Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present the Medway Safeguarding Children Board (MSCB) Annual Report 2014-15 to the Committee. The MSCB Independent Chair publishes an annual report describing how agencies in Medway have worked together through the year and how effective the arrangements are in Medway to keep children and young people safe from harm, abuse or neglect.  The report summarises the good progress that has been made in 2014-15 and the plans to develop this further in 2015-16.

Discussion:

The Vice-Chairman of the Medway Safeguarding Children Board (MSCB), Detective Superintendent Andy Pritchard, presented the MSCB’s Annual Report 2014-15 on behalf of the MSCB Independent Chair who had been unable to attend the meeting.

The MSCB Vice-Chairman drew the Committee’s attention to particular aspects of the report, in particular; the MSCB structure chart, the co-location of services, joint auditing across agencies, MSCB sub-group activity, development of a strategy relating to preventing child sexual exploitation and work to reduce the negative impact of children and young people living with domestic violence.  He added that students at Robert Napier School had produced a piece of drama regarding female genital mutilation to raise awareness of the issue and this would be used as an educational tool throughout other schools and would be placed on the MSCB website.  He further added the importance of the voice of the child and confirmed that the Board had now appointed young people to sit on the board.

Members then raised comments and questions which included:

·           Language barriers for children for whom English is not the first language – concern was raised regarding children who do not speak English and how they access services, particularly as the voice of the child is recognised as so important.  The MSCB Vice-Chairman agreed this was a priority for MSCB and had been a particular issue relating to the work on Child Sexual Exploitation. He explained that the availability of interpreting services was very good in Medway and was used when there were language difficulties.

·           Voice of the child – in response to a question about why the young people now sitting on the MSCB were not listed in the membership list, the MSCB Vice-Chairman confirmed that the list in the report was dated 31 March 2015 and that the young people, now appointed to the Board, would be listed in the next annual report.

·           Learning lessons – A Member asked for more detail on the outcomes from the lessons learned sub group and the MSCB Vice-Chairman undertook to report this back to Members.

·           Safeguarding resources in Youth Offending Institutes – in response to a question about the resourcing for safeguarding children placed in a Medway prison from outside of the area, the MSCB Vice-Chairman confirmed that any safeguarding allegations made by young people against staff were referred to Medway Council and these were managed appropriately and carefully.

·           Complexity of the MSCB – concern was raised that the MSCB was a complex board with various sub-groups and therefore it was asked how the board safeguards against issues being missed.  In response the MSCB Vice-Chairman explained that there was good contribution across agencies and the board employed staff to assist with administrative support.  He added that senior board members sat on sub-groups to ensure cross-over and a joined up approach to the various strands of work.

·           Serious Case Reviews – In response to a question about how the board safeguards against conflicts of interest by organisations involved in a Serious Case Review (SCR), the Vice-Chairman explained that the conduct of SCRs was prescriptive and were independently chaired.  Reports were published and were subject to scrutiny by Ofsted.  The Director of Children and Adult Services added that when a SCR occurs, this is reported to this Committee via MSCB reports and therefore would provide an opportunity for scrutiny by Members.

·           Vacancy rates of Social Workers – in response to a question about the vacancy rates of social workers the Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care, confirmed that this did not compromise safeguarding practice, which had been commented on recently by Ofsted.  Vacancies were not carried by the service so agency staff were used where required to ensure appropriate workloads across staff were maintained.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.