Agenda item

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Director of Communities introduced a report on the range of safeguarding work carried out by the council over the last three years that the safeguarding team had been in place.

The team was established in May 2014, following initial DDF funding for a fixed period of 2 years and a subsequent Cabinet decision to make the posts permanent.

Over the last three years we have had a gradual increase in the number of safeguarding concerns raised on behalf of children, families and adults with needs for care and support.  Since 2014, the amount of referrals received in the safeguarding team had reached over 600 (involving a total of 842 children and adults), ranging from neglect of Children, to adults suffering from the effects of hoarding and poor mental health.

A training programme for staff had been provided across the Council and has enabled staff to become more proficient at identifying signs of abuse and neglect and more confident in referring cases. Hence, the council had been able to be more proactive in addressing concerns and making effective referrals to our statutory and voluntary sector partners, in order to provide the support needed in each case.

Apart from the core training delivered to frontline staff and Elected Members, we have also devised specific models of training for delivery to the Council’s trades people, as part of their ‘Tool Box Talk’ sessions and have assisted these staff in their ability to report concerns, by providing a report card, which they can use to tick key things that they have identified in households.

Poor mental health was prominent in many of the safeguarding cases dealt with on a regular basis by the Council and this can impact on children, neighbours and wider families. Neglect was another key concern across the district and forms part of most safeguarding cases referred. A significant amount of time was expended by Council staff in collating information to be forwarded to Social Care and proving local cases, as often referrals are met with resistance if care services have previously or are currently involved with the family.

We now also have a Suicide Protocol and Procedures to help support staff in dealing with an increasing number of incidents, especially those working in Benefit’s and Council tax teams. This has also been circulated widely across the Council and special staff briefings have been provided.

Staff have also dealt with a number of cases dealing with such issues as Modern Slavery and Child Sexual Exploitation, which required swift and effective working with the Police.

Councillor Girling remarked that the member training was helpful and had noted that Essex County Council (ECC) Social Services had sometimes been slow in dealing with our cases. Was this still so? Mr Hall said that ECC often did not respond to referrals as quickly as we would like, but officers persisted with referrals which were assisted with good partnership arrangements at a range of levels. It was noted that ECC staff were clearly under a lot of stress on this, but we do pursue our cases with them.

Since the Council established a dedicated safeguarding resource as part of the Community Safety Team, there has been approximately 80% more safeguarding cases identified each year, than previously, and this was due to the provision of training and awareness rising amongst staff across the Council.

Councillor Waller noted that criticisms of local authorities on safeguarding issues were usually directed at the social services authorities. We were not one of these but we did have our role to play and it was an area that we could take some pride in without being complacent as we dealt with around ten times more safeguarding cases than Harlow Council. He hoped that all members undertook the training offered and also undertake refresher training, as there was always room for improvement. A case study was provided in the report where ECC had closed the case but we prompted them to re-open the case as we were of the view that there were safeguarding issues that needed to be investigated.

Councillor Surtees noted that the case study did not mention the involvement of the school. He said that schools often had the same problems with the ECC as we did. We needed good liaison with the schools. Mr Hall said that we did liaise with the schools and did support them.

Councillor Baldwin said that sometimes there was a risk of overreaction, with someone being falsely accused. Were there any safeguarding issues that had gone wrong? Mr Hall replied that confidentiality was clearly important, with information only disclosed when absolutely necessary. We tell our staff to keep their eyes open and make their concerns known to the Safeguarding team, who would make referrals to ECC when appropriate, but not act as judge and jury. We then build up a picture by gathering evidence, but also have built in safeguards.

Councillor Sunger noted there had been 600 referrals, but how many had resulted in prosecutions. Mr Hall said that he did not have those figures to hand. Councillor Surtees added that prosecutions were not really the right word; there could be a good outcome without necessarily having a prosecution.

The Chairman thanked the officer for this report, noting that the Safeguarding Team had only been in existence for three years but had carried out a lot of work in that time. She was only sorry we did not have this ten years ago.

RESOLVED:

That the Communities Select Committee noted the wide range of safeguarding work carried out by the Council over the last three years.