Agenda item

Report of Rebekah Eaves, Safeguarding Partnership and Board Business Manager

The Board considered a report of Rebekah Eaves, Safeguarding Partnership and Board Business Manager, on the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board Annual Report 2018-19. A copy of the report was attached as an appendix to the report. A copy of the Board’s Business Plan on a page was set out at a second appendix. The report was submitted to the Board in accordance with the statutory duty under Working Together 2015. 

The report indicated that the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board had five priorities for 2018-19 as follows:

·  Children and young people who are looked after have equal opportunities to other children and young people.

·  Early help services, including mental health support, are available to children and young people and are resulting in positive outcomes.

·  Missing children and young people, and those at risk of child exploitation, are protected by effective multi agency arrangements.

·  The profile of understanding of emotional abuse and neglect, including domestic abuse, is raised, that abuse is identified as early as possible, and that appropriate interventions are provided to prevent further abuse and harm.

·  To work towards developing the partnership and continue to look forward and improve in light of the Wood Report and Children and Social Work Act 2017.

Highlights relating to the activity between April 2018 to March 2019 included:

·  The Board had now transitioned to Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and had made the decision to recruit a Joint Chair to oversee the work of both the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership and Coventry Safeguarding Adults Board to improve joint working and to look at improving the transition between Children’s and Adult’s services.

·  Coventry had moved to an early help model and eight family hubs had opened which were leading to positive results for children and families.

·  Signs of Safety training had been rolled out across the Partnership.

·  In 2018 the response to missing children in Coventry was improved by the launch of the Vulnerable and Missing Persons Operational Group, which was a multi-agency group that led, reviewed and recommended actions in relation to children that were missing and at risk of exploitation.

·  Partners had demonstrated that they were delivering improvements in relation to looked after children and in some areas, such as school attendance, looked after children were achieving better outcomes than their non looked after peers.

·  A strong partnership commitment to protecting children and young people from exploitation

·  The Board had developed low risk CSE guidance which was a significant step in responding to the fact that children and young people could move very quickly between the levels of risk.

·  The Board was assured that across the City there were good policies, procedures and training in place to ensure that Domestic Abuse was identified at the earliest opportunity across agencies. There was also a clear recognition that tackling domestic abuse required a focus on the behaviour of the perpetrator and there were some examples of agencies working together to respond to this need.

The Board were informed that three priorities had been agreed for 2019-2021: neglect; making the system work; and contextual safeguarding.

Members discussed the issue of contextual safeguarding, understanding how and why children and young people might be at risk of harm outside the home

(for example in the context of schools, neighbourhoods and friendship groups) and understanding the nature of those risks and having an appropriate safeguarding response. They also enquired about the work with other neighbouring authorities and police forces when children were being exploited and transported across borders.

RESOLVED that:

(1) The contents of the annual report be noted.

(2) The contents of the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Business Plan be noted and agencies of this Board support the completion of the plan.

(3) A copy of the Contextual Safeguarding One Minute Guide be circulated to members of the Board.