Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director, People Services, attaching the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2016/17.

7.2

In attendance for this item were Jane Haywood, MBE (Independent Chair, Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB)) and Victoria Horsefield (Assistant Director, Children and Families and Professional Adviser to the Board).

7.3

Jane Haywood introduced the report, which outlined the progress that had been made during the year, together with the key challenges ahead for the City to ensure that its children were safe from harm, abuse and neglect.  Ms Haywood referred to her role as Independent Chair, and reported that the Board was responsible for monitoring performance across its partners, and challenging the partners when it was considered improvements were required.  She stated that, despite there being a number of issues during the year, which was expected, she had observed a very strong partnership, with any issues being resolved in a constructive manner. 

7.4

Ms Haywood highlighted the range of the Board’s work during 2016/17, referring specifically to the continued focus on child sexual exploitation; the development of Future in Mind to support mental health in the City’s young people; the comprehensive audits involving all partners, which allowed the Board to ensure that it was doing its best for the City’s children and young people; the key strategies around neglect, female genital mutilation and the suicide prevention pathway; and the wide ranging multi-agency training, which was considered important in supporting the workforce to be the best they could in safeguarding children and young people.  She stated that all this work would continue throughout 2017/18, with a strong emphasis on the transition of young people into adulthood and ensuring that the services, as they developed and changed, continued to keep the City’s children and young people safe.

7.5

Members of the Committee raised questions, and the following responses were provided:-

·             If a specific problem had been highlighted with an agency’s response to children’s safeguarding, a Section 11 (Children Act 2004) meeting would be held, and if sufficient progress was not made following such a meeting, the issue would be escalated to a senior level within the relevant partner agency.  Again, if progress was not made, the issue would then be referred to the Board for consideration. 

·             The benefit of an Independent Chair, over the proposed new structure with regard to independent challenge, was that the Independent Chair was not responsible to any one partner agency, and therefore had the powers to challenge and improve across all partners in terms of their safeguarding arrangements in a transparent manner.

·             Neglect had been a priority for the Board since the launch of the Neglected Strategy, but there continued to be a need to provide support and guidance to front-line workers, who often struggled to know precisely when to intervene in a particular situation, and to provide assistance/guidance on this issue. There was a strategy, agreed by all partner agencies, which provided a clear definition of, and clear guidance on, neglect.  Training was provided to all relevant partner agencies, with a view to that being cascaded through the organisations.

·             The Board had recently requested a report on home-educated children and young people, and this area was currently being researched for further discussion about what, if any, issues needed to be considered.  School nurses would still offer support for those families whose children were home educated, but the majority of those children were not in regular contact with, or being monitored by, relevant services.  Officers were aware of this issue, and accepted that there was a need for more work in this area.  Whilst home education was a parental right, and did not necessarily have to be viewed as a problem, it was important that children being home educated were also known to a GP or school nurse.

·             The Board had both a Risk Register and a Business Plan, which contained a set of targets, which could either be included in future Annual Reports or presented to Members separately.

7.6

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)      notes the contents of the report now submitted, and the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2016/17, together with the responses to the questions raised;

(b)      expresses its thanks to Jane Haywood and Victoria Horsefield for attending the meeting and responding to the questions raised;

(c)      welcomes the excellent work being undertaken by the Board, together with the work and commitment of the wide range of partners and their colleagues, in connection with ensuring that the City’s children were safe from harm, abuse and neglect;

(d)      expresses a view that it would like to see the Board continue with the Independent Chair model; and

(e)     requests a report to be submitted to a future meeting on child   trafficking activity in the City.