Agenda and minutes

There were no discloseable pecuniary interests.

Report of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Business Manager for Adult and Children Safeguarding Boards, which detailed the outcome of the serious case review (SCR) relating to Child S.

Following the death of Child S in 2013, the Independent Chair of Coventry Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) at that time agreed that this case should be the subject of a serious case review.  The SCR Report, including recommendations, and the resulting action plan were appended to the briefing note submitted.  Councillor M Mutton, Chair of the Scrutiny Board, reminded members that their role was not to hear the review, but to scrutinise the recommendation and review them.

Janet Mokades, current Independent Chair of the LSCB, attended the meeting and presented the recommendations and action plan that resulted from the SCR.  The Scrutiny Board noted the background to the case which, in summary, was that during the autumn of 2013 Mother S had called an ambulance to her home and Child S was found to be suffering from a serious head injury.  Child S was taken by ambulance to the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) accompanied by his mother, who stated that he had fallen down stairs at home.  Mother S’s partner, Male B, remained at home and did not attend the hospital. 

It had been clear when Child S’s arrived at UHCW that he was gravely unwell and later that day was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) due to the nature and seriousness of his injuries.  Upon arrival, he was taken straight to the operating theatre for emergency surgery.  Staff at both UHCW and BCH became concerned that, upon examination of scan results, the injury was not consistent with the explanation provided and the Coventry Emergency Social Care Duty Team were contacted along with West Midlands Police.  Following the surgery, Child S was taken to the paediatric intensive care unit and, despite the efforts of medical staff, he died the following day as a result of the injuries he had sustained.  Later the same day both Male B and Mother S were arrested on suspicion of murder.  In Autumn 2014, following a Police investigation, Male B was charged with murder and Mother S with neglect and allowing Child S’s death.

The purpose of the SCR was to establish the role of services and their effectiveness in the care of Child S, whether information was fully shared by the professionals involved, and whether procedures were appropriately followed.  This process would ensure that any deficiencies in services could be identified, and lessons learned to minimise the risk for another child.  This should also reassure the public and prevent the need or demand for further external inquiries.  In addition to an independent chair and a lead reviewer, the SCR panel included senior managers from each of the following key agencies:-

·  Coventry Social Care

·  West Midlands Police

·  West Midlands Fire Service

·  Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group

·  Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust

·  University  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

Report of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Joint Safeguarding Board Business Manager, which presented the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) Annual Report.

Coventry Children’s Services and LSCB were inspected by Ofsted in January 2014 and judged to be inadequate.  Since that time an Improvement Board had been established and the Department of Education had been monitoring progress.  A new independent Chair of the LSCB took up post in September 2014 and she reports regularly to the Secretary of State and the Improvement Board on progress.

It was noted that agencies working together to safeguard children in Coventry were working in a challenging context with a growing population, including child population, and a diverse ethnic mix and higher than average levels of poverty.  There were currently approximately 74,123 children and young people in Coventry aged 0-17, including 14,204 children under three years old.  Recent years had seen an increase in birth rates and, if current population growth trends continued, it was anticipated by 2026 the total population of Coventry would rise by 18%, with the total number of children projected to rise faster than the adult population.

The report outlined the achievements and challenges of the LSCB from September 2014 to September 2015.  It assessed progress on outcomes for children and young people.  It evaluated the impact of Coventry’s services on outcomes for children and showed how the work of the Board had contributed to improving outcomes.  It detailed the Board’s progress in implementing its former and current priorities.

The outcomes for Coventry children was reported under the headings of Child Protection; Common Assessment Framework (CAF); Looked After Children; Early Years; Missing Children and Child Sexual Exploitation; Crimes Against Young People; Youth Offending; Educational Attainment and Attendance; and Health Outcomes.

In respect of Child Protection, the Scrutiny Board were pleased to see that the number of Coventry children with child protection plans had reduced from 882 in September 2014 to 578 in September 2015.  It was acknowledged, however, that this was still much higher than normal in similar areas and work to understand why this was so and to ensure that children get help earlier, so avoiding escalation, continued.

It was noted that the number of CAF’s had steadily increased from 1,543 in April 2014 to 1,887 in September 2015.  Health colleagues, in particular, had increased their use of CAF’s, which ensured that more children and families who needed support could access it.  Diagram 4 of the report provided details on the outcomes of CAF’s.  However, the Scrutiny Board expressed concern that, at a recent meeting, members were advised that a decision had been purposely taken by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust not to train health visitor staff on the use of e-CAF’s and were of the view that this issue should be picked up through the re-commissioning of the service in April.

With regard to educational attainment and attendance, there was a clear upward trend in reading, writing and maths at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

Any other items of business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of business.

To discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of the meeting.

No issues were raised through the meeting evaluation.