Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from any members of the Sub-Committee.

Apologies received from Councillor Maddie Henson, Councillor Patsy Cummings attended in her absence.

Dave Harvey Co-Optee sent his apologies.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27 November 2018 as an accurate record.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 27 November 2019 were signed as an acurate record.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There was none.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There was none.

To hold a discussion with the Three Strategic Partners, the Council, Clinical Commissioning Group and the Police on the emerging proposals of the new safeguarding arrangements. Additionally to receive a presentation outlining how the emerging proposal meets the requirement of ‘Working together 2018’.

The Independent Chair of the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board (CSCB), Di Smith gave a presentation on the New Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements for Croydon as directed by the Children and Social Work Act 2017.

The three named Statutory Safeguarding Partners (Police, Local Authority and Clinical Commissioning Group) would assume responsibilities previously held by the CSCB, with the new arrangements to be implemented by September 2019. Their role will be to lead and coordinate with each other to ensure that children and young people in Croydon were safe. Although the statutory guidance did not propose a requirement for education to be included in the partnership, the decision had been made for the Director of Education to be a member of the executive group as education was a key element in safeguarding children and young people. The partnership would also be responsible for publishing an evaluative annual report of the work carried out.

The purpose of the local arrangements was to ensure appropriate analysis of how the agencies worked together to ensure that children and young people in the borough were safeguarded. Information needed to be shared effectively, with learning from serious incidences embedded and that robust challenge took place as appropriate.

The partners will meet regularly and a decision had been made that having secured improvements over the last 18 months following the Ofsted Inspection and the subsequent implementation of the Children’s Improvement Plan, not to make drastic changes. Instead it would be used as an opportunity to improve safeguarding arrangements and to build upon what worked effectively by maintaining most of the current arrangements. Other Councils have taken a similar approach.

The partners had agreed to simplified processes through ensuring that their meetings were purposeful and led to stronger relationships with other partnerships such as the Safer Croydon Partnership, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Community Organisations.

The proposal was for the partnership to lead by setting the safeguarding agenda and ensuring the relevant arrangements were in place. Meetings would be held throughout the year which will be learning led events to support multi-agency sharing of best practice and opportunity for scrutiny and challenge.

There will be three priority groups chaired by a member of the Safeguarding Partners Executive Group. In  the first year they will be responsible for the development and delivery of the following priority areas :

• Neglect
• Vulnerable Young People, and
• Children with Disabilities

The partners would collaborate to ensure that the work around neglect was more effective. Children with Disabilities was an area that had not had enough focus with many issues identified in transitions. In relation to Vulnerable Young People, work was being done to address exploitation. The Vulnerable Adolescence Review completed by the CSCB was due to be published following the meeting that took place to explore learning as a result of the cases that were reviewed.

A Member asked if there was any reason community groups were not included in the Executive Board. The work they were doing with young people in the borough was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/19

To approve the work programme for the remainder of the 2018/19 municipal year.

The Chair raised a request for the Sub-Committee to convene a meeting at the end of the cycle of meetings to summarise the items that has been brought forward for scrutiny through the year, share lessons learned with areas identified for improvement and discuss possible items for scrutiny for the coming year.

The Sub-Committee NOTED the work programme for the remainder of the 2018/19 municipal year.