Agenda item

6.1  The chair welcomed the Independent Safeguarding chair , Michael O’Connor,  the Strategic Director of Children's and Adults Services, Children's and Adults' Services, David Quirke –Thornton  and the Director of Children’s Services, Rory Patterson

6.2  A film, produced by council, on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was shown. Members asked how effective it was. Officers said they commissioned it as often CSE is about quite subtle sexually exploitative peer relationships. Officers said it was important to have a dialogue about relationships early, and by year 5, as by the time young people reached secondary school they had already made decisions about what was acceptable in relationships. The film allows delicate conversations.

6.3  Members asked if the film was shown to mixed audiences. Officers said both sexes; boys can be groomed too. Officers were also asked if parents were shown the film and the Independent Chair said they were not but this is an avenue that could be looked into. The Director of Children’s Services said that the council is trailing a campaign and that will target parents.

6.4  The Independent Chair was asked about recent legislation that will send officers to prison for failures to protect children. He responded that people were drawn to safeguarding work to protect young people and he viewed the recent announcement with an element of cynicism about gesture politics.

6.5  Members asked about work with schools, Police and the voluntary and community sector. The Independent Chair responded that the board is strengthening it work through partnerships, particularly on CSE and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), but also our core work on child protection.  The board are developing self evaluation tools, particularly on Looked After Children and issues arising from this work. He explained that partners have been looking at holding each other to account and using the Ofsted framework to do this. He explained that the Metropolitan Police have reduced resources to devote to tackling CSE, and this is ironic as at the same time the prime minister is talking about Child Protection gearing up to address this issue there is a reduction in capacity.  The Independent Chair commented that police have an important role in tackling CSE as the partnership need to have the intelligence to identify if they are working with the same children.  The Police and Board also now have the Prevent agenda which is an additional responsibility.

6.6  Cllr Ali, the committee chair, commented that we pushed you for the minutes to get transparency on the boards work. The independent Chair responded that the delay in sending them was to let partners know this was the intention, as they had not been written with publication in mind. He explained that going forward minutes will be produced that are fit for the purposed of being published on the website.

6.7  The Independent Chair was asked about partnership, particularly with the police, and he said there is a strong one. Police on the ground are good, however there are issues about sharing data as this is collected and held centrally – the partnership board are working to overcome this. A member remarked that her observation is that the transition from a Safer Neighbourhood model to local policing has meant that all the local knowledge has gone and now the police are more reactive. The Independent Chair commented that he is now not  working at a local level and so was unable to commented, but he did have more awareness of how  the police  investigate CSE , however he said that this observation is concerning and he will raise this as local intelligence is very important as to uncovering exploitation.

6.8  The Independent Chair was asked if the Board have enough powers. He responded that he is able to have conversations at a very senior level. The board have a small team, so there is not a huge infrastructure for more power. He commented that he was unsure if the board needs more power and said that anyway he prefers to work through influence.

6.9  A member asked the Independent Chair if he could say more about management reviews and what these have exposed. He responded that one issue is missing children and the need to re -interview. Missing children are a strand of CSE. They are generally looking at the complexities of adolescence and vulnerabilities.

6.10  The Independent Chair was asked to talk about the launch of the new publicity programme on CSE. He said the programme is targeting a wide range of people - such as mini cabs, parents, and young people, and using a variety of images.

RESOLVED

The committee asked to talk to the young people's board.