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Minutes of Meetings

Briefing Note: 12th December 2011

 In headlining local child protection issues and the decisions made at the most recent LSCB meeting, we hope to provide you with sufficient information to feed back to your agency or team and allow actions to be taken forward. The minutes will continue to provide a full and accurate record of the meeting and will be available to members in their final form once agreed by the LSCB in March 2012.   Contents:  
  1. Restructuring of the LSCB
  2. LSCB Manager’s Report
  3. Domestic Abuse: Making Safe Scheme
  4. Incidents of Restraint in Custodial Settings Resulting in Injury
  5. Deputy Service Manager in Customer Services Centre
  6. Childline Schools Service
  7. Exception Report – Integrated Data Set 2011/12 Quarter 2
  8. Electronic Recording
  9. MAPPA York and North Yorkshire Annual Report 2010-11
  10. Date of the next meeting – Monday 26th March 2012 
  11. Feedback
 Minutes of the Executive Group Meeting held on 4 August 2011 were presented. Minutes of the Previous LSCB Meeting – 26th September 2011 were agreed.    
  1. Restructuring of the LSCB
 In June 2011, the LSCB Executive Group raised issues about the structure of the LSCB following an increase in its membership that year. Four major changes were agreed at the Board. These were to:

  • Reduce the number of Board members. 
  • Establish a Locality Forum in Craven – to work with the forums in Selby, Harrogate, Hambleton/Richmondshire, Scarborough/ Whitby/ Ryedale.
  • Establish a Health Partnership Group to represent the health community – meeting at least six times a year, this North Yorkshire and York group will include representation from dentists, pharmacists, GP’S, community and hospital based services. 
  • Develop the monitoring function of the LSCB through changes to the Performance Sub Group.
 A revised LSCB Constitution and Terms of Reference will be placed on the website in January with the changes detailed in a newsletter in February 2012.      
  1. LSCB Manager’s Report
 CWDC Money The Government has released funds through the Children’s Workforce Development Unit to local authorities in order to help with Munro compliance. The money available to each LA is to be divided between the LA and the LSCB. The sum allocated to the LSCB is £26,000.  It was agreed at the last Executive to form a virtual group to look at how this money is spent on behalf of the LSCB.   Development Day A LSCB Development Day on 6 February 2012 will be facilitated by Sue Woolmore (the national representative for LSCB Chairs).  The event is for Board members. Serious Case Reviews 

  •  The Learning Lessons Review for Child A/B was signed off by the Board in September.
  • Child D Action Plan was considered by the SCR Sub Group in October. Further consultation has taken place with Health regarding the implementation of a number of recommendations.
  • The draft M and J SCR Overview Report will be available to the SCR Panel on 3 February 2012.  The report will be finalised and presented to the Executive Group on 29 February 2012.
  • A recommendation to undertake an in-depth review (using Root Cause Analysis) has been made to the Chair of LSCB following a serious incident.
 LSCB Multi Agency Audits Two audits were completed as part of the SCR Child D recommendations and these were discussed by Board members: Child in Need Audit – A sample of s17 Child in Need (CIN) meetings from mid 2010 was selected. The audit was conducted by the multi-agency audit team, recording when meetings were called, attendance, whether children and their families took part, what assessments were completed and whether actions were clear and disseminated to all relevant parties. The audit was the first of its kind and will be repeated once the CIN standards have been widely disseminated to agencies to assess improvements in the processes. Child Protection Audit – This audit, again with children’s cases from mid 2010, looked at referrals made for abuse or neglect to Children’s Social Care. It studied Strategy Meetings and looked at the timing of subsequent Initial Child Protection Conferences. It was agreed that individual agencies and the LSCB locality forums will consider the recommendations of the audit to improve the timeliness and agency involvement in Strategy Meetings. The audit will be repeated later in 2012 to assess change and the LSCB will receive a progress report when it meets in March 2012. LSCB Sub and Task Groups 
  • The Annual Private Fostering Report was provided by David Molesworth to the last LSCB.
 
  • The Communications Task Group has completed a scoping exercise around participation of children and their families in child protection processes. Ellen McMillen, Chair of the Task Group noted that little work was being reported when in fact group members were aware of several initiatives where feedback from children and their families is sought. A further scoping exercise will be completed to collate these work streams.
 
  • The Young People Who Sexually Harm Task Group has now received the money from the Safer Communities Forum around the AIM2 training. Applications are being received through the LSCB website (training) but applicants must be experienced and have their agencies nomination before they apply.
 
  • The E Safety Task Group (now the Internet Safety Task Group) is auditing the use of Acceptable Use Policies.  A guide to parents will be published on the LSCB website for use by front line staff.
 
  • The Missing from Home and Care Panel is well supported by agencies and will also review data re Sexual Exploitation once this is collected in line with the recent government action plan.
 
  • The second edition of the procedures is now complete and is being uploaded onto the website.  There will be a grid of change on the front page of the LSCB website (Supplemental Procedures) in the new year and the next LSCB newsletter will detail the changes.
 
  • Performance Sub Group – The Performance Group will move to a quality assurance audit based approach. The Police have agreed to chair this group. Agency performance representatives additionally will meet twice a year to review the LSCB Integrated Data Set.

    An LSCB self evaluation exercise has been organised through FORMIC, a web based questionnaire.  This year agencies will be asked to complete the document as opposed to members. A further Section 11 audit will be undertaken in the new year. The Board discussed the idea that each agency presents their part of the Section 11 Audit to the meeting which will allow more opportunity for challenge and discussion.
 
  • Training Sub Group - The annual mapping exercise and gap analysis is underway.
 
  • CDOP - The CDOP Business Support Officer left post in October and an advertisement is now out with partner agencies – closing date in early January 2012. The City of York LSCB have now pledged £12,000 a year as their contribution to the running of CDOP.
  
  1. Domestic Abuse: Making Safe Scheme
 Joanne Beilby, IDAS, spoke about the evaluation of the Making Safe Scheme by the University of Aberystwyth. Starting as a pilot in Scarborough in 2006, the scheme includes positive intervention with the perpetrators of domestic abuse whilst remaining victim focussed. There have been some successes and Joanne asked the Board to support the scheme and its development. The Chair explained that the Board could not consider funding implications as it does not have this remit. 4. Incidents of Restraint in Custodial Settings Resulting in Injury Lesley Ingleson, Youth Justice Service reported that Working Together 2010 required the Board to monitor incidents of restraint to young people in custody. This is a vulnerable group of young people and there are inevitable difficulties in obtaining this data when young people are sent out of their home counties. Lesley is aware of a very small number of such incidents and will report to the Board annually. 5. Deputy Service Manager in Customer Services Centre Nick O’Brian, Children’s Social Care, spoke to a report of this pilot. Since the end of January 2011 a Deputy Service Manager has been located in the centre to support responses to referrals and contacts that are made for children in the county. The evaluation indicates that decision making has improved and responses are consistent across the county. The number of referrals where no further action is taken has reduced with children directed to the most suitable service.  6. Childline Schools Service The aim of the ChildLine Schools Service is to roll out a programme of visits to all primary schools in the UK every two years. The purpose is to help children understand abuse in all its forms, know how to protect themselves from all forms of abuse and make sure they know how to get help if needed. The programme involves classroom-based inter active workshops and is delivered by robustly recruited local volunteers, supported by an area coordinator and regional schools manager. Will Shaw is the Schools Manager and is a member of the Board.  7. Exception Report – Integrated Data Set 2011/12 Quarter 2 Exception reports were received from CSC and Integrated Services.  There has been a significant rise in the numbers of children with Child Protection Plans (CPPs) – 428 at 30.9.11. This is subject to a review within CSC and also by the Board.  8. Electronic Recording The IRO Teams hope to scan and upload reports from agencies for child protection conferences onto the children’s ICS files. Given the different position agencies have regarding the transfer of information, this matter was placed before the Board. 9. MAPPA York and North Yorkshire Annual Report 2010-11 The Annual Report was received for information. 10. Date of the next meeting – Monday 26th March 2012   11. Feedback If you found this briefing note useful, please let us know – Who did you share it with? What further information is needed? Has it supported your safeguarding practice? Please contact Dee Dutton: dee.dutton@northyorks.gov.uk

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