Agenda item

Rory Patterson, Director, Children's Social Care will present the attached report.

5.1  The chair welcomed Rory Patterson, Director of Children's Social Care and Southwark Safeguarding Children Board’s Independent Chair, Mr Michael O'Connor,  and invited them to present.

5.2  The Independent Chair emphasised the importance of partnerships and a multi - agency approach. He spoke about importance of frontline workers engaging with children and building a relationship, as children will not usually come forward to report Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). The social workers role is very important but people in the front line are also vital as will have day to day contact with young people.

5.3  Members thanked the presenters and commented that they had read the papers and background links including the ‘See me, hear me’ framework and the ‘If only someone had listened: Office of the Children's Commissioner Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups’. A member commented that they would like to see the ‘See me, hear me’ principles  more clearly reflected in the framework and commented that it would good to know if the 98 children at risk of CSE had been spoken to. He emphasised the importance of seeing the actual views of young people in the strategy. The Independent Chair commented that CSE had been discussed with the shadow board and they had raised challenging issues such as some young women like hanging out with older men with cars.

5.4  Officers were asked if there were any plans to get outside evaluation using the ‘See me, hear me’ framework and noted there is a call out offering this. The Independent Chair said that there is a London-wide working together on this as young people move across boundaries and a London-wide safeguarding board. The Director added that that Social Services do routinely get external feedback.

5.5  Members asked about work to engage partners and the Independent Chair said that there is very much a council wide responsibility for identifying and tackling CSE. The Director explained that there has been work to stop a place getting a licence and there is more work planned with head-teachers. The head-teacher representative welcomed this and said that there needs to be a shared strategy for both preventing and tackling CSE in schools. He noted the strategy mentions PHSE education and asked the Director how this is beeing taken forward. Director said the intention is to reach out to education colleagues - in the past Safeguarding have been were successful in doing training to prevent violence against women. He assured the head-teacher that Safeguarding do want help and advice from schools.

5.6  The head-teacher representative commented that social work teams are being rearranged. He raised concerns about  information sharing to and from social workers and schools , whether for a child in need or child protection and emphasized it is critical that there is engagement with schools and said that in the past schools  have raised concerns about schools not knowing that children are involved with social services . He asked if the move to clusters meant that there would be more risk of this happening during the re-organisation. The Independent Chair said this was intended to be seamless. Members asked about  the gap in communication and the Director responded that basing social workers in localities is aimed at improving communication as have people will have  relationships in smaller clusters – the re modelling is about improving communications routes.

5.7  Members asked about engagement with families and the Independent Chair agreed that this will be important and the CSE strategy will only work if the wider community is engaged.  Members spoke about the importance of a cultural shift and a member commented that when she once worked in a mother and baby unit in Brixton and it was common place for older men to be hanging around very young women. She asked if there would be a campaign to raise awareness similar to past safeguarding campaigns.  The Independent Chair explained that there is community engagement group to raise awareness, but it has to be targeted correctly and give the right message as we do not want to encourage people to see it everywhere and also overwhelm services with referrals.

5.8  A member said that she was really concerned that Looked After children are so at risk and asked if there is further work being done with these children. The Director said there is further work with children in Kent as there have been issues arising there. He assured members that the work to safeguard Looked After children is an ongoing and dynamic.

5.9   Another member commented that the evidence showed that the people who actually raised concerns were either families or social workers with close relationships, and raised concerns about social work turnover. The Director acknowledged that there has been some recent turnover during the Social Care re-structure. He said the service is emphasising working with people and skilling up social workers.

5.10  Officers were asked about sharing information on perpetrators and targets and if there was a national database. Officers said there was not but our MASH shares information locally and social care have been asked to share best practice on this.  The Independent Chair said the only national programme is where a child has passed a safeguarding threshold and there is also a perpetrator database.

5.11  Members commented that numbers in report are not very clear. The Director agreed and explained that safeguarding picked up 98 children who we thought might be at risk of CSE but only about 2 or 3 were actually seriously being abused.

5.12  A member said that she was concerned that the intervention and therapeutic support was adequate. Members noted that the social work vacancy rate is important and asked what Southwark’s is. The Director said it is 10%,  which is much improved as formally it was 45%. He explained vacant posts are covered by agency social workers. Members asked about continuity and retention and the Director said Southwark Council do have a good offer, however it is challenging as a child protection carries risk - some people choose to move around for the better pay in hand and the flexibility to move.

5.13  Officers were asked what work had been done with faith groups on CSE and officers responded that nothing specifically on CSE but there has been outreach on safeguarding issues and they will talk to community engagement about further work on CSE. Members suggested liaising with  Councillor Jamille Mohammed,  Deputy Cabinet Member for Inter-Faith Community Relations to champion this work.

5.14  A member said he was concerned that outdated concerns about confidentiality could stop young people getting help and asked if a GP is bound by confidentiality if there is a disclosure. The Independent Chair that there is a requirement  to make a call to social services if abuse is disclosed, however people interpret abuse differently and this can affect decision making.

RESOLVED

Following the meeting the scrutiny chair will consult with the committee on drawing up a list of recommendations for Cabinet and the Safeguarding Children Board.