Agenda and draft minutes

CO-OPTED MEMBER (VOTING)

Mr E A Britten - Church Representative (Catholic)

Mr A Graham – Church Representative (Church of England)

Ms J Ward – Parent Governor Representative (Secondary)

CO-OPTED MEMBERS (NON-VOTING)

Ms C Foote – School Staff Representative

Ms H Bellamy – School Staff Representative

Ms L Whitaker - Young Lives Leeds

To consider any appeals in accordance with Procedure Rule 25* of the Access to Information Procedure Rules (in the event of an Appeal the press and public will be excluded).

(* In accordance with Procedure Rule 25, notice of an appeal must be received in writing by the Head of Governance Services at least 24 hours before the meeting).

There were no appeals against the refusal of inspection of documents.

1.  To highlight reports or appendices which officers have identified as containing exempt information, and where officers consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons outlined in the report.

2.  To consider whether or not to accept the officers recommendation in respect of the above information.

3.  If so, to formally pass the following resolution:-

RESOLVED – That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following parts of the agenda designated as containing exempt information on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information, as follows:

No exempt items have been identified.

There were no exempt items.

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes.)

With the agreement of the Chair, one late item of business was added to the agenda - “Notification of Serious Incidents Review”. This matter came to light following the despatch of the agenda and the Chair deemed this to be a significant matter requiring the Boards urgent consideration. A copy of the report had been provided to Board members and published to the Council website prior to the meeting. (Minute 54 refers).

To disclose or draw attention to any interests in accordance with Leeds City Council’s ‘Councillor Code of Conduct’.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutes.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Bithell, Councillor Hussain, Councillor Richards and Co-opted Member Kate Blacker.

Councillor J Lennox attended as substitute for Councillor Bithell.

Councillor L Martin attended as substitute for Councillor Hussain.

Councillor Amanda Carter attended as substitute for Councillor Richards

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 26^th January 2022.

An amendment to Minute No. 42 ‘Performance report for the financial year 2020/21’ second paragraph was requested to read “It was highlighted that there are currently 1,333 children looked after, which is a rate of 78 per 10,000.”

RESOLVED – That, subject to the amendment recorded above, the minutes of the meeting held 26^th January 2022 be approved as a correct record.

The Head of Democratic Services submitted a report introducing an issue which had been brought to the attention of the Chair in respect of the processes supporting the Notification of Serious Incidents.

In introducing the item, the Chair advised that he had been made aware that there had been some instances where differing views were evident within the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership in relation to whether or not to categorise a case as a notifiable Serious Incident. Arising from that, a local review of notification arrangements had commenced in December 2021 with a report due to be considered by the Partnership at the end of March. The Chair expressed his view that the current review of notification arrangements, and the background to it, should reasonably have been brought to the attention of the Children and Families Scrutiny Board at an earlier stage; and because of the seriousness of the issue, he had requested this issue be considered as a matter of urgency at this meeting.

The following were in attendance for this item:

·  Councillor Fiona Venner - Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Sal Tariq - Director of Children and Families

·  Julie Longworth - Deputy Director of Children and Families

·  Rebecca Roberts - Section Head, Social Care Legal and legal adviser to the Safeguarding Partnership Board

·  Jasvinder Sanghera CBE – Independent Chair of the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership

The Section Head, Social Care Legal and legal adviser to the Safeguarding Partnership Board, provided an overview of the framework introduced by the provisions of the Children Act 2004 and amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 to support the delivery of multi-agency services to protect and safeguard children. The Board received information on the establishment of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the national panel) and the framework for reporting serious incidents commonly referred to as Notifications. It was highlighted that the duty to report serious incidents to the national panel falls to the local authority in which the child or young person resides.

The Board was provided with the timeframe for actions to be taken following the notification of a Serious Incident and an overview of those actions, culminating in the partners determining whether or not the information/learning gathered is sufficient to implement and learn from, or whether further learning is required, perhaps in the context of a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR). 

Members additionally noted the following:

·  The criteria taken into consideration by partners when determining whether a CSPR is appropriate, as contained in The Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018, part 11.

·  Since the new arrangements were established in September 2019, Leeds had made 6 notifications involving suspected abuse or neglect, and one notification which did not.

·  The LSCP is undertaking 3 CSPRs (including one where no notification was made) and the Review and Advisory sub group of the LSCP is currently overseeing 10 other cases where the criteria for a notification was not deemed to have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

To receive a report from the Head of Democratic Services which presents an update from NHS Leeds CCG surrounding the implementation of the refreshed Future in Mind: Leeds Strategy.

The Head of Democratic Services submitted a report presenting an update from NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group surrounding the implementation of the refreshed Future in Mind: Leeds Strategy.

The following were in attendance to present the report:

·  Councillor Fiona Venner - Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Jayne Bathgate-Roche - Pathway Integration Leader, NHS Leeds CCG

·  Emily Griffiths - Associate Director of Pathway Integration, Children, Families and Healthy Populations, NHS Leeds CCG

The Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships gave a brief introduction highlighting the Strategy had been refreshed in 2021 and was set in the context of the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the impact of trauma and poverty on children and young people. The Strategy had strong links to the ‘All Age mental health’ strategy and the Adults Mental Health Partnership Board (AMHPB). Importantly, both Future In Mind and the AMHPB share the priorities of the impact of trauma and the impact of the period of transition from the care of Childrens Services to Adult Social Care.

The Associate Director of Pathway Integration, Children, Families and Healthy Populations, NHS Leeds CCG highlighted the strength of partnership working in the development of the refreshed Strategy. Moving forward the Strategy seeks to embed “think family” across all partner groups and to address the disparity of investment in children and young people’s mental health services through its links to the Childrens Population Board and its focus on transforming services, especially at that period of transition.

The Pathway Integration Leader, NHS Leeds CCG, outlined the work undertaken to support the 7 areas of work within the Strategy, each led by a different partner:

-  Support – to ensure access to services and the right support at the right time

-  Early Intervention – how to bring partners together to make an early impact

-  Parity of investment in children and young people’s mental health – noting investment for ‘trailblazer’ teams to work in Secondary school age education settings.

-  Transitions - work to identify arbitrary ‘cut-off’ points between provision of services to children and young people as they move into adulthood and access adult support services.

-  Family Support – how to equip families to support their child.

-  Children with medically unexplained symptoms – support for those with symptoms of long Covid, fatigue and other symptoms which may not yet have an identified medical cause.

The Board discussed the following matters –

·  How education settings which are not part of the Local Authority or member of a Childrens Services Cluster can be encouraged to participate and utilise the support available under the Strategy.

·  Funding for CAMHS and referral times.

·  Resources to support early intervention after trauma and the implementation of Navigator roles in hospital Accident and Emergency departments.

·  Support for children entering early years education with little or no experience of social interaction.

·  The role of Youth Services in identifying and supporting young people who may be experiencing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

To receive a report from the Director of Children and Families presenting an update of the continuous programme of work being undertaken by Children and Families Services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to time constraints, this item was deferred to a future Board meeting.

To receive a report from the Head of Democratic Services presenting the formal response to the Board’s earlier inquiry into tackling the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on children and families.

Due to time constraints, this item was deferred to a future Board meeting.

(Councillor Illingworth and Councillor Amanda Carter left the meeting at this point).

To consider the Scrutiny Board’s work schedule for the 2021/22 municipal year.

The report of the Head of Democratic Services set out the forthcoming work schedule, with the latest version appended to the report at Appendix 1.

The Principal Scrutiny Adviser introduced the report and highlighted the work items scheduled for March. It was noted that an additional meeting may need to be scheduled during April as there was no guarantee that the findings of the Notification of Serious Incidents Review would be available in time for the Board’s March meeting (minute 54 above refers).

RESOLVED –

(a) To note the report and the work schedule attached at Appendix 1.

(b) To note that an additional meeting may need to be scheduled in April primarily to consider the findings of the Notification of Serious Incidents Review.

Wednesday, 30^th March 2022 at 10.00 am (pre-meeting for all Board Members at 9.45 am)

RESOLVED – To note the next formal meeting of the Children and Families Scrutiny Board will be on Wednesday 30^th March at 10:00 am (pre-meeting at

9:45 am).

The meeting concluded at 1.15 pm