Agenda item

The Children’s Safeguarding Partnership in Surrey is a statutory body, which replaced the previous Safeguarding Board in October 2019. The Annual Report is being reported to the Health and Wellbeing board and sets out the final part of the old Board and the beginning of the new Partnership. Therefore, the attached report covers an 18 month transitionary period from April 2018 to October 2019. Simon Hart was appointed as the Independent Chair of the Board/Partnership in December 2018 and has overseen the transition.

Fiona Edwards arrived at 1.40pm

Dr Claire Fuller arrived at 1.40pm

Witnesses:

Simon Hart- Independent Chair of the Surrey Children’s Safeguarding Partnership

Key points raised in the discussion:

1. A Member of the Board highlighted that 2018/2019 was a year of national change towards local improvement in children’s safeguarding with the move away from Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards towards the new Local Safeguarding Partnerships. She recognised the key work of the previous Independent Chair of the Surrey Safeguarding Children Board who put in place development arrangements for the Board and praised the work of the current Independent Chair.
2. The Independent Chair of the Surrey Children’s Safeguarding Partnership summarised that the new local safeguarding Partnership was operational from October 2019.Unlike the Surrey Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) which was convened solely by Surrey County Council, the Partnership was convened more widely with Surrey Police and the NHS, as it was important that safeguarding was underpinned by various agencies.
3. He explained that the SSCB’s annual report unusually covered an 18 month period from April 2018 in order to give a full account of the Board’s activities over that extended period including the transition to the new Partnership arrangements. The key focus of the Partnership would be the Children’s Services Improvement Programme with oversight to embedding the new arrangements moving away from the Ofsted Priority Action Board towards the Partnership.
4. He highlighted the following key strategic priorities of the SSCB which would serve as the foundation for the new Partnership:

·         the remodelling of the Early Help Services delivered and commissioned by Surrey County Council, with the new Early Help Hub established through a Children’s Single Point of Access (C-SPA).

·         reducing harm to children and young people from exploitation through contextual safeguarding which was an approach to safeguarding using children and young peoples’ experiences of harm outside of their homes.

·         children’s exposure to domestic abuse, which was a key issue underlying many of the serious case reviews. Following on from the SSCB, the Partnership was working closely with Surrey Police, social services and other key partnership groups such as the Community Safety Strategy to allow the escalation of concerns where necessary.  

5. The Independent Chair noted that the new governance structure from the SSCB to the new Partnership received strong agreement from partners who in the past felt as though the SSCB considered large agendas too quickly. Whereas the Partnership had more focused agendas and was steered by the Executive Group. There would also be a reduction in the number of sub-groups in order to consider the commissioning approach more effectively.
6. He stated that a core value for the Partnership was a child-centred approach and ensuring thatchildren’s voices and lived experiences were heard as they were integral to the decision-making process.
7. He noted that the strong lead from the Council was vital to aid the Partnership’s focus on supporting children, families and young people to reduce the likelihood of them needing statutory services. As well as supporting the Partnership’s commissioning of serious case reviews where a child in Surrey dies or is seriously injured, he emphasised that he would like to attend a future Board meeting to present the findings from those serious case reviews and provide and update on the development of the Partnership.
8. In addition to the SSCB’s priorities above, the Independent Chair was pleased with the start of the new arrangements and discussed that priorities for the new Partnership included:

·         children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), with the aim to increase the representation of parent/career and user groups. A number of partners had volunteered to assist the work.

·         ensuring the emotional well-being of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) through improving children and young people’s access to services.

·         ensuring full cooperation across the county on historical abuse, providing open and full support.

·         a commitment to raising the standards in addressing neglect.

·         a clear understanding of thresholds for different levels of intervention.

9. The Independent Chair explained the changing emphasis of the Partnership towards independent scrutiny across agencies. It was vital to find a better way to engage with the broad constituent of interests across the county and it was hoped that the upcoming second meeting of the Partnership would start to create an opportunityfor people to be more influential in key areas.
10. A Member of the Board noted the initial difficulty in the transition from the SSCB to the Partnership, with the eighteen serious case reviews that went back approximately seven years. The Council had consulted with Government on the matter and himself and the Chairman noted that a review would soon be published on the outstanding cases. The Member praised the Independent Chair and noted the good collaborative progress of the Partnership with joint responsibility between the NHS, Council and Surrey Police as opposed to solely the County Council and its Chief Executive.
11. In response to the Deputy Chairman’s query on the terminology of ‘threshold’ as a priority of the Partnership rather than the level of need, the Independent Chairaccepted that the term threshold was potentially outdated but it did not detract from the outcome of effective family support for the county.
12. The Chief Constable of Surrey Police queried whether there was one priority out of seven to start with, in response the Independent Chair stressed that all seven priorities were different and important in their own respect. He noted the importance of the collaboration between leaders in the county and experts across the priorities and in particular making sure that agencies felt confident to share information with other colleagues.
13. Responding to a Member of the Board’s query regarding how to quantify when objectives of the Partnership were being achieved due to their subjective nature, the Independent Chair explained that the development of a performance framework based on indicators and intelligence allowed the evaluation of the priorities. Internal audits and inspection reports also provided an assessment of the Partnership’s objectives.
14. The Independent Chair added that Surrey was in a unique position due to the number of the serious case reviews, which provided a learning opportunity going forward. A change of approach towards those case reviews was warranted, as it was wrong that first case review meetings only took place in some cases after three months. That was not acceptable and the Partnership had begun a rapid-review process with findings and next steps being generated within fifteen days.
15. He commented that engagement was a complex key strategic area and it was important to work in conjunction with front line workers, children and young people. Motivating young people to share information with organisations such as the police was essential. More sophisticated ways to increase engagement were needed and it was important to find out how life was from their perspective, there were strong leads on the matter in the third sector.
16. A Member welcomed the focus on children’s voices and lived experiences as integral to the SSCB and asked for an evaluation of how the Partnership were implementing that and whether there were any gaps in the new arrangements. In response, the Independent Chair noted that the Partnership must be fit for purpose accepting that more work needed to be done. The workforce was beginning to be stabilised across the county, recognising the new responsibilities of the Partnership in place of the Ofsted Priority Action Board, difficulties in recruitment and the reduction in the caseloads of social workers from forty cases down to fifteen in some instances.
17. The Chairman thanked the Independent Chair for his work and positively noted that the Partnership was moving in the right direction regarding its seven core priorities and was equipped to resolving issues such as the serious case reviews.

RESOLVED:

1. The Health and Wellbeing Board discussed the annual review.
2. The Health and Wellbeing board noted the report and annual review.

Actions/further information to be provided:

The Independent Chair of the Surrey Children’s Safeguarding Partnership will attend a future Board meeting to present the findings from the serious case reviews and to provide and update on the development of the Partnership.