Agenda item

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submits the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Yearly Report for 2023/24.

The Commission is invited to comment on how effectively Leicester safeguarding partners (police, health, and local authority) have jointly reported on the activity they have undertaken in a 12-month period, with a focus on multi-agency priorities, learning, impact, evidence, and improvement.

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submitted the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Yearly Report for 2023/24.

The Commission were invited to comment on how effectively Leicester safeguarding partners (police, health, and local authority) have jointly reported on the activity they have undertaken in a 12-month period, with a focus on multi-agency priorities, learning, impact, evidence, and improvement.

The Independent Chair of the Partnership presented the report.

Key points included:

• The report provided an account of multi-agency work undertaken in the 2023-24 period in terms of statutory requirement and priorities identified for Leicester.
• Priorities were identified based on evidence and data presented, as well as on reviews done nationally.
• The report also detailed areas and groups undertaking work on behalf of partnerships.
• The partnership was aware of the importance of children being heard and responded to.  This was a key feature of the report and the voice of children had been presented in a cohesive way.
• Very detailed scrutiny had been undertaken to look at what had been working well and mapping against requirement, as well as looking at best practice in other areas of the country and provision in terms of the way the partnership worked.
• The scrutineer had been worked with on how to engage children and produce policies in an appropriate and child-friendly way, looking at priorities from children’s perspective.
• There had been a requirement for change in chairing arrangements between the partners.
• Whilst education had not been made a statutory partner, it was being considered as to how to strengthen the voice of education.
• The voluntary sector would be strengthened to include the sports sector as national safeguarding concerns had come to light.

The Assistant Mayor for Education and SEND thanked the Independent Chair of the partnership for the report.  She reported that she had attended the meeting and found it interesting and was pleased that education would now be a part.

The Commission were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points included:

• In response to a query on further areas for improvement, the Independent Chair noted that she had worked with other partnerships in terms of scrutineering and reviews, and commented favourably on the fact that the partnership in Leicester there was a strong, multi-agency partnership and that the partnership was equal in terms of chairing and the reports produced.  This was not the same across the country.
• It was clarified that the process was dynamic, including when considering priorities.  If an issue came to light, it was updated as the year went on.  The report was just a taste of the work done by the different partners and areas.
• In response to a query about disproportionality between ethnic groups and child protection figures, it was noted that this was not unusual nationally, however, disproportionality was looked at carefully and was picked up as an ongoing priority by the partnership, which looked at whether some children were less typically coming to the attention of the partnership.
• The terms of reference of the task group to develop learning and training around the role of immigration status, culture, faith, and parenting in safeguarding children would be circulated.
• In response to a query on rising demand for emergency support leaving less to spend on preventative services, the Director for Childrens Social Work and Early Help explained that Child Protection Plans had been dropping over the past weeks and were currently at around 405 and might not tally to when the report was concluded.  One of the strengths of the service at Leicester City Council was that it had an extensive preventative offer which included an early help response team embedded with Duty and Advice Service.  This meant that early help works began working with families straight away then the authority was contacted, which meant that an impact could be seen earlier, as opposed to waiting for a process to be concluded.  Moving towards a family help model where early help and family services were integrated made escalations more seamless where concerns were escalated.  The number of investigations did not necessarily mean that the number of plans increased.  Where there was more confident and developed practice, the level of intervention tended to be less intrusive.

AGREED:

1)    That the update be noted.

2)    That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into account by the lead officers.