Issue - meetings

The Lead Member of the Children's Services Select Committee, Councillor L Rice, presented the Select Committee's in-depth review of child protection practices and policies in the borough's schools, which had been presented to the Cabinet on 15 March 2011.

She offered her thanks to Members and officers for their contribution to the review.

It was noted that the Select Committee recognised recent improvements that had been made in children's services across the borough and the 30 recommendations put forward were intended to build on those improvements.

The Lead Member added that the underlying theme of the recommendations was to encourage better understanding and working between the agencies involved, such as the school staff, Governing Bodies, the Police and the Council.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Education introduced the Cabinet's comments on the report.  He thanked the Lead Member, the Select Committee Members and officers and made particular reference to the report highlighting the importance of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).

The Corporate Director of Children's Services (CDCS) introduced her response to the report. 

She welcomed the report's challenges and reported that an action plan would be formulated, the first draft of which will be presented to the Select Committee in June 2011 and monitored six monthly thereafter. 

The CDCS further advised that a five day peer review of services had just been completed by the Local Government Information Unit.  An independent survey of 100 people in the borough was undertaken as part of this process with “91% of survey respondents very confident or mostly confident that multi-agency safeguarding procedures are working well”.

Whilst this is a high percentage, it did mean that 9% were concerned about child protection, and it is these such concerns that would be acted on.

Following questions, the CDCS stated that:

1.  Some of the recommendations would be implemented immediately;

2.  In its use of the CAF, the borough was seen as an example of best practice;

3.  The borough's intervention work in Multi Agency Locality Teams (MALTs) had been recognised nationally;

4.  Progress on unauthorised absence was an agenda item at the termly meetings with the schools; school attendance has improved, so that it now matches national levels;

5.  Whilst any knife crime is a problem, it was lower in this borough than other London boroughs.  There was a level of safety in school, and officers worked closely with the Police regarding safety outside of school.

Agreed to adopt the Children's Services Select Committee's recommendations as set out in the report and to note the comments of the Cabinet (as set out in Appendix B to the report) and the response of the Corporate Director of Children's Services (as set out in Appendix C to the report).

The Lead Member of the Children’s Services Select Committee, Councillor L Rice, presented the Select Committee’s final report following its review of child protection practices and policies within the Borough’s schools.

The Select Committee has made a total of 30 recommendations which are intended to build on the recent improvements that it recognises have been made in the area of children’s services across the Borough.  The Lead Member added that a key aim which underlies many of the recommendations is to encourage better working and understanding between all of the agencies involved, such as the Council, Police, Governing Bodies and school staff.

In respect of the report’s recommendations the following issues were raised:

·  Recommendations 26 and 27 relating to the risk of knife crime - The Select Committee proposes the random use of knife arches within schools to act as a deterrent to pupils who may think of carrying knives or other metal weapons.  The Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Councillor McCarthy, suggested that the installation of knife arches would portray an inaccurate message that the carrying of knives is prevalent within the Borough’s schools and he sought clarification of the evidence on which this recommendation had been based.  The Lead Member confirmed that information provided to her by the Police indicated that there were 15 weapon incidents recorded for the 12 month period to January 2011, although not all necessarily involving knives.  In addition, she had personally visited five of the Borough’s nine secondary schools where she had spoken to teaching staff, Child Protection Co-ordinators and Police Officers based on-site.  The Cabinet Member for Regeneration also sought clarification of the statement in the report that the Lead Member had been “informed by some school staff that not all incidents are reported to the police, so the true figure may be higher” and asked what steps the Lead Member had taken in this regard.  The Lead Member stated that she had been shocked by the allegations but believed them to be true as those that she had spoken to had been very open and honest, and the Select Committee had responded by making the recommendation as a means of promoting a zero tolerance policy.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Revenues and Benefits expressed the view that the proposal regarding knife arches should not be adopted until consultation had been undertaken with all secondary school governing bodies, in order that consideration can be given to the full and wider implications.

·  Recommendation 8 relating to the investigation of possible cases of child abuse - In response to an enquiry regarding the process that should be followed by school staff including Child Protection Co-ordinators, the Lead Member referred to the Level 2 and Level 3 referral routes and stated that as school staff are not professionally trained in the field of social work, all cases should be directed to the Children’s Safeguarding and Rights division within the Children’s Services department.

·  Recommendation 11 relating to penalty notices - The Chair sought clarification of the effectiveness  ...  view the full minutes text for item 121