Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Children and Families presenting the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2023/24. The report outlines the activity that has taken place across the year in relation to the Safeguarding Partners’ statutory duties to work together in exercising their functions of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including developments in practice, progress with priorities, learning, scrutiny, inspections and statutory responsibilities. 

The Board considered the report from the Director of Children and Families presenting the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2023/24. The report outlined the activity that has taken place across the year in relation to the Safeguarding Partners’ statutory duties to work together in exercising their functions of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including developments in practice, progress with priorities, learning, scrutiny, inspections and statutory responsibilities. 

In attendance for this item were:

·  Councillor Helen Hayden, Executive Member for Children and Families

·  Julie Longworth, Director of Children & Families

·  Stephen Dodds, Leeds District Commander (LSCP Executive)

·  Jo Harding, Leeds Place Nurse Lead (LSCP Executive)

·  David Derbyshire, Independent Scrutineer – LSCP

·  Belinda Sharratt, LSCP Business Unit Manager

The Executive Board Member for Children and Families introduced the report stressing the importance and strength of the partnership approach to safeguarding work in Leeds across the local authority, health and Police. The impact of poverty continues to be a risk factor in terms of safeguarding and the development of early help approaches was also noted as a key area of work done by the partnership. Thanks were given to all staff working in this important area.

The Independent Scrutineer also made introductory remarks setting out his role and the plan in place for his activity. It was noted that the arrangements on scrutiny are good within the partnership and that there is real strength in the work done on safeguarding in Leeds. The recent Joint Targeted Area Inspection on Youth Violence (previously considered by the Board) was noted as a good recent example of this. The skilled workforce in Leeds was also noted and the key role frontline staff play in delivering safeguarding in the city with education now also featuring in the partnership work. Supervision of staff was highlighted as a strength and features analysis of the key work being undertaken as opposed to just ensuring that things are done and submitted appropriately.

It was noted that Executive meetings and meetings within the partnership do feature robust challenge and working through resolutions where there is disagreement. Key challenges in Leeds and nationally on safeguarding are around the scale of domestic abuse and impacts on children, enhancing safeguarding of adolescents and ensuring that early stage intervention on neglect cases is as accurate as possible and identify which children need safeguarding and which families need more support. Work is ongoing on these key issues in Leeds.

In response to questions and comments from members the Board discussed the following:

·  The Chair noted past consideration of a specific safeguarding case known as ‘Ruby’ has led to a number of improvements and new processes to provide assurance to scrutiny around safeguarding arrangements. This includes regular meetings between the Chair of this Board and the independent scrutineer as well as separate meetings with the Executive Board Member. In addition, the annual report is now a regular, annual feature of the scrutiny board’s work programme.

·  In response to a question on themes in the report particularly in relation to neglect and the role of parental conflict and the impact it has on children, the Board heard that during the pandemic instances of relationship issues increased due to the nature of lockdown and there was an increase in concern linked to this. The city does have a service called Relationships Matter which is an early help initiative aimed at identifying and supporting families where there are early indications of conflict this can be both one to one and online sessions. Feedback on this has been positive and that men in particular have accessed the online offer which is out of working hours.

·  Witnesses were asked about utilising the experience of people who have undergone issues linked to neglect and parental conflict and more broadly those who have been involved in the care system, so those who have lived experience of the services provided. In response the Board heard that there is an active group of people who have been involved in this and key question are around what would have made a difference to them when going through difficulties and accessing family support and care services. Some of the parents who have experience of the care system are involved in service delivery to support families going through similar issues, the EPEC programme was highlighted which stands for Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities. In addition, some carers and parents are involved in advocacy for people going through similar issues.

·  Members asked about professional curiosity and welcomed the development of training to support that approach and asked if that was for all staff or just those involved in social work and safeguarding. In response the Board heard that it is available to all staff and has resulted from safeguarding practice reviews and needs assessments carried out by the service.

·  In response to a question on bereavement and reductions in bereavement services the board heard that there has been a focus on the need to put in place training and support to staff dealing with bereavement when working with families. Bereavement has been a factor in two rapid reviews so it has been a focus at the Executive meetings.

·  On supervision of staff the Board asked about the evidence base for positive comments about supervision of staff. The Board were informed that as part of the Independent Scrutineer’s work he has met with staff directly across the partnership with general feedback being that they have regular supervision meetings and that in these sessions there is a focus on plans and analysis of cases they are dealing with. In addition, managers also feedback that they are managed on a regular basis with a similar approach taken to analysis and planning for cases they are working on. It was noted that trauma informed approaches are embedded in Leeds not just in social work practice but more broadly across the partnership, so there is a common language and understanding across professionals.

·  The Board asked about domestic abuse and how it is being addressed, with Yorkshire having a particularly high rate when compared to national statistics. The Board believed that there was some good work to tackle issues such as misogyny with men and boys but wanted to know more about how this is being developed given the higher rates of domestic abuse in the region. By way of response the Board heard that it is a key priority to tackle and is a key factor in children experiencing hardship and vulnerability. It was also noted that feedback from a recent practitioner event which highlighted the concerns around domestic violence and the feedback that suggests that young boys living in that environment can also go on to be domestic abusers. Family Help hubs were also highlighted as an approach to tackled domestic abuse with third sector specialists involved to provide support and signpost towards successful interventions to tackle domestic violence and abuse. The already referenced Relationship Matters service is also involved in this work.

·  On wider work to tackle domestic violence the board heard about cross cutting work with the Safeguarding Adults Partnership to tackle the issue and seek assurance on the work that is going on. If there is a domestic homicide or serious incident of that nature there is a statutory requirement for the Safeguarding Adults Board to examine and investigate the case, which leads to learning and changes in practice some of which are focussed on perpetrators of the abuse.

·  From a Police perspective the Board also heard about the key focus they have in terms of additional resources deployed to tackle the issue. The Pol-Ed Programme is used to go in to schools and provide learning and engagement with young people on the impact of domestic abuse and violence and controlling and coercive relationships. In terms of enforcement work done by the Police there has been a steady increase of remand cases associated with domestic abuse. Also 3,200 officers have been trained across West Yorkshire on domestic abuse with 36% of those working in Leeds.

·  The Board emphasised the importance of bereavement and the impact it can have on young people. A suggestion being that more support could be done to tackle issues such as lack of confidence. It was acknowledged that loss and bereavement can have a major impact on young people in terms of development and well-being. It was noted that this could be the focus of a future work item for the board.

·  In response to a question on links between frontline staff and management and the ability of staff to speak up on safeguarding issues, the Board heard that Leeds does have structures in place to speak up and raise issues without fear of detriment. In Leeds the process is to raise an issue in the first instance with managers and if that is not effective then there is an escalation procedure which is clear to staff and has various stages to it. Feedback from the Independent Scrutineer suggest that in most cases the issue is resolved through manager discussion by easing concerns through provision of additional information or in fact leads to further questions and enquiries. There are a small number of examples of escalation occurring to more senior levels.

·  The Board asked about training to school staff on domestic abuse and whether this extends to school support staff. In response the Board heard that training is focussed on indicators of domestic abuse and that through section 11 returns done by schools information is provided to the LSCP Business Unit and analysis is carried out of training needs to identify gaps and given that domestic abuse is a priority this will be picked up through those processes and that reassurance is sought on the level of training on this and that it is effective. Audit approaches are also in place to look at whether training is making a difference.

·  On the specifics of training the board heard that it is rolled out in partnership with Safer, Stronger Communities colleagues to provide training opportunities on a multi-agency basis and this is provided as interactive training either in person or on-line but is interactive and features lived experiences from young people.

·  The Board discussed the Turnaround project and welcomed the impact it has in supporting children and families involved in the Youth Justice system. It was noted that funding for the programme is due to end in March but there is work ongoing, and a commitment to lobby, to secure alternative funding sources and the possibility that the existing funding will continue beyond that.

·  The Executive Member welcomed the consideration of these issues today in particular the focus on domestic abuse and the impact it has on individuals in the city. The unseen elements such as coercion and control were also noted as key issues to tackle due to the damage that these can cause to children and families.

Resolved - the Scrutiny Board endorsed the work undertaken to further strengthen the safeguarding children arrangements in Leeds.

(This was passed unanimously proposed by Cllr Cohen and seconded by Cllr Jones)