Agenda and minutes

There were no Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th December, 2016

b)  Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 8^th December, 2016 were approved.

Briefing Note of the Director for Children’s Services

Further to Minute 42/16 the Scrutiny Board noted a joint briefing note which detailed progress on the Children’s Services Improvement Plan, reported to the Children’s Services Improvement Board on 14^th December, 2016, based on data from November, 2016.

The progress report included information on the Ofsted monitoring visit and the Department for Education (DfE) Improvement Notice Review.  Appended to the report was the Improvement Plan on a page and the Performance Overview.

The Scrutiny Board were introduced to Claire Burgess the DfE Social Care Advisor for Coventry.

Officers reported on progress and provided reassurance following the recent visits.

The Scrutiny Board questioned the Cabinet Member and officers on the following:

·  Concerns about progress

·  Reducing and managing risk

·  Manager training

·  Workforce stability

·  Performance management

The Scrutiny Board raised concerns about the need to make improvements to progress more quickly and improvements to the quality of practice.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board 

1)   The outcome of the Ofsted monitoring visit and the initial feedback from the DfE Review Recommendations be noted

2)  The DfE feedback be circulated to the Board when it is available

3)  The New Audit Framework be considered by the Board and Neil Mac Donald the new Strategic Lead for Quality Assurance and Performance be invited

Report of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board

The Scrutiny Board considered the Annual Report of the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board (CSCB).  The production of an annual report was a statutory requirement under the Children Act and this report covered the period from September 2015 to September 2016.  The report outlined the achievements and challenges of CSCB and assessed progress on outcomes for children and young people in respect of safeguarding.  It evaluated the impact of Coventry’s safeguarding 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 priorities.  The report was also due to be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in February 2017.

The Board welcomed the new Independent Chair of the CSCB, David Peplow and also Ian Green who attended on behalf of the Police, other partners had been invited but were unable to attend due to other commitments.  The Safeguarding Board noted that they were in the process of reviewing their priorities and a mid-year report would be published in April 2017 to summarise progress since September and set out a new direction for the Board for 2017/18.

The Board thanked the previous Chair, Janet Mokades for her work on the CSCB which was covered by the report.

The Board discussed:

·  Statistics

·  Detail about schools reporting when children go missing

·  Mental health services especially in schools, the transition from children to adult services and vulnerability to Child Sexual Exploitation

·  Encouraging improvements that had been achieved to educational attainment and attendance

·  Joint working between children and adults safeguarding boards

·  Complex language used in the report regarding outcomes of crime

David Peplow agreed that the Safeguarding Board would discuss mental health services with partners.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board requested

1)  Information about what is included in the ‘other’ category on a number of the charts.

2)  the Peer Review be circulated to the Board when it is available

3)  the CSCB to come back with the interim report and priorities early next municipal year

Report of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board (CSCB) which reported on progress made in relation to five published and one unpublished Serious Case Review (SCR)’s undertaken between March 2015 and July 2016.

Serious Case Reviews take place after a child dies or is seriously injured and abuse or neglect is thought to be involved.  The primary aim of a SCR is to help agencies learn lessons from these events, and to use this experience to improve practice.  The CSCB also oversee progress against action plans arising from SCR’s.  The progress on the following themes was included in the briefing note:

·  Multiagency training

·  Information sharing

·  Co-sleeping

·  Holding vulnerable families meeting at GP practices

·  Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

·  Hard to engage families

The Scrutiny Board discussed:

·  The process of reviewing recommendations

·  Communicating messages

·  Work with vulnerable families

·  Supporting pregnant women to be healthy

·  Co-sleeping messages

·  Positive outcomes when messages are communicated together e.g. in a baby box

The Scrutiny Board noted that a lot of progress had been made on the various themes.  The Chair noted that although it was not a statutory requirement for SCRs to be considered at Scrutiny, in the interests of helping to achieve better outcomes for children, the good working relationship between the Boards was positive.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board

1)  Noted that a lot of progress has been made

2)  Write to the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board regarding investigating the possibility of Coventry providing baby boxes

Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Scrutiny Board noted the briefing note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator regarding outstanding actions requested by the Board.

RESOLVED that the officers responsible for outstanding actions be contacted.

Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Scrutiny Board noted the work programme.

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

SEVA School

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board requested information about actions following Seva School Ofsted report