Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Ground Floor Meeting Room G02B - 160 Tooley Street, London SE1 2QH. View directions

Contact: Julie Timbrell 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

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Video link to the meeting

2.

Notification of any items of business which the chair deems urgent

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    In special circumstances, an item of business may be added to an agenda within 5 clear working days of the meeting.

     

3.

Disclosure of interests and dispensations

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    Members to declare any interests and dispensations in respect of any item of business to be considered at this meeting.

     

    Minutes:

    Cllr Leanne Werner declared she is a governor at COLA.

4.

Minutes

5.

Tackling abuse, sexual violence and harassment in schools and on our streets

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    The police will be providing  data on sexual harassment and abuse in schools. 

     

    The following officers will be attending:

     

      Detective Superintendent Sean Oxley – Safeguarding Lead for Central South

      DI Paul Graves – Deputy in Safeguarding Hub for Central South

     

    Nina Dohel, Southwark Council’s Director of Education will be attending.

     

    Headteachers and sixth formers have been invited.

    Minutes:

    The chair invited Natasha Jones, Head of Key Stage 3, City of London Academy (COLA) and two 6th form students from COLA to present on healthy relationships and the work that COLA is developing to address this.

     

    The COLA students said that they have not received lessons on sex education yet, it’s still seen as a taboo subject, and so media has become the only educator. They said it would be helpful to address this in schools. Sex education and healthy relationship education is important otherwise young people will get information from other sources such media and porn; which are neither realistic nor showing a healthy portrayal of normal relationships.

     

    LGBT education needs to be improved; heterosexual relationships are not the only norm among students. Harassment is also hard to tackle if people do not know how to identify this. Education needs to start early and there is a need for healthy examples in the media. There is a problem with revenge porn, sexualisation of girls and young women.

     

    Natasha Jones, Head of Key Stage at COLA said that that students on panels have said we want to talk more about healthy relationships.  The feedback has been that the education is  focused almost exclusively on biology; but they would like more on relationships and emotions.  Relationships are not always easy. Teaching about consent is a key to this and also rights in a relationship. The school has been holding discussions with students. Issues like abortion have come up, as did rape. Some students were saying rape could not take in place in a relationship, which was shocking. Talking about these issues is crucial.

     

    Following feedback from students that they would like more on this issue there is now a growing recognition within the school and the leadership structure that this is an important subject. One of the concerns is that sex education will not be taken seriously as it is not academic subject. Some teachers also feel incompetent. But teachers are empowering themselves and a recent session she delivered in school was very popular. There is a growing awareness that relationships are the most important thing. The current curriculum in development is student led; scenarios are given for discussion, there is student evaluation and feedback, and ongoing discussion with student panels on content development.

     

    The chair invited the following education and police representatives to contribute:

     

    ·  Detective Superintendent Sean Oxley – Safeguarding Lead for Central South

    ·  DI Paul Graves – Deputy in Safeguarding Hub for Central South

    ·  Nina Dohel – Director of Education will be attending.

    ·  Lee Souter ; PSHE & Healthy Schools Lead, Children's and Adults' Services

    ·  David Bromfield Senior Advisor for Secondary Schools

     

    The Director of Education said that schools are teaching this to a greater or lesser extent .There is an established network, meeting quarterly. Schools are forthcoming and ask about issues such as gender identity with in LGBT. There is also a PSHE curriculum and resources bank; with teaching resources on citizen rights, etc.

     

    The police said that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Child trafficking and Modern Slavery

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    The following outside experts be presenting :

     

      Tamara Barnett: Human Trafficking Foundation (see enclosed information)

     

      Catherine Baker Senior Research, Policy and Campaigns Officer, ECPAT UK

     

    The police will be inputting and relevant council officers.

    Supporting documents:

    Minutes:

    The following experts, members and officers contributed to this item

     

    ·  Tamara Barnett: Human Trafficking Foundation

    ·  Catherine Baker Senior Research, Policy and Campaigns Officer, ECPAT UK

    ·  Jasmine Ali, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Adults.

    ·  Norman Coombe, Head of Corporate Team, LEGAL Services;

    ·  David Littleton, Head of Regulatory Services;

    ·  Sarah Newman, Business Unit Manager ;

    ·  Alasdair Smith, Director, Children & Families;

    ·  Patricia Comley, Strategic Lead for Adult Safeguarding, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards & Principal Social Worker for Adults.

     

    Tamara Barnett: Human Trafficking Foundation, gave an overview of Modern Slavery. Communities most at risk of modern slavery  include UK drug and gangs using Modern Slavery to exploit young people on county lines ( where often vulnerable urban young people are controlled and exploited by drug gangs to sell drugs in towns outside of the city), Vietnamese (cannabis farming), Nigerian

    (domestic servitude) and Albanian.

     

    Most recently the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) identified 5,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK, 2,000 of these were children. In the UK 20% per cent of children go missing in LA care. The National Crime Agency Data Southwark statistics show in 2016 one adult was identified under the Modern Slavery Act, which is low. A Hestia report highlighted that there were 55 victims in a safe house from Southwark. The Human Trafficking Foundation estimated that 200 would be realist figure for Southwark, and a focus on this work ought to see the number of referrals go up.

     

    Tamara works with LAs to set up task and finish groups on slavery, looks at best practice, gaps in reporting, and creates LA slavery leads. She is already doing some work with Southwark and spoke at a recent event organised by the adult safeguarding board.

     

    LAs have a statutory obligation to identify victims of trafficking and Modern Slavery. There is often a lack of support before a victim goes into a safe house and when they leave (usually after 90 days). LAs need to work out what gaps there are and  how they are recording victims of modern slavery, what multi-agency tools they have in place, and what services they can we use that already exist. There are challenging resource issues here as although councils have been given responsibilities this has not been coupled with additional resources.

     

     It is crucial that all frontline staff, including councillors, are trained to identify possible victims of modern slavery.  She recommended setting up a task and finish group, which ought to include housing, and also consider creating an Adult MASH.

     

     Catherine Baker Senior Research, Policy and Campaigns Officer, ECPAT UK reported that she had started to do some work with Southwark on child trafficking training.

     

    Nationally nearly half of all victims of Modern Slavery and Child Trafficking are children. Labour exploitation is on the rise. 24% of child trafficked children in care go missing, and 20% are not found. This 20% is not always followed adequately.

     

    She reported that Southwark could not provide the data on child trafficking because of the flags used.

     

    She advised that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Workplan

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    The scrutiny review into Violence and Women and Girls (VAWG) scoping document is enclosed.

     

     

    A letter to schools and with a link to a survey:

    (https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/corporate-strategy/87d5dc83)   is enclosed.

    Supporting documents:

    Minutes:

    The vice chair reported that he had held a session with men and boys at the Salmon Youth Centre on Healthy Relationships. Going back and talking with girls and young women could be worthwhile.

     

    It was agreed that the report ought to ensure it had input from Modern Slavery and Child trafficking experts.

     

    A meeting with Lewisham on their good practice could be useful.

     

    More work is needed on raising public awareness on sexual harassment. International women’s day might be a good opportunity.