Agenda item

The Board considered a report of the Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board and the Local Safeguarding Children Board which provided an update on their work. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

The Board welcomed Simon Westwood, Independent Chair, Leicestershire & Rutland Safeguarding Children Board, and Robert Lake, Independent Chair, Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board to the meeting for this item.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        There were overlapping areas of work between Community Safety Partnerships and Safeguarding Boards and there needed to be clarity about the Governance arrangements and where accountability lay, but also there needed to be more joint working where appropriate. Although these meetings were created under different legislation they had common interests and priorities.  CSP Chairs welcomed greater links with the Safeguarding Boards and it was agreed that the Safeguarding Business Office would be asked to initiate the closer working.

(ii)       New legislation and guidance would be published on 29 June 2018 which would have a significant impact on the Safeguarding Children Board. The current structure for the Safeguarding Children Board would be abolished though there would be a duty for the three statutory partners; the County Council, Police and Clinical Commissioning Groups to put arrangements in place for protecting children.

(iii)      Consideration needed to be given to whether the current system for Domestic Homicide Reviews and Serious Case Reviews should continue. It was questioned how effectively the learning from the Reviews was fed through to District Councils. Chris Traill provided reassurance that Charnwood Borough Council did implement lessons learnt from Domestic Homicide Reviews, however she explained that difficulties occurred when the District council was not the lead agency.

(iv)      Greater clarity was required regarding the roles of the Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Hub and the Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Executive. Simon Westwood was of the view that the Safeguarding Children Board could play a greater role with the CSE Hub. A review was being carried out into the governance structures around Domestic Abuse. In response to a question about Outreach workers it was explained that a significant amount of work was going on in schools to raise awareness and prevent CSE occurring.  Operation Encompass aimed to enhance communication between the police and schools where a child was at risk from domestic abuse and work was taking place in summer 2018 to refresh this project and particularly focus on problems with staff turnover. 

(v)       Consideration needed to be given to whether Community Safety Partnerships could link in better with the work of the Young Person’s Advisory Group which was looking into issues such as digital safety and gangs.

(vi)      Robert Lake emphasised with regard to safeguarding adults that further work needed to be carried out to highlight to the general public the importance of inquiring into the wellbeing of people they know and raising concerns about people that may be vulnerable or at risk. There were tools already available for this purpose for example the College of Policing had produced a poster which raised awareness of neglect. Professionals in the community safety areas also needed to be reminded of the importance of asking additional questions beyond those relevant to their own area of work in order to identify underlying issues regarding the persons they dealt with. The Ambulance service had a key role to play here and it was noted that there was not a representative from EMAS at LSCSB meetings.

(vii)    Stef Douglas asked if it could be ensured that a representative from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service was invited to be on the Task and Finish group that was reviewing local thresholds for access to services.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That officers be requested to instigate closer working between Safeguarding Boards and Community Safety Partnerships.