Agenda item

Ian Smith (Director for Children’s Social Care) introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

·         The Lewisham Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is a statutory board with responsibilities that include developing local safeguarding policies and procedures and scrutinising local arrangements.

·         The priorities of the LSCB are set at the start of each year, for 2012/13 these included; Reducing child abuse and neglect, Developing a coherent multi agency strategy to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation and Reducing road traffic accidents involving children & young people.

·         Three cases were highlighted showing safeguarding weaknesses in Lewisham Healthcare Trust with 2 serious case reviews that are due to be published soon.

·         The LSCB received annual reports on Disclosure and Barring Systems (DBS), the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

·         There were a number of task groups set up, including a Child Sexual Exploitation task group (CSE).

·         Future priorities for the LSCB include; Neglect, Looked After Children (LAC) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The Chair moved to suspend standing orders to the close of business, which the Committee agreed.

In response to questions from the Committee, Frankie Sulke (Executive Director for Children & Young People) and Ian Smith provided the following information:

·         Lewisham is 3^rd highest in London for domestic violence; however a lot of work has been done to publicise the issue so it is unclear whether this is because Lewisham has the 3^rd highest rate or because Lewisham is the 3^rd best at detecting it.

·         Young people being used as couriers for drugs from Lewisham to other places was a priority for the LSCB in 2012/13. Lewisham Youth Offending Service (YOS) identified it and raised the issue with the police, including a Multi-Agency Sexual Exploitation (MASE) meeting with police. A further report on the issue will be going to LSCB and secondary schools are being informed about looking out for warning signs. This is a cross-London problem and the police are taking a hard line with ringleaders by pressing trafficking charges.

·         Senior management are going to all schools to raise some of the issues identified as priorities by the LSCB, including CSE, drugs, FGM and forced marriage. Management are making a time investment in raising issues that are specific to the school.

·         The new virtual head should help improve the educational attainment of LAC and further information about this will be included in the Committee’s next report on LAC.

·         Faith groups and other voluntary sector organisations have representation on the LSCB and the relationship with the voluntary sector is good.

·         LAC are recorded as missing if they have been absent for more than 24 hours. There is a distinction drawn between an unauthorised absence and being missing and social workers will try to identify regular absences to see what the issue is.

·         A big challenge is the recruitment of foster carers, especially as a significant amount of savings are tied into providing more in-house fostering. Not only will it save money, but placements such as these are better for the children and can offer more stability. A company called NRS are carrying out the marketing and recruitment, with retention of foster carers a part of the performance monitoring of the contract. Publicising the financial support available about making sure potential carers are aware that they can be compensated for fostering and that they don’t have to bear all the extra costs.

·         The annual report shows an increase in Common Assessment Frameworks (CAFs), although these have gone down now. Part of this has been because there has been encouragement for professionals to complete them, with the police now agreeing to do them. A CAF does not necessarily mean that a referral will happen and it is difficult to set a target for the appropriate number of CAFs there should be.

·         The figures for parental attendance at Child Protection Conferences are not entirely accurate as they don’t include those with parental responsibility. If they are then the figure is 80-85%.

·         Officers deal with colleagues in highways around road traffic safety, including whether crossings need to be put in place at hotspots.

·         Council officers will always look at all people who are significant in a child’s life when looking at a serious case. Social workers are encouraged to be inquisitive about the backgrounds of those that are involved in a child’s life.