Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present the Medway Safeguarding Children Partnership (MSCP) Annual Report 2024-25 to the Health and Wellbeing Board. The report provides an overview of the work carried out by the MSCP in the last year. It sets out the progress the partnership has made against key priorities and gives an overview of the learning and improvement role of the MSCP including case reviews that have been undertaken. It also includes a section on scrutiny and assurance, providing details of the independent scrutineer activity in the reporting year.

The report was presented at the Health and Wellbeing Board meeting of 20 November 2025 and will also be presented to the Community Safety Partnership in line with the Joint Working Protocol between the Boards in Medway.

The Committee received a report which detailed the work undertaken by the MSCP in the last year and sets out the progress made by the partnership against key priorities.

Members then raised several questions and comments:

Oasis Restore - it was asked what the likelihood was of Oasis Restore Secure School reopening as planned next year and what assurances could be given on the oversight of performance. The Director of People and Deputy Chief Executive said that as far as she was aware the school was still on track to open as planned next year. The independent scrutineer was working closely with the secure school, and the report detailed the support being provided.

‘Don’t Disrespect’ - it was asked whether the ‘Don’t Disrespect’ campaign which was aimed at putting an end to public sexual harassment towards girls and women, was a direct result of social medica activities, press and television programmes. The Committee was informed that it was a proactive campaign which had resulted in increased contact as people began to gain awareness and recognition of issues which had resulted in increased reporting.

It was commented that some young people had not heard about the campaign, and it was suggested that the profile needed to be raised and for the campaign to be promoted more, particularly in schools and colleges. The Officer said that they would continue to promote through all available channels as well as encouraging partners to increase promotion of the campaign.

Child death - there was concern that child death data was not present in the report and that the data was not being received by professionals to enable them to audit, scrutinise and learn from incidences. The Public Health Principal and Strategic Head of Public Health Programmes acknowledged that the data had not been included and confirmed that Kent County Council; was leading on production of two reports, a 2022-24 report to share learning and a 2024-25 which would draw on key themes. However, assurance was provided that learning from all child deaths were live and an overview panel with all partners present was held to review all cases, with actions and learning taken forward. Some of the actions and learning resulted in campaigns run by MSCP or shaped training.

Communication - the report alluded to an increase in communication and its was asked what the communication strategy encompassed. The Officer said that the primary audience for communication from the MSCP was other professionals in the partnership working with children and families on Medway, both paid and unpaid but also included communication for the wider communities. There was extensive communication by MSCP through social media, the website, and a bi-monthly bulletin. It was commented that it may be useful to have two separate comms one for professionals and one for the public, to enable two sets of data to be recorded in the report to evidence activities in both cohorts. The Officer agreed that going forward this information could be captured for future reports where possible. All campaigns were tracked and monitored to capture details of impact to ensure that messages were being received.

Young people - in response to comments on what actions were being taken to include the voice of young people in all activities. The Chairperson said that the level of participation of the Medway Youth Council with the Committee continued to grow and relationships strengthened. A few Members of the Committee were forming a focus group to explore improvement to inclusivity.

The young people in attendance from Medway Youth Council added that they were also working on how to increase inclusivity and participation in their annual conference going forward and were trying to promote involvement not just with schools but also from the network on home educated young people.

It was further commented that the level of participation in the Medway Youth Council Annual Conference had increased over the years, and the Medway Youth Council was also commended for their participation in all children related activities across Medway.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report