Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration introduced a report on the provision of a children's out of hours emergency duty service.

The Cabinet Member advised that since 2014, the London Borough of Redbridge had delivered the Children’s Emergency Duty services on behalf of the London Boroughs of Havering, Barking and Dagenham and Waltham Forest.  In 2017, agreement was reached, following a report to the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB), to enter a further three-year partnership agreement for the shared Children’s Emergency Duty service until 31 March 2020.

The 2017 HWBB report outlined that consideration would be given to establishing a single Adult and Children’s Emergency Duty Service in Barking and Dagenham, post contract expiry on 31 March 2020.  However, since that time significant development and improvement in the shared Children’s Emergency Duty service had occurred, resulting in Ofsted recognising it as a highly effective service. Audit activity evidenced a 100% compliance in response to referrals within 30 minutes.  As a result of those developments, the option of establishing a single Adult and Children’s Emergency Duty service by March 2020 was not considered a favourable way forward and a further three-year contract for the shared Children’s Emergency Duty service was entered into for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2023.

The Cabinet also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures applied in March 2020 had required the shared Children’s Emergency Duty service and Barking and Dagenham’s Children’s Care and Support to galvanise their efforts in safeguarding and protecting vulnerable children and families impacted by the virus and lockdown measures.

Cabinet resolved to grant retrospective approval for the Council to enter into a three-year contract for the delivery of the four-borough Children’s Emergency Duty service from 1 April 2020, in accordance with the strategy set out in the report.