Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council

Forward Plan Ref: 2021/197

Contact: Lara Patel, Deputy Director of Children’s Services Tel: 07917 534366

Report by Corporate Director of Children’s Services (CA11).

This paper highlights findings from the Board's annual report on the effectiveness of local arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Oxfordshire.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the annual report of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board senior safeguarding partners and to consider the key messages.

Cabinet had before it for noting a paper highlighting findings from the Board's annual report on the effectiveness of local arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Oxfordshire.

Councillor Liz Brighouse, Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Young People’s Services, introduced the Independent Chair of the Board, Derek Benson.  She thanked all staff across the partnership for the work they do in safeguarding children and noted that many would probably be busier over the Christmas and New Year period while most people were winding down.

Derek Benson highlighted some of the strengths and achievements of the Board:

·         The Board benefits from the continuing commitment of the police service, health partners, children’s social care, the voluntary sector, fire service, probation service and the education sector.

·         He recommended members to read the report into the case of Jacob which concluded that services needed to be more joined up.

·         Training had been delivered to over 15,000 local practitioners.

·         The move to online was done quickly and effectively.

·         There will continue to be a focus on neglect and exploitation.

·         His personal view was that children were better served by being in education.  A lot of work has been done during the pandemic to ensure that vulnerable children were in school.

·         There continued to be concern about the delays in accessing mental health services especially since the pandemic has seen an increase in anxiety particularly in young people.

Tan Lee, Strategic Safeguarding Partnerships Manager, summarised the case reviews and quality assurance work:

·         Lessons learned across the reviews were the need to identify and intervene early as well as improving the whole-system approach.

·         On neglect in the family home, they were working with a national expert and a review showed that, while the building blocks were in place, more needed to be done to embed the processes.

·         On exploitation, work was focussed on being better at keeping children in school and how the whole system works together.

·         Families involved in reviews have said that they want to continue engaging with services to support the learning from their cases.

·         Surveys had shown that 75% of responding practitioners felt that the safeguarding leadership had been visible during the pandemic and 95% had undertaken safeguarding training in the last three years.

·         There were key concerns from the pandemic around increases in mental health issues, access to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and domestic abuse.

Derek Benson concluded by drawing attention to the shortage of foster homes which was a national outrage.  He had written to the government on this issue and still awaited a response.

Kevin Gordon, Corporate Director for Children’s Services, thanked Derek Benson for being a fantastic Chair during a very difficult year.

Councillor Brighouse echoed concerns about the lack of appropriate placements – especially in-county – and stated that the Cabinet would be supporting the Independent Chair on that point.  Leaders across the South East Region were starting to work together on this.

Councillor Calum Miller, as a Chair of School Governors, emphasised how teaching staff had worked beyond expectations in ensuring that vulnerable children were in school, and when they weren’t, ensuring that they followed up with them.

The Chair asked officers to pass on thanks to all those involved in keeping children safe across Oxfordshire.

RESOLVED to note the annual report of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board senior safeguarding partners and to consider the key messages.