private and confidential minutes of ordinary ......2016/11/30 · gps. further progress would be...

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL, MINUTES OF ORDINARY STRATEGIC BOARD MEETING, WEDNESDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2016

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MINUTES OF ORDINARY STRATEGIC BOARD MEETING WEDNESDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2016, 13.30 CITY LEARNING CENTRE, BLACKPOOL Present: David Sanders, Independent Chair Kate Barker, Early Years Improvement Officer, Blackpool Council Councillor Graham Cain, Cabinet Secretary and Portfolio Holder for Resilient Communities, Blackpool Council Mark Fell, Director 14 -19, Blackpool and The Fylde College Louise Fisher, Assistant Chief Executive, Cumbria and Lancashire Community Rehabilitation Company Moya Foster, Senior Service Manager (Early Help), Blackpool Council Jane Gray, Head of Access and Inclusion, Blackpool Council Hazel Gregory, Head of Safeguarding, Blackpool Council Amanda Hatton, Deputy Director of People (Early Help and Children’s Social Care), Blackpool Council John Hawkin, Head of Leisure, Catering Services and Illuminations, Blackpool Council Josephine Lee, Interim Principal Social Worker and Head of Safeguarding, Blackpool Council Dr Arif Rajpura, Director of Public Health, Blackpool Council Paul Threlfall, Business Development Manager, Blackpool Safeguarding Children Board Dr Cathie Turner, Designated Nurse and Head of Safeguarding, BCCG Paul Turner, Schools’ Safeguarding Adviser, Blackpool Council Sonia Turner, Assistant Director, North West National Probation Service Cara Vaughan, Deputy Head Teacher, Waterloo School Bridgett Welch, Assistant Director, Safeguarding, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust Rob Wheatley, Designated Doctor for Safeguarding, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals (BTH) Helen Williams, Chief Nurse, Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group Lee Wilson, Chief Inspector, Public Protection Unit, Lancashire Constabulary In Attendance: Chrissie Chesters, Commissioning Manager (Domestic Abuse / Interpersonal Violence), Blackpool Council Dawn Elizabeth Mathie Eccleston, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader, School of Community Health and Midwifery, University of Central Lancashire Simon Fisher, Interim Service Manager, Domestic Abuse, Blackpool Council Sandip Mahajan, Senior Democratic Governance Adviser, Blackpool Council Donna Taylor, Lead Nurse and Senior Public Health Practitioner, Blackpool Council Nicola Turner, Integrated Commissioning Manager, Blackpool Council Apologies: Councillor Debbie Coleman, Blackpool Council Jackie Couldridge, Service Manager, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service Delyth Curtis, Director of People, Blackpool Council John Donnellon, Chief Executive, Blackpool Coastal Housing Nicola Evans, Superintendent, Public Protection Unit, Lancashire Constabulary


Andrew Lowe, Service Manager, Youth Offending Team, Blackpool Council Karen McCarter, Head Teacher, Norbeck Primary Academy Martin Murphy, Service Manager, National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children Val Raynor, Head of Commissioning, Blackpool Council Dr Sujuta Singh, GP representative, Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group Rosie Sycamore, Head Teacher, Highfurlong School Marie Thompson, Director of Nursing and Quality, BTH 1 MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 21 SEPTEMBER 2016 AND EXTRAORDINARY MEETINGS HELD ON 4 OCTOBER 2016 The minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2016 and extraordinary meetings held on 4 October 2016 were approved as a true and correct record of the meeting subject to ‘nearby surgeries’ being replaced by ‘primary care services’ [Care Quality Commission’s inspection of the Grange Park Health Centre, 21 September 2016] with the relevant sentence to read ‘….Helen Williams explained that, in the event of closure, Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group had contingency plans to ensure patients still had access to primary care services’. There were no matters arising. 2 ACTION TRACKER The Action Tracker was reviewed. Action 102: Recruit a Lay Member to the BSCB Strategic Board. The Chair advised that there might be potential for a new independent member from March 2017. Action 106: Discuss with Pan-Lancashire colleagues the wording of the non-mobile injuries flow-chart in respect of the professional who would undertake the medical assessment of the injury. The Chair advised that the wording was due to be discussed shortly. Action 110: Inform the Board of any safeguarding information concerning Highfield School and South Shore Academy. The Chair reported that Ofsted had followed up inspections with both schools. Steady improvement progress was being made and Paul Turner, Schools’ Safeguarding Adviser, Blackpool Council confirmed continuing regular monitoring was appropriate. Action 111: An update on progress in respect of Transformational action planning to be provided to the July 2016 Board meeting. This was a separate item on the agenda so the action had been completed. Action 116: Receive regular (biannual) updates on progress with the Better Start programme. Merle Davies, Better Start Director, had been unavailable but would attend the Board’s next meeting on 1 February 2017. Action 117: Andrew Lowe, Service Manager, Youth Offending Team, Blackpool Council to work with Lancashire Constabulary to ensure compliance with statutory Children in Custody duties. Both organisations had agreed to sign the Children in Custody Concordat and Lancashire Constabulary was now looking at operational aspects. The action had been completed.


Action 118: Report progress on tackling exclusions and alternative education provision. See Actions 125 and 145. Paul Turner confirmed that work was ongoing. Action 119: Pilot technology to promote better attendance and input at core group meetings. The Chair reported that Josephine Lee, Interim Principal Social Worker and Head of Safeguarding, Blackpool Council would arrange for a demonstration, at the Board’s next meeting on 1 February 2017, of the proposed conferencing technology that would allow comprehensive input by practitioners at meetings even if they could not physically attend. Actions 122 and 123: Review of Public Health Services (0-19 years old). This was a separate item on the agenda so the action had been completed. Action 124: Update the approved Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan to include the work being undertaken by Paul Turner and add performance monitoring columns with explanatory commentary and ‘red/amber/green’ ratings. The final version of the Action Plan had been circulated to the Board and included relevant monitoring with commentary and ‘traffic light’ ratings. Quality control work had taken place. The action had been completed. Action 134: Circulate the Domestic Abuse and Interpersonal Violence Strategy to the Board. The action had been completed. Action 135: Complete returns on the numbers of completed Early Help assessments as soon as possible following circulation of the relevant template. This was a separate item on the agenda. The number of open cases at Early Help threshold Levels two and three had also been discussed at the Domestic Abuse and Interpersonal Violence Partnership Board who had suggested regular (monthly) updates should be submitted to the Strategic Board for consideration. Actions 136 - 138 were linked. Action 136: Ensure BSCB Multi-Agency Audit Group data requests completed and full attendance at Multi-Agency Audit Group dry-run meeting reviewing domestic abuse services on 10 October 2016. First dry-run held. Most agencies attended with a range of quality of returns and further dry-runs planned. The action had been completed. Action 137: Ensure representatives at Multi-Agency Audit Group meetings available for mock inspections and the actual Joint Targeted Area Inspection on domestic abuse services. Aside from the first mock inspection (dry run), attendance had been good since bearing in mind the high frequency of test meetings. The action had been completed and progress with inspection preparation was a separate item on the agenda. Action 138: Consult Blackburn with Darwen Council concerning their Joint Targeted Area Inspection dry-run. Audit tools have been shared and used to develop the final Blackpool approach. The action had been completed. Action 139: Discuss at Schools’ Twilight sessions, permissions guidance for schools wishing to discuss Protecting Vulnerable Persons reports, i.e. securing consent from parents. Paul Turner advised that information sharing through the Multi-Agency


Safeguarding Hub would be discussed at a meeting on 19 December 2016. Action 140: Supporting the work of Children’s Centres by raising awareness of development opportunities at school visits. Awareness had not yet been raised but would be at future school visits. Action 141: Progress report on Grange Park Health Centre’s improvements following the Care Quality Commission re-inspection to the November 2016 meeting of the Board else February 2017. A quality review meeting had been planned for 2 November 2016 with NHS England. Helen Williams, Chief Nurse, Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group reported that the re-inspection was due to take place. Further meetings were taking place with the Health Centre’s General Practitioner (GP), Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England and also informally with the Care Quality Commission. Steady improvement had been made but the big issue was whether progress could be maintained after the temporary support from the Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England ceased. She added that concerns had been raised by the GP concerning health visitors not being able to attend meetings at the Health Centre so it had not been possible to discuss any safeguarding issues. The GP added that often multi-agency core groups to discuss safeguarding cases were often arranged at short notice (by social workers) making it not possible for him to attend. Helen Williams added that short notice core group meetings were a common concern amongst other GPs. Further progress would be reported to the February 2017 meeting. Action 142: A dedicated meeting would look at private fostering issues, report recommendations and potential solutions. The meeting would involve the BCCG; Cumbria and Lancashire Community Rehabilitation Company; Early Years; Families in Need; health visitors; National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, schools and the Transience Team. The meeting would now take place after Cindy Hunter, Senior Service Manager, Early Help, Blackpool Council, who was new, had started work and a report would be brought back to the February 2017 meeting of the Board. Action 143: Update on the governance review of local strategic partnerships (principally Blackpool Safeguarding Children Board, Blackpool Safeguarding Adults Board, Health and Wellbeing Board and Community Safety Partnership). This was a separate item on the agenda so the action had been completed. Action 144: Discuss the Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Childhood (SUDC) Rapid Response Service options with Pan-Lancashire Local SCB Chairs with feedback that the current service timing needs to be more effective with wider service coverage. The Pan-Lancashire meeting was still due to take place and a report would be brought back to the February 2017 meeting of the Board. Action 145: A dedicated meeting would look at education issues and opportunities concerning excluded children and ‘new to area’ children. See Actions 118 and 125. The meeting would involve Wendy Casson, Head Teacher, Educational Diversity; John Donnellon, Chief Executive, Blackpool Coastal Housing; John Hawkin, Head of Leisure, Catering Services and Illuminations, Blackpool Council; and Mike Taplin, Service Manager, Early Help, Blackpool Council. The meeting had not taken place yet and a report would be brought back to the February 2017 meeting of the Board.


Action 146: Excluded and 'out of area' children and alternative provision issues and opportunities needed to be considered. The theme had formed part of the Strategic Board ‘Summit’ meeting held on 18 November 2016. This was a separate item on the agenda so the action had been completed. Action 147: Outline an Action Plan concerning the Care Quality Commission ‘Not Seen, Not Heard’ report. A Pan-Lancashire Action Plan was a separate item on the agenda so the action had been completed. Actions 148-166: Multi-Agency Learning Review (MALR 1). Responsibility was delegated to the Case Review Sub-Group for coordinating the Review recommendations and actions with progress reported accordingly to the Business Management Group. The actions had been completed from the Board perspective. Actions 167-180: Multi-Agency Learning Review (MALR 2). Responsibility was delegated to the Case Review Sub-Group for coordinating the Review recommendations and actions with progress reported accordingly to the Business Management Group. The actions had been completed from the Board perspective. 3 TRANSFORMATION ACTION PLAN - PROGRESS UPDATE Nicola Turner, Integrated Commissioning Manager, Blackpool Council presented progress being made with the Transformation Action Plan which covered resilience, emotional wellbeing and mental health for young people and their parents or carers. She explained that the Transformation Action Plan was important as it was recognised, following a national review of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, that young people’s emotional and mental health needs were not being met. Long-term demand for services was projected to increase through a growing population with more complex issues both for families and professionals. The national review had led to two broad aims: to improve access to services for young people and families; and improve the commissioning and delivery of services. There were numerous recommendations under five broad headings: promoting resilience and early intervention; improving access to support; care for vulnerable people; accountability and openness; and workforce development. Nicola Turner added that emotional and mental health still came second to physical health services so a national target had been set for 70,000 more young people to be able to access improved services by 2020. Structured services were required particularly focusing on early help which would also reduce costs. She outlined the governance arrangements, for delivering the Transformation Action Plan, through a Pan-Lancashire Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Transformation Board. Previously there had been no strategic overview. There was a now a fully integrated structure involving local health and wellbeing boards, who were accountable for delivering the Plan. The integrated approach included new initiatives such as the Better Start programme for supporting 0-5 year old children and their families and Head Start programme for supporting younger teenagers. However, there was no school representative on the Transformation Board. Paul Turner,


volunteered to act as the schools’ representative liaising with Cara Vaughan, Deputy Head Teacher, Waterloo School. Kate Barker, Early Years Improvement Officer, Blackpool Council advised that children in early years settings were particularly vulnerable. Nicola Turner explained that transformation work was a dual approach with local Blackpool work feeding into the Pan-Lancashire work. There were two key targets for achieving by the end of March 2017: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services expanding to offer treatment for 0-19 years old; and a dedicated eating disorder service for young people. There was also a need to support transitions (children moving on to adult support services) so there was a wider target for enhancing support for 0-25 year olds by 2020. She outlined the agreed business case programmes: resilience in schools; psychological therapies; out-of-hours Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services; positive behaviour; and identifying gaps in services for vulnerable young people. She referred to various local schemes and staffing. The schemes were cross-cutting linking into areas such as child sexual exploitation, bullying and self-harm and working with other services, e.g. Public Health. Transformation work was going on with schools to establish their needs and support available. However, neither of the schools representatives were aware of the work. Nicola Turner highlighted achievements which included an anti-bullying conference involving students and teachers, increased support and specialist staff, extended opening for services as well as plans to reduce waiting times and funding secured for enhanced emotional and mental health services including a ‘place of safety’. Service user feedback had been secured which included general satisfaction with appointments but people wanted more out-of-hours and community-based services. The Moor Park and South Shore Health Centres had offered out-of-hour appointments. She added that Blackpool currently had the best level of access to services in Lancashire. All the work was underpinned by an effective action plan jointly shared with partners including Better Start, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Head Start. In response to questions, Nicola Turner confirmed the involvement of primary care services. She had met Dr Marie Williams, the GP lead on mental health and GP representative on the Blackpool Safeguarding Adults Board and also Helen Lammond-Smith, Head of Commissioning, Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group. Rob Wheatley, Designated Doctor for Safeguarding, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals queried the links with other services such as learning disabilities and autism provided by Blackpool Council. Nicola Turner confirmed that she had been linking her work with the Transforming Care programme for people with learning disabilities and autism. She had discussed common areas with Michael Watson, Head of Commissioning, Blackpool Council who was one of the Transforming Care leads. Amanda Hatton, Deputy Director of People (Early Help and Children’s Social Care), Blackpool Council noted that there was consistent evidence of service need for 5-9 years identified through the Transformation work and the Strategic Board’s Summit meeting on 18 November 2016. She highlighted that schools needed to do more but there were capacity issues. Nicola Turner reported that schools had expressed concern that high thresholds for support meant that some children could be missing out. Members


discussed the Family Information Service being generally effective but also needed to be up-to-date with more user-friendly information for schools. The Family Information Service and schools needed to work together to develop mental health support and information. Nicola Turner referred to support for schools from the Primary Mental Health Worker and also development of an online resource. Actions:

Nicola Turner to add Paul Turner, as the schools representative, and Kate Barker, as an early years advisor, to the Transformation Board.

Action: Paul Turner to communicate with Cara Vaughan over Transformation Board work and circulate details of work and support opportunities to schools.

4 PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES FOR 0-5 YEAR OLDS – COMMISSIONING REVIEW Arif Rajpura, Director of Public Health, Blackpool Council introduced the proposed model for the new Health Visiting Service for 0-5 years old from 1 April 2017. The service including Health Visitors and Family Nurses providing sustained and structured support to families, from early pre-birth and throughout key stages during a child’s early formative years. Best practice had been identified and, in essence, this involved more home visits to help build up a rapport with families, more effective support and better outcomes. The model was the preferred universal service offer of the Better Start Executive Board. Donna Taylor, Lead Nurse and Senior Public Health Practitioner, Blackpool Council provided more details on the model adding that it provided a well-rounded framework. She highlighted that far more visits were proposed than offered through the current service providing a more comprehensive universal offer. Visits would start much earlier in the cycle, be more frequent and better targeted and continue for a longer period. A full range of professionals would be involved in the universal offer. In particular, the new approach would allow issues to be identified much earlier and support given. There would be five mandatory milestone visits based on a ‘stepped’ approach supplemented by further visits. The service would be a more rounded partnership approach to deliver early help and transformation for families. She pointed out that a lot of work would need to be undertaken before the service was fully implemented in April 2018 including workforce development. Suggestions for developing the enhanced offer were still welcome although only for minor changes to the model agreed by Better Start. Kate Barker welcomed the support for families at early stages. Donna Taylor added that it was important to support children to become more resilient. Helen Williams was impressed with the fully inclusive offer involving families and staff working together. She was concerned that some service support might be stopping and that safeguarding, particularly for Looked after Children needed to be maintained. Donna Taylor provided reassurance that services were not being stopped but presented in a different format. She explained that the information provided did not show the full level of detail and that the model was fully costed to operate as a universal community-based service including support at children’s centres. Health visiting assessments for 0-19 years would also still continue.


Arif Rajpura clarified that Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) support was reducing as wide evidence indicated limited effectiveness but the Big Lottery, who funded Better Start, wanted FNP to be maintained. He also referred to public health support preventing cot deaths. Arif Rajpura, Donna Taylor and Rob Wheatley would discuss work on cot deaths further. Donna Taylor added that development work, including assessment and intervention tools, was ongoing to enhance service offers. Better Start had commissioned the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust to lead on delivery of the new service. She re-iterated that any best practice suggestions were still welcome. Actions:

Arif Rajpura, Donna Taylor and Rob Wheatley to discuss preventative work on cot deaths.

Donna Taylor to provide a progress report in six months to the May 2017 meeting of the Strategic Board.

5 DOMESTIC ABUSE / JOINT TARGETED AREA INSPECTION PREPARATIONS UPDATE Chrissie Chesters, Commissioning Manager (Domestic Abuse / Interpersonal Violence), Blackpool Council reported that the joint partnership Domestic Abuse and Interpersonal Violence Strategy 2016-2020 had been finalised through the new Domestic Abuse and Interpersonal Violence Partnership Board. The Strategy would now be considered by the Council’s Executive on 12 December 2016 for final approval. She referred to the Partnership Board and other domestic abuse work that was ongoing reviewing early help figures and getting processes right including at the ‘front door’ to support schools to make domestic abuse safeguarding referrals. Amanda Hatton added that getting processes right had also been advocated at the recent Summit meeting. Chrissie Chesters referred to the Partnership Board’s next meeting when an action plan would be developed to tackle gaps in service provision. She continued with details of recent work which had included support for ‘White Ribbon’ events involving men as ‘ambassadors’ to end violence against women, and a Public Health ‘Summit’ in February 2017 involving young people and sport. Chrissie Chesters reported that a funding application, as part of a Pan-Lancashire proposal, would be submitted by mid December 2016 to the Department for Communities and Local Government to improve access to services such as accommodation support. Simon Fisher, Interim Service Manager, Domestic Abuse, Blackpool Council reported that preparatory work was ongoing for the potential Joint Targeted Area Inspection on domestic abuse. The regulators would focus on ‘front door’ services and partnership working. After 30 March 2017, the regulators would be focusing inspections on neglect. He outlined the challenging inspection process which lasted for three weeks although regulators would only be on-site for 2-3 days in the last week. The Children’s Social Care service had to provide a wide range of information at the start for the regulators to undertake outline reviews of a long-list of around twenty cases which they refined into a short-list of five-seven cases for detailed review. Alongside effective multi-agency


working, regulators would also be looking at whether successful outcomes had been secured for children and families. Simon Fisher reported that two dry-runs had taken place through the Multi-Agency Audit Group which had replicated timing and process of regulators’ inspections. The first dry-run had struggled to secure sufficient information to enable an effective audit to take place. However, the audit had identified process areas needing improvement e.g. audits needed to be clear in what information was required, agencies needed to be aware of potential delays in accessing records. The second dry-run had been amended accordingly with a revised audit tool and resulted in much better information, evidence and case evaluations. Strong partnership working had been demonstrated and partners were now well prepared for a real audit. The Chair offered a word of caution explaining that regulators would adapt their requests / focus depending on what they found. Simon Fisher added that work was ongoing and agencies should send in early help data. Progress on multi-agency Joint Targeted Area Inspection work could be reported to the Board’s February 2017 meeting. Josie Lee added that continued support was requested from the Board for regular dry-runs, in addition to regular Multi-Agency Audit Group meetings, in preparation for future inspections. Members had mixed information concerning what Joint Targeted Area Inspections had been undertaken and future proposed inspections. Expected themes included neglect and familial sexual abuse and common areas such as the ‘front door’. Actions:

Chrissie Chesters to circulate the scoping paper for the domestic abuse funding bid to Members.

All agencies to continue to submit returns to Paul Threlfall on the numbers of completed Early Help assessments using the circulated template.

All agencies to ensure continued involvement with Multi-Agency Audit Group work and meetings for mock inspections and actual Joint Targeted Area Inspections.

Simon Fisher to provide a progress report on Joint Targeted Area Inspection work to the February 2017 meeting of the Strategic Board. 6 SUPPORTING HEALTH NEEDS OF LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN Helen Williams presented a report on young people’s health needs in care which originated from the Care Quality Commission national report ‘Not Seen, Not Heard’. Subsequently the Care Quality Commission had reported on an area review involving all relevant health commissioners and service providers which had led to a Lancashire Action Plan. Bridgett Welch, Assistant Director, Safeguarding, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust explained that although the Care Quality Commission area review had not directly involved commissioning or services within the Blackpool area, relevant aspects of the Action Plan related to potential improvements that could be applied within Blackpool. She explained that commissioners and providers were holding monthly meetings with NHS England who were leading on delivery of the Action Plan. However, Susan Warburton, Deputy Director of Nursing, NHS England had now left her post. Glenn


Harrison, Patient Experience Manager, NHS England would take over lead responsibility. NHS England had not yet circulated the final version of the Action Plan Bridgett Welch referred to Care Quality Commission recommendations which could be of relevance to commissioners and providers of services within Blackpool. These included developing ‘smart’ actions as part of children’s health action plans and proper records management, e.g. ensuring actions generated through staff supervision discussions were properly recorded in case files for effective outcomes. She added that the Care Quality Commission had highlighted commissioning arrangements as being too complex to support best outcomes. The Care Quality Commission recommendations involved both the Lancashire Care Foundation Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals with some aspects relevant to safeguarding. They were working together as appropriate, areas of joint working included sexual health and mental health services. Child protection processes were in place within mental health provision but the Care Quality Commission had wanted to see how staff assessed the impact of mental health on families and for transition stages. She added that these aspects did form part of the Lancashire Action Plan led by NHS England. Helen Williams added that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and other services would feed into the work and also Public Health as health visiting was relevant. However, it emerged that the Lancashire County Council Director of Public Health had been informed but not Arif Rajpura locally. Hazel Gregory, Head of Safeguarding, Blackpool Council noted that the Care Quality Commission had not applied ‘proportionality’ to their findings, i.e. in some cases they had found one concern but applied recommendations widely to commissioners/providers in different areas. Action: Helen Williams to lead on a progress report on relevant aspects of the Lancashire Action Plan to the February 2017 meeting of the Strategic Board. 7 CHILD PROTECTION CONFERENCES Josie Lee presented proposed improvements to the processes for Child Protection Conferences. The improvements would support capacity issues in managing growing caseloads for all agencies. Of particular importance was following a robust (assurance) process for safely ‘stepping down’ children from a Child Protection Plan. Processes could be improved by reducing duplication, e.g. currently children could be Looked after Children and also on a Child Protection Plan. There was a range of legislation underpinning processes and different legal options, i.e. court orders such as Interim Care Orders which were more powerful than Child Protection Plans as risks had been tested through the courts. Again duplication needed to be reduced by not having children subject to both Child Protection Plans and court orders. RESOLVED - That: 1. For children who are made the subject to a ICO, Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order then the child is automatically removed from a Child Protection Plans with letters sent out to all core group members accordingly once the Order has


been made at Court. 2. For children subject to Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 or an Interim Supervision Court Order then the present procedure is to remain. 3. In relation to agencies being quorate at Review Child Protection Conferences , particularly in relation to likely removal from a Child Protection Plan, and to strengthen the current proviso around sufficient available information being available, including where written reports from non-attendees have been submitted, and to prevent Review Child Protection Conferences being rescheduled then: 3.1 Where an agency is unable to attend a Review Child Protection Conference, a written report should be available to detail that agency’s involvement with the child since the last Child Protection Review and with a clear recommendation as to how the Child Protection Plan should proceed, i.e. continuation or cessation, and the written report should be with the Safeguarding Chair three working days before the Conference allowing the Conference to proceed and make the required decisions. 3.2 The Review Child Protection Conferences would be quorate if agencies were linked in via video / WebEx facility and this should be utilised wherever practicable. 4. Child Protection Plan minutes and agency reports will be automatically attached to the minutes of the meeting unless there was confidential information pertinent to (the confidential slot of) the Child Protection Conference that would be determined with partner agencies under the auspices of the Safeguarding Chair at the conference, and Safeguarding, Quality and Review were looking to moving to a shared drive system where agencies will be expected to access documentation from the drive rather than emailed or posted out. 8 THRESHOLDS DOCUMENTS Paul Threlfall presented the proposed new approach for Thresholds and associated documentation which incorporated feedback from the Early Help Sub-Group on 7 November 2016 and Business Management Group on 14 November 2016. The Shadow Board and other key stakeholders had also been consulted. The documents comprised of details of the proposed strategic framework, an Early Help Assessment form, Early Help meetings record form and multi-agency referral form. An example of the alternative common assessment framework was also included. The suite of documents would replace the current Thresholds and Getting it Right documents. The proposed documents were streamlined and simpler to use. An important element of the proposed approach was to adopt resilient therapies which were also part of the Head Start work supporting teenagers and families. A short list of resilient factors had also been included. The Resilience Framework would be added back into the final suite of documents. Other key elements included the core principle of early help, ‘conversations’ (informal discussions involving agencies and families encouraging them rather being process-driven) and effective needs-based assessments using evidence. Key contacts were also included (e.g. ‘front door’, duty and assessment team). The documents had been considered at the Early Help Sub-Group who had emphasised


the need for practical and realistic approaches. The current four levels equated to: Level 1 – ‘Universal’ support open to all people; Level 2 – ‘additional’ support as deemed necessary by practitioners; Level 3 – integrated support again as deemed necessary by practitioners; and Level 4 – ‘statutory’ support whereby children would be taken into care. The Business Management Group had made further comments but broadly accepted the proposals. The Strategic Board ‘Summit’ meeting on Early Help, held on 18 November 2016, had proposed further streamlining (three levels of risk and service provision) and simplification of forms and record-keeping. The three levels of need would equate to: universal support for all families; early help (merging the current levels 2 and 3); and the third support level for statutory (mandatory) intervention, i.e. Child in Need or Child Protection Plans. Paul Threlfall added that the Early Help assessment forms could be either done using the Board’s proposed form or agencies could use them own forms so long as the Board’s assessment criteria was captured. It was felt that this flexible approach would encourage better rates of completed rates which had in recent years been a significant issue. Paul Threlfall explained that it had been proposed that the new approach and documents could be piloted for six months (middle of 2017) before then reviewed allowing for fine-tuning and then used as the agreed Thresholds approach. Members broadly welcomed the proposed new approach and documentation as well as the work and effort involved in developing them. However, there was some disquiet that it was proposed not to use one Early Help assessment across all agencies thereby simplifying form filling requirements. It was felt that there was a risk of causing confusion. There were concerns expressed that consistent forms needed to be used for different statutory requirements and how would forms be audited, i.e. accountability. Views were expressed that inspectors also preferred use of consistent forms. There were mixed views as to whether forms might need to be filled in manually due to limited electronic forms particularly for some schools. Cara Vaughn supported the principle of a single form for ease of use. Members added that threshold information needed to be clear especially to busy groups such as GPs. There were some concerns about having three levels of needs which did not match other services with levels of need, e.g. the new Public Health model had four levels. It was also suggested that the approach should not be marketed as a set of forms documentation but as a set of principles, i.e. resilient therapies, and that early years setting should be added in. The Chair re-iterated that the proposed flexibility for different forms to be used, so long as essential criteria was filled in, aimed to encourage greater rates of returns ensuring evidence was collected. Previously one common form had resulted in poor returns. He agreed to a suggestion that the revised documents would be piloted in a small number of schools for a shorter period. There had been good feedback from schools’ Twilight sessions. He gave reassurance that there would not be wholesale changes which could cause problems for agencies changing systems. RESOLVED – That the proposed new approach to Thresholds and associated documentation be approved in principle with a pilot to commence from January 2017


aimed at schools before a final version being fully launched. 9 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT GROUP UPDATE

The Chair presented the update of the Business Management Group meeting held on 14 November 2016. He reported that the Performance Management and Evaluation Sub-Group had highlighted Ofsted’s national report ‘Safeguarding Disabled Children in England’ as an area of required work. The Business Management Group had agreed and protecting disabled children would be considered at the joint Development Day on 15 December 2016. Blackpool Safeguarding Children Board Business Planning for 2017-2018 would also be considered at the Development Day. The Chair reported that the joint Training Sub-Group had highlighted capacity issues with the Board’s training programme in view of the high demand for training courses. Neglect Sub-Group work was ongoing and captured elsewhere on the Board’s agenda. The Child Sexual Exploitation Sub-Group had helped deliver a successful Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Week in early November 2016 which had been well supported by all partners. Awareness had been increased with various groups including taxi drivers and hoteliers. Paul Threlfall reported that a human trafficking and modern slavery conference was being organised locally for 13 March 2017. Details would be circulated in due course. The new Domestic Abuse and Integrated Violence Partnership Board would be providing regular updates and the first update had been received. The Business Management Group had endorsed the Domestic Abuse and Integrated Violence Partnership Strategy 2016-2020 and the Pan-Lancashire Online Safeguarding Strategy. The Board’s Children and Young People’s Participation Group was evolving well and would begin to provide feedback to the Board. The Pan-Lancashire Child Death Overview Panel’s new database was due to go live in January 2017. The Chair concluded the Business Management Group update with reference to the ‘Wood Review of Local Safeguarding Children Boards’. The Government was not fast-tracking legislation but legislative proposals might emerge in 2017 meaning that legislation coming into force would not be until 2019 or 2020. 10 SHADOW BOARD UPDATE

Josie Lee, Chair of the Blackpool Safeguarding Children Board’s Shadow Board presented the update of the Shadow Board meeting held on 28 November 2016. She explained that the Shadow Board had reviewed the proposed revisions to the thresholds documentation and associated forms which they first considered at their September 2016 meeting. The proposed revisions had been well received with a few minor points made. 11 SAFEGUARDING DISCUSSION: CHILD TRAFFICKING Dawn Eccleston, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader, School of Community Health and Midwifery, University of Central Lancashire presented a profile of child trafficking issues,


scale of the issue in Blackpool, strategic and operational work being undertaken and needed. The meeting discussion would help inform the Child Sexual Exploitation Sub-Group which had recently taken on responsibility for tackling child trafficking and related areas. She added that, as well as her academic and research role, she was a member of the Pan-Lancashire Sex Workers Group and was involved with anti-trafficking charities. Raising awareness of trafficking was essential as, other than through media headlines, people knew little about the complexity of the issue or its scale. Trafficking was an illegal multi-billion pound industry that operated internationally and indiscriminately with people being trafficked in and out of countries. Dawn Eccleston referred to the known numbers of adults and children trafficked in the UK and highlighted that numbers of ‘hidden’ people would be far greater. As many as seven hundred children in the UK were believed to have been missing recently and, of those, 200 were still missing. She explained that it was actually easier to smuggle people than drugs or weapons. The Board noted that the United Nations provided a definition of trafficking. For prosecutions, three elements needed to be proved for trafficking of adults, that trafficking had taken place; the means by which it had been done; and purpose. For child trafficking, proof was only needed for trafficking having place and the purpose as children could not be expected to understand what was happening. Often trafficked people were given false promises of jobs and money. Trafficking could result in children being used for sexual exploitation, in factories, car washes or a wide range of other criminal purposes including sale of organs and (child/housing) benefit fraud. Children often came from extreme poverty in corrupt environments and had limited knowledge of the world so could be easily manipulated and frightened and were kept hidden in harsh conditions or even under cover of acceptable environments, e.g. a fake care home had existed in the UK. Trafficked children themselves could be used to ‘recruit’ other children. Dawn Eccleston referred to the various signs that professionals and communities could use to identify people subject to trafficking. These included physical harm, apparent fear of official organisations and regularly being accompanied by a ‘friend’, e.g. she referred to a dentist who had identified the poor condition of a child patient and alerted the police. She explained that professionals in Blackpool needed to be trained including schools and frontline businesses such as hoteliers in view of the transient population. Partnership working was important, e.g. banks and the police worked together identifying suspect accounts. Professionals needed to know about making and receiving (trafficking) referrals. There were various specialist agencies from the public and voluntary sectors who could offer training and other support. She highlighted a trafficking toolkit developed by London Safeguarding Boards. Referrals went through to specialist crime agencies and it was important to make referrals carefully and in good time to avoid ‘alerting’ culprits. Many support agencies had grave concerns that often victims when brought to safety were then detained for long periods whilst border agencies decided what options they had.


Dawn Eccleston explaining that people generally expressed disbelief that trafficking could be going on locally and often trafficked children’s physical development didn’t reflect their true age which could be vastly different based on appearance. She concluded that raising awareness was essential particularly in public places. The Board noted the issues raised and options available to tackle trafficking and thanked Dawn Eccleston for her enlightening presentation. Action: Paul Threlfall to add trafficking to a meeting of the BMG for detailed consideration. 12 GOVERNANCE REVIEW OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS The Chair presented an update on the governance review of strategic partnerships that had been taking place and the options being proposed for streamlining and effective coordination of partnerships. The same update would be presented to the Blackpool Safeguarding Adults Board’s Strategic Board for consideration at that Board’s meeting on 1 December 2016. He explained that there were numerous meetings across partnerships often involving many of the same people with the same presentations or reports being delivered. Therefore the number of meetings needed to be reduced with opportunities developed for shared working such as considering common presentation together. The Board noted that the Chairman had held review meetings with the Community Safety Partnership Chair, Arif Rajpura and the Health and Wellbeing Board Chair, Councillor Graham Cain, Cabinet Secretary and Portfolio Holder for Resilient Communities, Blackpool Council. Lancashire Constabulary and the Blackpool Clinical Commission Group had also been invited to the meetings. He summarised the recommendations proposed. Board meetings would reduce to quarterly with each Board meeting in specified months as part of a structured cycle. The two safeguarding boards would hold consecutive meetings on the same day to include common work and priorities in the middle part of the day with the dedicated children’s and adults sessions taking place either side. The streamlined approach would mean applying greater attention to ensuring the Boards only considered the most strategic items for high-level decision-making and focused on effective challenge that added real value. Other information could be circulated. Common presentations could be targeted involving all the partnerships boards having the opportunity to attend for consideration of the presentation together at the same session. Another key feature was sharing resources such as information. Data analysts from the partnerships could work together on common areas to develop single shared datasets. Some common resource had been agreed for data work. The Chair added that he had proposed a new concept of ‘quality assurance’ workshops where each of the strategic partnership boards, supported by operational colleagues, would lead on detailed scrutiny of key priority themes, e.g. neglect. These would be


monthly (i.e. every 2-3 months for whichever partnership board was leading on a theme). He added these workshops could start as early as possible in 2017 and, in future, be planned a year in advance. The main proposals for revised Board meeting frequency and dates would probably not take effect until the spring or summer of 2017. Meeting dates and details would form part of a shared local Public Service Calendar. He added that there needed to be good communications between the Chairs and Business Managers of strategic partnerships with regular planning and review meetings to ensure that progress was effective. Councillor Graham Cain referred to linkages between Better Start and Head Start but the Big Lottery would need to agree any proposed shared arrangements to ensure their funding criteria was still being met. Helen Williams suggested that the Corporate Parenting Panel could benefit from health sector representation. Councillor Graham Cain, as Chair of the Panel, agreed that health input would be welcomed. Moya Foster, Senior Service Manager (Early Help), Blackpool Council advised that the Vulnerable Adolescent Hub Board would soon be merged into the Youth Offending Team Partnership Board. There was general support for the proposals including the proposal to link the Adults’ Board and the Children’s Board meetings although it was recognised that there would be diary pressures. The Chair confirmed that the proposals could be circulated to partners. He advised that any changes to memberships of groups as listed on the papers should be sent through to Sandip Mahajan in the first instance. RESOLVED - That 1. The updates, proposed mergers and further suggestions following further discussions as outlined in the report be noted; 2. The partnerships structure diagram at Appendix A and potential areas of overlap be noted; 3. Appendix B (list of boards and groups) to the report be noted; 4. The proposal for new ways of working to be developed be endorsed and the terms of reference template adopted. Action: Members to send through any membership changes for the various groups to Sandip Mahajan in the first instance. 13 ANY OTHER BUSINESS The Chair reported that the safeguarding boards had robust budgets for the next three years (2016-2017 to 2018-2019). There was sufficient current funding to maximise training officer support and also permanent administrative cover as temporary administrative cover and apprenticeship support would be ceasing in due course.


14 NEXT MEETINGS Development Day (first half is a joint session with the Adults Board) Thursday 15 December 2016, 10.00-16.00 Global Room, Solaris Centre, Blackpool Regular meeting Wednesday 1 February 2017, 13.30-16.30 Global Room, Solaris Centre, Blackpool

(The meeting ended at 16.30) Any queries regarding these minutes, please contact: Sandip Mahajan, Senior Democratic Governance Adviser, tel: 01253 477211, e-mail: [email protected]

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