Issue - meetings

The Commissioning Director, Children’s Care & Support presented a report on the outcome of the standard Inspection from OFSTED earlier in the year of Children’s Social Care Services, alongside the Council’s Improvement Plan in response to the findings which was published on 9 July 2019.

Whilst the Inspection had identified that improvement was necessary across the board, the inspectors were very positive about the impact of the new senior leadership team, the improvements that were already being made and the plans for the future.  Inspectors identified a number of areas for improvement including making six key recommendations where improvement was most strongly required. In response the Council’s Improvement Plan set out the measures that were required to address each recommendation, together with target dates and expected outcomes.

The report summarised the published arrangements alongside the plans for implementation by 30 September, together with the further development of the partnership arrangements. The independent Chair of the B&D Local safeguarding Children Board stated that the findings are a reflection on the performance of all agencies responsible for the safety of children and young persons in this borough, and that if this Board did not oversee the delivery of  the proposals set out in the Improvement Plan then collectively we would  have failed them.

The Board again emphasised the importance of the proposed PCN Locality structures in supporting the delivery of the changes required in response to the OFSTED findings. Given the challenges set out in the Improvement Plan it was felt that the Board should initially focus on one recommended action and to that end it was suggested and agreed that a report would be brought to the Board on progress with addressing recommendation 5- The strategic relationship with health services, and operational delivery across a range of health functions.

The Chair mentioned that given its relevance to children safeguarding the Domestic Violence Commission (a joint venture between the Council and the Refuge Charity) is formally being launched on 25 September. One of the aspects of the Commission will be to focus on why DV is so normalised in the local community.  Dr John proposed, and the Board agreed that given the importance of this issue a standing item should be included on each of the Locality Collaboratives on what is being done to address these issues.