Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Children’s Services

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Director of Children’s Services which informed the Board of the safeguarding measures and engagement approaches adopted by the Horizon Team when working with children and young people deemed at risk of Child Exploitation.  Appended to the report were some case study examples of safety planning which were presented to the Board.

The Horizon Team was part of Responsive Services and worked closely alongside the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and Emergency Duty Team (EDT).  The Team were multi-disciplinary and comprised of social workers, youth workers, child and family workers, a harm reduction and victim support officer, Missing Coordinator, West Midlands Police Officers from the Child Sexual Exploitation Team, Child Criminal Exploitation, Youth Violence Reduction Unit and LOCATE Missing Police Team.  They worked with children and young people resident in Coventry aged between 10-18 years who were deemed at risk of child exploitation.

The Horizon Team accepted referrals directly from MASH and via the internal transfer protocol from Social Work Teams.  They hold smaller caseloads to deliver intensive and bespoke intervention plans for children and young people, allocated within the Horizon Team, Area Social Work Teams and Through Care service.

The briefing note detailed Collaborative Working, Safeguarding Arrangements and tackling Child Exploitation and Serious Youth Violence.  The Director of Children’s Services explained that, there had been a rise in demand for the services provided and there were significant numbers in need that the teams were responding to.  The strong collaborative work in the City enabled the safeguarding needs to be met in a timely way.  It was difficult to do justice in a briefing note to the complexities of the work that surrounds the traumatic circumstances of some young people in the City.  Safety plans were individual and gave supportive information about positive choices, they were aimed to empower the young people to voice their feelings and choices.

The Board praised the collaborative work in the City supporting young people and the individual approach involving listening to the young people which was evident in the keyring case study developed by Coventry officers.

The Board questioned officers, received responses, and discussed the following:

·  Raising awareness of safeguarding at an early age

·  Links to violence in the City

·  Data about the service, including trends over time, and views of the children

·  Gender and age trends of affected young people

·  Stigmas associated with receiving support

·  Time spent with young people

·  Preventative and reactive work

·  Transition into adulthood

·  Children Missing interviews and support

·  Exploitation experienced in schools 

·  Live cases in the City

·  Listening to Young People

Officers noted that the work was reactive in that thresholds were met prior to interventions in the specialist tier 4 service but also preventative in that when vulnerabilities were identified in connection with a case support would be offered.  There were a significant number of investigations currently in the city.

Officers recognised the challenges regarding support through the transition into adulthood in particular the complex legal frameworks and thresholds.  Also the challenges around supporting children who had been missing.

The Coventry Safeguarding Partnership Board had recently considered exploitation with schools and did not believe there was any evidence of concern.

Officers agreed to circulate a confidential briefing note to members with metrics about the service, including trends over time, and views of the children supported by the service.  This level information was not part of the agenda today due to the potential to identify individuals.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board:

1)  note the content of the briefing note and thanked officers for supporting Young People

2)  recommend that further consideration be given to how to meet the needs of those children supported by the Horizon Team post 18 as they transition from Children’s Services.