Agenda item

Forward look at current and potential areas of interest within the remit of the Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee to help inform work programme planning.

Views of the Cabinet Members for: Children & Young People; Education (and SEND); Communities & Culture; and Health & Care, and presentations by:

·         Neelam Bhardwaja, Director for Children and Families

·         Ruth Martin, Adult Safeguarding Lead

·         Trish Caldwell, County Commissioner for Regulatory Services and Community Safety

[Note by Clerk: Due to time restrictions it was necessary to defer hearing from the Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture and the County Commissioner for Regulatory Services and Community Safety. This will be rescheduled.]

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee received presentations from the Director of Children and Families and the Adult Safeguarding Lead, and heard from the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People. Mid-point in this four-year administration, this was an opportunity for Members to take a forward look at key areas of work within their remit to help inform work programme planning.

The Director of Children and Families and the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People highlighted the following:

a)   national changes following the Care Review and the Government’s response to that entitled “Stable Homes Built on Love”, with its six pillars around: family help; decisive multi agency child protection systems; Family Network potentials; relationships and stability at the heart of being a child in care; highly skilled work force; and continuous learning and improvement making better use of evidence and data.

b)   Staffordshire had been chosen as one of six Authorities to take part in a pilot project around the third pillar, unlocking the potential in Family Networks. Staffordshire would be in the second year of this two-year pilot, with funding to develop formal packages of support to enable extended family and friend networks in looking after children that may otherwise be placed in care;

c)   recruitment and retention of social workers, both work around a memorandum of understanding across the West Midlands, and consideration of possible national requirements, such as a period of time working with a local authority post qualification before being able to move to agency working;

d)   Family Hubs and Early Help, developing the workforce in this new approach and with the Early Help pathways as well as considering how this district model developed effective partnership working;

e)   Children in Care Programme, with key projects around: improving the reunification support offer; edge of care services review; improve practice in Independent Review Officer (IRO) services; and cohort analysis to highlight potential areas for improvement;

f)    Placement Sufficiency Strategy, securing the right homes for children in Staffordshire’s care and looking to: increase the number of children living locally, where this was safe; eliminate the use of unregulated placements; reduce placement breakdowns; increase the quality of care experienced by Staffordshire children within homes and through the broad range of partners who support them. This was particularly influenced by the increased complexity of children’s needs post covid as well as these complex needs being evident at a much younger age;

g)   MASH review and the adoption of a Staffordshire Children’s Front Door;

h)   continuing to embed the cultural changes that were part of the Children’s Transformation;

i)    the impact of the investment by Cabinet in Children’s Services, considering the specific purposes for the investment and the difference made;

j)    the Supporting Families Programme.

Some concerns were shared around a suggestion that the Police were retreating from some social care type calls they may receive and Members asked what impact this would have and whether this would have an adverse effect on partnership working. This was in connection with a pilot in Humberside “Right Care Right Person” which was a model designed to ensure that when there was a concern for an individual’s welfare linked to their mental health, the right person with the right skills, training and experience would respond. This would help avoid any detrimental effects on vulnerable individuals who may feel criminalised by a Police response to a health and/or social care issue.

Members noted that the significant rise in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children within the County had resulted in considerable increases in the number of children in care in Staffordshire. They were also made aware that, whilst the County received funding if an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child was placed directly with the Local Authority (LA), less funding was available where an individual had been placed in accommodation within the County as an adult, but was later found to be under 18 years and taken into care.

The Adult Safeguarding Lead highlighted the following:

a)   Adult Social Care assurance and the introduction of inspections of LA adult social services, particularly safeguarding, by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with the potential for inspections from October 2023. Consideration of how Staffordshire would respond to an inspection;

b)   separation of the MASH from Stoke-on-Trent, co-locating with the children’s MASH, and its development in ensuring the right partnership involvement;

c)   adult safeguarding, looking at early safeguarding responses reducing the need for Section 42 referrals;

d)   Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), the work to reduce the backlog and the impact of the move to Care Director which should support a rationalisation of the administrative process;

e)   the introduction of on-line safeguarding referral forms for partners and providers;

f)    results of the new adult experience feedback, hearing from front line service users about their experience of adult services to help inform service development;

g)   multi-agency safeguarding training, in which Members have asked to be included;

h)   quality assurance framework based around making safeguarding personal, including what was expected of partners;

i)    the development of adult vulnerability hubs.

The Chairman thanked Officers and the Cabinet Member for sharing their future focus and welcomed the detailed debate that would help inform work programme planning. A new date would be scheduled for hearing from the Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture and the County Commissioner for Regulatory Services and Community Safety, after which Members would look at prioritising the items for their work programme, including consideration of methods for scrutiny.

Resolved: That:

a)   a date be scheduled for the Committee to hear the future focus presentation from the Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture and the County Commissioner for Regulatory Services and Community Safety;

b)   following this the Committee reflect on all the detail shared to support their work programme planning.