cohort of vulnerable young people within the Boro ugh as a result of one specific case. A root cause analysis / internal multi agency practice learning review was conducted. The Learning and Improvement framework was revised and updated. The action plans for previous Independent Management Reviews continued to be progressed and completed.
Page 89 Work carried forward to 2015-16 Information sharing guidance for Independent Practice Vulnerable Young People audit (completed but not received by the Board within this reporting year)
Barriers in furthering the work of the Board were noted as: Inconsistent attendance by Panel members, at times impeded progress of decision making for some referred cases, as relevant information not available Organisational restructures affected membership.
Priorities for 2015-17 Agenda Item9 Update and refine CIP processes and terms of reference to reflect Working Together 2015 (published March 2015) – to ensure the functions of the LSCB continue to be safely discharged in accordance with statutory guidance Define and progress CIP work plan in accordance with the 2015-2017 LSCB Business Plan priorities – to improve outcomes for children & young people in the borough by improving quality of service delivery. Increase awareness and accessibility of the role of the Panel with Board members and frontline professionals – to increase the number of cases referred within the year to better understand if the systems within which frontline practitioners work support them in their role to keep children and young people safe Continue to schedule and hear cases - to maintain compliance with statutory requirements, to better determine learn ing and be assured of impact of changes / improved quality outcomes for children and young people within the Borough. In order to achieve this, the Critical incident Panel requires consistent attendance, increased membership to take account of Organisation al and commissioning changes, improved alignment of work plans and processes with those related to multi-agency audit.
Agenda Item9 Health Sub-group
The Health Sub Group was initiated in October 2013, initially on the Liverpool LSCB footprint. The membership was extended to Sefton LSCB in January 2014, enabling the opportunity for joint working across the Sefton & Liverpool footprint on shared LSCB agendas requiring a health response.
The concept of the health sub group originated in response to the LSCBs analysis of strategic board membership and the requirement to rationalise for optimum performance. NHSE and the Chief Nurses consulted on the proposed model of a health sub group with the Directors of Nursing from the commissioned health services and the model was agreed as it also supported economies of scale, within the provider services who had a duty to face both Boards. The model would be reviewed at agreed stages to ensure that it was fit for purpose and achieving the required outcomes.
Throughout the course of 2014-15 a work-plan has been developed for the sub-group that is based upon the business priorities for both Sefton and Liverpool LSCB’s. The relevant health orientated business priorities have been mapped and the w ork plan has been devised and distributed to all of the sub-group members. Each of the sub-group members have been tasked with reviewing the work-plan and RAG rating it according to
Page 90 the work that is being carried out within their own organisation. The future sub-group meetings include a focal agenda item on different parts of the work plan to enable group discussion and peer learning to develop best practice. In addition to the work-plan the health sub-group has acted as a forum to disseminate the information, work and learning of Sefton LSCB to enable a clear communication pathway to all of the health providers.
Progress during 2014-15
Throughout 2014-15 the health sub-group have met on a 6 weekly basis and received regular updates on the work of Sefton LSCB. In addition there have been specific presentations made on the work of MASH in Sefton, feedback on Ofsted inspections that had been completed in nearby local authority areas, CSE, learning from serious case reviews, the themes and lessons for the NHS on the Savile and review and discussion of research articles into the a thematic review of Sudden unexpected death in infancy and improving practice in safeguarding at the interface between hospital services and children’s social care. Task and finish groups have been established to carry forward work on producing a single child protection referral from health and mechanisms of streamlining safeguarding performance data from health.
Barriers in furthering the work of the group
The health sub-group has seen a varying commitment in terms of membership of the group. The majority of the provider organisations have been represented at all of the meetings but the staff member attending the meetings has frequently changed. On occasion the member attending the meeting has not been in a position to decision make for their organisation and this has limited the extent of the discussions and actions that can be carried out by the health sub-group. Work will continue to improve this.
Impact of the work of the group
There have been detailed presentations on the learning from serious case reviews that have been shared across the sub-group this has enabled health providers that were not necessarily directly involved in the cases to learn lessons and make necessary changes to practice. Within the work-plan for 2015-17 there are detailed process outcomes attached to each business priority.
Priorities for 2015-17
The work plan for 2015 – 17 encompasses priority areas for neglect, Child Sexual Exploitation, Children who are Accommodated, MASH, Audit activity, Performance information, training and the learning and improvement framework.
The work on the single child protection referral form from health will be expanded to include work with the Assistant Director for Children’s Services.
The work of the sub-group will be assisted through consistent representation from appropriate senior health professionals who can make decisions for their organisation.
Page 91
Strengthening Arrangements
During the forthcoming year, a full review of the governance arrangements will be undertaken. This will incorporate an evaluation of the effectiveness of the sub-groups in furthering the work of the LSCB and the ability of the Board to oversee how all elements of the structure are functioning. This review will be completed in the autumn of 2015 and reported to the Board.
Changes are planned to enable greater links between key areas of business; Quality Assurance via multi-agency audits, reviews of cases and the safeguarding system and understanding the work of the Child Death Overview Panel. Each of these business areas Agenda Item9 are listed within statutory guidance as elements of a local Learning Improvement Framework and our governance and structure must support close working and gaining as much learning as possible from all of these activities followed by detailed analysis to understand any themes and trends emerging.
Formatting
Agenda Item9
5. Annual Performance Information
The LSCB considers a range of performance information at every meeting and this section includes some key information we are particularly interested in. Much of our focus is on information relating to children in Sefton who at most risk but we are also interested in the effectiveness of early support and other aspects of the safeguarding system.
______
CHILD PROTECTION PLAN DATA 2014-15
Sefton CP plans open at 31/3/15 = 251: Rate per 10,000 = 47
Page 92 Sefton rate for 2013-14 was 41 (national rate: 42.1)
Sefton CP plans opened during 2014/15 = 397: Rate per 10,000 = 74 Sefton rate for 2013-14 was 74 (national rate: 52.1)
Total number of Sefton children subject to CP in 2014/15 = 619: Rate per 10,000 = 116 Sefton rate for 2013-14 was 114 ( National rate = 89 / NW rate = 43 1)
Sefton CP rate per 10,000 0-17s is comparable to the England average based on a snapshot of CP plans open on 31 March 2015, but Sefton has a higher than national rate based on CP plans that were opened during 2014-15 or total CP plans open in 2014-15. Sefton has over double the North West rate of CP plans per 10,000 based on total plans open over 2014-15.
This may indicate a higher number of CP plans opened for only short periods. This could be because plans are open and closed too quickly. Further analysis would need to be commissioned to understand this better, but ONS national data for 2013-14 indicated that Sefton had the highest rate (24.2) of repeat child protection plans in the North West in 2013-14.
1 National and North West rates = ONS national data will not be available until October 2015 therefore national and NW rates above are from 2013-14.
Sefton CP Plans opened 1/4/14 to 31/3/15
Emotional 242 61% Neglect 60 17% Neglect, Physical 8
Physical 62 16% CP plans for emotional abuse have increased in 2014 -15 (from 107 to 242) Physical, Sexual 4 1% but plans for physical abuse have reduced (from 150 to 62). This is due to a Sexual 18 5% change in practice by IROs at CP Conferences. Witnessing domestic abuse Sexual, Emotional 3 1% is now categorised as emotional abuse rather than physical abuse as outlined in the CSC Safeguarding Unit annual report. Grand Total 397 101%
While it might be expected that Sefton would have higher than national average CP rates, CP plans for neglect are surprisingly 2
Page 93 low in Sefton compared to international , national and North West trends – and in fact have reduced in 2014-15 from 96 to only 60 (68 if include multiple plans with neglect). In England and the North West rates of neglect and emotional abuse are roughly the same at about 35-40% of total CP plans for each category. In Sefton Emotional abuse makes up more than 61% of all CP plans. Neglect is less than 20%. This may indicate that neglect is under-reported or under-recognised in Sefton, or that children subject to plans for Emotional abuse also suffer from under-lying neglect issues. It also confirms that Sefton has a significant domestic abuse problem and that the LSCB may wish to review how effective services are at reducing domestic abuse incidents and risks.
As ONS data for 2014-15 is not available until October 2015, some comparable 2013-14 CP data is shown below to highlight the points being made above: Agenda Item9
England North West Sefton 2013-14 Rate per Rate per Rate per Category of Abuse % of CP % of CP % of CP 10,000 10,000 10,000 Neglect 41 21 37 24 24 18 Emotional Abuse 35 18 38 25 27 20 Physical Abuse 10 5 12 8 37 28 Sexual Abuse 5 2 5 3 6 4 Multiple 9 5 7 5 5 4
2 [Neglect] is usually the most common cause for being subject to a child protection plan or on a child protection register in all nations (NSPCC 2015) Agenda Item9
Sefton had very high levels of Child Protection plans for physical abuse during the previous reporting year. 37% of Child Protection plans opened in 2013-14 by Sefton were for physical abuse – compared to only 10% for England and 12% for the North West. Nationally there are 5 Child Protection plans for physical abuse for every 10,000 children and in the North West the rate is 8 per 10,000. In Sefton 28 children per 10,000 had a CP plan for physical abuse.
Conversely Sefton had quite low rates of Child Protection plans for neglect (18 per 10,000) compared with England (21) and the North West (24). Neglect Child Protection plans made up only 25% of the total number of Child Protection plans opened during the year in Sefton; compared to 41% for England and 37% across the North West.
Commentary
Neglect data was reported in the LSCB Annual Report for the previous reporting year and it was identified that the number of Page 94 Child Protection plans in this category were low. The likely reason for this was considered to be a matter of categorising all cases, for which domestic abuse was a feature, as “Physical Abuse”. This appeared to have led to a low number of cases categorised as “Emotional Abuse” or “Neglect”.
It was expected that a recalibration would occur, whereby CP plans in the category of Neglect would increase as an overall percentage of all CP plans . The converse however, has been noted in data for 2014-15. This requires further analysis.
Next Steps
I. The LSCB will review how many neglect cases are open at ‘early support’ level and seek assurance that thresholds for referral and assessment to CSC are being applied safely.
II. In the first instance the LSCB will request evidence from single agency auditing by EIP of neglect cases that are open as a CAF. The LSCB will also request data on referrals to children’s social care for neglect and the outcomes (i.e. NFA, refer to EIP, CSC assessment and outcome).
III. A multi-agency neglect audit will be undertaken to evaluate the quality of practice in this area and the application of thresholds across for neglect cases early help, Child in Need and Child Protection cases.
CHILD IN NEED DATA 2014-15
Total number on a CiN plan in 14/15 912 Number new CiN episodes 14/15 459
CIN Plan Starts; 2014/15 The table on the left highlights that the 80 number of new CiN plans opened has generally declined over 2014 -15. 60
40 Numbers opened during Q4 were 20 particularly low at less than 10 new plans per month, whereas 60 -70 CiN starts Page 95 0 were recorded per month in Q1 and the Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar average for the year is 38 per month. 2014/15
Time on plan N %
Age N % Agenda Item9 0-3 months 24 3% 0-4 225 24.7% 3-6 months 105 12% 5-9 242 26.5% 6-12 months 334 37% 10-15 294 32.2% 1-2 Years 371 41% 16+ 151 16.6% 2 Years + 78 9% Total 912 100.0% Total 912 100% Age of children on CiN plans is roughly The above table shows that most CiN plans last evenly spread across age groups with between 6 months and 2 years. slightly fewer for children over the age of 16.
Agenda Item9
Category of Need N %
N1 - Abuse Neglect 132 28.8% N2 - Disability 27 5.9% N3 - Parent illness / disability 7 1.5% N4 - Family in acute stress 56 12.2% N5 - Family dysfunction 231 50.3% N6 - Socially unacceptable behaviour 4 0.9% N8 - Absent parenting 1 0.2% N9 - Other - Children 1 0.2%
Page 96 Total 459 100.0%
Of the 459 new CIN starts during 2014-15, the table above shows that 91% had the origina l reason for the referral to children’s social care as being related to abuse or neglect, or family acute stress or dysfunction.
This indicates that a high proportion of CiN cas es may have been referred to children’s social care initially due to safeguarding concerns.
CiN Reviews
582 of the 912 cases open in the year had at least one CIN review meeting recorded on the system. Initial analysis shows that few CiN review meetings took place every 6 – 8 weeks.
Further analysis required of this data to see how many of the new CiN plans had a review meeting in line with CSC procedures for a review within 6 – 8 weeks:
Reviews will be conducted at intervals agreed with the Key Worker’s line manager, initially being at intervals of 6 - 8 weeks, unless there are exceptional circumstances when timescales can be longer e.g. in the case of disabled children.
MULTI-AGENCY DATA 2014-15
The LSCB has agreed a new multi-agency dataset for 2015-16. This was piloted over the last two quarters of 2014-15. Some selected multi-agency data has been gathered for the whole year due to its importance to the LSCB’s remit to performance monitor the multi-agency partnership in some key areas.
CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND RISKS Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
No. of children reported missing to Targeted Youth Support (No. of episodes) 3 29 (48) 29 (38) 39 (55) 92 (203)
No. of individual children who had multiple missing episodes (more than 2) 9 6 6 38
No. of Sefton LAC children reported to TYS as missing (No. of episodes) ? (7) ? (4) ? (15) ? (56)
No. of (Sefton) children missing from home or care who had a TYS return interview
Page 97 21 (n/a) 16 (n/a) 24 (n/a) 55 (n/a) (and % within 72 hours)
No. of children reported/recorded as ‘missing’ to police in Sefton (episodes) 4 - - 96 (158) 160 (308)
No. of young people admitted to hospital due to self-harm 32 18 25 31
No. of referrals to MASH due to CSE concerns - - 59 74
No. of YP considered at a CSE strategy meeting - - 46 63 Agenda Item9 % of CSE Strategy meetings not leading to MACSE referral 5 - - 65% 48%
3 There is a significant gap between TYS and Police data (57 children and 103 episodes in Q3 and 68 children 105 episodes in Q4) due to some episodes not being reported to MASH and/or TYS by the police. The LSCB will monitor if this gap closes over 2015-16. 4 There are 64 more missing children and 150 more missing episodes reported in Q4. This is due to the Missing Pathway coming into effect over Q4 and the Missing Persons Coordinator taking up her post in February. Missing episodes have been under-reported prior to this. It is estimated that the true volume of missing episodes may be in the region of 200 children and 400 episodes per quarter. The LSCB and the police will monitor this over 2015-16. 5 The proportion of CSE Strategy meetings NOT leading to a MACSE referral was noted in Q3 as being low.
Agenda Item9 CHILD PROTECTION AND SAFEGUARDING Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
YoT Serious Incident Notifications reported to YJB 1 0 0 1 No. of LAC open to YOT 12 11 8 12 11 NAI 12 NAI 16 NAI 13 NAI Child protection medicals completed by Alder Hey 3 CSA 2 CSA 2 CSA 5 CSA Total contacts to CSC 2262 2153 1658 1596
Total referrals to CSC 685 718 559 574 No. of re -referrals (previous referral within year) 197 (28%) 179 (25%) 176 (29%) 145 (25%) No. of children on CP (at end of quarter) 231 250 266 251
10 No. of repeat CP plans 21 4 17 (+19 OLA) No. of children on CP for more than 15 months 11 15 18 15 CSC Serious Incident Notifications to Ofsted/LSCB 1 2 0 0 No. of LAC 403 408 423 466
Page 98 No. of children on Care Orders placed at home (No. more than 2 years) 77 ( -) 77 ( -) 75 (17) 80 (20) Average IRO caseload 6 102 at March 2015 (36 CP, 66 LAC) No. (and %) of offenders with parental responsibilities - - 85 (16%) 139 (23%)
No. of offenders CRC registered as a ‘Risk to Children’ - - 35 69 No. of MAPPA level 2 who are risks to children - - 5 6
No. of MAPPA level 3 who are risks to children - - 1 2
No. of (Sefton) young people held in custody overnight 7 - - 34 34 No. of (Sefton) young people detained in custody under S136 of MH Act ‘83 - - 0 0
EARLY HELP AND INTERVENTION Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 No. of contacts and referrals for early help (conversion rate) - - 400 (69%) 1109 (78%) No. of CAF assessments opened - - 79 145 Early support referrals closed due to non -engagement - - 40 12 No. of EHE children 85 67 76 75
6 This is above recommended levels (50-70 if solely LAC) 7 Howard League definition of overnight custody = 4 or more hours in custody between the hours of midnight and 8am
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
Statutory responsibilities of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)
The statutory requirement for local authorities to have a Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) to be involved in the management and oversight of allegations made against adults working with children, is contained within the Children Act 2004 , and is outlined within Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015. It is the LADO’s role to maintain an overview of all allegations and provide advice and guidance to organisations. The LADO will also liaise with social care, police and other agencies and monitor the progress of cases to ensure that they are dealt with as quickly as possible, and are consistent with a thorough and fair process.
Working Together to Safeguard Children was revised in 2015 with a brief reference relating to allegation management. Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on a range of organisations to have safeguarding arrangements in place. Section 11 makes it clear that organisations should have clear policies in line with those from the LSCB for dealing with allegations against those who work with children. Such polices should make a clear distinction between an allegation, a concern about the quality of care or practice or a complaint. Polices should also make clear the process, including timescales, for investigation and what support and advice will be available to those against whom allegations have been made. Page 99 Allegation Criteria
The LADO should be alerted to all cases in which it is alleged that a person who works with children has: Behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed a child Possibly committed a criminal offence against children, or related to a child Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates s/he poses a risk of harm if they work with children.
LADO Performance Data Agenda Item9 During 2014 – 2015 reporting period there were 136 LADO referrals which met the criteria.
There were a further 76 ‘contacts’ made to the LADO, which did not meet the above LADO threshold, which is an increase of 36 ‘contacts’ reported in last year’s Annual Report: of these 34 were referred to the employing organisation for them to deal within their own internal processes 28 were recorded as threshold not met 14 were either no further action or out of borough allegations.
This increase shows that agencies are keen to discuss concerns with the LADO to ensure that they are making safe decisions when concerns are identified. The number of referrals from OFSTED has also increased due to their referring all matters where they think
Agenda Item9
there is a possibility of an allegation. This means that the LADO has to make enquiries to ascertain if it is a LADO matter and if not refer the concerns onto the most appropriate agency. An example of this would be parents anonymously writing to OFTED, stating that an individual had been removed from his employment due to a serious allegation in 2007 but was now back working there. This was the only information provided. The LADO had to speak to the employer and the police to obtain information. The outcome was that it was a malicious rumour and a report was compiled by the LADO and sent back to OFSTED.
2013/14 2014/15 Increase / decrease LADO referrals 94 136 +44.68% LADO contacts 40 76 +90%
Referral Source In line with last year’s data, children’s social care is the main agency making referrals to the LADO followed by education. 50 47 45 Children’s social care identifies LADO issues when child 40 protection referrals are made in respect of a parent who also
Page 100 35 works within the children’s workforce. Ofsted employers at this 30 26 stage are not aware of concern within the employees’ private 25 21 20 lives. Of note is the increase in referrals from the private sector 15 11 from 7 to 21, an increase of 200%. This may be attributable to 10 6 6 7 5 the awareness raising sessions carried out by the LADO with the 5 1 2 2 2 private sector. Also, the Service Manager for the Children’s 0 Safeguarding Unit and Director of Children’s Services (DCS) have worked closely with private children’s homes managers regarding children placed with themselves by other Local Authorities and have referred concerns re: children’s homes’ practice to the LADO. Closer working relationships between school readiness team and LADO, in relation to early years settings, will have contributed to the increase of LADO referrals
with regard to private nurseries.
It should be remembered that the referring agency is not always the agency whose worker the allegation is against. The data would suggest that without social care referrals, organisations are either not recognising what an allegation is, or would not be complying with statutory guidance by referring allegations to the LADO with 24 hrs of becoming aware of it.
There is still work to do with those sectors of the workforce whose referral rate is low, such as health agencies and the Police, to increase awareness of the referrals process. LSCB members and HR leads are invited to undertake 1:1 briefing sessions with the LADO in order to improve awareness of statutory requirements.
LADO Referral Timeliness
As was the case within last year’s Annual Report, compliance with the statutory requirement to report an within 24 hours of the agency becoming aware of it is an ongoing issue.
Yes The data to the left correlates with the data on referring agencies in that 68 68 social care are referring to LADO on behalf of other organisations that may No be aware of an allegation, but have not referred to the LADO themselves.
LSCB members have been asked to satisfy themselves that senior managers are aware of the statutory requirement to notify LADO within 24 hours of them becoming aware of it.
Page 101 Employment Sector
50 44 45 Overall, the number of referrals for each employment 40 sector correlates with last year’s figures. 35 30 23 25 Of note is the increase in referrals in relation to 20 13 11 11 15 6 7 residential workers from private sector children’s 10 3 2 2 5 4 4 5 0 1 homes. 0
In the 2014 -2015 reporting period, there was a total Agenda Item9 of 10 allegations referred to LADO.
This year there have been 23, which is an increase of 130%.
The majority of these referrals can be attributed to one provider. The LADO has worked with closely OFSTED, the Service Manager for the Safeguarding Unit and the DCS to ensure that decisive action has been taken in relation to this provision.
Agenda Item9 In line with last years’ data, allegations of physical abuse Categories of abuse account for 52% of the referrals and this is consistent with national trends. 80 71 There has been an increase in referrals under the ‘other’ 70 category. This can be attributed to organisations referring 60 concerns to the LADO reg arding an employee’s behaviour 50 in their private lives. This meets the criteria contained within Working Together of “behaved towards a child that 40 31 indicates they pose a risk of harm if they work with 30 children”. This allows the LADO and the employer to 18 20 12 consi der if the employee’s behaviour is deemed to be a risk 10 4 if they work with children.
0 The referrals received during this reporting period include; Emotional Neglect Physical Abuse Sexual Abuse Other home life domestic related issues, alcohol abuse,
Page 102 Abuse downloading indecent images of children and allegations
Outcome of Allegations The large number of ongoing cases is due to a number of factors. There is police involvement in an increased number of cases compared with last year and currently 13 allegations are being investigated by the police and are ongoing. Individual Police 50 44 investigations can take some time to reach a conclusion. The LADO 45 will compile a report analysing police investigation timescales and 40 36 provide this to the Police for them to consider the subsequent issues 35 30 for the employing organisations and the impact upon them. 25 21 18 20 The number of ongoing criminal matters is not a true reflection of 15 cases where the police have been involved in an investigation which 10 7 5 4 has not been actioned further and has then been referred back to 5 1 the employer for internal investigation. An allegation may be 0 recorded under a criminal strand and once police have finished their investigation, the strand will change to harm or may have harmed or poses a risk of harm.
The category of ‘false’ relates to allegations within education settings only and is an outcome required by the DfE.
Definitions: Substantiated – A substantiated allegation is one which is supported or established by evidence or proof; Unsubstantiated – An unsubstantiated allegation is not the same as a false allegation. It simply means that there is insufficient identifiable evidence to prove or disprove the allegation. The term, therefore, does not imply guilt or innocence; Unfounded – This indicates that the person making the allegation misinterpreted the incident or was mistaken about what they saw. Alternatively, they may not have been aware of all the circumstances. For an allegation to be classified as unfounded, it will be necessary to have evidence to disprove the allegation; Malicious – This implies a deliberate intention to deceive. A malicious allegation may be made by a child following an altercation with a member of staff or a parent who is in dispute with the organisation. For an allegation to be classified as malicious, it will be necessary to have evidence which proves this intention. False - This applies to education only. For an allegation to be recorded as false there has to be sufficient evidence to disprove the allegation. Ongoing – Cases not concluded remain ongoing.
The LADO reported that the high number of unfounded and unsubstantiated outcomes can be attributed in part to the low threshold of allegations that get reported in to the Sefton LADO. Managing Allegations Guidance states that all allegations no matter how low level should have independent oversight and Sefton’s LADO encourages organisations to report in all such concerns. Sefton LSCB
Page 103 will continue to monitor this situation in the forthcoming year.
The information below presents the outcome of the allegation cross referenced with the LADO strand of allegation.
Strand of Allegation Outcome of Allegation On - Out of Sub - Threshold Un - Unsub - Grand Malicious going borough stantiated not met founded stantiated FALSE Total Criminal 13 3 16
Harm or may have Agenda Item9 harmed 22 3 8 2 16 23 6 80 Poses a Risk of Harm 1 9 1 7 3 5 13 1 40 Grand Total 1 44 4 18 5 21 36 7 136
The large numbers of allegations (80) in the category of harmed or may have harmed a child would correspond with the increase in police investigations into low level allegations. Similar to the last reporting period, the high number of unsubstantiated outcomes is evidence that employers are referring low level concerns at an early stage to ensure that individuals within the workforce who may of concern are looked at independently of the employing organisation.
Agenda Item9
Board members will consider suggested amendments to the threshold for LADO involvement during the forthcoming year. Currently the LADO oversees all allegations, where there is a concern that a child may have been harmed, even if the threshold of significant harm is not met. This ensures that all low level concerns are reported in and investigated by the employing agency and outcomes are re ported to the LADO. Quite often this type of referral is one person’s word against another’s and so can only be recorded as ‘unsubstantiated’ as per guidance.
Outcome of Allegation cross referenced against Employment Sector of Perpetrator
Employment Sector of Alleged Outcome of Allegation Perpetrator Out of Sub - Threshold Un - Unsub - Grand Malicious On -going borough stantiated not met founded stantiated FALSE Total Early Years/childcare 2 1 3 6 Education LA 16 6 1 5 11 5 44
Page 104 Education Non LA 4 2 5 2 13 Foster Carer LA 5 1 1 7 Foster Carer Non LA 5 1 1 1 2 1 11 Health 2 1 3 Other 1 2 1 4 Other Social Care 1 1 2 Police 1 1 2 Private 1 1 1 1 1 5 Residential Worker LA 1 2 1 4 Residential Worker Private 3 1 10 9 23 Transport 1 1 VCF 2 1 3 1 1 3 11 Grand Total 1 44 4 18 5 21 36 7 136
The highest number of allegations are made against teaching staff, therefore a higher rate of substantiated outcomes can be anticipated. Of the 8 substantiated against school employees, one staff member was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, another was allowed to retire, 1 was given a management note and the others were given some form of formal action. Proactive action is ongoing in relation to any employers considered to be a children’s home provider causing concern’. The number of unfounded allegations appears to show that managers are referring in, conducting investigations and providing evidence to show that the allegation had no substance.
Children in Care
When a child becomes "looked after", the tasks of their parents become the corporate responsibility of the Council. This is known as "corporate parenting" and it is the collective responsibility of the council to prioritise the needs of children in care and seek for them the same outcomes any good parent would want for their own children.
Sefton Council has a well established Corporate Parenting Board for our children and young people in care. Nevertheless, the LSCB still has a role to play in ensuring that local services and arrangements for these children are effective in keeping them safe. The following defining themes are associated with delivering good outcomes for Children in Care
excellent corporate parenting high aspirations stable relationships taking time to listen to the voice of the child.
Page 105 It important however, for the LSCB to maintain oversight of the numbers of children coming into care and understand the reasons why. The LSCB need to monitor that children are taken into care when they need to be and without delay. Additionally, the LSCB needs to monitor the financial implications if there was a large increase in the numbers of children coming into care. The Board also needs to understand if children are coming into care because the range of services that provide support to families are not providing the right support early enough. Number of children who were 'looked after' during 2014/15 480 Agenda Item9 460 Sefton Data – Number of children looked after 440 The number of children who are ‘looked after’ has 420 increased in Sefton during this reporting period, 400 Number of children this is in line with our statistical neighbours ’, trend who were 'looked regionally and nationally. 380 after' 360 340 Jan Oct Feb July Dec Aug Nov May Sept June April March
Agenda Item9
Regional data – ‘looked after children’
1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 Page 106
Sefton data - Number of children who became ‘looked after’ and those who ceased to be ‘looked after’
40 Of the children who have become looked after, 7 children became looked after more than once; 1 child, aged 13, became looked after 35 4 times during 2014 -2015. With regard to children ceasing to be 30 Number of children ‘looked after’, since the implementation of the Family Court 25 who started to Proceedings 26 week timescale to compete proceedings there has 20 become 'looked been an increase in the number of Care Orders with children being after' placed with their par ents made by the Courts. Between Aug ‘13 – 15 Aug ’14 there were 22 Care Orders at home made by the Court, Number of children 10 whereas there were 8 in the proceedings 12 month period. This who ceased to be 5 'looked after' affects the number of children who are reported as ‘looked after’. Sefton Safeguarding Unit has led a Review Panel of the 66 children 0 placed on Care Orders with their parents, where the Care Order has Jan Oct Feb July Dec Aug Nov May Sept been in place for less than 12 months. The work of this Panel is June April
March detailed in section 5 of this report.
As indicated in the chart below, those Local Authorities with a higher ‘ceased to be looked after’ have reported a proactive approach to applying to the Court to discharge a Care Order subsequent to the Order being in place for 12 months, the family have sustained positive change and the child is not experiencing significant harm and their needs are being met.
Regional Data – Number of children starting and ceasing to be ‘looked after’ during Quarters 1,2 and 3 of 2014 -15
Page 107
Sefton data - Age & gender of children at the time they became ‘looked after’
Agenda Item9 The table below indicates the ages and gender of children who became ‘looked after’ during the reporting period.
Time LAC AS AT 31/03/2015 Age when Under 3 3 to 6 6 to 9 9 months < BLA Gender months months months 1 year Total Under 1 Female 10 6 4 4 24 11.3% Male 4 6 2 2 14 6.6% 1 to 2 years Female 1 2 3 6 2.8% Male 2 3 1 6 2.8% 2 to 3 years Female 4 1 5 2.4% Male 2 3 1 6 2.8%
Agenda Item9 3 to 4 years Female 1 5 3 9 4.2% Male 3 1 4 1.9% 4 to 5 years Female 2 1 3 1.4% Male 3 2 2 7 3.3% 5 to 6 years Female 1 1 1 3 1.4% Male 3 2 3 3 11 5.2% 6 to 7 years Female 1 2 3 6 2.8% Male 3 3 1.4% 7 to 8 years Female 2 1 3 1.4% Male 2 2 1 5 2.4% 8 to 9 years Female 1 4 5 2.4% Male 3 1 4 1.9% 9 to 10 years Male 1 4 1 1 7 3.3% 10 to 15 Female 9 10 4 9 32 15.1% Male 3 1 4 9 17 8% 15 to 17 Female 4 10 4 18 8.5% Page 108 Male 3 2 1 4 10 4.7% Grand Total 63 74 37 38 212
Gender Total % Female 118 56%
Male 94 44%
Grand Total 212
212 children became looked after during this reporting period, 38 of these c hildren were under the age of 1 yr. old when they became ‘looked after’, equating to 27.9% of the total number of children. 120 (56.6%) were under 10 years of age when they became ‘looked after’.
From initial analysis of the 38 babies (under 1 year old’s) who became looked after during this reporting period, 24 ( 63%) have siblings who are/ have been known to Children’s Social Care, 2 of these related siblings are as yet unborn babies themselves. The largest group of siblings related to a baby under 1 who have become looked after this year is a sibling group of 8. Fifteen of the under 1 year olds who have become ‘looked after’ had been subject of a Child Protection Plan before becoming ‘looked after’.
A multi-agency Task and Finish Group is currently being led by the Head of Service responsible for Early Help analysing the children who have become ‘looked after’ under the age of 10 yrs. old. This group is reporting to the LSCB. This group is requested to further analyse the children who have become ‘looked after’ under the age of 1 who have had siblings previously known to Social Care to develop a partners hip intervention provided to parents subsequent to a child previously being removed from their care to prevent future births that result in the babies removal.
It is also recommended that the Task and Finish Group analyse the number of babies born to adults who have previously been a ‘looked after child’ themselves, to inform what support Care Leavers can be provided to ensure removal of their baby or child from their care is prevented. This analysis could inform the work of the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP).
With regard to children over the age of 12 becoming ‘looked after’ the Head of Services for Vulnerable Children and Young People and Early Help Service have developed a successful Innovation Bid to the DfE to develop a Community Adolescent Service (CAS), consisting of a range of agencies both child and adult in their focus to aim to prevent adolescent from coming into the care of the Local Authority. The CAS is due to commence operation on 1 st June 2015. A Quality Assurance Manager for the CAS will be based within the Safeguarding Unit to provide an independent challenge and support to the CAS with regard to reviewing some of the Family Plans, analysing data and reporting qualitative and quantitative data findings to the appointed Evaluation Team. This role will be undertaken by an experienced IRO.
Statutory LAC Review Meeting timeliness
1200
1000 With regard to the children who were ‘looked after’ on 31 st March 800 2015 a total of 1079 ‘Looked After Child’ Statutory Review Page 109 Meetings have taken place during the year. 1070 of these 600 meetings have been held within the statutory timescales. This equates to 99.16% of LAC reviews being held within the statutory 400 time scale. 200 Analysis has been undertaken of the 2 Initial and 7 LAC 0 Review Meetings which took place outside of timescale to Meetings held within timescale Meetings held outside of analysis the reasons for the delay. 5 of the 9 Review timescale Meetings missed the timescale by only a few days.
Agenda Item9
Children’s Participa tion in their LAC Review Meetings
Children’s participation is the subject of audit and scrutiny by the Children’s Participation Officer, who reports to the Boa rd on a regular basis. The Children’s Participation Officer has identified 5 ‘Standards to Building a Relationship with a Child’, as follows:
1. Children will be supported and encouraged to attend their review meetings 2. All children will receive written feedback, from the IRO, within 7 days of their review taking place. 3. Children’s thoughts, feelings, wishes and views will be clearly recorded and incorporated into planning and decision making 4. The IRO will scrutinise the integrity of feedback given on behalf of a child. 5. The IRO will see the child outside of appointed meeting times.
Agenda Item9 The followi ng chart indicates how children who were ‘looked after’ on 31 st March 2015 have participated in their LAC Review Meetings which have taken place during the reporting period. Only 1% of children have not attended and have not sent their views.
1% PN0 Child aged under 4 at time of meeting
17% PN1 Child attended & spoke for self 26% PN2 Child attended - advocate spoke PN3 Child attended - gave views non verbally PN4 Child attended without Page 110 contributing PN5 Child not attended, 15% advocate briefed with views 39% PN6 Child not attended, views sent PN7 Child not attended & did 0% 2% not send views 0%
IRO visits to looked after children between their review period
A performance monitoring framework is in place to analyse whether IROs have been visited by their allocated IRO between review meetings. IROs record on the child’s electronic records when they have offered to see the child / young person and this has been declined. Due to the IROs current caseload, IROs prioritise seeing children who do not have a clear plan for permanence, children who are the subject of Family Proceedings, children placed at home on a Care Order, children who have been reported missing or have concerning patterns related to being absent, children who are at risk of / experiencing child sexual exploitation and children who are known to self- harm and have other risk taking behaviour, such as known involvement in organised crime groups.
Practice Alerts – formal escalation Looked After Children Independent Review Service
Child Protection Chairs have a statutory responsibility to raise concerns with agencies when there are concerns that an element of the Child protection Plan has not been undertaken by an agency. Last year’s Ann ual Report to the LSCB included a proposal to implement a revised Formal Escalation Procedure across the strategic partnership to address concerns regarding any agency’s practice with regard to a child’s Child Protection Plan. This proposal was ratified b y the June 2014 LSCB and became implemented by the IRO Service with immediate effect. In June 2014 IROs commenced recording informal alerts as an IRO Practice Alert Case Note in the child’s electronic records and completed a word document Number of Practice Alerts re: agencies practice re: Practice Alert document for Formal Practice Alerts, Looked After Childs Care Plan which was uploaded to the child’s electronic record as 60 a document. Since February 2015 the IRO Practice Alert document has been embedded into the Liquid 50 Logic child’s records as a Form. These records now 40 clearly evidence when IROs have challenged agencies’ practice in relation to the child’s care plan not being 30 timely implemented. 20 Page 111 st 10 Between June 2014 to 31 March 2015 IROs have made 66 Practice Alerts made with regard to agencies’ 0 practice related to a ‘looked after’ child’s Care Plan, 29 Childrens CAMHS Police Childrens Educational Portugese of these have been Informal Alerts and 37 have Social Care Advocacy Special Embassy / progressed to become a Formal Alert. Practice Alerts Service Needs Passport have been made regard ing the practice of the following Service Service agencies:
Practice Alerts have been raised regarding the following issues:
Agenda Item9 Delays in Care Planning 26 LAC plan not meeting child’s assessed needs or is poor quality/no clear timely plan to address this 23 Decisions and recommendations of previous meeting have not progressed 15 CSE/Missing meetings not been held as per LSCB procedures 2 Statutory visits have not been evidenced as being undertaken within required timescale 2 Child/Young Person’s views have not represented to the LAC Review meeting 2 Health needs or plans are not being progressed addressed adequately 2 Education needs or plans are not being progressed/addressed adequately 13 Care planning meetings have not taken place 3 Lack of pathway/transition planning/transfer to 16+ or 18+ team 5 The child’s legal status does not meet their needs 2 Review documentation not available/ICS entries not completed/other recording not completed 23
Agenda Item9 Sefton LSCB - A Summary of our Effectiveness and Next Steps
1) Governance Arrangements Actions to undertake
The LSCB took action when it was identified that closer scrutiny and a more joined up approach of arrangements H&WB Board to agree MoU; and for specific cohorts of children and young people was required; ie. Establishment of children missing from home named partnerships to implement these arrangements or care and Children in the Care of other Local Authorities sub -groups, closely linked to strategic activities on
CSE. Review of structure, governance and functioning of LSCB and its More robust, evidence based planning of forthcoming priorities took place during this reporting year. sub -groups to be undertaken during 2015-16. A revised MoU between the LSCB, Corporate Parenting Board and Health and Wellbeing Board requires agreement. Separate review of pan- Merseyside CDOP commissioned Page 112 A Business Partnership Group oversees the work of the sub-groups and holds chairs to account. This area could by LSCB Chairs to be completed be streghtened by ensuring that all sub-group chairs report in writing against agreed sub-group action plans – in 2015-16 which in turn are more closely linked to the overarching LSCB Business Plan.
2) Evaluating multi-agency front-line practice Actions to undertake
Performance reports are provided to the LSCB quarterly by Children’s Social Care and the Safeguarding Children Continuously monitor and Service produces a comprehensive annual performance report for the LSCB. develop multi -agency performance information A new multi -agency dataset was approved by the LSCB during this reporting year. This is enabling the Board to available to the LSCB.
understand aspects of the safeguarding system and its effectiveness whilst also highlighting gaps in single- Explore the capacity of LSCB agency data for which plans can be put in place to record and collect in the future. Performance data is member agencies to undertake improving however this improvement must continue to enable the LSCB to recognise issues and areas for further more audit activity than planned examination quickly. A new post was invested in and recruited to (LSCB Quality Assurance Co-ordinator), to throughout the course of the strengthen performance management and quality assurance functions. Two multi -agency audits have been forthcoming year. An in-depth undertaken (Vulnerab le Young People; CSE – repeat MACSE cases) however, more work is required to enable the understanding of all aspects of LSCB to understand multi -agency safeguarding practice. practice is required.
A multi -agency audit schedule is in place; devised from examining learning and improvement activities and Embed the multi -agency audit multi -agency data. Sefton LSCB’s audit method fully involves front line practitioners. model and work towards involving children and families
3) Challenge and accountability Actions to undertake
Challenge takes place both inside and outside of LSCB meetings. Health, Police, CSC, VCFS are very proactive partners. In light of increased pressures on the public purse and the S11 update exercise undertaken early 2015. expanding role of LSCBs, the Board will need to review long term funding and sustainability. Evidence of increasing challenge by Board members and the LSCB Chair in relation to specific safeguarding This review is planned for July arrangements and individual agencies within LSCB meetings; LSCB can see evidence that challenge leads to 2015 following a report to the action. Further evidence is required to understand if action consistently leads to improvement. This will LSCB in May 2014. strengthen with increasing availability and quality of data from partner agencies and further increased audit activity.
Actions to undertake 4) Local Learning and Improvement Framework Increase multi-agency QA activities to evidence improvement Page 113 following LSCB practice and systems reviews. The local Learning and Improvement Framework is more developed and assists Strengthen the Child Death Overview Panel reporting in identifying the future audit activites that need to be undertaken by the LSCB arrangements. Current system does not enable the LSCB to disaggregate the specific modi fiable factors for Sefton children or The timeliness of work to address identified issues needs to be improved. identify the parental factors involved in local child deaths. CDOP learning forms a major part of LIF. The LSCB News Bulletin , regular training sessions across the multi-agency Continually update LIF to highlight increasing LSCB knowledge in workforce, Twilight sessions for schools, multi-agency development sessions relation to practice and systems themes. and CDOP commissioned sessions enable key messages from LSCB learning Continue to commission reviews using a range of methods, in order activities to be disseminated to the frontline. to extract the most relevant learning for the Board and the Agenda Item9 workforce.
5) Policies and Procedures Actions to undertake
There is evidence that practitioners follow new policy/guidance when launched Continue to update procedures effectively (Threshold Guidance and CSE pathway). prioritising this work based on alterations to the local system, 4 key procedures have been updated during this reporting year (to be approved learning from practice and workforce needs. early in the forthcoming year and subsequently launched) : Human Trafficking; Children Missing from Home or Care; Child Sexual Explotation; Referral and Assesment
31
Agenda Item9
6) Single and Multi-agency audit Actions to undertake
A specialist post specifically for multi-agency audit and data, was created and recruited to. Complete planned multi-agency Regular Social Care audits take place and the LSCB is informed of the learning from these audits and the plans to audits (schedule in place) improve practice where improvement is required. Regular audits are undertaken across a range of other LSCB Increase the number of multi- agencies. agency audits undertaken – following assessment of auditors’ The LSCB needs to understand more about the findings of single-agency audits within partner agencies and be and partnership capacity assured that this leads to demonstrable improvement. Ofsted inspection reports highlight the inspectorate’s Work towards involving children expectations that a range of general safeguarding and thematic audits, undertaken on a large number of cases, and families within audits are required. Partner agencies to report single agency audit findings to LSCB The experiences of children and young people are not routinely used as a measure of improvement across the
Page 114 partnership. 7) Influence Actions to undertake
The LSCB understands its statutory powers and responsibilities and there is learning LSCB will produce a good quality, easy to understand Annual available to the LSCB to support its influence on how the priorities of other partnerships Report to inform the public, elected members, H&WB Board should be decided upon. The members, Chief Executive of Council and PCC of the key safeguarding priorities and the effectiveness of local safeguarding LSCB has some evidence that it is influencing the priorities of agencies and partnerships. arrangements in Sefto n. Improvements to scrutiny and QA activities will enable the Board to have increased evidence of the sufficiency and effectiveness of local services in order to provide greater LSCB to be more actively involved in the development of the SSNA challenge. and be consulted with during the drafting of this key document.
8) Training LSCB has 3 key responsibilities in relation to training as described below. Understand the safeguarding children training/learning needs of the workforce Multi -agency training is well-attended and positively Be assured that those needs are met ‘evaluated’ on the day by attendees. Evaluate the impact of training upon frontline practice to be assured of its effectiveness These 3 areas are prioritised within the sub-group action plan. An analysis of workforce training needs was undertaken during this reporting year. Evaluating the impact of training on frontline practice will be a key priority for the forthcoming year; the LSCB LIF will assist with this work. A quality assurance system for single agency training and standardised materials for single agency training have The LSCB does not have a statutory responsibility to deliv er any training but does. A new been developed. evidence based training programme has been developed and will be launched in September 2014
32
Sefton LSCB Independent Board member; a perspective on the previous year
The quality of the information supplied to the Board has continued to improve during the past year. The multi-agency audits that have
been undertaken (commenced within this reporting year) have provided useful information and are already being used to assi st the
Board in understanding issues at the frontline and improve the effectiveness of various agencies.
There continue to be major changes in the staffing levels at most of the Agencies. This inevitably leads to increased worklo ads and I
feel the Boar d needs to be extra vigilant to ensure standards are maintained. The problem is made worse by the frequent changes to
management staff, with some people being moved into senior positions in Departments where they may have little or no previous
knowledge. I would like to be assured that adequate training is being offered and accepted when such appointments take place. The continuity of Board membership is obviously effected by the situation but members continue to work together when possible.
Page 115 The danger s of CSE continue to be a major concern and there are indications that the MASH role is now more secure. It would be
useful for the Board to be given some information about any patterns appearing from the incidents or potential incidents repo rted. The dan gers are being well promoted within the Borough, with a wide range of literature available for both agencies and the general
public.
I continue to sit on the CDOP and now also attend CIP meetings. I have recently been asked to dip sample some Conference Agenda Item9 Reports to provide my view as to whether they are written in a ‘family friendly’ style.
Work has already started to try ensure that when looked after children from other boroughs are placed within Sefton, all the statutory
information is provided in a tim ely fashion. These children are among the most vulnerable and may be at added risk because their full needs have not been notified to the Agencies concerned.
I hope a second lay member will be found during the coming year. So far a suitable candidat e has been hard to find but the search
should continue. 33
Agenda Item9
The Work of LSCB Member Agencies
Sefton Council for Voluntary Services
Safeguarding Priorities
We aim to continually improve safeguarding standards in the VCFS through our delivery of quality training, sharing of good practice and policy support. In this way we help to facilitate progress against all LSCB priorities.
Our engagement in the work of the LSCB has enabled us to:
Increase the influence, voice and potential of the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) to contribute to the safeguarding agenda Improve our ability to communicate safeguarding messages, information and support to the wider VCFS in a timely and Page 116 accurate manner Increase VCFS uptake within formal LSCB training Develop closer relationships between the VCFS and social care teams
We have facilitated safeguarding training to a range of staff and volunteers across Sefton, as follows: 69 staff and volunteers from VCFS groups have received face-to-face bespoke non-accredited safeguarding children training facilitated by Sefton CVS during 2014/15, delivered in community sessions at times to suit the workforce, including evenings and weekends.
A bespoke safeguarding training programme was commissioned by HMP Liverpool and delivered to 20 delegates from a range of criminal justice areas. A further 30 representatives from VCFS organisations attended training delivered by Safe Network, the national safeguarding unit for third sector support managed by NSPCC and Children England, facilitated by Sefton CVS. The training explored organisational safeguarding practice and processes to help improve standards and addressing Section 11 Audit compliance.
Within our own agency, we conduct regular development sessions with staff from all teams across Sefton CVS, to provide opportunities for staff to review and develop their own safeguarding practice and governance.
We have undertaken a range of awareness-raising activities to improve safeguarding practice across the sector, via our Every Child Matters (ECM) forum. These include:
Launch of safeguarding training impact questionnaire Gathering feedback on LSCB priorities, submitted to the Business Manager An update from the LSCB Chair focussing on escalation and CSE Development of joint working with social care staff and using thresholds
This year 619 staff and volunteers have registered for Level 1 accredited Child Protection Awareness online training via Sefton CVS.
Sefton CVS Disclosure and Barring Service provided 64 VCFS organisations with a total of 399 DBS checks during the period, enabling VCFS groups to operate safely and meet their legal requirements.
We provided advisory support to the Army Cadet Force as an Independent Member of their Safeguarding Board. The group is pan-Merseyside but has a Head Office in Sefton, and the Board has a remit to oversee safeguarding quality assurance, monitoring and scrutiny of safeguarding concerns, practice and procedural activity.
Page 117 We gave advisory support in relation to good practice development to local VCF organisation, Safe Productions, in collaboration with the LADO, to further develop and implement policies and procedures particularly in relation to allegation management, and to assess training needs.
Following the appointment of their new Chief Executive, we provided Southport YMCA with consultancy support, conducting a review of their safeguarding practices and made recommendations in order to achieve best practice in their safeguarding policy, procedures and training across their services, providing support to service leads and trustees.
We provide VCFS advisory support to the LSCB at board and sub-group level, through Deputy CEO Nigel Bellamy and CYPF Lead, Simone McCaskill. Agenda Item9
THE CYPF Lead provides chairing and servicing capacity to the Joint Adults and Children’s Safeguarding Training sub -group, developing a strategy and action plan that meets LSCB priorities. Key work this year has been the development of a clear competency framework for local training, which includes the impact training has on safeguarding practice.
Work to tackle CSE
The presentation from the LSCB Chair at our ECM Forum in November, enabled the dissemination of information regarding CSE, specifically local processes and the CSE Single Point of Contact (SPoC) initiative. We have continued to disseminate information across the sector and have encouraged attendance at training events and briefings.
Agenda Item9
Overcoming barriers to improving safeguarding children arrangements
Sefton CVS provides a diverse range of infrastructure support and partnership services on behalf of the local VCFS. There are currently over 1300 known VCFS organisations delivering community based services and support across Sefton. Sefton CVS receives fu nding from a range of bodies including Sefton Council, Sefton CCG’s and the Police Crime Commissioner to carry out its work which is represented on our website: www.seftoncvs.org.uk
With a key focus on achieving positive health and wellbeing of Sefton residents and the building of resilient communities, ‘safeguarding’ is very much at the heart of work carried out by the agency. The diversity and breadth of the Sector creates capacity issues regarding training delivery. This, coupled with shortage of resources within individual organisations which makes attendance at training difficult, has encouraged SCVS to explore alternative options, such as shorter masterclasses and eLearning.
Page 118 Impact of our work
Analysis of responses to our safeguarding perceptions questionnaire last year has led to closer working with social care advanced practitioners and VCFS Ambassadors, which allows for the development of more robust and dynamic family support plans. We are hoping to develop this further by offering a VCFS induction to new social workers.
Forthcoming Priorities
Our priorities are to ensure the VCFS is compliant in their safeguarding practice, offering safe, quality services to children and young people in Sefton. We will do this by endeavouring to meet the training and development needs of the workforce, through direct delivery of training or signposting to appropriate agencies.
We will seek to ensure there are better links between services such as those delivering around CSE and the rest of the Sector, encouraging engagement of externally-funded agencies in our Networks.
FORMATTING
Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust
The Safeguarding Children Team within Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust consists of two Named Nurse Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Children Specialist Nurses, who provide a range of support, advice, supervision and training to all professionals who work for the organisation across both Sefton and Liverpool. ‘The contribution of health agencies to keeping children and young people safe’ w as judged as outstanding in Sefton’s (May 2011) joint Care Quality Commission & Ofsted Inspection.
In addition to this’ the Looked After Children’s Health Team and the Youth Offender Health Team provide high quality health assessment, advice, referral, sign posting, support and guidance to Looked After Children, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and children and young people subject to the Youth Justice System.
Training
Training Type Number Compliance % During the reporting period the service has of Staff rate supported the organisation to maintain Page 119 Safeguarding Children Level 1 78 87.2% compliance with safeguarding children’s Safeguarding Children Level 2 283 91.2% training at all levels. Table 1 identifies the staff Safeguarding Children Level 3 (core) 150 94.7% popul ation for Sefton’s training compliance rates. Safeguarding Children Level 4 2 100%
Supervision
The safeguarding children’s team provide Chart 1: Safeguarding Supervision specialist supervision to all caseload holding
practitioners within the organisation. In line with Agenda Item9 500 best practice safeguarding supervision is 400 Child Protection conducted on a three monthly basis with 300 practitioners for all cases subject to child Child In Need 200 protection plan. Any case subject to a child in need plan or a child that is ‘looked after’ over 100 Looked After Children the age of 5 is supervised bi -annually with all 0 looked after children under the age of 5 being Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Numberof Cases Supervised supervised on a three monthly basis. This is to Quarter offer specialist oversight of each child / young person. Data relating to supervision can be seen in chart 1.
Agenda Item9
Court Orders
Chart 2: Court Order Requests 70 Number of Court Orders Received 60 The service supports the requirement to 50 Number of Children respond to court orders in a timely 40 manner. Data relating to the court 30 Number of requests reports orders for the reporting period can be Number 20 seen in chart 2: Number of requests for redaction 10 of records 0
Page 120 Number of requests report and Court Order redaction of records
MACSE
Chart 3: MACSE Data 80 Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust 60 40 fully support multi agency working in 20 Number of cases relation to child sexual exploitation Number 0 (MACSE) and ensure attendance at all MACSE meetings. Data in Chart 3 evidences the number of cases per month during the reporting period that the Month/Quarter organisation has attended.
Merseyside Community Rehabilitation Company
On 1 st June 2014, Merseyside Probation Trust ceased to exist, having been split in to the National Probation Service and the MCRC (delivering Probation Services). MCRC is responsible for the supervision of offenders on community orders and those sentenced to custody who are assessed as posing a low and medium risk of harm. In addition, MCRC provides groupwork and individual interventions to offenders, regardless of the level of risk they pose. Examples of groups attended by offenders include interventions focussing on domestic violence and healthy relationships; anger management; substance use; hate crime, and a specialist team to deal with accommodation, debt and finance and the team also manages a mentoring scheme.
Since June 2014, all local managers, and Senior Management, have completed executive training in Safeguarding (leadership in safeguarding). As a result of this, the Company has developed a Safeguarding Plan, and has established a Safeguarding Committee, chaired by a non-executive Director.
The purpose of the committee is as follows: Oversee the governance of safeguarding activity in MCRC Deliver the MCRC safeguarding action plan Page 121 Drive the development of policy and best practice Maintain oversight of key issues emerging from LSCBs; Adult Safeguarding Boards; Inspections and audits and consider the learning and impact for MCRC. Monitor performance against agreed KPIs Ensure that staff in the organisation are appropriately trained in safeguarding matters. Promote the development of a safe organisation. Provide assurance to the organisation that information sharing protocols are in place; fit for purpose and understood by staff in order to facilitate the appropriate sharing of information between agencies in order to safeguard children and vulnerable adults. Agenda Item9 Ensure that throughout the implementation of the safeguarding plan a focus is maintained on equality in line with the commitment made in the business plan. . Key Performance Indicators were agreed, and have previously been shared with LSCB; and policies and practice guidance have been reviewed and shared with all staff members and this includes guidance on purposeful home visits – see attached.
A safeguarding audit was completed in November 2014, and will be repeated. Two cases within the Sefton area in the sample raised concern, but all necessary actions were taken by the local manager. On a weekly basis, the local manager ensures that all cases that should be ‘flagged’ with risk to children/child concern markers are up to date, and she e nsures appropriate management oversight. To assist with this, MCRC developed a management oversight tool.
All operational staff within Sefton have attended Signs of Safety briefings and EHAT training.
Agenda Item9
A number of staff members have been trained and accredited to deliver Triple P – the first programme is planned for September at the Women’s Centre.
MCRC delivers an accredited programme Building Better Relationships, designed for men who have committed offences of domestic abuse. As part of this process, partners/ex-partners of men completing the programme are offered support and progress updates via our Women’s Safety Worker. In addition, we have developed an early intervention programme, HELP, which has been evaluated by Liverpool John Moores University. We have adapted this programme and will be delivering a women’s only programme in September from the ISIS Centre – for Sefton women using the service. (This programme is also being adapted for use with children of school age, with the intention of raising awareness of what healthy relationships look like in Liverpool and the leaving care team have asked that we deliver to their service users – I have talked to Marlyn about this previously and would like to pursue this in Sefton if there was an appetite?).
As a senior lead, I attend the pan-Merseyside CSE group, and a local manager is the MCRC lead for CSE. Two managers have devised an intervention for Offender Managers to use with service users around CSE awareness raising – this will be a
Page 122 priority for the coming year. Staff attend MACSE strategy meetings; Child Protection, Child in Need and LAC meetings as required.
The ISIS Women’s Centre delivers a service to all women who have offended in the Sefton area. This provides a one stop shop approach, and we work with the Women’s Turnaround Project who offer interventions around Family Life. We have worked with PSS on a pilot project on facilitating contact between children who have parents in custody via video link.
Audits of work undertaken, and management oversight of relevant cases, tells us that this focus is having an impact on front line practice. Over the coming year we will be focusing upon early help and intervention, and on practitioners seeing adults who offend as part of a ‘whole’. As above, we will be rolling out Triple P and HELP within Sefton along with an intervention with CSE as it’s focus.
We are in the process of revising our adult safeguarding policies and practice guidance and there will be a link with children – particularly around domestic abuse, mental health and substance use.
FORMATTING
NHS England
The following priorities were undertaken by NHS England Merseyside during 2014/15 Review of Health Visiting service specification and recruitment of additional Health Visitors in line with national targets. Work underway to support the transition of this service to Local Authority from 01 October 2015 Promotion of neglect audit work and graded care profile tool to GPs via Designated Nurses and Named GPs Domestic Abuse education and training to GPs via Named GPs 2nd National Safeguarding Conference held in October 2014 hosted in Merseyside included Domestic Abuse information Baseline Safeguarding Audit undertaken across all GP Practices to understand what support was required. Support then provided to GP Practices regarding safeguarding children. Inclusion of safeguarding training to be discussed at annual GP appraisal. All CCGs in Merseyside were assured for Safeguarding Service accountability Implementation of a robust Serious Untoward Incident system and process to monitor Child Deaths, SCRs and Domestic Homicide Reviews. Financial support given for DHR/IMR processes
Page 123 Implementation of national Safeguarding Children Toolkit for General Practice
Tackling CSE
NHS England Merseyside has worked with Designated Nurses to ensure support across health providers for CSE. This has been via NHS England’s National CSE Group and includes education and training resources; development of care pathways; communications material.
Following the merging of NHS England Merseyside w ith NHS England Cheshire, Warrington & Wirral. NHS England’s safeguarding
lead is now a member of the Merseyside Gold CSE Group. This role is to ensure the commitment of all health agencies to the Agenda Item9 development of integrated working to identify children at risk of CSE and support those experiencing CSE.
A key element of this work is the commissioning of services to support children who have experienced CSE.
Impact of our work
NHS England’s role within safeguarding children is to seek assurance from heal th agencies and commissioners that they are working in partnership and fulfilling their statutory duties to protect and safeguard children. This is undertaken via regular contract and assurance meetings.
Agenda Item9
Forthcoming Safeguarding Children Priorities
NHS England nationally has identified the following priorities relating to safeguarding children for 2015/16. These will be adopted locally and implemented to meet the needs of children across Merseyside:
• Child Sexual Exploitation - commissioning of health services to support those experiencing CSE. • Female Genital Mutilation – implementation of mandatory reporting for GP Practices. • Looked After Children - implementation of revised statutory guidance. • Lampard report - implementation of national recommendations relating to Saville enquiry. • MCA/DOLs – continued work regarding skills and knowledge of frontline staff. • PREVENT – continue to work with partner agencies regarding radicalisation agenda. • Transforming Care – new models of care for provision of children with learning disabilities • Information sharing and implementation of the Child Information Sharing Programme
Page 124 Merseyside Police
Progressing Safeguarding Priorities
Merseyside Police has established a firm ‘Community First’ ethos, a concept that puts the victim and community at the heart o f decision making. The Force has continued to prioritise its strategic direction, and thereby safeguard adults, children and young people based upon threat, risk and harm. The Community First framework is aligned to the Police & Crime Commissioners’ strate gic priorities and seeks to further improve efficiency and effectiveness across Merseyside.
In terms of delivering safeguarding priorities in Sefton, the area Detective Chief Inspector chairs governance meetings to co-ordinate Police and stakeholder responses to supporting victims and protecting vulnerable people. Critical areas of business were identified as being crimes against vulnerable adults, child sexual exploitation, missing persons, child protection and domestic abuse. Strategic direction and a consistent pan Merseyside approach is provided by the Public Protection Unit and governed through a series of meetings with key stakeholders.
Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub – a key priority
Merseyside Police in Sefton has continued to support the development of MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hubs) – with ten Police staff being co-located in Council premises with specialists from Adult and Children’s Social Care, Early Intervention & Prevention teams, drugs & alcohol support (Lifeline) and SWACA (Sefton Women and Children’s Aid – domestic abuse support agency). MASH greatly enhances the timely sharing of key information between agencies and is nationally recognised as the most effective and efficient information sharing model.
It has brought together adult and child protection specialists from across all disciplines within its framework and is able to meet promptly in order to take decisive action and quick access to adult and child care provision. The advent of the Sefton MASH has delivered timely and quality multi-agency decision making practices into both adult and children’s safeguarding and is a significant step in the improvement of safeguarding vulnerable adults and children locally.
Domestic Abuse – working effectively
Safeguarding agencies recognised that the existing referral processes in relation to children present at incidents of domestic abuse, was potentially over whelming Children’s Social Care. A new screening process has been implemented by the Police whereby each referral is assessed against the continuum of children and young people in need model, allowing greater priority, time and resources to be afforded to those cases in genuine need of agency safeguarding intervention and support. Referrals which are assessed as not meeting threshold levels are now directed towards the Early Intervention & Prevention Services for resolution.
Tackling CSE
Merseyside Police, in consultation with key safeguarding agencies, reviewed and enhanced the processes that support the MACSE Page 125 (Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation) framework. The meeting is now co-chaired by the Detective Chief Inspector and Service Manager of the Council ’s Safeguarding Children’s Unit. The revised format allows dedicated time slots for professionals to exchange information and agree interventions to protect vulnerable young people whilst determining actions to robustly target perpetrators and identify repeat locations of significant interest. Themes and trends are identified with a critical focus on the correlation with missing children, the looked after care sector and organised gun and gang related criminality.
In addition, the Detective Chief Inspe ctor for Sefton sits on the CSE Sub Group, chaired by the Director of Children’s Services locally. The DCI provides intelligence and reporting patterns to the meeting, along with investigative updtaes, that allow the chair and partnership, to focus a wider response to an emerging pattern or indeed an individual concerns. Agenda Item9 All Operational Officers in Sefton understand who are our most at risk, where this is happening and who is thought responsible and they are tasked accordingly. Officers are briefed before patrol and are made aware of specific risks. They will take positive action to deal with those issues, with Police Protection Orders being utilised, in addition to a range of powers to deal with those that harbour children and those that offend against them.
To promote awareness and recognition of common warning signs and vulnerabilities associated with children and young people suffering from or exposed to the risk of child sexual exploitation, Merseyside Police embarked on the ‘Listen to my story’ media campaign in conjunction with the LSCB and other agencies. Launched to coincide with the national CSE Awareness Day on 18 th March 2015, promotional materials were provided to professionals with briefing sessions and training events. Social media coverage was also facilitated to highlight key themes of ‘Helping Hands’ and ‘CSE Thunderclap’ through the National Working Group Network.
Agenda Item9
‘Catch 22’ has been commissioned by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office to provide support services to sexually exploi ted young people through a range of preventative work and interventions to help them cope and recover.
A new multi-agency intelligence gathering process has been established and promoted – ‘Partnership Automated Intelligence Report’ which although for use on any subject of intelligence and crime types, uses one simple automated telephone number for people outside of the Police to report information and safeguarding concerns in confidence.
A number of investigative operations directed at preventing and detecting organised CSE have been initiated, driven by a Pan- Merseyside/Cheshire protocol. These investigations have been supported by a co-located dedicated CSE multi agency team formed of specialist Police Officers, a Local Authority CSE Business Analyst and other key Local Authority children safeguarding experts. Sefton have developed a dedicated CSE Investigation team, headed by a Detective Inspector and specialist Investigators, to investigate and support the work of the partnership. In addition, the new Organised Crime Unit has also been created to assume responsibility for complex investigations involving members of local crime groups.
Page 126 In terms of Organised Crime, there is a clear recognition that such groups actively participate in organised child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, serious acquisitive crime and drugs supply, all of which affects the lives of and increases the risks to vulnerable children and young people.
Continuous Improvement
To improve working practices, internal peer reviews have been commissioned to report on the effectiveness and quality of historic safeguarding investigations and to identify areas for learning and development.
Comprehensive structured training programmes have been delivered for front-line responders, supervisors and dedicated specialist staff working in Sefton within the Vulnerable Persons Unit. Training has included CSE warning signs and common vulnerabilities, honour based violence, forced marriage and domestic abuse, all of which impacts upon child protection priorities across Merseyside. Learning from Serious Case Reviews has also been cascaded to key staff to promote learning and greater understanding.
In addition, the Police locally, continue to support our partners with presentations and awareness raising to local partners and service providers about the risks of CSE. With more planned to local hoteliers and the licensing trade.
The Force has recently adopted a new Pan-Merseyside “Missing” Protocol. This policy is particularly beneficial in dealing effectively with persistent missing cases involving children in care. Merseyside Police continued to raise concerns through the LSCB in relation to poorly managed Care Homes which persistently demonstrated ineffective safeguarding practices. Representations were highlighted to facilitate multi agency review meetings and referral to Ofsted where appropriate to instigate compliance inspections.
Vulnerable children and young people reporting missing from home or care facility, particularly those considered exposed to child sexual exploitation, continued to be individually assessed by Police as presenting a higher risk. As a consequence, comprehensive priority enquiries and specialist resources were assigned to finding them as quickly as possible and reducing the risk of harm. Where warranted, Police Protection Orders were authorised to safeguard children at significant risk of harm or abuse and immediate measures were agreed with the Local Authority to remove these children to safer locations. Positive action was taken by Police Officers to arrest parents / guardians for neglect and ill treatment of their children and where appropriate, prosecutions pursued through the Criminal Justice process.
Merseyside Police continued to recognise the impact that Domestic Abuse has on children and initiated an external marketing and media campaign to draw attention to these issues. We have a core group of specialist Officers within the Protecting Vulnerable Persons Unit, that investigate and support victims of this type of crime, with ready access to the much needed support, these victims and families need.
To support victims of domestic abuse and capture best evidence for use in potential court cases, Merseyside Police has invested in technology and all front line Police Officers were issued with body worn video. This has proven particularly effective in securing sufficient evidence to charge serial perpetrators and remand them into custody awaiting criminal trial, thereby safeguarding the Page 127 victim and children from further violence. As a further tactical intervention, Sky Guard personal alarms have been purchased through the Police and Crime Commissioner. Alarms can be provided to victims of domestic abuse who are assessed as being high risk of further harm and are an effective means of protecting the victim and children.
‘Listening Ear’ has been commissioned by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office to provide support services to children a nd young people who witness domestic abuse. Referrals are generated through the MASH team and the service will include counselling, therapeutic support, workshops on self-esteem and confidence, promotion of healthy relationships and work with young perpetrators around anger management, identification of triggers and effective risk assessment.
The greater consideration and use of Domestic Violence Protection Orders and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has also Agenda Item9 served to improve the safety of children suffering the effects of Domestic Abuse in the home environment.
The Police continued to lead the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) which met regularly to review and implement safeguarding measures on the most high risk domestic abuse referrals. This process prioritises the victim’s needs and all safeguarding agencies contribute towards effective and timely information sharing and interventions to protect children and young people within the family environment from abuse.
Operation Encompass was implemented October 2014 and is facilitated daily through Sefton MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub). Police proactively notify schools of instances of domestic abuse (were children have been present). This ensures that children receive appropriate safeguarding support and interventions within the school environment the day following an incident within the home environment.
Agenda Item9
The local partnership has developed considerably over the last reporting period, with honest assessments being undertaken and wider partnership response being put in place, where gaps have been identified.
Our Forthcoming Work
The Community Adolescent Service is a pioneering multi-disciplinary innovation founded by Sefton Council and supported by Merseyside Police and other key stakeholders. Funding was secured via the Department of Education end of 2014 and the initiative formerly commenced on June 1 st 2015. The service seeks to re-configure commissioning arrangements and drive efficiency savings by responding differently to the growing safeguarding risks presented by young people aged 12+ to 25 years who are becoming disaffected and at risk of sexual exploitation, involvement with gun and gang crime, crime and disorder and disengagement from education.
Young people who are reported missing, on the edge of care and prevention of first time entrants into the criminal justice system are also priority areas of concern.
Page 128 The Police have supported this twelve month programme by providing a co-located, dedicated member of staff to co-ordinate pertinent safeguarding activities, further improve information sharing and work with other Local Authority Service Managers to deliver restorative practices. This is an excellent demonstration of Merseyside Police engaging with key partners at strategic and operational levels in support of an innovative new service seeking to reduce harm to vulnerable children and young people.
Sefton’s Turnaround programme is the local expression of the national Troubled Families initiat ive and forms an important element of the borough’s Early Intervention and Prevention strategy. The aim is to align the outcomes of a range of partners, includi ng Merseyside Police, healthcare, criminal justice agencies, housing providers, schools and colleges, Department for Work and Pensions and organisations from the voluntary, community and faith sectors.
The programme aims to reduce harm to children, young people and families by delivering effective and timely interventions, reduce costs by innovative and collaborative working and increase the number of families receiving support at an earlier stage in the cycle, before problems become entrenched. Partner interventions will be evidence led and will involve one co-ordinated plan, one lead practitioner and one family at the heart of the framework.
Merseyside Police has embraced the programme’s expanded second phase, and continues to identify and nominate for inclusion those young people and families who present the most threat harm and risk to the wider community. As 2015 continues to evolve, Merseyside Police will prioritise critical information sharing with partners and pursue practical and cost effective interventions to further safeguard children from the impact of domestic abuse, crime and anti-social behaviour.
Impact of our Work
The effectiveness of MASH and children safeguarding can be partly measured by the reduction in family court proceedings prosecuted by the Council’s legal department. This has been attributed to earlier interventi ons in the family cycle and more expeditious information sharing between agencies. This has allowed safeguarding professionals to make informed decisions based on full risk / family information profiles and reduce harm.
Sefton MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) has been evaluated as having a 20% repeat victim referral rate for domestic abuse. This compares with a national figure of 24% and 29% for ‘most similar force group’. This is evidence that loc al agency safeguarding interventions are more effective than expected in terms of risk reduction and protecting victims and children to remain safe within a domestic environment.
Sefton Clinical Commissioning Groups Page 129 LSCB Priority 1: increased coordination of scrutiny, learning and quality assurance
The CCG is an active member and supports the work of the Performance management and Quality Assurance subgroup and Critical Incident Panel, latterly being responsible for Chairing arrangements.
The CCG continue to develop and scrutinise the performance management framework for commissioned health providers. The safeguarding component of the quality schedule is closely aligned to LSCB Priorities, is designed to promote quality services and evidence safe discharge of safeguarding responsibilities. Information / evidence to support assurance against the schedule is received from the Provider organisations on a quarterly basis and the CCG safeguarding service analyse and Agenda Item9 validate this data.
The CCG are currently working with the patient experience group to improve communication with children and families and better demonstrate how this has influenced service redesign or commissioning of services in the local area. The quality schedule for commissioned services also includes the requirements to evidence the voice of the child and demonstrate the impact this has on service delivery.
The CCG have a robust serious incident policy in place, safeguarding incident are also reported within this system. There are strict reporting requirements in place and information received through this process includes action plans, lessons learned and changes to practice.
Agenda Item9
LSCB Priority 2: safeguarding training needs
The CCG has updated the safeguarding children training for their employees ensuring that the content is fully compliant with the relevant guidance and standards. All commissioned health providers as part of the safeguarding quality schedule must have a TNA and strategy in place and report on training compliance on a quarterly basis . The TNA and strategy are required to be compliant with health guidance and aligned to LSCB requirements.
The CCG safeguarding service is an active member and supports the work of the LSCB training sub group There is a requirement for all health staff, commissioners and providers to receive findings and be made aware of practice changes from learning reviews in the Borough. These will be incorporated into delivered training programmes.
Other priorities
Strengthen the arrangements for the delivery and monitoring of the LAC agenda as per the recommendations from the
Page 130 external safeguarding review commissioned by the CCG
To ensure that the CCG is fully compliant with section 11 arrangements, to include the update and revision of safeguarding policies in accordance with new guidance, the development of a safeguarding strategy
Progress during 2014-15
The CCG continue to support the work of the LSCB sub groups. Performance management of commissioned health services continues as per contractual agreement. The quality schedule for safeguarding will continue to evolve to enable quality and impact of service delivery. Reporting mechanisms are in place in accordance with the CCG governance arrangements.
Work needs to progress further to support the voice of the child and family within service redesign and commissioning. The CCG do work in partnership with others such as Public health and the LA to support this agenda.
Level 1 safeguarding training programme revision completed and is within the mandatory training requirements. Level 2 safeguarding training programme needs to be updated to meet required guidance / standards and this is scheduled as a priority for 15/16
Safeguarding policy and strategy revised, completed and ratified by the CCG Governing Body
Further resource approved for the CCG Safeguarding Service in relation to the LAC agenda and the safe discharge of commissioning responsibilities
Specific work to tackle CSE
Pan Merseyside CSE Strategic (Gold Group) meeting.
The group, initiated in September 2014, meets quarterly with the remit to monitor progress against the Merseyside Multi –Agency CSE protocol, ensuring a coordinated approach to CSE across the region and disseminate shared learning and best practice from individual areas. The group have committed that each LSCB will complete a benchmarking questionnaire and the National Working Group risk ‘matrix’. The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children is a member of this group
Sefton LSCB CSE sub group (Silver Group)
The group is responsible for implementing and reviewing the localised response to CSE and the development and implementation of the multi-agency CSE action plan. The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children is a member of this group
Page 131 The CCG Quality Committee receives regular reports from the Safeguarding Children Service in respect of CSE (June & November 2014)
A CSE ‘health’ group has been developed and Chaired by the Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children. Membership includes the Single Points of Contact/ CSE Leads within provider health organisations and meetings are scheduled on a quarterly basis, in order to share latest national publications, key messages and local developments in respect of the CSE agenda
The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children is a member of the National Working Group Network on CSE, enabling latest research and information on CSE to be disseminated to health providers organisations as well as to partner organisations through Agenda Item9 the LSCB CSE sub group
The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children is a member of NHS England’s ‘health’ CSE sub group chaired by Lisa Cooper (Assistant Director of Nursing, Quality & Safety; Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral Area Team, NHS England). The group is currently focussed on the action plan following Government’s response to the Health Working Group Rep ort on CSE (May 2014)
CSE is a standing agenda item of the Sefton/ Liverpool LSCB Health sub group. This group is chaired by Liverpool CCG Chief Nurse and attended by the Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children
Agenda Item9
Multi-agency working
Sefton LSCB Quality Assurance sub group is progressing a multi-agency audit of CSE cases that have been referred to the Multi- Agency Child Sexual Exploitation (MACSE) meeting. A shared format of methodology is being used throughout the region to enable shared learning. The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children is the chair of this LSCB sub group
Engagement in the forthcoming Merseyside wide CSE publicity campaign, leading to National CSE day on the 18 th March 2015. The Designated Nurse Safeguarding Children and the CCG Head of Communications are engaged in supporting this campaign
Performance Management
Safeguarding contractual KPI’s reported against by Providers on a quarterly basis and include how man y referrals have been made in respect of CSE. This set of KPI’s will be strengthened for the 15/16 contract Page 132 Annual Audit Tool submitted as part of Q2 KPI’s requires for Safeguarding Children Policies to include: Sexually Exploited Children / CSE Strategy; reference LSCB CSE Strategy and Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation (2009) HM Government The KPI’s and Annual Audit tool are reviewed and quality assured by the CCG Safeguarding Children Service
Commissioned Provider Organisations
Providers have been asked to and are developing CSE action plans reflecting requirements for: a Single Point of Contact for CSE, taking organisational responsibility for the CSE agenda adoption of the pan Merseyside CSE Strategy and protocol ensuring appropriate information sharing processes within the organisation awareness raising and training to ensure all staff have training appropriate to their need and practice referral pathways for CSE concerns and soft intelligence representation at MACSE meetings, where appropriate Completion of the National Working Group Organisational Risk Tool for CSE. The ‘health section’ of the tool has been modified to support provider organisations to be able to highlight data for the key services they deliver in respect to CSE. As a result, key services including sexual health, school health, CAMHs, A&E, walk in centres, adult mental health, GPs and maternity services are able to report against 3 ‘risks’ (awareness raising, CSE training and knowledge of referra l processes) and % staff compliance. Regular reporting against this template will be requested in order that overall ‘risks’ of a potentially unaware workforce are reduced. The data from this tool will be reviewed by the LSCB CSE sub group.
Work outstanding at year end that will be completed in the forthcoming year
Revision of training programmes within the CCG Further revision of the safeguarding quality schedule for CCG commissioned services Workflows such as CSE will continue into 2015.16
Barriers noted in this reporting year
Some capacity issues within commissioned health services has impacted on the reporting within the safeguarding quality schedule for the CCG’s
Impact of our work at the frontline
Recent commissioning of services via Provider organisations has supported the health contribution into initiatives such as the MASH
Page 133 A comprehensive safeguarding reporting schedule provides assurance across the health system that there is the safe delivery of frontline services by a competent work force who have access to appropriate support and supervision .
Safeguarding Children Priorities – 2015 and beyond
To ensure that there is safe discharge and leadership across the health economy in relation to LAC, CSE, and Harmful practices (such as FGM). These workflows are both national and local priorities and require the development of a quality framework and a coordinated response across the health economy. The CCG safeguarding service and other professionals from within the CCG will be members on the appropriate national and regional forums, develop an appropriate quality framework and support, advise and monitor progress across the health economy by communication via the health sub group Agenda Item9 and /or appropriate task and finish groups.
To support the development and contribution from Primary Care via the role of the Named GP
To continue to monitor safeguarding compliance and quality of commissioned health services via contracting process. This is to support the safe delivery of health service across the Borough.
Continued support of the LSCB workplan: with specific emphasis on the SCR / review process, quality and audit programme and the early help / intervention agenda. This is to drive improvement and quality of service delivery across the Borough ensuring that children young people and families receive the support and intervention they require in a timely manner from a competent and trained workforce thus contributing to improved outcomes
Agenda Item9
Sefton Social Care
Safeguarding Priorities
Unlike other LSCB members the sole function of a children’s social care service is safeguarding; safeguarding families by intervening early and enabling them to resolve difficulties and where this is not effective acting swiftly to ensure that children are securely attached to carers to enable them to access the same life chances as their peers. Working with others and listening to children at all times to ensure that the conditions exist to access the right intervention and the right time and recognising the strength of relationship based working.
Children’s social care has an effective quality assurance system and reports to the Board on a quarterly basis and produces a n annual report to enable scrutiny and challenge. The areas for improvement highlighted in 2013/ 14 have been reported in the 14/15 annual report so will not be repeated here. This has been further strengthened by locating the quality assurance
Page 134 manager within the safeguarding unit. Audit and scrutiny of social work practice is embedded into practice and includes oversight and challenge from peer audit to Head of Service face to face discussions and home visits.
Progressing safeguarding priorities
Child Sexual Exploitation
As the principal agency responsible for the development and implementation of MASH (multi- agency safeguarding hub) we have been active in extending the remit within the limits of available resources. All cases of suspected or actual child sexual exploitation are analysed at initial contact and entered on to the electronic data base including children placed in Sefton by other local authority areas. CSE Strategy Meetings are convened in the MASH for children not already known to Children’s Social Care. Since the introduction of the Community Adolescent Service (CAS) all young people where concerns exist in relation to CSE who do not also have compromised parenting such as would require a child protection plan are referred to CAS where they will be supported up to the age of 25 if necessary. A significant number of young people subject to CSE are already looked after and specific sessions on recognition and response and particularly the link with missing episodes have been delivered to the corporate parenting teams.
The revised CSE/Missing Pathway has been subject of a development morning for all staff. Social work staff have been asked individually if they understand their responsibility and response to missing and CSE and where gaps in knowledge or understanding are apparent training has been made available. By the end of Q2 all staff will have a signed declaration on their supervision record to this effect. The links between placement planning and risk of missing/CSE are clearly understood. Every effort is made to keep looked after children local to their families and other sources of support. The placements of children out
of borough, particularly those at a distance, have been subject to close scrutiny in order to ensure that they continue to meet the child’s needs and have robust procedures in place to addr ess missing from care episodes.
Social Workers and their Team Manager have attended Sefton Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation Panel (MACSE) and have taken a proactive role in the 4 P MACSE Plan for children known to Social Care.
The use of Signs of Safety across the service has enabled more effective communication with children and young people. There is clear evidence within most records: assessments, case management decisions and supervision of the young person’s wishes and feelings.
MASH
Since its inception in February 2014 MASH has delivered an increasingly effective response to the range of safeguarding issues reported to a children’s social care service thanks to the availability of partners from the police, health services, probation and early intervention and prevention services. During 2015 the service has been enhanced by the provision of drug
Page 135 and alcohol support ( Lifeline) and SWACA ( Sefton Women and Children’s Aid ) a domestic abuse support agency. The development of the Gateway (Early Help referrals and response) has meant that all but a very small proportion (0.07%) of referrals receive an intervention.
All contacts are evaluated according to threshold level and the risk management too l ‘S igns of Safety ’ applied. The introduction of the RAG rating for information sharing between agencies (based on seriousness of concerns in the contact) has meant that child protection concerns receive an early and effective social work response.
Initially the MASH dealt with child protection referrals, domestic abuse notifications and CSE; it has extended to incorporate all re- referrals to the service and cases which are likely to meet the criteria for Sefton’s newly developed Community Adolescent Agenda Item9 Team. All re-referrals are scrutinised by the Service Manager and the learning is used to improve practice and has led to the introduction of ‘challenge meetings’. This utilises ‘Signs of Safety’ and scrutiny is applied to cases by those not involved in the case. However it remains the case that only 37% are subject to MASH scrutiny.
Given the effectiveness of the service to date extending to incorporate all contacts is the logical next move but is not possible without an increase in staff across all agencies.
Agenda Item9
Domestic Abuse
27% of all referrals to Children’s Social Care rela te to domestic abuse (2014 -2015). Although there has been a recognition by Merseyside Police that existing referral processes in relation to domestic abuse are overwhelming the capacity of MASH to respond, more needs to be done to ensure that an appropriate threshold is applied in order to ensure that only those cases in genuine need of agency safeguarding intervention and support are referred. The presence of SWACA within MASH provides social workers with important assurance and support in relation to their handling of these difficult matters.. Direct contact is made with the victim by telephone to discuss concerns prior to MASH case discussion meetings.
Staff told us they were anxious about how to respond to men who perpetuated abuse and we have introduced additional training to support staff in this area. Pre denial domestic abuse training commenced for all social workers in July 2015, the expected completion date for this training is November 2015. It is a two day training event, covering the basic principles in working with perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse, challenge to perpetrators and victims who minimise abuse. The
Page 136 training is to support families to get to a position of acceptance of domestic abuse in order for the perpetrator to progress to the no-xcuses programme. This is an intensive treatment intervention programme working with the perpetrator, victim and child/ren. In addition to training, SWACA no hold a monthly drop in service for staff in order for them to a)have an opportunity to discuss any personal issues they may have regarding domestic abuse, b) discuss current cases and c)discuss any anxieties they may have about working with domestic abuse and access direct support from SWACA.
Sefton’s Early Help Services now deliver a programme to support Adolescents how are involved in domestically abusive behaviour in order to address the prevalence of these behaviours as they move into adulthood.
Community Adolescent Service
Sefton is one of only 53 authorities out of 300 who were successful in their bid to the Department of Education for money from the Innovation Fund to explore different ways of working with adolescents on the edge of care.
What our service will deliver:
Work with young people and their families for as long as necessary until the age of 25 and not close the case:
Create stable professional relationships between young people and one allocated worker. Maintain the same worker even if young person becomes looked after until the permanence decision is made (4 months)
Improve the stability of placements and the journey in and out of care for those entering the system in adolescence.
Commission a children’s home to work wit hin the model to promote change and deliver savings.
Be underpinned by a single co-located multi-disciplinary service united by a shared vision, referral processes and evidence based approaches:
Utilise the principles of social pedagogy and restorative practice to promote culture change
Support extended family as though they were foster carers
Remain focused on the needs of young people
Outcomes framework:
Support young people and families before they reach crisis to prevent young people entering the care system at 13+ Support families to resolve problems and build resilience to prevent younger siblings entering care when they reach
Page 137 adolescence Provide stability of placements for those who are already looked after with a greater potential to return home in a planned way to families who have changed Support young people to remain in mainstream education Support children and young people to make good life choices and reduce the numbers entering the criminal justice system Utilize new ways of working to understand why children and young people go missing from home, care and school and Agenda Item9 intervene to reduce the frequency and impact. Reduce the number of young people involved with gun and gangs by building stronger more effective relationships between their families, peers and communities. Develop co-ordinated and effective actions to reduce the number of young people victimised through child sexual exploitation and increase the potential for disruption and prosecution of offenders. Provide support, guidance and empowerment to young people who have experienced difficulties in their childhood as they enter parenthood to minimise the risk of their children being lost to care. Realise budget savings within three years
Agenda Item9
Continuous Improvement
Children’s social care is on a journey of continuous improvement towards ‘good in all areas of practice. In order to achieve this without confusing performance indicators with quality interventions we need to concentrate our actions on key priorities.
The steady rise in children subject to child protection and care proceedings and the attendant increase in looked after children presents a challenge to our view as a society of family life. The data in relation to all England is based upon the 2013/14 data and so does not bear comparison, however the data from the 23 regional authorities published at the end of Q3 (December 2014) indicates that Sefton sits midway in the 3 rd quartile as 15 th highest rate per 10,000 population in relation to child protection and at the beginning of the 3 rd quartile as 13 th highest rate per 10,000 population in regards to looked after children. We are not an outrider but we are on the higher side of average.
We are well placed within the conditions for effective practice but need a partnership commitment to risk management which of necessity requires effective early help services and interim solutions to support manageable caseloads and effective Page 138 management oversight.
We have a stable, committed workforce and do not rely on agency staff. We have implem ented a ‘succession planning’ process that has seen experienced social workers given development opportunities within the service to ensure future management capacity and strength, bringing stability to the service.
Four social workers in their first year post qualifying have progressed and four social workers within the Locality Service have successfully completed the Higher Education post qualifying progression module and a number of staff are currently involved in this. Four managers have competed leadership programmes. All our managers have undertaken reflective supervision training.
Going forward we will concentrate on:
Quality: Performing statutory requirements and adhering to policy and procedure are important but the application of evidence based, reflective interventions sensitive to children’s needs that can demonstrate positive outcomes are what makes the difference in children’s lives.
Consistency: We have examples of good practice and in some cases excellent practice but also practice that falls short of what is required of us. Too often this is inconsistent both within and across teams. As we get better at identifying areas for improvement for individual social workers, teams and sometimes the whole service we must ensure that the application of decision making is consistent. The quality of assessments and plans must support the decisions subsequently taken. A child should not enter the care system in the North of the Borough if, in the same circumstances a child in the South would not for example.
Timeliness: Adhering slavishly to proscribed time scales is not an end in itself. Seeing children on time but failing to understand their issues or listen to their voice achieves nothing. However, families need help as soon as their circumstances are understood and delay in providing services and taking and recording decisions damages life chances for children. We need to improve our response times whilst maintaining both quality and consistency of practice.
North West Ambulance Service
The Trust has a legal duty to protect patients, staff and the public from harm. This includes harm from others as well as avoidable harm to patients. The Clinical Safety and Safeguarding Team have worked hard during the year to identify patients at risk and have focussed the following work streams to ensure patients and the public receive appropriate care and protection when required.
The implementation of the new Care Act 2014 provides a legal framework for the assessment and protection of adults including those at risk with an emphasis on the ‘wellbeing’ of the patient. This may account in part for the notable rise in safeguarding adult Page 139 activity over the year which includes concern for the welfare of vulnerable adults requiring assessment. Likewise safeguarding children activity steadily increases across the trust particularly within the Paramedic Emergency Service but at a slower rate than for adults.
A number of high profile national investigations have resulted in an update to safeguarding procedures and training to ensure that adults and children who are at risk or victims of exploitation and radicalisation are also safeguarded.
Achievements
CQC pilot standards Agenda Item9
The Trust took part in the CQC pilot assessments of Ambulance Service NHS Trusts. The result is that a number of standards have been developed for Ambulance Services and good assurance was received in relation to safeguarding arrangements.
Frequent caller Project and vulnerable people.
The safeguarding and frequent caller teams are regularly identifying and sharing information to enable a joined up approach to ensure vulnerable people are afforded the assessment and care they require in accordance with their wishes. When appropriate they are protected from harm or abuse and a significant amount of valuable patient data is now shared to ensure the best outcomes for these patients. This also includes sharing concerns in relation to nursing and Care Homes.
Agenda Item9
Update of the safeguarding Vulnerable Persons Policy and Procedures
A significant amount of work has been done to update the Policy and associated procedures. These now include the principles of adult safeguarding and pathways are included for victims of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the radicalisation of vulnerable people (PREVENT).
PREVENT awareness and training
Over 75% of all NWAS staff have received WRAP 3 training which is the ‘Workshop to Raise Awareness of PREVENT - part of the government’s anti -terrorism strategy. WRAP is included within mandatory training for all staff and compliance with this national requirement continues to increase monthly.
Page 140 Child Safeguarding Figure 2 Child referrals by area
Safeguarding child referrals 2014-2015
1000 831 846 739 716 800 Qtr 1 600 Qtr 2 329 315 327 339 400 270 271 232 236 216 195 208 194 Qtr 3 200 0 Qtr 4 Cumbria & Lancs Cheshire & Mersey Greater Manchester Total
Figure 2 demonstrates the number of children referred by the Trust to Children’s Social Care between Q1 and Q4. There are increased referral rates across all areas. This may be in part to increased awareness through training, bulletins and sharing lessons. All referred children (in families) are now listed individually within the database (ERISS) which may account in part for the increase.
Proposed development 2015- 2016
Safeguarding alerts
The Electronic Information Sharing System (ERISS) is a bespoke web-based system used by the Trust for sharing safeguarding referral information with Children’s Social Care. This system has the functionality to place warning flags to alert the attending crew about child or adult protection issues. The application will be piloted over the forthcoming year. The current position of staff raising alerts with the Trust Safeguarding Team remains in place.
Domestic Abuse
The Trust is continuing to develop processes in relation to Domestic Abuse. Following the success of the pilot last year a referral form for domestic abuse will be developed with provision for enhanced information sharing which links to the national guidance (NICE).
Page 141 Child Sexual exploitation, Slavery and Trafficking
The Trust Safeguarding Team is in the process of developing links with all the CSE Teams in the North West to enable efficient and timely information sharing in relation to CSE. This is over and above the current safeguarding procedures already in place. There is also a process to capture data relating to FGM which has been communicated to all staff and this will be monitored during the year.
The Trust is working with partners to help tackle issues relating to Slavery and Trafficking of children and adults. This work is in the initial scoping phase and any identified actions will be added to the Safeguarding Work Plan for the year and Agenda Item9 progress monitored.
Formatting
Agenda Item9 MESSAGES FOR OUR STAKEHOLDERS A Message for Children and Young People
All of our work is intended to help you be safe, well and happy. One of our A Message for Staff and Volunteers priorities for 2015 -17 is to help practitioners and agencies listen to your voice
and ensure that plans for your future and the services you rceive are based on what you say and ne ed. Thank you for your hard work. We appreciate your
attendance at LSCB development sessions and your commitment to continuous professional development and staying up to date. A Message for Board Members
We want to hear from you on how we can support Collectively the LSCB needs to understand you further in your safeguarding work and will be more about the work of single -agencies. involving you in practice audits and reviews. We will be working to understand more Page 142 about the learning gained by your agency
via single -agency audits, complaints and A Message for Chief Executives and Directors other methods.
We will share our learning with you SEFTON throughout the year. LSCB A Message for Elected Members We ask that this learning informs your service plans and we work together on continually We ask that you consider improving the local safeguarding system our findings and the needs
of the most vulnerable children, when making A Message for Parents and Carers A Message for the Police and Crime Commissioner difficult budget decisions
during the forthcoming Teac hing children about dangers and risks is an Sefton LSCB has initiated a Child Sexual Exploitation year. Our findings illustrate important part of parenting. Depending on the Health Needs Assessment, with significant support the importance of having age of your child/ren teach them about: the from the Sefton Council Public Health Department. The findings of this work will help us to understand services available for the underwear rule, how to stay safe on the the evidence of what works in protecting and families with chil dren under internet and/or child sexual exploitation. supporting victims. We want to draw your attention 5. Helping families early,
to this work and hope that it informs the evidence with children of all ages is Nursery settings, schools and the LSCB website also crucial. have information to help you do this. base for your future commissioning of victim support We will be delivering Appendix 1 Risk Assessment 2015-16
A number of local and national factors have been identified that could have an impact on the ability of the LSCB to safeguard children and young people in Sefton. The Board is taking steps to reduce the impact of each risk or concern.
Risk Effect of the risk Action to be taken to reduce the impact of the risk Duplication of efforts or gaps in intelligence Development of joint commissioning arrangements Geography/cross border and information in relation to CSE where possible (eg. CSE and LSCB training)
issues Duplication of efforts, missed opportunities for Regular meetings of Merseyside LSCB Chairs. economies of scale and added value Regular meetings of Merseyside LSCB Business Managers
Links with Health and Potential for confusion by Board members Clear Memorandum of Understanding to be in place about roles and responsibilities; particularly across LSCB, Corporate Parenting Board and H&WB Well Being Board, Adult Page 143 re. Looked After Children Board. Safeguarding Board , Corporate Parenting Potential for children and young people’s Closer links to be made with the Community Safety Board and issues to get lost in the priorities related to Partnership; shared activities and overlapping agendas Community Safety adult issues to be explored. Partnership Additional activities re. The LSCB does not learn sufficiently from Assessment of the capacity of the partnership to undertake practice, frontline practitioners and the more multi -agency audits and reviews Local Learning and experiences of children and families. Improvement Framework Capacity building work to be undertaken following this
Difficulty in e videncing the i mpact of the work of assessment (including training further auditors across the Agenda Item9 the Board and the impact of improvement partnership) activities.
LSCB Budget LSCB does not have the resources available to LSCB partners to examine funding arrangements in July maintain the business s upport it requires. A 2015 and explore innovative solutions to the funding significant defic it has been noted in 2014-15 deficit.
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Appendix 2 Agenda Item9
LSCB Budget Information
Contributions from Partner Agencies 2013-14
£ Financial Priorities 2014 -15
Children’s Services (contribution incl Admin 62,000 Support) Resourcing a team that meets the requirements of the Southport & Formby/South Sefton CCGs 30,000 LSCB and enables the Board to undertake its Merseyside Police 20,000 responsibilities as defined within statutory guidance CAFCASS 550 Merseyside Probation Trust 9,000 Continued investment in more capacity and specialist Early Intervention Child Death
Page 144 skills to improve the areas of audit and performance data Grant 38,800 Income from training 5,000 Ensuring that the LSCB budget is spent against our areas of responsibility
TOTAL 165,350 Delivering a comprehensive and good quality training
programme against our key priorities
Knowing the impact of our work at the frontline
Expenditure 2013 -14 Board Development £ Staff salaries Activities to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation 145,000 Professionals fees (inc. Independent Chair 39,560 & External Consultants /services ) Facilities Hire 1,485.14 CDOP Contribution 5,000 Miscellaneous 1,938.39 Training (inc. venue hire) 9,442.06
TOTAL 202,425.59
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Appendix 3
Membership of the Local Safeguarding Children Board
By Agency Aintree Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Voluntary Community Faith Sector Representative CAFCASS Merseyside Police Community Rehabilitation Company (Probation) Children’s Social Care – Sefton Council Legal Services – Sefton Council Mersey Care NHS Trust National Probation Service Page 145 NHS England Primary Schools Representative (vacancy to be recruited to) Public Health – Sefton Council South Sefton & Southport & Formby Clinical Commissioning Groups Secondary Schools Representative Liverpool Community Health Southport and Ormskirk NHS Foundation Trust Special Schools Representative Sefton Women & Children ’s Aid (SWACA) Youth Offending Service Agenda Item9 Independent/Other Persons Independent Chair 1 x Independent Board Member (vacancy to be recruited to) Lead Member for Children’s Services (Participatory Observer)
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Agenda Item9 Appendix 4
LSCB Business Plan Priorities: 2015-17
Children and Young people who are victims or at risk of Sexual Exploitation
The LSCB will prioritise the implementation of the strategy to ensure children and young people receive timely help and support to keep them safe and perpetrators of CSE are prosecuted.
Children experiencing neglect
Sefton LSCB will establish a new sub-group to implement the neglect strategy; helping children to receive timely and effective help at all threshold levels within the continuum of need. Page 146 Children in Care from Other Local Authorities
A ‘providers causing concern’ model will be implemented, e nabling the LSCB to take action when concerns arise in relation to care homes for looked after children.
Children and young people in need of early help
A wide range of work will be agreed and undertaken to enable all agencies to respond early and effectively to the needs of children and young people
Business Processes
Training Voice of the Child Learning from practice