Witnesses:
Garath
Symonds, Assistant Director for Commissioning and Prevention
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children
and Families Wellbeing
Mary Lewis, Cabinet Associate for
Children, Schools and Families
Declarations of interests:
None
Key
points of discussion:
-
It was noted that that the programme of change was
part of an overall strategy for the
improvement plan following the Ofsted inspection in
2015.
-
Officers explained that there was in excess of
64,000 contacts made to the service per annum with regard to
safeguarding children. It was highlighted that the MASH served to
allow the service to determine whether a child was able to receive
Early Help as a preventative measure, or if formal social care
service was required.
-
It was highlighted that the new service would
provide help to all children and adults, noting that all who had
requested a safeguarding referral for children were provided help
through either a formal service or through the Early Help
system.
Hazel Watson left the meeting at 12.30pm
-
The Board questioned whether the service had a
resource bank of information relating to partner organisations in
the voluntary, community and faith sector. Officers confirmed that
this was the case and that there was an attempt to work closer with
partner organisations going forward, noting work with church
organisations that was due to take place as part of phase two of
the development process. It was agreed that, as part of this closer
working with partners, the Assistant Director for Commissioning and
Prevention would work closely with the Voluntary, Community and
Faith Sector (VCFS) Task Group of the Social Care Services Board in
future.
-
The Cabinet Member for
Children and Families Wellbeing and Cabinet Associate for Children, Schools and Families
highlighted the Safer Surrey approach to practice with children and
families, and the that this a strength based
approach.. It was noted that the MASH and EH were a key aspect
of this new strong and collaborative approach between the service
and its partner organisations.
-
The Cabinet
Member for Children and Families Wellbeing informed the Board that
once the MASH had been embedded, it would create additional
capacity in the system and there would be scope to restructure
teams in the four quadrants. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that
the VCFS had a key role to play in the delivery of early help.
- The Cabinet Member highlighted that there had been a
need to increase capacity to deliver Early Help and address actions
set out in the improvement plan. The Board was informed that this
was being supported by external consultants, funded through an
additional investment that had been agreed as part of an Early Help
transformation fund.
Recommendations
The Board thanks officers for the report, and recognises the
good progress made to date in establishing the MASH. It
recommends:
1.
That officers report progress of Early Help and the
MASH in six months, including how benefits are being realised and
how emerging key issues have been addressed
It
is requested that the Performance and Finance Sub-Group are updated
regularly on the following:
2.
efforts to reduce the number of contacts to the MASH
where a child’s case is already open to Children’s
Services, and
3.
the issues that have arisen as a result of the new
IMT modules and what is being undertaken to improve the
system.
with matters to be escalated to the Board if
appropriate.